Sapphire R7 260x - Very inconsistent clock speeds.

[FujiwaraM]

So I used MSI afterburner to observe my new GPU's performance in games. Good news, the whole system runs very cool. Neither my GPU nor CPU got above 60C. Bad news is that the GPU's activity rapidly jumps anywhere between 0% to 100% usage while I'm playing. Very rapidly, in fact. On the MSI graph, it looks like a high magnitude earthquake hit a seismograph. Is that normal?

GPU clock activity seems to similarly follow suit, fluctuating at various intervals between minimum clock and maximum default clock... Though this I can't confirm quite as much, since I wasn't honestly keeping nearly as close an eye on it as overall GPU activity.

Should probably note that the card also makes a rather loud clicking sound from what I could only assume is the fan, seemingly caused by the top board of the GPU vibrating against the fan's movements. It subsides when fan speeds get up, but for a model that's apparently supposedly advertised for its quiet running, this is sort of unacceptable, so an RMA is likely going to happen anyway. What I'm mainly looking to answer is if the thing with clock speeds/activity fluctuating wildly is a normal thing for this card.

A last question I want to throw out while I'm here, since Tom's Hardware people, so far, have been very helpful - Anyways, I also noticed that sometimes when performing semi-graphics intensive tasks (say, loading webpages in chrome) my mouse cursor lags a bit - kind of like video game stutter/FPS reduction, in fact, and it moves a little less steadily. Is that normal?

The drivers I'm using right now are the 13.10 WHQL ones, which were recommended in some reviews exclusively for this card line.

Thank you for any answers and advice you might be able to offer!

 

[lp231]

If the card is performing as expected, does not crash, then I won't be too concern with it fluctuating.
Run a video card test and see if it does the same thing. But since your going to RMA anyway.
Then rma the card grab a new one and see if it does the same thing.
For the web problem, try updating Adobe Flash.

 

[Tom Tancredi]

SPECCY of the rest of the system? But you sound like your already RMA (solution) to the issue (sound and performance questioning). I would hold off on anything else till you have a card performing 'as advertized'. Also make sure your secure down the card that it isn't 'wiggling' around, that can cause that clicking sound effect too.

 

[FujiwaraM]

If the card is performing as expected, does not crash, then I won't be too concern with it fluctuating.
Run a video card test and see if it does the same thing. But since your going to RMA anyway.
Then rma the card grab a new one and see if it does the same thing.
For the web problem, try updating Adobe Flash.

I checked; my Flash player is up to date.

It also seems like my card is more prone to really cutting loose when running certain games. Champions Online, it sometimes dips down into 20fps and never gets above 60C. Saints Row 3 running in DX11, though, it initially rocketed out at like 73fps and pretty much never dipped below 30. Kind of weird.
In both cases it seems that GPU activity was fluctuating pretty rapidly, so it's probably not an issue then. Still would sort of like some confirmation if that's how the card really runs, though.

SPECCY of the rest of the system? But you sound like your already RMA (solution) to the issue (sound and performance questioning). I would hold off on anything else till you have a card performing 'as advertized'. Also make sure your secure down the card that it isn't 'wiggling' around, that can cause that clicking sound effect too.

Operating System
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit SP1
CPU
Intel Core i7 920 @ 2.67GHz 53 °C
Bloomfield 45nm Technology
RAM
8.00GB Triple-Channel DDR3 @ 532MHz (7-7-7-20)
Motherboard
Dell Inc. 0R849J (CPU 1) 67 °C (the temperature sensors on this part are all sorts of messed up. I've honestly never seen this number change, and also one of them constantly reads -47C in CPUID's hardware monitor. I sure wish it was actually that cold in my computer. 😛)
Graphics
Generic Non-PnP Monitor (1600x900@60Hz)
2048MB ATI AMD Radeon R7 200 Series (Sapphire/PCPartner) 31 °C
Storage
596GB Western Digital WDC WD6400AAKS-75A7B2 ATA Device (SATA) 33 °C
Optical Drives
HL-DT-ST DVD-ROM DH20N ATA Device
PLDS DVD+-RW DH-16AAS ATA Device
Audio
Realtek High Definition Audio

Wiggling is also a possibility. Right now, the card is making absolutely no noise and spinning fans at minimum speed (20%). I set up a juryrigged way to prevent it from rattling by tying the upper part of the card to an above wire, which seems to suspend it far enough off the fan to prevent the rattling. Everything else, however, should be in place - I secured both the 12v rail and PCIe plugs very thoroughly.

Thanks for the extra suggestions!

 

[lp231]

Check ccc it might have something to do with the power settings.

 

[Tom Tancredi]

Only thing I would consider next is comparing Single Player Performance then to Online Performance. If your SP is fine and meets norms on FPS, then when you MP you have the problems then that is a networking issue we can look into.

 

[FujiwaraM]

Check ccc it might have something to do with the power settings.

I'm generally sort of averse to overclocking, but I'll take a look. By default it's at 0%, and can go up to 20%. My PSU is an Antec BP500U, which puts out up to 18 amps on its 12v rail (216 watts); how high should I set that percentage, if I should change it at all?

Only thing I would consider next is comparing Single Player Performance then to Online Performance. If your SP is fine and meets norms on FPS, then when you MP you have the problems then that is a networking issue we can look into.

A really valid point. Champions' FPS sample included situations where there were a lot of flashy effects on the screen, as well as upwards of 20 detailed characters. With saints row all I really did was drive/fly around town.

I somehow doubt that network issues would tie into that, though. Historically the kind of lag that network issues generate it just that - issues like your character suddenly moving backwards or jittering from being pushed around, not necesarilly GPU lag and such. Then again this is a really new GPU and things might've changed around, so who even knows?

EDIT - Well I just found out what was causing my cursor to lag. Apparently it slows down if it does any sort of animation (i.e. the Windows Aero loading circle animation/changing rapidly between a hand and normal arrow). Let's hope that some more stable hardware can do something about that...?

 

[FujiwaraM]

OK! Turns out the reason that the card was making the noises was because the fan was apparently hitting up against the motherboard's headers. If you ever look at an or849j, you'll see why it might be a bit of a point of contention, because its PCIe 16x slot is very nearby the power plugs for the headers - well, not extremely, but close enough that changing from a card that's 1 slot tall to 2 slots tall is enough to make it come into contact.

One saturday morning, after a bit of playing, the sound stopped - even after it had slowed down from a long period of play. Shortly after this happened, while just browsing websites, bam. Screen went black. No keys woke it up, but the computer was still going. If I had known in advance that it was a way to tell, I would've toggled caps lock/num lock to see if it was the Mobo or GPU messing up (no keyboard lights = mobo problem.)

It was after I toted it in to the tech shop that I found out it was the header/gpu collision causing the noise. The people at the shop were able to reposition the header's wires so that the card could run quietly, and literally had it running for about a day and a half with a benchmark, nonstop, without any apparent incident. Not only this, but they also updated the drivers to newest version. Haven't really had time to test out how it performs in games (it seems that MSI afterburner might actually cause it to lag with some incompatible games), but the performance of the card when dealing with mice and browsers seems to be much better now.

Now here's to hoping it doesn't suddenly black out again!