seriously, what are my options here? advice from someone who actually works for PCS!!

A

Al.Neri

Super Star
as stated in this thread, I have been experiencing problems with dropping frame rates in several of my games. I called PCS support and was pretty much told that there was nothing that they could do as it was clearly a driver related issue (their words not mine!).

since then, I have tried contacting AMD for their opinion, and they haven't bothered responding at all.

the drop in frame rate has started affecting some of my older games as well now, even TF2 is dropping frame rates on a regular basis, this has never been the case for me, even when I started noticing the drop on other newer games. I had to quit TF2 because the frame count would drop to 45 every 3 seconds or so before going back up to 60.

I can't understand why, and I'm finding it hard to accept that this is a driver issue, especially since I have not only fully uninstalled & reinstalled previous driver versions that caused no problems, but also as a last resort, have done a full format and reinstall of windows, followed by install of older drivers that caused no problems.

I don't want to go through wasting my time calling tech support again only to be told the same thing as last time, that it is a driver issue. that advice I found to be neither use nor ornament!

and on a final note, I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't merge this thread with my previous one, thank you.

to say I'm ****ed off right now is a bit of an understatement.
 
Iroquois Pliskin

Iroquois Pliskin

Enthusiast
A

Al.Neri

Super Star
spm1994 said:
Have you checked your GPU temps?
Click to expand...

gpur.jpg




and these are the sorts of frame rates I am getting in F1 2011 now, even taking into account that nothing is maxed out.

f120112012102218545221.jpg


out of curiosity, I ran the game a while ago with all the settings as low as they would go and I still couldn't get above 50fps.


Iroquois Pliskin said:
That's clearly a VSync issue, http://www.hardocp.com/article/2012/04/16/nvidia_adaptive_vsync_technology_review

Posting your specs would *help* the situation. : D Try forcing VSync off in the Catalyst Control Panel and then disabling it in-game as well.

AMD have always had troubles with forcing VSync in certain games with no way of disabling it.
Click to expand...

I've tried it both enabled and disabled, I still get the drop in frame rates either way, and it's only started happening in the last day or so.
 
Iroquois Pliskin

Iroquois Pliskin

Enthusiast
We still don't know what's your configuration.

VSync drops happen in 60 FPS -> 30 -> 20 -> 12 steps on displays with 60 Hz refresh rate, or in fractions of 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 1/5 from the refresh rate.

If you can't get FPS above your monitor's refresh rate regardless of settings (low/high), then VSync is active.
 
Last edited:
A

Al.Neri

Super Star
Case
COOLERMASTER HAF-X FULL TOWER GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Six Core Processor i7-970 (3.20GHz) 6.4GTs/12MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® RAMPAGE III EXTREME: 3-Way SLI & CrossFireX, SATA 6.0GB/s, USB 3.0
Memory (RAM)
12GB KINGSTON HYPER-X TRI-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (6 x 2GB KIT)
Graphics Card
2GB ATI RADEON™ HD 5970 PCI EXPRESS - DirectX® 11
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
120GB OCZ VERTEX 2 SATA II 2.5" SSD (upto 285MB/sR | 275MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
2nd DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
10x BLU-RAY RE-WRITER DRIVE, 16x DVD ±R/±RW (£88)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 1200W MODULAR PSU (AX1200) PRO SERIES 80+ GOLD (£206)
Processor Cooling
COOLIT ECO C240 A.L.C (ADVANCED LIQUID COOLER) (£102)
Sound Card
Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ Titanium PCI Express (£59)
Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Firewire
1 x IEEE 1394a FIREWIRE PORT ONBOARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Professional 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£109)

I'm not after getting the FPS above my monitors refresh rate, just to what it used to be 59-60FPS, with the rare drop to 58. there is something not right somewhere when I'm struggling to get above 20-25FPS.
 
Last edited:
Iroquois Pliskin

Iroquois Pliskin

Enthusiast
What monitor are you using? Like I said, if your graphics card can't keep a stable 60 FPS 100% of the time, you will see 60 -> 30 then back to 60 FPS drops with VSync on, even if in actual fact the frame rate drops only by 2 FPS to 58, it will still crop it down to 30 and even lower from there.

Now the question is to find out how to remedy the bugged ATI VSync settings in control panel, since apparently forcing it off doesn't actually apply in certain games in your case.
 
Last edited:
A

Al.Neri

Super Star
look, I've already been down this route, I appreciate what you are saying, but you have to understand, I have already tried all these things. I'm not trying to fix the drop in frame rate in reference to TF2 as much as I'm trying to fix the permanently low frame rate with most of my games. if it has anything to do with radeonpro, I have already done it, I have tried radeonpro inside-out, upside-down, back-to-front and everything inbetween, it just doesn't fix my low frame rates.

the very first time I tried it, before AMD released the CAP that addressed the poor frame rate issue that was caused by poor crossfire support, it did work, but it no longer does. after updating the drivers to 12.8, radeonpro is useless for whatever reason it may be.

it's not stuttering I'm experiencing, it's just flat out low frame rates. going from 60FPS, down to <30FPS all the time, to where it is now, struggling to get above 20, that's way beyond the occasional drop I mentioned in TF2. TF2 is the only game where I am experiencing regular drops like I explained, and that has only started happening in the last day or so. I have never experienced any frame drop with TF2, either with vsync enabled, or disabled. the only reason I have vsync on is because I find it annoying to experience the tearing I get when I have it turned off. either way, it still occasionally drops to 45. difference is with vsync enabled, it's 60-45, with it disabled, it's >60-45, it still drops to 45.
 
Iroquois Pliskin

Iroquois Pliskin

Enthusiast
Suit yourself, I have described a common issue with 4x00 & 5x00 Series AMD GPUs and their abhorrent Catalyst driver support.

Good ole AMD - c'est la vie I guess.

P.S. If you disable Crossfire on the 5970, you will be forced to disable VSync as well, since a single GPU won't be able to keep a steady frame rate of 60 all of the time.

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=351239
 
Last edited:
baron75mk2

baron75mk2

Banned
5XXX series & the driver support was always buggy as hell , put that together with the issue ridden hell that crossfire is & its problems to the wazoo .
 
A

Al.Neri

Super Star
so what are my options in terms of consumer rights? I feel like I have been fobbed off to an extent by PCS customer support, and I'm coming to the end of my warranty window.
 
steaky360

steaky360

Moderator
Moderator
Its sour news your suffering frame rate problems as you've described, although you are not the only person to mention this issue on the forums (I'm sure I've read another post with similar issues).
However, I'm not sure if your consumer rights have been violated, although I don't know the full story (I assume you're talking about the warranty and not the PC itself).

You can email the oft about your specific circumstances here http://www.oft.gov.uk/business-advice/treating-customers-fairly/sogahome?ns_campaign=soga&ns_mchannel=ppc&ns_source=google&ns_linkname=sogahome&ns_fee=0.00 and they will get back to you regarding what rights you have and how you can go about enforcing them. They usually respond pretty quickly (two or three working days) so its not too late to ask them!

Hope you manage to get a satisfactory response.
 
A

Al.Neri

Super Star
bottom line is that I want to know what I can do with regards to the card, the pc itself is fine, I have no complaints about the pc as a whole. considering it is a gaming pc, and the fact that I am getting such bad performance out of the card, I'm not satisfied with what I have been getting.

I was hoping at least that I could RMA the whole machine and let PCS try to get the bottom of it, but the impression I got when I called PCS support was that there was nothing that they could/would do about it, leaving me lumbered with it as is. seeing that it is under warranty, or at least it was when I started experiencing this issue, I can't see why I should be paying for returns or replacement if it is indeed faulty.
 
steaky360

steaky360

Moderator
Moderator
Cant fault what you are saying there bud, are you now out of warranty with PCS?

If its the route you want to go down, I suggested earlier perhaps you could get in touch with oft via that link I posted. I am sure all you need to do is fill out a form and they'll explain what your rights are and even (in some cases) pass on the details to another department who can assist with you getting a better response (I say better but I don't necessarily mean from PCS it may be an issue you need to deal directly with the manufacturers or something)
 
A

Al.Neri

Super Star
I'm thinking it is still under warranty but it's not far off running out. my order was processed on the 27th october 2010 and was dispatched on the 19th november, but I have been having problems with my card for some considerable time before now. I actually called PCS on the 8th october about it if my memory serves me correctly, that was when I was informed there was nothing they could do.
 
Rakk

Rakk

The Awesome
Moderator
Which warranty did you have? Standard? Silver? Gold? Platinum?
Gold I presume if the warranty is still running but about to run out
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top