HD 5870 flickering on power state change

[F1aw1ess]

Hi,

I'm not sure whether this thread relates to the problem I'm having but I'm almost at my wits end so its worth a try, I hope someone can help.

I've just got myself the new 5870 and when AMD Overdrive is disabled the card works fine but the moment I enable it I get like a periodic flashing on screen which looks like another copy of my desktop every half second or so, it doesnt matter whether I dont even change the clock speeds, the moment the tick box is ticked and i click apply i get this problem.

When looking at GPUz I can see the clock speeds change to stupid amounts 157 core 300 memory when default is 850 / 1200 and the voltages drop to silly amounts aswell.

I was thinking maybe it was something to do with powerplay as when overdrive is disabled the core and memory does drop every few seconds to 400 / 800 which i assume is a power saving feature.

I have tried disabling powerplay via the xml profile hack found on another site but it still gives weird clock values.

My last trail of though is maybe a power supply issue?

I have the Antec NeoPower 650w

details can be found here

http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/antec_neopower_650/5.htm

and here is a screenshot of the weird clock values when overdrive (or any overclocking tool) is used.

hope someone can help

 

[W1zzard]

those low clocks and voltages are normal and part of amd's power saving methods for the 5800 series, but you shouldnt see any flashes.

what is your display output configuration?

 

[F1aw1ess]

When overdrive is off the power saving feature goes from 850 stock to 400 and works fine.

Just when overdrive enabled it goes down to 157 core 300 memory. plus the voltages go from VDDC 11.6v VDDCI 12.5v to VDDC 2.3v VDDCI 1.7v

DVI to main monitor Samsung 24" P2450 1920x1080
DVI-VGA Convertor to Dell 19" 1280x1024

Havent tried with only the main monitor attached, you think that might be it?

 

[W1zzard]

just a wild guess, but better than nothing .. try with one monitor

 

[F1aw1ess]

OMG! You are a W1zzard!

Your dead right mate, with the second monitor detatched it doesnt happen.

Grrr.....

I need my two monitors.

Any other suggestions?

I could attach my main monitor by HDMI I suppose and give that a whirl

 

[W1zzard]

try swapping monitors around, try different screen refresh rates, contact ati and report the issue so they can fix it in the future

 

[F1aw1ess]

I've tried different ports for each monitor but havent got a spare HDMI so cant change cables yet.

However after disconnecting one of the monitors I managed to overclock to 925/100 stable and I done some benchmarking last night, I got some pretty good scores, on 3DMark Vantage I hit P16,500, nice

The problem i'm finding now is that in a game eg COD5 & NFS:Shift, my FPS is crap. On COD5 my old GTX260 192 sits at 91 FPS almost all the time only dropping to about 80 in thick smoke.

This card is sitting at about 80FPS and in smoke ive seen it drop to 35 and I get some noticable lag.

Any thoughts on this?

 

[F1aw1ess]

I seem to find solutions the moment I make a post lol

It was to do with the PCI-Express Frequency in the BIOS.

My GTX260 liked 105mhz, this card does not. Reduced to 100mhz and voila, back to normal.

Still one issue im finding though, it maybe related to drivers I dont know.

When in 2D and in 3D the power play feature doesnt work correctly.

The standard clocks are 850/1200 and every second or so it reduces the core to 400 but then goes straight back up. This happens when idle and in game. See Number 1

If I enable Overdrive it reduces to 157/300 every second or so. See Number 2

See screeny attached

 

[johnniedoo]

I just encountered the 2nd monitor issue and this thread today. never used 2 monitors on the new 5870 card till yesterday. and this stopped, I had used the hdmi first and then changed to 2 dvi andit is always monitor 2 I switched everything cables, plugs assignments and i have samsund t260 and acer203 which are different sizes and max res. i can only go to 1050 in the acer and used group but the samsung does not look good with 1050 for some reason.
I can see it on the vid card graph exactly when it is un de clocking from 600/900 to the regulay 875/1250, i changed the bottom from od from 157/300 to 600/900 but is still the same fast flicker or static , noise band or picture shakes completely for the second during the clock changes. it does not exhibit this on the #1 assigned monitor no matter which it is and i put a 3rd one to alternate and it does not do it in single monitor at all. I paid $400 for the asus card though i have read reports at ati forum other cards too, sapphire too probably most .
i would like to be able to use 2 monitors. I dont think it is a bad card but it is warranteed . i took it out and put the pretty new 4870 i took out to replace with the 5870 ( which is much better in single monitor) and i have no problems on the 4870. in this respect i shouldnt have paid out so much and cant use 2 monitors so it needs to be addressed. and my problem is shared exactly with enough others to be sure it isnt only my card. maybe a whole bad batch but too many the same 2nd monitor only problem. i was not able to check out display port since i have none....have a display port cable but no monitors with the plug.
thanks , hopefully someone will pick back up on the thread as i am still looking all over for help and there are others on the ati forum still looking as of yesterday as well.