ATI radeon hd 6870 weird problem

[Dude888]

I know I should probably post this on a more "specialized" website, but I know there are people on here who are good with computers and I'm lazy so I don't want to create an account on another website...

Anyway!

I have this very weird problem with my graphic card and I looked on google a lot and I can't find anything.

My framerate drops when I play a gpu intensive game (like Skyrim). But when I installed the newest drivers everything is fine, that makes sense right? The problem is after I restart my computer, the framerate drop comes back, then I have to reinstall the drivers again. I'm getting really tired of reinstalling drivers over and over again.

My Graphic card: ATI Radeon hd 6870

[RikuoAmero]

Try looking for the most recent drivers that you know worked just fine. Things like this happen sometimes with new driver releases, which is a shame, since they're supposed to catch these problems in beta testing.

[Dae314]

What you're describing sounds more like an overheating issue than a driver issue, but...

Are you doing a clean driver install or are you choosing the option that lets you keep your settings?

Most of the time a driver install requires you to restart your computer anyway so I guess I'm a bit confused as to why it only happens on every other restart o.O

Have you tried looking at your GPU's temps? It's possible that the driver install has nothing to do with it, and it's just that in the time it takes for you to reinstall your drivers your GPU cools off enough to resume normal operation for a while. Perhaps there's something wrong with the way the cooler was installed on your GPU (like they forgot thermal paste or something ^^). In that case, if you can demonstrate that normal non-overclocked use overheats your card, you can warranty it. Alternatively, maybe your case just has bad airflow around the GPU and the card tends to heat up.

Edited December 25, 2012 by Dae314

[ZeroPenguins]

What Dae might be saying is correct, how about trying this pull your fans upto 100% and run the game while monitoring your temps with GPU-Z or MSI Afterburner. If you don't get any spike lags great, try again with the auto fan speeds and check your temps while playing, when you have a spike lag have a look at your temps and clock speeds. If clock speeds decreases then it's probably a overheating issue.

[Jªvª]

Hard to say, cause I am also experiencing these at the same time lol. But I am also utilizing the beta driver while utilizing different profiles. Which could be also be an issue if I recall with a recent release I think which the amd folks kinda stumbled into sometime during the last month.

Best thing is check everything hardware wise and record all the info via os wise and submit to amd.

[Dude888]

Well, I did some tests and my problem is not due to overheating or under-heating(yes, those exists). I tried running my fans to the maximum and running the game, and after I tried running my game with my fans set to the lowest.

The reason I don't have to restart my computer when I install my drivers is because ATI utilizes AMD catalyst install manager to install other programs at the same time. My screen flickers a little and/or becomes black and after it installs other programs, it never asks to restart.

I think that the problem is that when my computer reboots, it rolls back to an older driver instead of the new one. The solution may be to delete the ATI drivers files, but I feel really uncomfortable deleting stuff in "Windows\System32"

[ZeroPenguins]

Use a program like Driver Cleaner, it will get rid of every single trace of that AMD driver.

[Dude888]

Use a program like Driver Cleaner, it will get rid of every single trace of that AMD driver.

I just used Driver Sweeper, because it does the same thing and doesn't cost $9.99.

When I installed the driver it asked me to restart my computer, like it should. The problem did not occur after that restart, but when I restarted my computer another time, it came back... again...

[Jªvª]

Now that is interesting, try monitoring the version number in device manager after an install and restart. It really shouldn't automatically rollback without assistance.

Also what package version are you utilizing?

[Dae314]

Instead of using the beta drivers, why not use the stable drivers?

[Dude888]

I'm not using any beta drivers, if I did, the first thing I would do is check if the problem exists in the stable version.

I've had this problem at least since I installed the Catalyst control center package 12-8 and now the latest version I am using is 12-10.

As for the driver in the device manager, it says I am using version 9.2.0.0 after the install and after I reboot. I also tried installing the drivers directly in the device manager with the "browse for drivers on my computer" and installed the latest it found (9.2.0.0) and it does the same thing as installing the complete CCC package. At first, the problem disappears and then it comes back after reboot.

[Jªvª]

@Dae314

I am the one utilizing beta drivers lol

@Dude888

Yeah its really starting to sound more on the lines of which a few of use testers are debunking atm; which is that the settings of the game and the profile settings of catalyst control center are not playing nice. Which honestly no way around due to AMD making it standard for CCC to be installed.

Best bet is att is mess with the settings in both until you find a preference you like. Att I have Skyrims's AA Settings off due to FPS issues.

Edited December 27, 2012 by Jªvª

[Dude888]

I guess I'll just continue to install the driver each time I start my computer. OR I can just stop turning off my computer, like I do with my laptop

Thanks to everyone who tried to help. And if my problem disappears I'll be sure to post the info on here.

[Dae314]

You could attempt to install older drivers and see if that helps o.O'''.