Hey guys, just wanted to drop by and talk about a few things with my new build. First of all I wanted to mention my last 2 GPU's were a GTX 480 and a GTX 580, just a while back I sold all of my PC stuff and bought a PS3 thinking I would just game on a console. Needless to say that didnt last long! lol. Anyway after building a new gaming PC I thought I would give ATI another shot because back in the day I loved ATI when I had my X1900XT card but after that I left ATI because I found the 2900 series to be horrible so I had been with nvidia ever since. So here I am with my new HD 6970 and im noticing that when playing BFBC2 the min FPS is pretty horrible during heavy explosions and lots of smoke compared to the frame rates I was getting on my previous gtx 480, I dont even need to mention the 580. Also the HD 6970 when under load makes a fairly loud electrical sound kinda like a noisy capacitor or something? Of course it goes away once I stop gaming and just surf the net etc. Im using the 10.12RC3 drivers and was wondering if maybe the drivers are just very very immature right now? that would at least explain the poor performance in certain scenarios of bfbc2 that I didnt suffer from when I was with nvidia. Any thoughts on this? Thanks.
i m no expert and have no knowledge on 6xxx but i ll ask you the basics. Have you done a clean install of drivers with driversweeper in safe mode? Tried uninstalling CAPS? they seem to cause more trouble than solving. Have you overclocked that CPU? Have you tried MSi afterburner to see how your card behaves during gaming? What's your CCC sliders at? Check that you have vsync off, multisampling enabled, box AA.
Oh yeah, its a new build from the ground up so everything is nice and clean. In fact its only been up and running for about 3 days now. What is CAPS? Also yes, my CPU is overclocked at 4ghz nice and stable. Im using MSI afterburner and the temps look fine while under load, CCC sliders are at application preference and im using standered box AA. Vsync is off. Dont get me wrong, the card performs decently enough for the most part in any game I have played. Its just that BFBC2 seems to give it a hard time during heavy explosions and lots of smoke on the screen, my old GTX 480 handled both those areas with minimal FPS drop whereas my new HD 6970 tanks during those same scenes. Also the buzzing sound from the card when its under load bothers me although it might just be a noisy capacitor or something else.
CAP=catalyst application profiles (crossfire related, but had to ask). How is your GPU usage? any spikes? Afaik ati cards are known to have lower minimum frame rates than nvidia in some games but i never experienced such issues :/ Got no xp on the 69xx's so i can't really tell you about the fan :/ Also, tried any previous drivers? I think there are some hotfixes here that support the new cards. It might be a driver issue, it could be fixed after 11.1 is released. Other than that i dont know what to suggest :<
Im running the 10.12RC3 driver which is supposed to be the best driver for the 6970. Thanks for explaining what the CAPS is, I dont have the profiles installed anyway. Guess I probably need to give the drivers time to mature, im sure their is more to be had from this card and I would like to stay with it considering it has 2gb of vram.
I would certainly install profiles and whats your settings on the CCC? Maxed? I remember when you gave up "PC" gaming and I thought to myself if I ever do that I'd just give up gaming all together upgrading and tuning the PC is half the fun.
Concerning noisy fan. That's just how reference model vapor chamber is done. If u feel confident enough about ur temperatures u can try with lower fan profile. U can try this ( sent to me from Steam support): " Please try this: Click the Start button, then "Run" (or Windows key + R) Type in: msconfig Choose "Selective Startup" Uncheck the box labeled "Load Startup Items". Now, click on the "Services" tab. Please make sure the "Hide All Microsoft Services" box *is* checked. Then, click "Disable All". If you are using Vista or Windows 7, please re-check the "Steam Client Service" as this is required for Steam to function on these operating systems. Click "OK" and allow your computer to restart. Test the issue and let us know the results. This is for diagnostic purposes only. You should not leave your computer in this state, but it may help us determine the cause of the issue. To set the system back to normal, launch msconfig again and choose "normal startup", close the window and restart your computer. "
It isnt the fan that im having issues with, its something else like a noisy capacitor making a loud electrical huming noise when the card is under load. During intense demanding graphical scenes the noise is even worse. Something is certainly not right.
Yep, I went ahead and submitted an RMA with newegg and ordered a GTX 570 to replace it. It would be my luck that if I got another HD 6970 it would probably do the same thing.
Hello, I signed up on these forums just to respond to your post because i am also getting this very annoying buzzing sound with my Sapphire 6970 under same circumstances as you. I get it in-game only, not during menu's or idle or any other time. I am reading from people that it is normal for GPU's to get a "coil whine" during menu's but this seems different because it only starts in-game. I have been googleing "6970 buzzing sound" every day to see if other people are getting it and if it is normal, because i am not going to bother RMA'ing the card if i will just get the same noise with a new 6970, though it is incredibly annoying... As far as framerates, can't relate to you on that, i'm running BFBC2 at a pretty solid 60FPS maxed out. I'm using the 10.12a hotfix for 69xx cards though it seems to install as 10.11 according to CCC... but it is working despite that oddity. What are these 10.12 RC3 drivers? I would like to try them, I have not found them on AMD's site. Thanks
Im glad to see that it wasnt just me that was having this issue though im sorry to hear that yours is doing it too. As for BFBC2 I get 60fps the majority of the time as well, my only complaint is that the frame rate dips quite a bit like down to 35fps during "heavy explosions with lots of smoke on screen" as soon as the smoke clears the FPS will go back up again. Also what settings are you running BFBC2 at? this could make a difference as well. Here is mine- 1920X1200 with the FOV set to 65 DX11 All in game settings at max with 8XAA 16XAF HBAO Enabled Its a nice card but I cant tolerate that coil whine and now that I see someone else is getting it I am glad that I rma'd the card and chose the GTX 570 as its replacement because like I said before it would be my luck that I would get another one that would be doing the same thing.
The noise is probably coil whine or squeal, it's like electrical noise, ttttsssszzzziiiiieeeeeeeiiiiiitsssss... I got the same noise with my 2xgigabyte 6970, although it can be a combination of psu, mb and gfx so it is possible the cards are silent in another computer. Anyway, I'm sending my gigabyte cards back and really hope I will get sapphire in return. Older 2xsapphire 4890 was completely silent, so was 4870x2 and allot of other cards....
Wow so your getting it too? Man I hope my GTX 570 doesnt do this, It will get to me tomorrow so I will report back on it and if it does the same thing I may just toss the whole stupid computer out the window.
Why on earth would you get rid of your PC with a GTX580 for a 4 year old PS3 console? That makes absolutely zero sense to me...That is like selling your Lamborghini for family sedan! LOL Because you were so stupid in the first place I won't even help you...
Yeah i had low fps during smoke and explosions when i had my 5870 2gb vapor-x. That card was no slouch, clocked at 925/5000.... But even at lowish res of 1920x1080 it would slow down like mad in the smoke and heavy explosions. Since i got my GTX 570, my enjoyment of this game has increased sooooo much. No fps dips (or none i feel/see) during those scenerios, and perceptibly better IQ. It must be the ATI drivers. I did see a driver review a while back now if all the recent cats.. 10.4 -10.12 and it showed 10.4 was best for BC2. Too late for me id already jumped ship. Oh... 1920x1080, maxed with x4aa and 16xaf, HBAO on, fov 70. 5870 dips to low 40's during smoke/explosion. Gtx 570 dips to mid 60's during smoke/explosion.
Had a pair of 4870x2s before from Powercolor, also had this annoing coil squeel. Have a feeling it is as someone else posted a combination of hardware. Also seems like it is low freq noise since when I've had mates over or anyone else and I asked them if they could hear any some hear it and some doesn't. Also had this issue on the 780i mobo from XFX and during a trubbleshoot with 4-5 senior tech guys we could conclude that it was low freq noise stemming off the pwm's near the NB of the board feeding the fan with power. Would go away under certain fan settings. Anyway your best bet would be try another brand of graphics card, possibly with a none reference pcb or just try a whole diffrent model if you can't live with the buzzing, wich indeed is annoying
