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**ped** · 02-12-2012, 05:10 AM

Re: Sapphire Radeon HD 7970 errors on OCCT - recommendations

Hey ProfJim,

Figured should move to another thread as it didn't relate to the only the memtest86+ thread. So to answer your questions:

Originally posted by profJim View Post

Running oZone Furmark or MSI Kombuster should stress your video card in a "reasonable" manner.
Each program has some optional settings that will stress your card even more.
I think that you can run the OCCT gpu test in a window, which would let you monitor system temperatures and voltages during the test.
If's been a while since I've run OCCT, but as I recall it's the psu or torture test that stresses your complete system.
Make sure that you're running the latest non-beta version of OCCT.

Yes, I think you are right. Not sure it ran any of the other stress tests, however I can't honestly say there was a way to know this other than which tab you are on.
I was running the non-beta version as well.

So will try oZone Furmark first after I'm done with the my 10th LinX run.

Cheers!

**ped** · 02-12-2012, 05:44 AM

Re: Sapphire Radeon HD 7970 errors on OCCT - recommendations

Ok, here's the Furmark results.
I did the burn-in at 15 minutes - full screen.

So I was watching it.. it slowly climbed to 80... then 81... then was hitting 82 at the end. Wondering if it couldn't stop it or if this test is more than fair?

So should I try MSI Kombuster next? Or create a custome burn-in for more than 15 minutes?
Also I'm not sure it recorded errors anywhere... is there an option for that?

Should I do a Skyrim "test" or something similar?

Cheers!

**profJim** · 02-12-2012, 06:03 AM

Re: Sapphire Radeon HD 7970 errors on OCCT - recommendations

Did you test with any of these options enabled?
Xtreme Burning Mode?
Displacement mapping?
Post FX?
MSAA Samples?

I don't believe that there is any error logging. The standard procedure is to look at the screen to see if there are any artifact errors.
I tested my video cards with Post FX enabled and MSAA Samples set to higher values.
If you test with MSI Kombuster with more demanding options enabled and there aren't any problems, it might just be an issue with OCCT.
I think that OCCT has an official forum that you could check.
You can set up MSI AfterBurner to perform logging that will generate performance graphs similar to what RivaTuner used to do.
AfterBurner needs to be running in order to save the performance graphs.
I think that GPU-Z can also save information to a log file.

**edit**
I think that the OCCT GPU test uses the original version of Furmark, not oZone3D's Furmark version.

**ped** · 02-12-2012, 06:25 AM

Re: Sapphire Radeon HD 7970 errors on OCCT - recommendations

Originally posted by profJim View Post

Did you test with any of these options enabled?
Xtreme Burning Mode?
Displacement mapping?
Post FX?
MSAA Samples?

I don't believe that there is any error logging. The standard procedure is to look at the screen to see if there are any artifact errors.
I tested my video cards with Post FX enabled and MSAA Samples set to higher values.
If you test with MSI Kombuster with more demanding options enabled and there aren't any problems, it might just be an issue with OCCT.
I think that OCCT has an official forum that you could check.
You can set up MSI AfterBurner to perform logging that will generate performance graphs similar to what RivaTuner used to do.
AfterBurner needs to be running in order to save the performance graphs.
I think that GPU-Z can also save information to a log file.

**edit**
I think that the OCCT GPU test uses the original version of Furmark, not oZone3D's Furmark version.

None of them were enabled. However the one I don't see from your list is the "Displacement mapping". Is that moving background? If I select moving camera... all other options become greyed out.

Also saw from the FurMark website a comment about why does MSAA samples slow down the intensity of the test. Something about it slowing down the test to make it easier for the GPU? Know anything about that?
What about if I run it at full screen?
Do I keep it at 1920x1080?

Thanks much for all this "real dialogue" on the forum!

**profJim** · 02-12-2012, 06:44 AM

Re: Sapphire Radeon HD 7970 errors on OCCT - recommendations

Your best bet is to check out the oZone3D tutorials, such as:
oZone3D.Net Tutorials - Vertex Displacement Mapping - Vertex Texture Fetching - Shader Model 3.0 - OpenGL / GLSL.
I run my tests using 1920 x 1080 and I have AfterBurner set up so that its on screen display shows:

frame rates
gpu + memory frequencies
gpu temperature
memory usage

The OSD will appear on most, but not all benchmark/gaming programs.
Another excellent DX11 test is 3DMark11.

**ped** · 02-12-2012, 06:50 AM

Re: Sapphire Radeon HD 7970 errors on OCCT - recommendations

Originally posted by profJim View Post

Your best bet is to check out the oZone3D tutorials, such as:
oZone3D.Net Tutorials - Vertex Displacement Mapping - Vertex Texture Fetching - Shader Model 3.0 - OpenGL / GLSL.
I run my tests using 1920 x 1080 and I have AfterBurner set up so that its on screen display shows:

frame rates
gpu + memory frequencies
gpu temperature
memory usage

The OSD will appear on most, but not all benchmark/gaming programs.
Another excellent DX11 test is 3DMark11.

Ok here's my latest test using everything except Displacement mapping, but will check that URL.

EDIT:
I read the Displacement mapping link, so I understand it better. Based on that, I think it's baked in. Unless there is an option somewhere else I'm not aware of? This is almost identical to what the current FurMark GUI looks like. Except it adds a 1920x1080 benchmark:

Did you mean a selection in here for displacement mapping (which I think they had in ver1.8)?

So I did notice some hiccups every so often, but not sure if that's expected or I should imagine I have fluidity constantly given the test and it's not in Crossfire?

So doing your setups as above, I should expect what as framerates? Seems to me the framerates are quite low from everything I understood this thing could do. If notice some anomolies, should I declare it defective?

Thanks again!

**profJim** · 02-12-2012, 07:11 AM

Re: Sapphire Radeon HD 7970 errors on OCCT - recommendations

First off, our dialogue is due to your English being far better than my elementary school French.

Your video card is far superior to my highly overclocked MSI N460GTX Hawk SLI setup.
When I tested with Furmark and/or Kombustor with enhanced settings, my display was always smooth with my overclocked single card and SLI setups. I don't think that I ever tested with Displacement Mapping enabled. My scores with these tests were lower due to the added video demands placed on the video card(s).

Any issues that your card has might be related to immature drivers for your recently released video card.
Some 7970 reviews mentioned some issues that they encountered with the 7970 during their gaming benchmark tests.
You would have to check some online sites to see what results others have had with their tests.
Keep in mind that Furmark and AfterBurner are artificial tests that are meant to heavily load your card.
I think that many of the drivers are designed to detect these programs and purposely lower performance somewhat to prevent "abuse".
It's hard to say if artifact errors are due to a defective video card. See what happens when you are running demanding games.

**ped** · 02-12-2012, 07:20 AM

Re: Sapphire Radeon HD 7970 errors on OCCT - recommendations

Originally posted by profJim View Post

First off, our dialogue is due to your English being far better than my elementary school French.

ProfJim, you crack me up. :) Although I do live in France, I can't hide the fact that I'm an american. I moved from the USA about 8 years ago for work (american company). So I do appreciate the thought, but my english is from 12 years of good old public school teaching! LOL

Originally posted by profJim View Post

Your video card is far superior to my highly overclocked MSI N460GTX Hawk SLI setup.
When I tested with Furmark and/or Kombustor with enhanced settings, my display was always smooth with my overclocked single card and SLI setups. I don't think that I ever tested with Displacement Mapping enabled. My scores with these tests were lower due to the added video demands placed on the video card(s).

Any issues that your card has might be related to immature drivers for your recently released video card.
Some 7970 reviews mentioned some issues that they encountered with the 7970 during their gaming benchmark tests.
You would have to check some online sites to see what results others have had with their tests.
Keep in mind that Furmark and AfterBurner are artificial tests that are meant to heavily load your card.
I think that many the drivers are designed to detect these programs and purposely lower performance somewhat to prevent "abuse".
It's hard to say if artifact errors are due to a defective video card. See what happens when you are running demanding games.

Ok! So seems that perhaps the OCCT is a bit overstressing my new 7970 due to it being newer, and a lack of more mature graphics drivers etc? So given it has done well in the past two tests, I shouldn't throw too much weight into the OCCT errors?

As I said, it's my first build, and I can honestly say I've never bought a card that at least wasn't a year in the market! LOL

So ... means I should continue my other tests as in the original post of the thread:
MemTest, Prime95, etc... and then on to overclocking! (CPU not GPU >:)

Thanks for making me smile big on that one.

**profJim** · 02-12-2012, 07:32 AM

Re: Sapphire Radeon HD 7970 errors on OCCT - recommendations

Glad to help out.
By all means continue with your cpu/memory testing to ensure that your system is stable.
Check some of the better online review sites, such as HardOCP and others to see what issues or limitations that are encountering with the 7970 cards.
You should probably post any issues or questions with your cpu/memory testing in http://forums.tweaktown.com/memory/4...st-gb-ram.html and post your video card questions and results in this thread. You might want to create a new overclocking thread since it looks like your Memtest86+ questions have been answered.

It's neat when we can bring a smile to a forum member.

**ped** · 02-12-2012, 10:13 AM

Re: Sapphire Radeon HD 7970 errors on OCCT - recommendations

Will do ProfJim.

Thanks again for all your help. I'll start checking the forums to see what they say on the limitations and or issues.

Meanwhile I downloaded Steam to try a game out to see how it performs to do another look at the graphics card. Then I'll finish up with more of the memory and CPU tests.

Until next time...

**profJim** · 02-12-2012, 10:29 AM

Re: Sapphire Radeon HD 7970 errors on OCCT - recommendations

You're welcome.
Let us know if you're having any further issues with your graphics card.
Have fun with your gaming tests, it's a tough job but someone's gotta do it.

**ped** · 02-12-2012, 01:07 PM

Re: Sapphire Radeon HD 7970 errors on OCCT - recommendations

Hi everyone,

Seems that my 3DMark11 test didn't do optimally.

Here's the link to my results:
AMD Radeon HD 7970 video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-2600K Processor,ASRock P67 Extreme4 Gen3 score: P7855 3DMarks

Overall seems my CPU helps keep the combined test at a good level, however I'm not scoring as well as others who have the same card, and I should be doing better given no other bottlenecks.

Will go looking on the 3dmark forums, but in any case still seems I need to do some tweaking.

Note: One thing that was odd however is it saying that I needed to upgrade my VGA driver... however I checked the AMD site and it mentioned I had the latest? I assume that has to do with how new this card is, or not?

Thanks.

**profJim** · 02-12-2012, 01:33 PM

Re: Sapphire Radeon HD 7970 errors on OCCT - recommendations

A quick check at http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles...C11Driver.aspx shows:

Driver Version: 8.921.2.0
8.921.2 RC11 AMD Radeon™ HD 7900 driver
Last Updated: 1/25/2012

Are you running the RC11 driver version?
If yes, maybe the problem is that your driver is too new!!

**profJim** · 02-12-2012, 01:46 PM

Re: Sapphire Radeon HD 7970 errors on OCCT - recommendations

Maybe this is what you want/need:
AMD Catalyst 11.12 WHQL 8.921.5 Dec 29 WHQL download from Guru3D.com

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