Yesterday I noticed that my 4670 is running at 100% all the time even on Desktop. It doesn't downclock anymore either. The problem only exists in Win XP, Windows 7 is behaving normally. I tried switching drivers without success. There are no programs running that utilize the gpu so what could be causing this?
you mean 100% real gpu usage monitored by rivatuner/other, or 100% meaning always 3d clocks? you could try a very old driver and see what happens
Sounds like something in youre system is fooling the card to think that an 3d app (games etc) is running? Go through every process that is running...
No. If you card running at maximum 3D frequency it doesn't mean that is 100% loaded. For example, if i overclock my card thanks to ATI's 2D bug my card runs at 800/1200 with 0% usage.
He means that 100% load makes the card think he's on 3d app xP i think. Its strange, try disabling "Themes" service on windows, maybe XP theme not working fine there.