6950 problems

I

insane111

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 31, 2008
Messages
196
So far, my first ATI purchase in nearly 10 years is failing to impress me. However, if I can somehow manage to fix these 2 problems outside of replacing the card, I'll be a happy camper. If I'm forced to RMA it, I'll honestly never buy another ATI card in my life. Maybe I just have bad luck with them. Anyways, these are the two problems I am having:

1. The second I open a game, the card starts emitting an annoying buzzing noise (it is not the fan). The second I close said game, it instantly stops. It's not super loud or anything, but even though the fan is at 45% and the case is 4 feet away I can still hear it.

2. Incredibly random black screen flashes. The screen will flash black for about 1 second then return. For the life of me I cannot reproduce this problem at will, it seems to be completely random. It doesn't happen that often, and it can happen at any time (browsing the web, gaming, browsing through system folders). Some days it doesn't happen at all, some days it happens 3 or 4 times. Sometimes it has happened 2 times in a row within 5 seconds of eachother. This one just has me baffled. It *seems* to happen most often when I am browsing the web or going through system folders.

I can bring myself to live with the buzzing noise if I have to, but the black flashes I"m not so sure about. Both of these problems existed before and after I unlocked it to a 6970, so it has nothing to do with that. Also, since someone will probably mention it, my temps are fine. My room is very cool, and I keep the fan at a fixed 40% speed. It idles around 32-38c depending on my room temp, and it never exceeds 65-70 while gaming.

edit: Sorry, I meant to post this in the
 
Last edited:
1. Sounds like coil-whine, fairly common I think.

2. Does the display driver stop responding and then recovers when the screen blacks out? What driver are you using?
 
If I'm forced to RMA it, I'll honestly never buy another ATI card in my life.
Click to expand...
Before I've even read the rest of the post, this is no way to buy products. One faulty product is not enough to condemn a brand.

1. First problem is coil whine. Happens from both sides, AMD and nvidia, and typically only occurs with very high frame rates (old games with VSync disabled, or the intro videos to games, not the games themselves)
2. Depends on the frequency of them. This particularly is unusual. Do you get it with various different drivers? (Catalyst 10.12a, 11.1a, 11.2)
 
samuelmorris said:
Before I've even read the rest of the post, this is no way to buy products. One faulty product is not enough to condemn a brand.
Click to expand...

This.

Bad luck you got a bad card. RMA and move on.

Stop being spoiled and stop complaining like it's the end of the world just because you had 1 bad card and bash a whole brand name.

When you get your new card, use a modded 6950 Bios (Unlock Only) and just overclock it.

Not worth risking your card for just a couple of improvement in fps.

Not really that big of a difference from a stock 6970 and an unlocked and OC'd 6950.

Your measure at this point is how far you can OC the card.

Good luck.
 
samuelmorris said:
Before I've even read the rest of the post, this is no way to buy products. One faulty product is not enough to condemn a brand.

1. First problem is coil whine. Happens from both sides, AMD and nvidia, and typically only occurs with very high frame rates (old games with VSync disabled, or the intro videos to games, not the games themselves)
2. Depends on the frequency of them. This particularly is unusual. Do you get it with various different drivers? (Catalyst 10.12a, 11.1a, 11.2)
Click to expand...

I'm not basing that solely off my own experience, but my experiences during my job. If I had to pick one thing that has been the most stressful when troubleshooting peoples PC problems, it would be ATI cards by far. Anyways, I'm not going to debate about it any further. It's my fault for bringing it up because I knew people would get offended. Just a statement I made out of frustration.


As for the drivers, I'm using 11.2. I'll try downgrading and see how it goes.

edit: Almost forgot. The noise occurs regardless of if my FPS is 30 or 100. edit2: Actually I take that back, if I forcefully cap my fps at 20 or below it does stop.. but yea.
 
Last edited:
Understandable.

I am simply waiting on a 2+ gb Nvidia version of this card. Not the 560 TI. I want a 570 2.5gb TI for $300 please.
 
insane111: Not offended, just pointing out that it sounded like you were completely discounting one of the only two viable brands in the industry off the back of one faulty product.
Any problem with graphics drivers can be tricky to diagnose, and this goes for both cases. Some people end up with more issues with nvidia drivers, others with AMD drivers. My personal viewpoint is that AMD's drivers are marginally worse than nvidia's, but not by any real stretch that it makes buying one brand any more/less viable than the other.

This noise can be produced by the GPU, the motherboard or the PSU. Some cards produce the noise more/less than others too. If drivers don't fix the flashing issue, RMA the card and get another one. The process is far from difficult. The replacement card may well whine less than your current one.
 
hajalie24 said:
Could be a problem with the PSU i think.
Click to expand...

+1 check this. I had an issue recently wherein on starting a really graphics intensive game, I'd get a very slight squeal. I could duplicate it by running the Windows7 Experience index just about every time. It sounded like the videocard...but was actually the PCP&C power supply.
 
When I first got my 6950 and unlocked it and overclocked it, I too heard the coil whine and was disappointed. After doing some research I found out that this is a problem that occurs with both nVidia and AMD cards so it wasn't earth-shattering or anything. Upon further research I found out that the whine may be coming from my aging PSU so I used a piece of paper, rolled it up, and held it against my ear and probed my computer to pin point the sound. It turned out that the whine was coming from the PSU and not the graphics card.

As for the black screen, I would uninstall all drivers, restart into Safemode, run driversweeper, restart and install the 11.2 drivers and see how it turns out. If the black screens continue try reformatting your OS - takes like 15 minutes with modern technology - and re-install drivers and see what happens.

Honestly though, I have been a computer enthusiast for 6 years (Age 20 right now) and using both AMD and nVidia cards I must say I have never had a problem from either of them. The problem almost always exists (PE)BKAC.
 
Funny. My nVidia 9600GT buzzed like mad and now i just picked up a 6870 and it's quiet. However, i too am having that odd black screen flash problem. It then gives me a VPU crash error window and asks me if i want to send the results. I click yes and it wants to send an email to [email protected]. I do and i just keep getting undeliverable bounce back messages.

Anyway, I picked up Win7 a while back and have just been waiting on the new video card to format and install it. I'm gonna try that tomorrow and hope that cures the flashing problem.
 
Last edited:
So I assume your never buying Intel products either since they effed up the SB mobos right ?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top