amd radeon hd 8970m aka M290

[Patarmasas]

so the problems started long time ago , almost the same day i bought the laptop , but after few sendings back they said video card is properly working,

anyway, here is my problem,

my hd8970 card does not work on its maximum at any time, most of the time its gpu clock sits on 300, from time to time jumping up to 450 , btw i wont lie to u once it was on 850 for few minutes , but that is it

none of my games runs on normal graphic with normal fps . by that i mean that none of the games even on average graphic option runs steady on 60 fps,(lol , hos, gw2)

if anybody ever had something similar would rly be pleased to know how u managed to fix it,

if any experienced person could give me some advice i would rly be thankful,

tried to uninstal and reinstall those amd drivers , even jumped to windows 8.1 from 7 , was thinking mb it better for my card or smnthng , but didnt help,

any advice would rly help , thank u very much


and if u know any technician who could try to fix this , his contacs or whatever u can , would help me alot , as im tired of my experience with this machine ))


my system is

Chassis & Display Vortex Series: 17.3" Glossy Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-4700MQ (2.40GHz) 6MB
Memory (RAM) 8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 (2 x 4GB)
Graphics Card AMD® Radeon® R9 M290X - 4GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
2nd Graphics Card NONE
Memory - Hard Disk 120GB INTEL® 530 SERIES SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 550MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk 500GB WD SCORPIO BLACK WD5000BPKX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
RAID NONE
mSATA/M.2 SSD Drive NONE
2nd mSATA/M.2 SSD Drive NONE
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive 8x SATA DVD±R/RW/Dual Layer (+ 24x CD-RW)
Memory Card Reader Internal 9 in 1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/SD: Mini, XC & HC/MS: Pro & Duo)
Thermal Paste ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card Intel 5.1 Channel High Definition Audio + SPDIF/MIC/Headphone Jack
Bluetooth & Wireless GIGABIT LAN & KILLER™ 1202 WIRELESS GAMING 802.11N + BLUETOOTH 4.0
Wireless Router/HomePlugs NONE
USB Options 3 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT AS STANDARD
Firewire 1 X 1394a FIREWIRE PORT
Battery Vortex Series 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (5,200 mAh/76.96WH)
Power Lead & Adaptor 1 x UK Power Lead & 230W AC Adaptor
Keyboard Language INTEGRATED BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD WITH NUMBER PAD

 

[mantadog]

you say almost the same day you got your machine, does that mean it was working properly when you first received it?

What application are you using to monitor the GPU? Use something like Msi afterburner to log the temps and gpu utilisation.

It could be any number of things, but best bet is to play a game for a few minutes then screen capture the readout from MSI afterburner and post it here.

 

[Patarmasas]

thank you for replay , i will do it in a minute

 

[Patarmasas]

here is what ive got ,
dont know if its the right way to post it here , if not tell me how to do it please)

 

[Patarmasas]

after my last reinstall of drivers my card started to reach 850 like every few seconds , but it doesnt hold it so fps is jumping alot

 

[SpyderTracks]

after my last reinstall of drivers my card started to reach 850 like every few seconds , but it doesnt hold it so fps is jumping alot

Your temps are pretty high, I'm reading GPU and CPU at just under 100? If so that needs sorting out asap, you don't want to run it with temps that high. Have you ever done a repaste?

 

[mantadog]

Yep that card is not working correctly. if it has been sent back to PCS multiple times already ( I think it has from your OP) then you need to get back to em and read them the riot act because that pu is just plane old overheating. Therefor it is throttling itself to protect it from too much damage.

That said I would stop using it for gaming and anything that would be hard on the GPU and get it back to PCS asap.

 

[Patarmasas]

the funny thing is that last time i called em , they said this card is perfectly fine running that high temps , as i was afraid too, but the guy sound very proffesional , so i believed him , ok thank you for your respond guys , i will try to contact pc specialists,

sad i did listen to that guy on the phone last time when my varanty was still on , no i will have to pay for it

 

[Patarmasas]

Your temps are pretty high, I'm reading GPU and CPU at just under 100? If so that needs sorting out asap, you don't want to run it with temps that high. Have you ever done a repaste?

no i havent , as i was always afraid to open laptop my self to avoid varanty , now i think i could try , btw do u think repaste would help ? and could u tell me how to do it and what is the best place to buy it ?

 

[mantadog]

I don't believe you will need to pay for it if you reported the fault within your warranty period.

So long as PCS received the notification of the fault you have done all you could have been expected to do. The guy is correct in that it will be fin running at high temps but high temps is roughly 76 not 96.

Call them and explain that you reported the fault on whatever date and that you were told it was fine. Then say you have been on here and we have looked at the graphs from MSI Afterburner and they are showing clear evidence of thermal throttling IE temps of just below 100 degrees and the GPU running on its lowest clock speed settings.

That way you shouldn't have to pay.
Any problems let us know.

 

[Patarmasas]

thank you once again , i will call em in the morning and try to tell em what u just said to me ,

thank you so much rly didnt expect so much support from u guys,
i will try to inform u what they say to me in the morning

 

[Patarmasas]

so , i did call em today , they said its still normal for those cards to be around 100 degrees , but they said as core clock is jumping its probably a foult in the card so they will take it to have a look and maybe they will have to replace it for around £400 i also asked if they can change the card to another companys product like g force or smnthng they said they gonna have a look at it and let me know

 

[mantadog]

I'm not convinced the card should be running at 100 degrees, yes it can run at 100 degrees without failing but nobody would expect it to run like that under normal conditions.

I'm still not convinced you should have to pay for it if you really did notify them of an issue while still in warranty, did you bring that up?

 

[keynes]

so , i did call em today , they said its still normal for those cards to be around 100 degrees , but they said as core clock is jumping its probably a foult in the card so they will take it to have a look and maybe they will have to replace it for around £400 i also asked if they can change the card to another companys product like g force or smnthng they said they gonna have a look at it and let me know

£400?! Wow, I would follow Mantadog's advice and see if you have any records of the notification to PCS of problems with the GPU within your warranty period

 

[Patarmasas]

okey , so i requested RMA but they declined it saying that the temperature is fine for this card

so i called em again , now another technician says that from what he sees in the pictures my graphic card is fine and he will try to pass my message to LAPTOP MANAGER ,

still hope that i failed somewhere with the drivers.... as i rly dont want to loose my laptop for 2-3 weeks and 400£

 

[Patarmasas]

yes i did mention them that i was complaining about the temperatures my cpu shows before, they said its completely fine temperature

 

[mantadog]

what were you doing when you recorded those temps?

The card might be able to function at those kinds of temps but I don't like the way its dipping back down to base clock and back up to its max clock over so often.

Run furmark and record the results with afterburner and post them here. http://www.ozone3d.net/benchmarks/fur/

If it were just the temps were high then I could believe it, but the constant dipping seems like throttling to me, so its a faulty card, poorly applied paste or blocked vents IMO.

 

[Patarmasas]

i was trying to play my fav game LOL ) it alwasys tarts with 170 fps and after few minutes its starts to go down to 50 and back to 100 fps and keeps on jumping so its no possible to play,

i will try now what u suggest me to ,

thank you so much for your responds guys , it rly makes me feel better when im not alone in this war vs my gpu

 

[Patarmasas]

okey , so this is what i found after my last test :

after i start my furmark stress test , my gpu core clock rises up to 900 but the temperature starts getting up quickly , and after it reaches 102degrees gpu core drops to 450 and never rises again as the heat of gpu gets lower to 82-92 degrees too
and then the system keeps on working 450 core clock and 80-90 degrees temperature

seems like my system is trying to avoid that 102degrees heat

any opinions ?

 

[mrducking]

i would say repaste if you havent done that, clean the vents and if it continues and you dont want to pay you can always downclock it

edit: those temps jumping is the gpu throttling down to avoid burning up, thats why when it reaches those temps the core drops