Very happy with my 7970m, what's the deal with all the complaints?

I joined to say this. I'm a 7970m owner and like everyone I am waiting for the Enduro "fix." The only thing is that... I never really had a problem with the card in the first place.

I've not had a problem with any game so far. I'm using the default drivers that came with Clevo's disc, dated around March.

- Performance has always been steady.
- Temps never go above 90 C, usually hovers around 80 during heavy gaming.
- In BF3 I hover around 65-100 fps with everything maxed out (Ultra preset), never gone below 60fps.
- A few examples of games I've played maxed out with no issues include GW2, Witcher 2, Diablo 3.
- Never had a problem with screen tearing.

I had been worried cause of all the complaints on the forums about the 7970m. But after I got my laptop I personally was very happy and never had an issue with it since day 1.

So the question is, did I just get lucky with my card? Or is it that the people who are happy with their 7970m never bother to post their experiences?

 

Just read here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/sag...ssues-only-post-logs-no-questions-please.html

You are affected too. That is, if you have either 150em or 170em.

 

are you playing online? BF 3 has no issue with 7970m in single player mode its the multiplayer mode that has the issues

 

Unless you are playing on a low resolution on SP, you are exaggerating your numbers a bit. On ultra 1920x1080, BF3 SP is almost constantly below 60 FPS, not above it. That was at 99% utilization since the bug does not effect SP.

 

You're joking, right?

 

Yes I played online. No problems with framerate at all.

I am not exaggerating my numbers. I have not seen it fall below 60 fps in SP mode. I can provide a screenshot if needed, but why would I lie about this? Yes I'm playing at 1920x1080.

I'm still thinking either the people who don't have problems aren't posting or I got lucky with my card. Only way to explain it.

No, I was just wondering about all the complaints because I'm not experiencing any. I gain nothing from lying about this stuff, I'm just curious why my experience seems to be so different from some of yours.

 

Its just that the Enduro issues affect all 7970Ms. This is pretty much confirmed by AMD, and tested by Anandtech and Tom's Hardware for example. There has been a lot of people claiming their card is working 100%, but they have then realized they were wrong after correctly testing their card.

Do you have a 150EM or 170EM? HM series is unaffected.

 

I generally do not have a "noticeable" problem with performance in most of my games. Not saying that the issues are not there as I have seen them, just not having it effect the games I play so far.

Now on BF3 there have been many reports. I would like to see some screenshots with FRAPS running to see what you are actually getting in both online and offline. Now may who play BF3 mention a certain maps that has the most problems, I personally have no clue because I do not play the game.

 

install msi afterburner and monitor the GPU utilization during bf3 online play

 

With 64 players, Caspian border for example.

 

My main observation is that a lot of people are saying they have huge problems with the framerate for games like BF3, but I am seeing very different numbers.

You are right though, I had not done a proper test when I made that post. I just used the built in FPS display for BF3 to report the earlier numbers, which might not be so reliable.

Anyway I just did a test with MSI Afterburner and played through the 1st level in BF3 at 1920x1080 (Ultra Preset).

I saw a consistent 99% GPU utilization and 60+ fps. It did drop down into the 50s a few times and 47 was the lowest it hit at one point. The high was 94 fps.

So yeah, I'm seriously not having the issues a lot of people seem to be experiencing.

EDIT: I'll post more details and provide a screen. Give me a few minutes.

 

play online, try a 64 player map, capsian border

 

You are. Its a driver problem, and unless you are using an unreleased driver, you suffer from Enduro issues too. THERE IS NO PROBLEM WITH BF3 SINGLE PLAYER. Try CASPIAN BORDER WITH 64 PLAYERS and monitor with Afterburner.

There are sudden FPS drops and the GPU utilization is low during those drops.

And give us the model of your laptop. Is it 150EM or 170EM, or something else?

 

If you have the Close Quarters expansion, join a full 64 player server and wait in the the queue. Try the Scrapmetal map, play long enough until your random spawn points are on the first floor. Then let me know how your frame rates are. Unless as Montage stated you got hold of an unreleased driver, you're going to see how bad it's going to get. This is assuming you have a 150em or 170em.

Here's one example, server wasn't full, 56/64, but you'll get the idea:





In case you're wondering about the drop offs in gpu usage, it happens when you die and you're looking at the overlay.

All settings maxed out, with no deferred AA and vsync off.

Of course logging online play is not really consistent because every round a person plays is different...one area in one round could be extremely busy, but in another round of the same map it may not be as contested as much. Or, maybe you're the type to stand guard at a flag point and not move around versus someone like me who is on the move most of the time and guard and area only when needed. The above logs represent me actually playing. I don't think it would be a good idea to post a log of you running around staring at the ground, or the wall. If decide you post the same screen shots as I have and your frame rate graph starts to flatten out, you're probably just standing still looking at the ground or staring at a wall.

Make sure you right click the graph and pause it as soon as you exit the game.

Btw...in regards to temps...I set the fans to run at full speed prior to joining.

 

For reference, I have a P170EM.

Sorry about the confusion. I was reading that some people had SP framerate issues as well, so that's why I was doing the tests with the SP.

Anyway I just played a round on a full 64-player Caspian Border Map and monitored it with MSI.

I saw an occasional drop down to 40 fps in open areas where I am looking at the entire map. I'm not sure if that's because of the limitations of the card or an Enduro problem. As for the utilization. I did notice a few occasions where it dropped down to the mid 80%, although it did not correlate with fps drops and I would not have noticed it if I wasn't watching the numbers.

I guess that's the issue? Although it really had no impact on my game-play. Very different from all these complaints I'm reading on here.

Anyway, all in all I'm pretty happy with my card. I guess we'll see if the Enduro fix will improve the performance dramatically for everyone.

 

So basicaly you say that your min frame are 40 on everything ultra(4msaa+antiliasing high+hbo) caspian 64players?
And why im geting 35-38min on all of that?
And i have HM barebone....
those frames are on stock right?

 

Fraps... record framerates... graph in excel... post... truth prevails.

OR

Video record BF3 multi with video camera of some sort... fps in corner... upload to YouTube... post here... truth prevails.

 

sounds like a lot of work :S

 

Utilization issues are not as noticeable on higher graphics settings. For example I found on BF3 at Ultra my utilization was 80% or more, but on low it would be below 50%. My FPS barely improved going from ultra to low. I personally like a buttery smooth 60fps, that is not possible with the 7970m and enduro for bf3. It should be, but it isn't.

 

Camera on... Press record... Play BF3... whew, I'm ready for a beer.

 

He probably has the most powerful 7970m in the market. I didn't know that the vid card can run 100 fps in ultra setting for bf3.

 

yeah 60~100 fps is gtx 680 desktop version performance

 

I just can't believe it until I see actual proof. It's not just a matter of Enduro problems, it's just that the stock 7970M is outright incapable of reaching those framerates on ultra in the first place.

I don't want to sound like a you-know-what, but I am understandably skeptical. As far as I know, everyone suffers equally from the utilization issue, and it sounds like you are too as you mention drops into the 80% which is normal for when you are playing on ultra.

Do this for me:

- Go to this link and download FRAPS: http://www.fraps.com/setup.exe
- Install once it is downloaded
- Open the program
- Go to the FPS tab
- Under benchmark settings, check FPS and MinMaxAvg
- Leaving the program open, load up BF3 and go into a full, 64 player Caspian Border server
- Go to the central area of the map and hit F11 to start benchmarking
- Play as normal
- Once the round ends, hit F11 again to stop benchmarking. Make sure you do this before you hit the victory/loss screen at the end of the game.
- Close the game and go to C:\Fraps\Benchmarks and open the Benchmark you just made (it should be a spreadsheet file I believe)
- See what your average FPS was

This is actually really easy to do, setting it up will take about 1 minute. Then report back.

When I do this, I get a minimum FPS of 18, max of 61, and an average of 33. Unless your 7970M is somehow significantly more powerful than mine, I don't believe you get 60 FPS minimum on ultra.

 

He was probably talking about single player mode, started from the wrong direction and didn't know this issue only appears in Multiplayer mode.

 

60-100 FPS in BF3 single player at ultra sounds very extraordinary nevertheless. Last time I checked, the 7970m and 680m averaged at what, 45FPS on Ultra in single player?

Man do I want BF3. Too bad that it is still $60 for PC. If some one doesn't want their copy, I will gladly take it!

 

Just played Caspian Border, full 64 player server.

Game Settings: Ultra with NO deferred AA, and NO vsync.

GPU Overclock:

Core: 853 (stock 720)
Memory: 2198 (stock 1800)

Fraps minmaxavg:

Note: I went back and checked the FPS spreadsheet, and there were only two entries that were very high, the other read 111 and it was right before the 117 you see here. Discount the 117 as the max, not sure how it spiked that high. The highest fps sequence I found were in the upper 80's and one lone spike at 93.

Frames: 30129
Time (ms): 485584
Min: 44
Max: 117
Avg: 62.047

Afterburner Screenshot:

Please note I triggered my fans at full midway, which is why you see the max temp as 76c, but afterwards, steady 71c. Need to clean my heatsink/fans, usually in the upper 60s.

Most importantly look at the GPU USAGE. Drop offs at the end is when I left the game. Note core and memory clocking down as I left.




I should have done more of this in the past. Had Fraps for ages.

There you go folks. So if anyone says their BF3 multiplayer is just fine with the 7970m (not barking at you OP =) ) post your findings against mine with the exact in game graphics settings.

Also, playing in a full 32 player server you will see your gpu usage higher vs in a full 64 player server on the 7970m.

For those of you who want to know why I don't use deferred AA and vsync, I don't need a benchmark to tell me that it's a bit below my threshold for fps tolerance. It's immediately obvious when I start playing.

 

Check Origin every once in a while, I remember in July I think they were doing 50% off and then another sale.

Back to topic, read my post #26.

 

Send me the full Fraps FPS file if you want (not minmaxavg) but the one that recorded all the fps and I'll graph it. Just post it to mediafire or somewhere. Take me all of 2 minutes. For full evidence, best to video record (using camera not FRAPS recording), and bench while doing so.

 

Yeah, the SP average is definitely not 60+ FPS. I played through the first level and was hovering in the 40's most of the time.

As for buying the game, it is actually only $40 now for PC, and there have been tons of sales recently. And I mean tons, as in, you could have found the game from various sources for $10 in the past few weeks. The sales seem to be dying out again, so you might be out of luck.

EDIT: Toys r us is apparently selling the game for $10, but it seems that you can only get it in-store. It is a clearance price to, so you have to hope they have some in stock. Something you could check out maybe: Battlefield 3 for PC - Electronic Arts - Toys "R" Us. You could also possibly go to another store like Best Buy or Walmart and get them to price match (Walmart is more lenient about the fact that it is a clearance price and it may or may not be in stock).

 

Statistically, there will always be anomalies in things like this... if this really is the case, then he could sell his card back to amd for $10,000 and they we all get a fix

However, it is also statistically improbable that the person who is lucky enough to get a good card will actually post about it.

 

It was on sale this weekend for $7.50. Even that price isn't enough to make me install Origin though. EA can eat a fat one imo lol

 

nope, not possible. you can get chips that OC better or run cooler than others, but you cant possibly get ones that magically do not exhibit a design flaw that was programmed onto the chip. Statistically its much more probable that the user is not testing properly.

 

Yup. Trust the Occam's razor.

 

i got my copy for $9, legit too, i play from origin. there was a sale a few month ago on yuplay.com

for my 675m at stock, i got 33.733 average frames, max 60 min 18

 

I am blown away. So you are using stock drivers, check. What are your AMD catalyst settings and power settings? Any thing else you changed that would be out of the ordinary within Windows?

BTW, are there any good sub-$10 BF3 sales going on right now?

 

FPS graph:

 

I'm looking to buy a copy of BF3 Premium if anyone knows where to find a good deal on it?!

 

I think we are getting confused her. That guy has a 680M, he's not the OP claiming to get these frames with the 7970M.

And yeah, there is a $10 sale going on. I posted it in my other post. Toys-R-Us is selling it at $9.98, but in store only and they might not have it in stock since it is a clearance sale. If not, or if you don't have a TRU locally, you can try going to a Walmart or Best Buy and getting them to price match it. Technically, neither place should honor it by their policy, but if you get a dumb/nice clerk he might give it to you.

AFAIK, this is the only sub-$10 sale right now. You can always try buying it from a key site for around $15 if you are alright with buying the Russian version. You have to patch it with a language pack after each patch, but apart from that I believe it exactly the same as a region-free game.

Here is the link: Battlefield 3 for PC - Electronic Arts - Toys "R" Us

 

Toys R Us makes you buy a pokemon game for BF3 at that price. Oh wait, maybe not. I'm not sure.

And I see I did have a mix up. Still, the OP stated:

"Anyway I just played a round on a full 64-player Caspian Border Map and monitored it with MSI.

I saw an occasional drop down to 40 fps in open areas where I am looking at the entire map. I'm not sure if that's because of the limitations of the card or an Enduro problem. As for the utilization. I did notice a few occasions where it dropped down to the mid 80%, although it did not correlate with fps drops and I would not have noticed it if I wasn't watching the numbers."

 

I think the OP already has detected the issue, therefore stopped posting.
I like to add that in my case i really havent suffered 1 second for the enduro issue so far, it seems to be mostly limited to multiplayer games, wich i dont play at all.
The hotfix is coming soon, but this is just another good reason to buy 7970M, unless you are only intending to play BF3 64 players maps online, in that case wait for the fix.
Borderlands 2 i have played til level 21, sanctuary lost and found, and still havent detected any problems in gameplay, with physix set low... and all other settings maxed.
i am a very happy 7970M owner, and will only be happier when the new drivers come out.

cheers
Voz

 

No, it's a bit confusing but the game is now $10 base, and then if you buy a Pokemon game, you get an additional 70% off that $10. The deal that is making it $10 is the clearance sale.