HD 7970 crashing issues

X

Xathian

Weaksauce
Joined
Nov 25, 2008
Messages
68
I'm having issues with my XFX 7970 DD crashing in nearly every single game.

I have tried RC11 drivers, 12.2 and 12.3, the results are always the same. After playing for 3-10 minutes, the game will lock up for a minute, screen will go black for a few seconds them I will be at my desktop, except the game will still be running and the audio still playing normally. If the game has a custom mouse cursor, it will still be active on my desktop and I must use ctrl-alt-del and bring up task manager to get control of my desktop. The game cannot be maximized again, it won't work, I have to task manager kill the process.

The problem is, this only seems to effect games that push the card, lower end games do nothing.

Games that have not crashed with the card:

World of Warcraft
Tomb Raider Anniversary
Star Trek Online

Games that have crashed with the card:

Crysis
APB Reloaded
Just Cause 2
Metro 2033
Skyrim
Far Cry 2
Battlefield 3
Cities XL 2012
Anno 2070
Deus Ex: Human Revolution

The first thing I noticed was that the only games that didn't crash the card are games that aren't very graphically intensive. So I figured this would be indicative of maybe the CCC accidentally kicking my voltage down to desktop levels while under high usage. So I, from google found recommendations:

Used MSIAfterburner with Force Constant Voltage - Nothing
Used MSIAfterburner with Constant Voltage and Unofficial Overclocking set to 1 - Nothing
Underclocked the card a bit - Nothing
Overclocked the card a bit - Nothing
Reinstalled the drivers multiple times - Nothing
Disabled ULPS or whatever - Nothing

I am at my wits end here, the card works for graphically non-intensive games, but crashes everything else. I love that I was able to upgrade my old 285, and the performance is incredible, before the game crashes.

I'd like to add a small note here: Software that utilizes the card for non-gaming purposes (3DS Max 2012, Mudbox, ect) do not have crashing issues either.
 
Last edited:
what temp is your card running at? Check to see if you have some sort of control over the fan on the card with some products like EVGA Percison or the like. Also pull the card out and check for dust in the card. I don't have the same card but I know that high temps will make some cards stop working.
 
Card is spotless, no dust. I have nothing taking control of the fan, just letting it control itself. I also tried cranking the fan up an extra 20% with the CCC options, it was loud as hell and still crashed.

My highest temps, recorded with GPU-Z, was 83C, which I've had my Nvidia cards hit frequently without issues.
 
Ok, that didn't work. As always it crashed around the same time as it always does. This is the event log for every single crash I've ever had btw.

Display driver amdkmdap stopped responding and has successfully recovered.

Sadly, it seems most of my search results tend to give plenty of people claiming it comes from either Crossfire issues over overclocking too much.

I use a single card and I am getting this while underclocked and stock.
 
Stayfr0sty said:
3 letters:
RMA

Ohh and stay away from XFX, they are baaaad
Click to expand...

Strange, last time I was buying a card I heard nothing but praise for the greatness of XFX.

Anyways, if it's an RMA worthy issue, then why does the card perform perfectly in some games? If it's a hardware issue warranting replacement, shouldn't the issue persist over everything?
 
Xathian said:
Strange, last time I was buying a card I heard nothing but praise for the greatness of XFX.

Anyways, if it's an RMA worthy issue, then why does the card perform perfectly in some games? If it's a hardware issue warranting replacement, shouldn't the issue persist over everything?
Click to expand...

XFX despite their lifetime warranty have compatibility issues. I should know, I went through hell with one of their particular 5870 models about a year ago. Their tech support was of no help, all they needed to do was make a new bios for it but no they didnt. No wonder I had gotten the card for so cheap. THey were perfectly aware of the problem which is why they sold it so cheap.

And yes you might still have to RMA even if its not happening with all games.
In any case what drivers are you running and its your system tuned up?
 
Hi, in first, sorry for my english.
It's my first time here.

I have exactly the same problem with my 7970 ghz edition vapor x 3go 1050hz.
Freeze screen, and black screen, back to desktop, the sound continue, the mouse is the same than in game, and i have to do Ctrl+Alt+del for leave.
the problem appear with PlanetSide 2 very quickly and league of Legend.
I can play normaly to Farcry 3 and Hitman
I didn't test other games.
Ofcourse i tried all the drivers and nothing changes.

My configuration :
i5 3570k
Z77X D3H
HD radeon 7970 oc ghz edition vapor x 3go 1050hz
8 go ram
Alim 650w
w7 64bit

This is a new computer I just bought for only 3 days. so it's very clean.

Peoples tell me that i have to send it to warranty. Should i do it ?
 
I own a Sapphire HD 7970 6GB Vapor-X Toxic Edition and I am experiencing the same problems exactly.

Especially while gaming (Planetside 2, SWTOR, AC3 etc) and after an hour or two (it seems random) the computer locks up completely, no BSODs, temperatures are fine, GPU usage is normal for those games (I have a second screen with diagnostics running all the time). The only solution is a hard reboot with the power button. I have all drivers updated, and seeing as people have concerns about PSU, I run a 1050 or 1150 85+ Gold certed PSU (I think it's Corsair). I would definitely like to see a solution, but I have looked around at almost everything and noone points to a specific thing. Would the TDR registry thing fix it?

It just hangs up completely as it stands at random points while gaming.

Side Note: Turning off the built-in button overclock caused the system to BSOD on startup. Turning it back on resumed its proper operation

The rest of the PC components are MSI 7737 (MSI Big Bang XPower II), i7 3930K @ 3.40 (?), 16GB DDR3 1333Mhz. OCZ 240GB SSD

Any suggestions/solutions would be -Greatly- Appreciated, as I also use this PC for intensive work and I have a weekend shift coming up.

Happy holidays.

P.S. Sorry for the semi-necro, but Google led me here after an extensive search.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top