Upgraded Graphics cards, getting worse performance. Help!

[AJBrew]

In a nut shell, I used to have an Nvidia GTX 560, this month I decided to upgrade to a 7870, and I went with the MSI 7870 Hawk edition. I installed it yesterday, and now I seem to be getting WORSE performance than before. I haven't overclocked it yet, and I never overclocked my GTX 560.

Assassins Creed brotherhood is choppy, I can't get 60 fps in WoW anymore (even using less than ultra settings), my other games have been inconsistent in performance. I'm running my games at 1920x1080.

What do you think the problem is? It should be handling these with ease. I'm thinking about RMAing this card and grabbing a 660ti instead.

Specs:
i5 3570k running at stock
8gb ram
7200 rpm hard drive
650w power supply

I'm just very confused and upset. Please, if you have any suggestions let me know.

 

[djangoringo]

What's the brand/specs of the psu ?
Also did you install the latest amd drivers ?
The 660ti is better, if you can do that(rma the card), it will be a wise choice, but it can be also problems with the psu...

 

[DarkSable]

What did you do with drivers?

Did you sweep the old ones and install the most recent CCC?

 

[AJBrew]

What's the brand/specs of the psu ?
Also did you install the latest amd drivers ?
The 660ti is better, if you can do that(rma the card), it will be a wise choice.

Yes I'm not sure how I forgot that in my post haha, I'm running catalyst 12.11

What's the best way to RMA with newegg, should I say it's defective?

PS: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182132&Tpk=hive%20650

 

[Dude496]

Like darksable said, make sure that your nvidia drivers are completely removed. You might need to reinstall the amd drivers afterwards, but I wouldnt bother unless you still have problems.

Also, make sure that both of the 6 pin PCI-E power connectors are installed into the top of the card.

 

[AJBrew]

What did you do with drivers?

Did you sweep the old ones and install the most recent CCC?

Yessir, all my nvidia drivers are completely gone, I also used driver sweeper.

 

[djangoringo]

Yes, you could say that, but what's your psu brand/specs?

 

[shirokado]

personally id grab the 660ti instead 😛 but if ur gonna do that might as well get a 7950 since they are the same price.

 

[Dude496]

I wouldn't bother with an RMA. The 7870 is a good card...in some areas it beats the 660 ti, in other areas the 660 ti beats it.

http://teksyndicate.com/news/2012/08/16/nvidia-gtx-660-ti-vs-amd-radeon-7950-vs-amd-radeon-7870

 

[shirokado]

oh right, the actually problem. reinstall ur drivers, and try a different PCI-E slot. sometimes the pins arent contacting and you might get performance degrading. I had that problem, i just switched my motherboards and the problem was solved.

 

[AJBrew]

Like darksable said, make sure that your nvidia drivers are completely removed. You might need to reinstall the amd drivers afterwards, but I wouldnt bother unless you still have problems.

Also, make sure that both of the 6 pin PCI-E power connectors are installed into the top of the card.

Going to check everything internally now, give me a bit, and I'll also reinstall the drivers.

stay tuned 😛

 

[AJBrew]

Nothing changed. I'm going to put my gtx 560 back in just for a variable and see what happens, might be buying a 660ti here folks.

 

[djangoringo]

Well the 660ti is better than the 7870, actually it trades blows with the 7950 and has better mature drivers.
But you didn't tell what was the name/specs of your power supply unit.

 

[AJBrew]

Well the 660ti is better than the 7870, actually trade blows with the 7950, had has better mature drivers.
But you didn't tell what was the name/specs of your power supply unit.

I linked it in an earlier post,

PS: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182132&Tpk=hive%20650

 

[Dude496]

Install GPU-Z and run the render test (it's the ? next to the bus info)...once it runs, let me know what it says for bus speed. Should be atleast PCI 2.0 @ 8X

 

[djangoringo]

Yes, you have a quality psu with enough juice for any 7870 card or 660ti...

 

[AJBrew]

Install GPU-Z and run the render test (it's the ? next to the bus info)...once it runs, let me know what it says for bus speed. Should be atleast PCI 2.0 @ 8X

I had done it before and it was running correctly at 3.0.

I put my 560 back in and my frames were at 60 constantly in WoW, the 7870 prior to was dropping to 35 in the same areas.

The choppiness in brotherhood went away, and was at 60 fps.

The 7870 was performing better in Far Cry 3 and Crysis 2 though, FC3 I could achieve a good 45-60 fps on ultra, while my 560 could only get around 35-40. Crysis 2 I could get 40-50 fps on my 7870, and my 560 can max out at 36.

My 7870 just seems so inconsistent, I'm going to RMA it and stick with nvidia from now on.

Any recommendations for the 660ti? Not sure if I want to go with MSI again.

 

[Dude496]

Imo, too many variables to point the finger at AMD. Biggest concern that I still have is that you might still have driver conflicts between the nvidia and amd cards. If you still want to test your new card, try using this guide to completely uninstall your nvidia drivers...simply uninstalling the drivers could still leave portions of the driver to stay in the os and cause conflicts.

http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.aspx?m=1174372&mpage=1

 

[djangoringo]

Get the asus 660 ti DCII or gigabyte 660 ti windforce 2x.

 

[AJBrew]

Imo, too many variables to point the finger at AMD. Biggest concern that I still have is that you might still have driver conflicts between the nvidia and amd cards. If you still want to test your new card, try using this guide to completely uninstall your nvidia drivers...simply uninstalling the drivers could still leave portions of the driver to stay in the os and cause conflicts.

http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.aspx?m=1174372&mpage=1

Yeah you're right. I'm not saying AMD is bad or anything, I have far too little experience with their cards to say it's their fault. But yes, it could be my fault. Tomorrow I will uninstall that way correctly, and do a fresh install of the AMD drivers, and see if that solves the problem. Hopefully you're right Thanks for the help tonight.