Finally bought an AMD 7870

Erick Aguilar said:

Huh. Strange.

When I got the card I ran a valley benchmark and the temps were fine. After being at 80C it would cool down quite fast.

Today I did another run to monitor temps under load and everything was normal, to the point where temperatures were supposed to be low. They are staying in the high 40's for 5 minutes and lowering down to 40 incredibly slow.

I reinstalled my drivers, but this kept on happening.

Maybe I'm not used to this card yet, but it seems like an odd behavior. It IS my first ''high'' end car in comparison to my previous 7770. So.. any information would be very much appreciated.

Ok here's the deal with AMD cards they will rev and ramp up on anything that uses flash browsing certain pages can make a slight load Youtube video especially also the feature AMD steady Video on Web Browsing uses GPU to enhance the images through the web video being played you are just suffering from lack of a proper information provided with using AMD cards is all no worries though you are running a APU that should be ok it is the Top quadcore of that line also the combination of the dedicated GPU and APU combo should give a significant boost in performance atleast levels of a 7950 series cards

But the combination only works with certain APU GPU combinations

I just read something that your ram maybe needs to be adjusted towards the APU internel GPU as it uses system ram I am wondering if you give it more dedicated ram would it smooth out your situation because that would be a bottle neck of sorts since a apu runs off of what ever is installed on the board try boosting the internal gpu clock it up and see if that is whats causing the rough play

Erick Aguilar said:

Oh, the FPS are smooth as silk. There really isn't anything wrong with the frames, my main concern is temperature really.

The GPU in the APU is deactivated since the 7870 cannot go into dual graphics with the 5800k. It's a good thing that I have this thing overclocked to 4.5GHZ though. I might be able to squeeze a little more, but not until I get a more proper cooler.

I consulted with XFX and they kindly let me know that the average temperatures while gaming are between the 70's and 80's however they also let me know that at 95C I should stop all operations and check my fan/heatsink integrity.

I guess I'm good and just a little paranoid in regards to damaging an expensive piece of hardware.

My 7970's reached 92 c on Unigene I upped the fan profile to 70% I did flash my reference cards to ghz bios and running from stock 925/1050 to 1150/1540 major jump

Did you go to a Brick and Mortar store or was it ordered ?

I would do a quick exchange and see if it is the cooling applied or just the card is bad
those temps are pretty major especially for a XFX cards those are the most solid I've known of

Erick Aguilar said:

I'm starting to think something could be wrong with the card.

Battlefield 2 gets 85C temperatures
Tomb Raider gets 84
Skyrim with ENB gets 89

These are will Full, Full expect tressFX and High with SSAO.

I guess those are my most demanding games, but still.. could it just be a weak heatsink application?

On multiple games getting that I would say yes, exchange the card.

Erick Aguilar said:

Solarstarshines said:

Did you go to a Brick and Mortar store or was it ordered ?

I would do a quick exchange and see if it is the cooling applied or just the card is bad
those temps are pretty major especially for a XFX cards those are the most solid I've known of

I actually ordered, but they don't run the warranty after it's being sent out, I have to go straight to XFX. It sounds like it will be fun since I am all the way in Mexico.

I mean, I don't have lag or shut downs. Or any glitches for that matter. And the XFX site says that their safe temperatures are between 70's and high 80's under load.
My room temperature is also pretty cool at 19C.

So I am a little concerned at not being able to do any gaming once summer comes in.

I'll talk to XFX and see if I can reapply the thermal paste without voiding the warranty, or if I can send it back.

You can do this yourself as well you know
I had a video somewhere on it from youtube I can dig it up for you also it would be a good idea just to see if the fans are actually working properly or spinning so so if it is then you need to replace the fans you could order after maket parts as well so I think instead of going through all the waiting and BS maybe we can somehow help you take care of it on your own I feel for you I really do and that is why im offering this information a RMA can take up to 3 months if these anuses don't get a rush put on it by you bugging them if you know what I mean