HD 7950 High Performance Mode

[i_pk_pjers_i]

UPDATE: Running flash video whilst playing games caused high-performance mode to not activate on my 7950, when I do not have flash video running it activates just fine and I can get the frames per second in games that I should be getting. There is two possible fixes for the flash video, 1) you can stop watching flash video entirely whist playing games or 2) you can right click flash video and click disable hardware acceleration, either will allow high-performance mode to be activated when you are playing a game. I hope this helps anyone else who was having this problem.

I purchased a MSI 7950 (this one to be exact: http://www.msi.com/product/vga/R7950-2PMD3GD5-OC.html ) shortly after it came out. I am using it to run a dual monitor setup. Recently, I have noticed that while playing games, it does not activate high-performance (3D) mode for gaming. For example, I am playing Diablo 3 right now on my first monitor, and the GPU clock is only 501MHz when I have this cards core overclocked to 930MHz. I have had this problem with both Catalyst 12.4 and the Catalyst 12.6 beta driver. I have ran CCLeaner before and after each install/uninstall and it does not help. Does anyone know why this could be? Is there any way I can force it to run in high-performance mode, or any way to fix this problem? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[i_pk_pjers_i]

i have manage to regenerate the 501mhz problem by running flash based video like from youtube or something similar. what does your gpu usage graph look like. also when your running all your usual programs other then games how does your temps look like?

That fixed it, thank you so much. My power supply was NOT the cause of the problem and did not contribute to it one bit. I just KNEW it had to be software related and not hardware related. Running flash video whilst playing games caused high-performance mode to not activate on my 7950, when I do not have flash video running it activates just fine and I can get the frames per second in games that I should be getting. There is two possible fixes for the flash video, 1) you can stop watching flash video entirely whist playing games or 2) you can right click flash video and click disable hardware acceleration, either will allow high-performance mode to be activated when you are playing a game. I hope this helps anyone else who was having this problem. This can now be closed or whatever. Again, thank you so much for fixing my problem.

 

[zakattak80]

That fixed it, thank you so much. My power supply was NOT the cause of the problem and did not contribute to it one bit. I just KNEW it had to be software related and not hardware related. Running flash video whilst playing games caused high-performance mode to not activate on my 7950, when I do not have flash video running it activates just fine and I can get the frames per second in games that I should be getting. There is two possible fixes for the flash video, 1) you can stop watching flash video entirely whist playing games or 2) you can right click flash video and click disable hardware acceleration, either will allow high-performance mode to be activated when you are playing a game. I hope this helps anyone else who was having this problem. This can now be closed or whatever. Again, thank you so much for fixing my problem.

awesome, enjoy the card. that well help me since i like listening to youtube lectures about various things while i play some games, but never did since my games wouldn't run as fast as i wanted it to.

 

[AdioKIP]

Glad you found a fix, but does anyone know how to disable hardware acceleration in windows media center? I would love to be able to watch live tv and still have the video card go up to full speed.

 

[blazorthon]

Glad you found a fix, but does anyone know how to disable hardware acceleration in windows media center? I would love to be able to watch live tv and still have the video card go up to full speed.

http://www.pixelmetrics.com/Tips/VidBlank/MediaPlayer.php

You could give that a try.

 

[AdioKIP]

http://www.pixelmetrics.com/Tips/VidBlank/MediaPlayer.php

You could give that a try.

Thanks, but this refers to Media "Player", not Media "Center". I dont seem to have the issue when playing video in media player, the issue only occurs when using Media "Center".

 

[blazorthon]

Thanks, but this refers to Media "Player", not Media "Center". I dont seem to have the issue when playing video in media player, the issue only occurs when using Media "Center".

http://www.deskshare.com/Resources/articles/dmc_turnoffhardwareacceleration.aspx

This is how to disable it system-wide. It says that it's XP, but the method is pretty much identical for 7/vista/8.
I'm still looking for a way to disable it only in Windows Media Center, but I'm having a little more trouble with this one. Maybe you could try using a freeware third-party media program?

 

[AdioKIP]

Using your original link led me to gogling some information, I did find instructions for dialing down or turning off acceleration in Windows 7, however the option is grayed out as if my video drivers dont support it. (Using 12.4 drivers).

I've tried other programs for TV viewing (last time was specifically for this issue). The other programs simply seem to pause/freeze the tv display anytime I start a game.

Instructions I found:
Step 1:

To decrease hardware acceleration on your computer, perform the following steps:

1. Click Start, select Control Panel, click Appearance and Personalization, click Personalization, click Display Settings, and then click Advanced Settings.

2. Click the Troubleshoot tab, and then click Change Settings.

Note: Change Settings will be disabled if the graphics card drivers do not support disabling hardware acceleration.

3. Move the Hardware Acceleration slider until it is one notch to the right of none. This is the basic acceleration setting.

4. Click OK twice, and then close the window.

 

[blazorthon]

OK I remember that process there. You might be able to disable hardware acceleration if you uninstall your AMD graphics drivers and use the default Windows driver when you try to disable it. After you do this and disable acceleration, you can then re-install your graphics driver and it should still be in effect. Keep in mind that this is system-wide and not just for Media Center. Also, you could try a driver update to Catalyst 12.6 and see if it helps.

 

[AdioKIP]

I was waiting for the official 12.6 rather than the beta. As soon as its released I'll give it a try. Overall I dont want to make the change system wide. Everything else seems to work fine with hardware acceleration on, and even when not gaming I see spikes in my video card usage so I know its being utilized which is a good thing.

 

[blazorthon]

I was waiting for the official 12.6 rather than the beta. As soon as its released I'll give it a try. Overall I dont want to make the change system wide. Everything else seems to work fine with hardware acceleration on, and even when not gaming I see spikes in my video card usage so I know its being utilized which is a good thing.

Your choice, but the 12.6 beta is considerably more stable than the previous official releases and has other advantages. Even if you don't want to stick with it, you could at least give it a try and see if it helps. That might give you an idea about whether or not the official 12.6 will help or not right now instead of waiting (who knows how long?) for it to come out.

You might see spikes in GPU usage, but are you making comparisons of the performance of applications that cause those spikes between with and without hardware acceleration? You might find that the difference is not worth the trouble (of course, you might also find that the opposite is true).

 

[i_pk_pjers_i]

Best answer selected by i_pk_pjers_i.

 

[AdioKIP]

Your choice, but the 12.6 beta is considerably more stable than the previous official releases and has other advantages. Even if you don't want to stick with it, you could at least give it a try and see if it helps. That might give you an idea about whether or not the official 12.6 will help or not right now instead of waiting (who knows how long?) for it to come out.

You might see spikes in GPU usage, but are you making comparisons of the performance of applications that cause those spikes between with and without hardware acceleration? You might find that the difference is not worth the trouble (of course, you might also find that the opposite is true).

Just following up, while the 12.6 drivers seem to work great for gaming, the issue is still there. Anytime windows Media center is open the graphics card wont go into high performance mode. Any program besides Media Center playing video seems fine. I can play diablo in EyeFinity on 3 screens at 5760x1080 while playing 1080p video on my 4th screen using VLC or media player, its just something with media center.

 

[blazorthon]

Just following up, while the 12.6 drivers seem to work great for gaming, the issue is still there. Anytime windows Media center is open the graphics card wont go into high performance mode. Any program besides Media Center playing video seems fine. I can play diablo in EyeFinity on 3 screens at 5760x1080 while playing 1080p video on my 4th screen using VLC or media player, its just something with media center.

Might want to just not use Media center if that's the case. Also, 12.6 has a full release and 12.7 is the current beta now and 12.7 is a performance boosting release.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey