New
#1
New rig + Radeon 6950 = trouble
As per title, getting nothing but trouble from this card.
The rig details should be in my profile (hopefully), I didn't analyze anything in-depth but it seems like all components are in place and compatible.
Issue(s):
Initially was getting BSODs on Windows login, fixed that with the 10.12a hotfix (apparently the only one that supports 6950 and it's not even listed on the XFX site).
Now BSODs are rare (I can still get them but it takes some effort) however that doesn't mean the GPU is working. Driver failures are still pretty common, although Windows does catch them and recovers.
Running any serious video app is impossible - Furmark won't even show a screen or window, just freezes everything permanently, some games "load" but "run" at less than 1 fps
What I did so far:
Reinstalled OS (at some point)
Reinstalled drivers (full clean before etc, etc)
Reseated GPU, tried connecting the monitor to either DVI out, tried putting the card into the second x16 slot on the mobo, no changes from either of those
Updated all other drivers (I think)
Played around with overvolting/overclocking to no avail (although flashing GPU BIOS to a 6970 and overclocking to that level made the system a lot more stable for some reason)
Ran Memtest and a cpu stress test (no problems)
Contacted XFX support, their current suggestion is to change RAM voltage to 1.6 from 1.5 (tried, useless).
Unfortunately I can't put this into another computer without taking out the PSU as well (which I really don't want to do) but I guess I could give it to a friend/co-worker to try out sometime this week.
Current leaning: Bad card, possibly some horrendous incompatibility to do with drivers but seems unlikely. Will wait for a day or two more, see if anyone comes up with anything smart and then either RMA or just return to Newegg for refund (then comes the choice of getting the same card or switching to nvidia)
I'm not sure if I actually got the old BSODs in this archive but will post it anyways, they were all the same, citing atikmpag.sys as the cause (although I might have accidentally deleted the dumps while cleaning)
Appreciate any input =)