AMD Gigabyte 7950 WF3 Windforce - Always back to 900/1250 HZ

[bryter_layter]

Hello, I recently tried to do a light overclock without voltage tweaks of my good ol' Gigabyte 7950 WF3 Windforce but I have an annoying issue. At the end of the post I'll leave my specs and the things I tried to do.

The Issue
The card normally run at gpu core clock/gpu memory clock 900/1250.
There should be a default Overclock 1000/1250.

Whenever I try to overclock the card, usually with 1100/1375, +20% power (or less), I try Heaven Benchmark and it works great and it's stable and there is a nice fps gain.
The voltage goes up to 1,25 V, temperatures are fine, around 60-65 degrees all the time, the fans kick in good.

Although If I open a game (I tried few of them with ultra settings which would demand the 1100/1375 settings) it comes back to 900/1250 and it never goes up again. Even if i re-open the Heaven Benchmark after opening a game it stays to 900/1250.

I think it's not an issue of my overclock because even the default overclock 1000/1250 is not being applied (or even an underclock) I think I just noticed it now when I tried to overclock myself, I never watched the frequencies before, but now I see that they always revert to 900/1250.

If I restart the PC I'm able to apply the overclock settings again in Heaven Benchmark, but If I open a game it gets stuck to 900/1250 again and stays there even when I re-open Heaven Benchmark.
I was able to see the overclock settings in action in Heaven Benchmark (even for several benchmark in a row, as long as I don't close the application and open something else in between) and in stress tests in Furmark and they were ok. They applied, I noticed a very nice performance increase.
But it keeps getting back to 900/1250 no matter what.

To sum up:
Basically when I start the pc with default settings (default oc 1000/1250) or my oc settings (1100/1375) and I open heaven benchmark I see them working. I can open heaven benchmark several times, make the benchmarks, walk around, and they work good.
But If I open a game the frequencies go to 900/1250 max and stay like this.
If I re-open heaven benchmark after opening a game it's still 900/1250 until i restart the pc.

If someone knows what I should do to make it work, I'd really appreciate that!
Let me know.

Here are the things I tried to do already and my specs.

Things I tried to do:

I tried to overclock less, and I even tried to underclock to something like 800/1200, but it always goes to 900/1250 no matter what.

I canceled the AMD Drivers with DDU and reinstalled the newest one from scratch.

I flashed various bios of the gpu, currently I have the last one.

I disabled the integrated Intel HD4000 GPU and the Multi Monitor IGPU Option from the bios. (Currently I have the card back on to power up the second screen)

I tried Amd Overdrive (inside Radeon Settings), MSI Afterburner, Sapphire Trixx Overclock (I uninstalled one when I tried the other to be sure there was no conflict).

Disabled ULPS via MSI Afterburner.

VERY BIG UPDATE: I uninstalled Afterburner, uninstalled Rivatuner, Clean-Uninstalled all the AMD drivers again, installed the amd-drivers from the end of 2015, just before the Crimson and "Radeon Settings" Update, Overclocked with Amd Catalyst Control AMD Overdrive and IT WORKED.
Sad that new drivers won't work for me though.

Specs:
OS: Windows 10 x64
Motherboard: Asrock Z77 Pro 4
CPU: i7 3770
GPU: Gigabyte Windforce 7950 GV-R795WF3-3GD
PSU: TX650M
16 GB Ram ddr3
Good Ventilation, 4 fans + CPU cooler.

 

[P4-630]

I wouldn't use furmark anymore... Just sayin...

 

[bryter_layter]

I wouldn't use furmark anymore... Just sayin...

Yes, I uninstalled it, I just tried a couple times to see if there was a psu power issue in stress conditions, which there wasn't.

Actually I'm editing the post to be more clear:

I think it's not an issue of my overclock because even the default overclock 1000/1250 is not being applied (or even an underclock) I think I just noticed it now when I tried to overclock myself, I never watched the frequencies before, but now I see that they always revert to 900/1250.
Basically when I start the pc with default settings (default oc 1000/1250) or my oc settings (1100/1375) and I open heaven benchmark I see them working. I can open heaven benchmark several times, make the benchmarks, walk around, and they work good.
But If I open a game the frequencies go to 900/1250 max and stay like this.
If I re-open heaven benchmark after opening a game it's still 900/1250 until i restart the pc.

 

[P4-630]

It's possible that the game doesn't need higher clocks because you were using V-sync? Hence the lower clocks.
Did you try other games?
What game were you playing btw?
V-sync Off?

 

[bryter_layter]

It's possible that the game doesn't need higher clocks because you were using V-sync? Hence the lower clocks.
Did you try other games?
What game were you playing btw?
V-sync Off?

I tried several, and all with V-Sync Off, today I tried Middle Earth Shadow of Mordor, all in ultra in a scene where I had 50 fps, so it needed the extra clock and Evolve Stage 2, same situation.
I tried less-demanding games but with all settings up (Rocket League and Mortal Kombat 10).
But the thing is that after running a game If I re-open Heaven Benchmark it's still 900/1250 so there is a issue no matter what

 

[bryter_layter]

News: Maybe it is connected to Steam or some gomes, I tried it in a game not related to Steam and it worked. Since I tried this for For Honor I'm gonna wait until the beta and see if it works in Uplay.

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

In Radeon "Global Settings" do you have "performance" ticked

 

[natr0n]

Afterburner detects some programs as 3d applications so it fk's up overclocks/detection.

Simple fix. Click the (i) in afterburner look at bottoms for (Active 3D process : not detected) mine shows nothing running.
If yours does open rivatuner and add whatever exe you dont want such as steam itself. Then set to none.

 

[bryter_layter]

Thanks for your answers. I had the "performance" ticked, now I made a partial uninstall of "Radeon Settings" (keeping the driver) and I'm using Msi Afterburner to be sure that there is no conflict among the two.

I don't find this "Active 3D Process not detected" on Afterburner though. If i click the (i) I just have gpu and cpu info

 

[P4-630]

I don't find this "Active 3D Process not detected" on Afterburner though. If i click the (i) I just have gpu and cpu info

Just make sure you are using the latest version of After burner then.

 

[Steevo]

I had this happen after a upgrade to the first two versions of Catalyst reducks.

Easiest fix was to completely uninstall the drivers, use a drivercleaner, disconnect from the internet, reboot and make sure that only the standard VGA driver was installed and reinstall the latest driver package.

 

[bryter_layter]

I do, version 4.3.0.9267, I just re-downloaded from MSI site to be sure, but this is what I see if I click info (attacched pic)

EDIT
I did uninstall every driver using DDU, Display Driver Uninstalled from Guru3d and reinstalled just the last one already

 

[natr0n]

you need to install rivatuner for the oc profiles to work

 

[bryter_layter]

you need to install rivatuner for the oc profiles to work

I have rivatuner installed, do I need to do something with It? Before, I tried to add steam and evolve to the rivatuner "add applications" menu, but the profile still didn't work when I opened the game. I didn't exactly now what I was doing though, and I didn't know Rivatuner was mandatory. What should I do with It? Also isn't It weird that if I open Heaven (or no man's sky, not linked to steam or uplay, which is another straigh-to-game-engine application) it works, then I try a regular game and It doesn't AND if after that I reopen the one that worked before It doesn't know unless I restart the PC

 

[natr0n]

Yeah rivatuner is mandatory in the sense that it controls the switching of the 2d/3d profiles automatically. Under profiles tab in afterburner do you have them set for 2d and 3d ?

 

[bryter_layter]

Yeah rivatuner is mandatory in the sense that it controls the switching of the 2d/3d profiles automatically. Under profiles tab in afterburner do you have them set for 2d and 3d ?

Hi, I'm trying to use Rivatuner, I have now the "active 3D process" on MSI Afterburner, but I tried to add the games exe on Rivatuner with "high" and set in MSI profiles the overclock profile for both 2d and 3d but the same thing occurs again:
When I open Heaven Benchmark (or, I now found out, No Man's Sky, the only link I see among the two is that they trow you immediately into in-game engine) overclock works and there is performance gain, and I see the correct frequencies (I tried different overclocks).
When I open another game (it doesn't actually matter if connected to Steam, Uplay, or not, I tried various kinds) the clocks go to 900/1250 max and are stuck. If I re-open Heaven Benchmark it's still 900/1250 unless I restart the PC.

Update: if it gives some insight restarting the display drivers with Custom Resolution Utility (CRU) works as well as restarting the PC to make the clock work again as it is supposed to in Heaven Benchmark.
Still have to figure out how to make it work elsewhere...

 

[bryter_layter]

VERY BIG UPDATE: I uninstalled Afterburner, uninstalled Rivatuner, Clean-Uninstalled all the AMD drivers again, installed the amd drivers 15.11.1 from the end of 2015, just before the Crimson and "Radeon Settings" Update, Overclocked with Amd Catalyst Control AMD Overdrive and IT WORKED. With every game.
Sad that new drivers won't work for me though.

EDIT: it seems to work well with 16.7.2 drivers

 

[AUTOgod]

i have a very similar problem, only the clocks that i get stuck at are 501 idle core 1250 idle ram, with 850 load core 1250 load ram.

rolling back to 16.1.1 solved it, but there are plenty of games that wont run on such an old driver.

i have noticed that it happens in games that have an intro movie (which happens to be most of what i want to play).

 

[Kanan]

i have a very similar problem, only the clocks that i get stuck at are 501 idle core 1250 idle ram, with 850 load core 1250 load ram.

rolling back to 16.1.1 solved it, but there are plenty of games that wont run on such an old driver.

i have noticed that it happens in games that have an intro movie (which happens to be most of what i want to play).

I think that's the "multi monitor clock problem" that got solved in one of the recent drivers.

 

[bryter_layter]

i have a very similar problem, only the clocks that i get stuck at are 501 idle core 1250 idle ram, with 850 load core 1250 load ram.

rolling back to 16.1.1 solved it, but there are plenty of games that wont run on such an old driver.

i have noticed that it happens in games that have an intro movie (which happens to be most of what i want to play).

I couldn't make it work no matter what with the newer drivers but if your problem is connected to the detection of 2D applications maybe yours can be fixed setting profiles with afterburner and rivatuner like someone suggested in this thread

 

[AUTOgod]

I think that's the "multi monitor clock problem" that got solved in one of the recent drivers.

My 7950 only drives one monitor, the other 2 are under the control of the Intel graphics.

I couldn't make it work no matter what with the newer drivers but if your problem is connected to the detection of 2D applications maybe yours can be fixed setting profiles with afterburner and rivatuner like someone suggested in this thread

Afterburner has zero effect on the clocks when this bug occurs. Equally, it shows no applications using 3d acceleration (clicking the I icon and checking 3d apps). Restarting the driver using restart64.exe from the custom resolution tool fixes it until I start a game that has video in the intro (some of which are mafia 3, fallout 4, forza horizon 3). Some games don't trigger it such as gears of war 4.

 

[bryter_layter]

My 7950 only drives one monitor, the other 2 are under the control of the Intel graphics.



Afterburner has zero effect on the clocks when this bug occurs. Equally, it shows no applications using 3d acceleration (clicking the I icon and checking 3d apps). Restarting the driver using restart64.exe from the custom resolution tool fixes it until I start a game that has video in the intro (some of which are mafia 3, fallout 4, forza horizon 3). Some games don't trigger it such as gears of war 4.

yeah then I think this should be the UVD clock bug everyone talks about, only thing that I've read that works is flash a custom bios in which you manually change the values of the UVD status using a little software called VBE7

 

[AUTOgod]

yeah then I think this should be the UVD clock bug everyone talks about, only thing that I've read that works is flash a custom bios in which you manually change the values of the UVD status using a little software called VBE7

Hmmmmmm.

Do you know where I might find a guide to this?

I managed to find d vbe7 but can't find any information on how to patch the BIOS to solve this.

 

[bryter_layter]

Hmmmmmm.

Do you know where I might find a guide to this?

I managed to find d vbe7 but can't find any information on how to patch the BIOS to solve this.

For start I can tell you that I just did it and I was able to make everything work with the new drivers(;

I donwloaded vbe7, I loaded my bios (you can extract it with gpu-z), I modified the stuck status to make it match the status that I wanted,
so basically I didn't touch my 300/150 and 501/1250 clock status but i changed my 900/1250 and my 1000/1250 in 1100/1375. This automatically changed my UVD second status (the one that was causing me the problem) and my boot status to 1100/1375 and then I flashed my new modded bios using Atiwinflash.
Also, I'm using fy1 bios which runs at 1,25v, I tried to undervolt it to 1,169v (since previously I used f43 bios which runs at 1,09v and I was able to use 1100/1375 just fine) and everything seems to work fine and lower voltage should mean lower temperature. If something crashes I'll up the voltage.

The status that is causing you problems should be the first UVD, you could try to change it to your 24/7 clock aswell

 

[AUTOgod]

For start I can tell you that I just did it and I was able to make everything work with the new drivers(;

I donwloaded vbe7, I loaded my bios (you can extract it with gpu-z), I modified the stuck status to make it match the status that I wanted,
so basically I didn't touch my 300/150 and 501/1250 clock status but i changed my 900/1250 and my 1000/1250 in 1100/1375. This automatically changed my UVD second status (the one that was causing me the problem) and my boot status to 1100/1375 and then I flashed my new modded bios using Atiwinflash.
Also, I'm using fy1 bios which runs at 1,25v, I tried to undervolt it to 1,169v (since previously I used f43 bios which runs at 1,09v and I was able to use 1100/1375 just fine) and everything seems to work fine and lower voltage should mean lower temperature. If something crashes I'll up the voltage.

The status that is causing you problems should be the first UVD, you could try to change it to your 24/7 clock aswell

ive copied the original bios from the card, and edited the clocks (changed the uvd clocks from 501/1250 amd 850/1250 to 301/150 and 1050/1350) and saved it as a different file.

however, he bios files are VERY different sizes (EDIT: the orignal copied from the card is 256KB, the edited is 128KB), and i cannot get atiflash to start under a usb DOS boot disc, i get the error "this program cannot be run in DOS mode".

those 2 problems combined has me on edge about flashing a new bios, that and i dont want to hijack somebody elses thread.