AMD/ATI HD Radeon Baffling Problems

[NigelStone1488304352]

Looking for some help.  Up until a couple of days ago I was running a Radeon 5850 HD on my system and I upgraded to a faster 6950HD model with more memory, faster clock, etc.  I also put an SSD drive in my system in hopes of some better performance, which I definitely got from everything except Second Life.  For some reason, the game on a 6950HD with the newest drivers performance just bites.  I have tried several viewers including the SL and both of the Phoenix viewers, and with all the lag is unbearable.. it seems to be mostly in the texture loading.  Some textures never load period, even profiles load way slower than before.. bunch of gray people no matter whether it is a busy sim or not.  I have played with alot of the common settings but no luck.  I can cam around great.. its just this texture load that is getting me.  Does anyone have any experience with this?  I was pretty happy with the performance of the old card in SL.. just doesnt make much sense at all.. Thanks for any help.. troubleshooting tips, etc. 

 

 

[Peggy Paperdoll]

Drivers, drivers, drivers.  The greatest card in the world will not run properly with the wrong or outdated driver.  And since you have all that texture loading problems it wouldn't hurt to clear your cache.....and by cache I'm talking about every viewer you have installed on your computer.  Once you start getting corruption in a cache the use of other viewers often corrupt the cache(s) even more.

 

My bet is that's the problem is rooted in your drivers for you new card.

[NigelStone1488304352]

Yeah.. I would think thats its a driver issue too.. especially when I look in the AMD Vision Engine Control Center and see that while I am getting this horrid lag and non loading textures the card is not even being utilized at all.. or very little.. however my processor usage is pretty high.  Baffling..   I am using the newest drivers from AMD/ATIs site.  Is this a problem that others are having too.?  Should I revert to an older driver.?  Anyone know what one.? 

 

 

[NigelStone1488304352]

And as far as cache goes.. cleaned.. thats not the issue here.

[Peggy Paperdoll]

Next step.  Actually the next step when you upgrade or install any hardware device to any system should be to the vendor of your hardware devices support site.  But, since I already did that for you let me post something that is very important with any driver upgrade/installation (and very few people do it).

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

• Upgrade an old driver to the latest version from
  AMD.COM

1. Note!
   Before getting started, ensure that you know the model of your graphics card. It
   will come in handy for several steps in the process. Refer to
   Article GPU-55 for information on how to
   identify your graphics card
2. Verify
   that the operating system has the latest service packs /
   updates
3. Download the latest drivers for the graphics card from
   AMD’s Graphics Drivers & Software page. Refer to Article GPU-56 for information on how to
   use the graphics driver utility
4. Remove
   any pre-existing drivers / software for the graphics card. Refer to
   Article GPU-57 for detailed instructions
   on how to uninstall old drivers
5. Install
   the latest drivers for the graphics card. For detailed instructions on how to
   install the latest graphics drivers, refer to:
   1. Article
      GPU-33 for a Windows 7 based system
   2. Article GPU-1
      for
      a Windows Vista based system
   3. Article
      GPU-2 for a Windows XP / Windows 2000 based
      system

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/737-20870HowtoInstallYourATIProduct.aspx#header3

 

I highlighted in red the part that is important and a step most people over look.  If you did not remove the previous driver, I would recommend starting over with a fresh download.

 

Some system specs would help a great deal.  I've assumed a desktop computer and Win 7 64 bit when I looked up your current driver.  I also suspect that your onboard video (IGP) may be what your computer has chosen for the default.  You can check that by going into your CMOS utility and seeing which is being used by the system and change to the correct one if necessary.



[Nyll Bergbahn]

Could be a driver issue but I'm wondering about your PSU too. What one are you using? You've put extra stress on your system upgrading to a Radeon HD 6950 and adding a SSD drive as well. AMD say the 6950 requires a minimum 500W model but you should go higher. http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=287485

Probably best to ask on the AMD Forum about drivers for the 6950, as there are hotfix drivers as well as the standard ones. Did you tweak your 6950 to a 6970 as that trick does not always work?

[Peggy Paperdoll]

The 4850 he had in the computer before his upgrade required a 500 watt PS too..........I'm pretty the PS is good.  One thing I did see was the recommended two (2) PCI express 6-pin power connectors.  That may have something to do with it, I don't know (the 4850 had the same recommendation).

[Nyll Bergbahn]

It was a 5850 but yes, same requirements, 500W PSU and two two 75W 6-pin PCI Express® power connectors. Could be the 5850 was already an upgrade, need more information. My 5850 is using two PCI Express connectors.

I'm kind of interested in understanding why this 6950 is not working right as I was thinking of upgrading myself to a 6950 or 6970 in the not too distant future.

[Peggy Paperdoll]

I'm thinking it's a driver.  Possibly installed over the old driver.  Either that or when the new video card was installed in the computer it wasn't recognized by the computer CMOS and the computer is using the onboard instead of the card.  Two guesses with a very slight suspicion that maybe the card is not properly seated in the slot.  And there's always the possibility of a faulty card from the manufacturer.

 

It's an odd problem.  That card is more than capable of running SL very well.

[Genesis Ronmark]

I have an ATI HD 4870 x2 and after the last update its killed my card on Ultra/high if you turn on specific settings it'll go black and its 100% up to date, I even Switched to a gtx 560 and it gets farther but I was hesitent to grab a 6870 for $200 for fear its just LL updates killign everything.

[Nyll Bergbahn]

Far as I know, Second Life makes little if any use of two cards in Crossfire or SLI mode and in fact, performance can suffer if both cards are used.

I am finding my 5850 is working particulary well with the official 2.8 beta viewer achieving between 30-50 FPS in many sims using Ultra graphics mode with Lighting and Shadows enabled so perhaps give 2.8 beta a chance and see if it works for you.

[Jacob Catlyn]

Well I built a new system from ground up

AMD Phenom ii X6 1100T 3.3 to 3.8 GHz

Win 7 Pro 64

Radeon HD 6970 Video card

8 Gig DDR3 Ram

and I am getting popups telling me that I am using 100% of my processor plus Avatars are mostly Greyed out. I experience this with SL Beta or Firestorm viewers.

 

Seems to me when i had less of a computer I had less problems in SL and in the yr I been in SL it has gotten very hard on the computer as well. I think I might be robbing the thread here I am not sure but I am having same problems with a fresh build. plus more. So I need help as well

[Atradies]

I too am having the exact same problems with the HD 6950 and since this is a brand new build, this is the first card that has been in this system so not uninstalling old drivers isn't an issue.

My specs are:

AMD 3.2ghz hexcore

730w PSU

Windows 7 Home premium

 

This issue is rather baffling and I have tried low, meduim, high and ultra settings to no avail.

 

Tallen

[Pamela Galli]

I have a 6950 on my new iMac.  It is very zippy, no lag -- BUT objects and Linden Water frequently vanish. Once, 90% of my four sims vanished. I have tried everything I can think of, it persists.

[Medeja Eberhart]

same here bought a new radeon hd 6950, upgraded from gf8800gts, clean reinstall win7 64, and SL is unplayable, soooo slow. latest drivers, ati catalyst 11.8, windows up to date. with gf8800 everything was super fast.

[Medeja Eberhart]

oh, and everything else is superfast, on steam, playing portal2, is a joy at full hd, all settings to max.

[Canoro Philipp]

maybe you all can try the latest hot fixes or the betas from the download page:

http://www.amd.com/us/products/desktop/graphics/amd-radeon-hd-6000/hd-6950/Pages/amd-radeon-hd-6950-overview.aspx#4

[Medeja Eberhart]

i found a solution, dont use the SL viewer i tried phoenix firestorm, and nos SL is back to normal so its not a hardware/driver problem, just the original viewer

[Canoro Philipp]

awesome!

im glad you went back to enjoying Second Life

[Japiolga Bumbo]

WEl it seems me NOT the Only one. with the PRO.

 

I Also have changed Graphic card to 6870 in stead of the 5770.

 

After 1 week and several attempt,s off almost all viewer,s and reinstalling windows 7 to the BONE, reinstaslling the latest  ATI driver,s. , etc .etc . etc.

reinstalled the  5770 again, and to my wandering all them SL Isseue,s where gone.

HOW HAVE the ANSWER ??? iff YOU DO. me send ye BIG HUG.:matte-motes-whistle:

[Marlon Wulluf]

These maybe old posts, but my advise is DO NOT USE ATI, they use crap, usless and only 5% of all online gaming actually makes use of it, but nVidia?, now there's  the perfec solution to all your GFX problems, 95% of every gaming system on this planet uses a GeForce card, and is so successful with them that I myself went out and got myself an nVidia card, and Second Life works 100% even on ultra, try that with an ATI.

 

My inbuilt ATI Radeon 6350 HD GFX card was useless when in Second Life, but my nVide GeForce GTX 980 ti beats them all, I have absolutely no lag whatsoever on ultra, try that with an ATI.

[Zsigmond Alcott]

I been doing it with Dual AMD Radeon HD 6900 Series with croossfire enabled for years now with up to 12 instances. 

Never lag client side. woot!

 

[Nyll Bergbahn]

---

Marlon Wulluf wrote:

 My inbuilt ATI Radeon 6350 HD GFX card was useless when in Second Life, but my nVide GeForce GTX 980 ti beats them all, I have absolutely no lag whatsoever on ultra, try that with an ATI.

---

Wow! Imagine that..a high end Nvidia card released May 2015 beats an entry level AMD card released in 2011..whatever next!

[xparade]

This is not always true.

I have a PC with a PowerColor ATI Radeon 4850. When I use the latest driver I see in Second Life everthing in Pink !

If I use verry old ones it works !