Okay, well yes my settings are at 1100mhz gpu clock and 1425 memory clock, I have tried to set them to the standard hd 7970 but still it crashes, actually I was wondering it says that these settings won't apply untill the card is in High performance mode, what exactly does that mean, and is it possible that such a mode isn't turning on? Oh, and I have the retail box copy of The Witcher 2 Ehanced Edition patched to 3.4 which I think is the latest.
You've not answered my question - Have you looked here - Tips on Troubleshooting Game Issues ???
Also did you check out the Witcher forums? See if this post helps - Fixes for 2.1 and TW2EE Issues and 142 error or W2 stopped working Update 8/19/2013 - The Witcher board?
Sorry, and yes I am checking that link right now, attempting any changes that might apply to my situation. Yes, I have been up and done the witcher 2 forums, even sent the technical team a message with my problem, but they won't respond until the 6th, and I figure it will be a stock answer, as many post talk about similar symptoms, but their solutions do not work for me.
I found something interesting, that I overlooked previously, I have color adjustments under ccc altered to lower the brightness of the screen, could this affect the game enough to force the black screen?
Color Management has no affect on gaming other than how bright the game looks. And brightness (aka gamma) can be adjusted in game.
As a photographer I color manage my system all the time, and because of this, I often have to adjust the brightness in games I play.
But. so I don't get beat up... anything is possible, however that one is highly improbable.
Anyway it could be a driver or DX (direct x) issue. This is why I pointed you to my guide, as it gives some common things to look at, even some not so common... like making sure your OS has the latest updates.
Good luck.
High Performance mode means that the OCing doesn't kick on until a certain threshold is met. It's a power and wear saving feature. If you're playing Witcher 2, then yes it's being met and your card is kicking in whatever OCing it has. It's a standard feature on AMD cards.
It's basically so your GPU doesn't suck down power by using overclock settings while the PC is idle or if you're watching video or browsing the web. Pretty much any game will use enough resources to activate it.
Xfire does the same thing. It only uses more than one card when it's capacity reaches a certain amount of load. It's still better to only turn it on when it's needed because that threshold is lower than it needs to be. It doesn't take much to kick in the other GPU(s).
Leaving overdrive turned on doesn't hurt anything though. You might save a little power by only activating it when your card starts to struggle, but the difference is negligible.
Quote