Latest News Article

[Andq1]

fm87, on 20 November 2012 - 06:33 AM, said:

OP, could you possibly check the graphics card and motherboard to see if any capacitors are bulging/leaking?

Also what PSU are you using, and have you updated windows? Even if yes, check for updates anyways and try re-installing the graphics driver again.

What about the graphics control panel for your drivers, do you have anything "force enabled"?

Quite the opposite, in fact.

No game has yet to fully utilize an i5.

Im using a Corsair GS700w PSU, my Windows is fully updated, theres no updates in Windows update that needs to be installed. I've reinstalled the graphic card driver about 3 times, and i dont think anything is force-enabled. The control panel is the latest version of AMD catalyst (12.10 i think)
Heres a picture of my settings.

Spoiler:

And from the gameplay

Spoiler:

[jppk1]

Andq1, on 20 November 2012 - 02:30 PM, said:

Im using a Corsair GS700w PSU, my Windows is fully updated, theres no updates in Windows update that needs to be installed. I've reinstalled the graphic card driver about 3 times, and i dont think anything is force-enabled. The control panel is the latest version of AMD catalyst (12.10 i think)
Heres a picture of my settings.

Could you download MSI Afterburner(works on all GPUs) and put it and the task manager(set the update speed to low) next to each other like this:

Spoiler:

Then play BF3 for 15 minutes or so and then take a screenshot and link it to this thread. We'll see if your GPU clock speeds are messed up, if it's overheating etc. . Check that your power options are on something else than power saver while you're at it just to rule it out.

[SteevyT]

What happens if you turn off vertical sync?

[Andq1]

jppk1, on 20 November 2012 - 03:03 PM, said:

Could you download MSI Afterburner(works on all GPUs) and put it and the task manager(set the update speed to low) next to each other like this:

Spoiler:

Then play BF3 for 15 minutes or so and then take a screenshot and link it to this thread. We'll see if your GPU clock speeds are messed up, if it's overheating etc. . Check that your power options are on something else than power saver while you're at it just to rule it out.

Here you go.

Spoiler:

[CosmicSpore]

Your Core Voltage is not even registering...?
If you set that, will it stick? I believe the stock for your card is 1162.

[Andq1]

CosmicSpore, on 20 November 2012 - 05:13 PM, said:

Your Core Voltage is not even registering...?
If you set that, will it stick? I believe the stock for your card is 1162.

Hey, i found the option "unlock voltage control" i did that

Spoiler:

[CosmicSpore]

Yeah, sorry, I don't use Afterburner so I didn't know you had to 'unlock' it just to view it.
And apparently 1256 was your stock voltage for the Sapphire cards (I looked it up just to be sure).

Anyway, I still don't see any solutions anywhere... Sorry. *shrug*

[Andq1]

CosmicSpore, on 20 November 2012 - 05:41 PM, said:

Yeah, sorry, I don't use Afterburner so I didn't know you had to 'unlock' it just to view it.
And apparently 1256 was your stock voltage for the Sapphire cards (I looked it up just to be sure).

Anyway, I still don't see any solutions anywhere... Sorry. *shrug*

No problem, i really appreciate all the help i got, its really a strange problem :/
i think its some sort of driver problem, i lost the installation cd to my motherboard, so i went to the download page for the drivers and downloaded "some" of them, but im gonna look around for the disc.

[fm87]

What kind of temperatures are you getting? Use something like HWMonitor while playing, leave it in the background for a bit, then close the game and take a screenshot.

The only thing I can think of is that your CPU/GPU is overheating and is underclocking to prevent damage.

[Satharis]

I would say it's either a driver issue or you just have a faulty card in general, taking a guess.

[Andq1]

fm87, on 20 November 2012 - 08:18 PM, said:

What kind of temperatures are you getting? Use something like HWMonitor while playing, leave it in the background for a bit, then close the game and take a screenshot.

The only thing I can think of is that your CPU/GPU is overheating and is underclocking to prevent damage.

I got a little LCD display on my keyboard (logitech g510) that tells me my temps. While playing, around 60+*C
normal 38*c
But this is probably caused by my case (hoping to get a Storm trooper for christmas:p) Where the powersupply is in the top, so theres very bad cooling in there, the fans on the card, flows out the hot air down to the bottom, where it can't get out. Its horrible, but theres nothing to do right now, so that might be the answer, i would guess a drive issue or a faulty card, im not sure. But thanks for the help anyway:)

[fm87]

Andq1, on 20 November 2012 - 08:36 PM, said:

I got a little LCD display on my keyboard (logitech g510) that tells me my temps. While playing, around 60+*C
normal 38*c
But this is probably caused by my case (hoping to get a Storm trooper for christmas:p) Where the powersupply is in the top, so theres very bad cooling in there, the fans on the card, flows out the hot air down to the bottom, where it can't get out. Its horrible, but theres nothing to do right now, so that might be the answer, i would guess a drive issue or a faulty card, im not sure. But thanks for the help anyway:)

Can you run HWMonitor just in case? Not all temperature monitoring programs will report the same thing.

HWMonitor will also show all your voltages and could point out another problem.

[Andq1]

fm87, on 20 November 2012 - 08:39 PM, said:

Can you run HWMonitor just in case? Not all temperature monitoring programs will report the same thing.

HWMonitor will also show all your voltages and could point out another problem.

Here we go

Spoiler:

[fm87]

Well that was disappointing. :/

To quote myself earlier:

fm87, on 18 November 2012 - 10:00 PM, said:

Your problem should not really exist.

There is honestly no reason you should be having this issue.

The last thing I can think of, and this is a stretch, is that your AV is constantly scanning the files the game loads which is affecting performance, try disabling it and running the game.


Other than that though...... it is probably a bad card. That is about the last option.

[Andq1]

fm87, on 20 November 2012 - 09:18 PM, said:

Well that was disappointing. :/

To quote myself earlier:

There is honestly no reason you should be having this issue.

The last thing I can think of, and this is a stretch, is that your AV is constantly scanning the files the game loads which is affecting performance, try disabling it and running the game.


Other than that though...... it is probably a bad card. That is about the last option.

Its not the AV, but i would anyway like to say thank you to you all for your help, its really appreciated, its probably a bad card. Im gonna try to get it refunded, and look for another one:)

[CosmicSpore]

... I've never heard of a "bad card" that doesn't cause instability issues....
Do you ever get blue screens or lockups?

I think it's something else.... I'd hate to say it's possibly the hard drive again, since a lot of people (even me) had a hard time believing that.... but really, nothing else makes any sense.

Perhaps you should backup anything you want to keep and do a fresh install of everything, and clear out the BIOS, before spending money to return / exchange anything.
That will tell you if it's a software or really is hardware issue, before you go spending money on new hardware.

[fm87]

CosmicSpore, on 20 November 2012 - 09:42 PM, said:

Perhaps you should backup anything you want to keep and do a fresh install of everything, and clear out the BIOS, before spending money to return / exchange anything.
That will tell you if it's a software or really is hardware issue, before you go spending money on new hardware.

Clear out the BIOS? Why would that require a backup of everything? What exactly would flushing the EEPROM do? At that point the computer would no longer boot.....

If it's covered under warranty, the exchange/return would be free, some companies even send empty boxes with postage already paid for.

[CosmicSpore]

fm87, on 20 November 2012 - 09:51 PM, said:

Clear out the BIOS? Why would that require a backup of everything? What exactly would flushing the EEPROM do? At that point the computer would no longer boot.....

Err... Do you even listen to yourself?...
The backup is just for the reinstall... I mentioned that.
...Perhaps I wasn't clear in the "reinstall" part, in that I meant reinstall Windows and format the drive.

I'm not sure how you got the idea I wanted him to literally delete the BIOS from the motherboard... Way to jump to conclusions.

I meant "reset the BIOS"... To you know, factory settings?... It's common practice.
It is typically recommended by motherboard manufacturers if you ever change hardware... and it's generally just good practice so that you can verify everything yourself after a new install.
In fact, they recommend it even if you add nothing but an LED light... but I typically don't go that far, personally.

I don't typically recommend it for newbies, but it's better than spending the money on new hardware when things just turn out to be a BIOS problems.

Now, if you'd please stop trying to insult my intelligence... I'd like it if you'd not jump to silly conclusions about me.

[fm87]

Quote

I'm not sure how you got the idea I wanted him to literally delete the BIOS from the motherboard... Way to jump to conclusions.

It's not exactly jumping to conclusions.... You said "clear the BIOS" which is completely different from resetting the BIOS. Generally when you clear something you wipe it entirely.

Quote

It is typically recommended by motherboard manufacturers if you ever change hardware... and it's generally just good practice so that you can verify everything yourself after a new install.

Again this is outdated information. This is no longer recommended by mobo manufacturers and there is absolutely no reason to do this any more, especially with how UEFI BIOSes work.

Hell, you can even hotswap HDDs now, there is no need to reset after every hardware install at all.

Quote

In fact, they recommend it even if you add nothing but an LED light... but I typically don't go that far, personally.

That makes no sense, the LEDs are just two leads and an LED, they serve no interaction with anything, and generally, can be removed, placed without even turning off the computer, being that they literally are just two wires and a diode.

That is like saying you need to flush the brake fluid every time you reset the odometer in your car.

Quote

I don't typically recommend it for newbies, but it's better than spending the money on new hardware when things just turn out to be a BIOS problems.

I don't see why a 'newbie' would have a problem resetting the BIOS.

It is literally just a button. Clearing the CMOS is only needed for specific issues (which the OP's case is not an example of), the rest of the time, every BIOS has a "reset to defaults" option that will clear everything in the same way once the BIOS menu is exited.

Quote

Now, if you'd please stop trying to insult my intelligence... I'd like it if you'd not jump to silly conclusions about me.

......... I'm not?

[CentrallyProcessed]

CosmicSpore, on 20 November 2012 - 10:13 PM, said:

Err... Do you even listen to yourself?...
The backup is just for the reinstall... I mentioned that.
...Perhaps I wasn't clear in the "reinstall" part, in that I meant reinstall Windows and format the drive.

I'm not sure how you got the idea I wanted him to literally delete the BIOS from the motherboard... Way to jump to conclusions.

I meant "reset the BIOS"... To you know, factory settings?... It's common practice.
It is typically recommended by motherboard manufacturers if you ever change hardware... and it's generally just good practice so that you can verify everything yourself after a new install.
In fact, they recommend it even if you add nothing but an LED light... but I typically don't go that far, personally.

I don't typically recommend it for newbies, but it's better than spending the money on new hardware when things just turn out to be a BIOS problems.

Now, if you'd please stop trying to insult my intelligence... I'd like it if you'd not jump to silly conclusions about me.

"Clearing the BIOS" generally means to flush the EEPROM.

It also hasn't been necessary, or common practice, to reset the BIOS to factory defaults for something like 15 years now. What really shows that you do not need to reset the settings is hotswappable hard drives.

Anyway, installing new hardware does not affect the BIOS much at all now. The BIOS doesn't care if you run a GTX690 and then an HD3650, as long as it can interface with the card, it'll be fine. Hell, with a lot of boards I would bet you could solder on a new component and it would work fine: many lower-end boards are exactly the same as their higher-end counterparts, PCB-wise, and just have components removed. They might even have the same BIOS, but you would probably need to re-flash the BIOS if you soldered something on.

An LED? That's preposterous. You attach an LED and there is literally nothing to tell the motherboard that the LED is there, apart from the electricity being able to flow through the LED and back to the motherboard.

Not once did Fm87 insult your intelligence, nor jump to silly conclusions about you. Please, if you're going to let your ego take a beating that easily, move to a different field. A lot of the people who work in the field of Computing do not come across as nice. Why? Because we tend to have to be quite blunt to get our points across, and blunt isn't always entirely polite, nor it is nice.