Ok so I bought a gigabyte 7970 ghz edition card. This card is factory overclocked and runs at 1100/1500 stock. The problem I'm having is that after gaming for a while or running a benchmark, usually within the first 5 minutes or less, my card goes from 1100mhz core speed down to 1050mhz, back up again, then down and up more frequently, until finally it baselines at 1050mhz. If I raise the power control settings in ccc to +20%, then it works fine and stays at 1100mhz.

Now the reason I'm posting this in the driver section is that I discovered that if I force catalyst to crash by overclocking too high (with the "driver has stopped responding and has recovered" error), then afterwards, if I run it at normal speeds again, it won't downclock at all, even if I overclock the card to 75mhz above stock speeds, all with +0% power control. It will just stay solid at that speed. Once I reboot it goes back to normal.

Now my question is, why is this happening? is there some kind of thermal control that doesn't come back online once catalyst crashes? Or something different altogether? Maybe its not even a driver problem. I have no idea.

So to summarize, I need +20% to run at the stock 1100/1500 stable, but if I crash catalyst I can run 1170/1575 at +0% completely fine.

Using the latest 12.11 beta btw (9.10.8.0), BUT, the reason I discovered this was because I read a post from somebody with an older card and driver which did the same thing.

Any help would be appreciated.

Hi...you need to supply some basic information about your computer before anyone can try to be of assistance.

Please supply the following:

1. AMD graphics card(s)
2. Operating system
3. Processor
4. Power supply (make and model)
5. System RAM (amount)
6. If this is a laptop furnish make and model

NOTE: Laptop questions/issues should be posted in the Notebook Forum

      http://forums.amd.com/game/categories.cfm?catid=448&entercat=y

   
Also, you could read  http://forums.amd.com/game/messageview.cfm?catid=440&threadid=160417&enterthread=y   for additional information.

Why would you have the power slider set at anything other than +20 ? Are you trying to save electricity? You need to read this > http://www.anandtech.com/show/4061/amds-radeon-hd-6970-radeon-hd-6950/9

Intel I7 960 @ 3.87ghz *Intel DX58SO *HIS HD6970 2gb *Corsair TX650M *2x4gb Corsair XMS3 *WD Black 1TB *Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit *Gateway HD2401 24" 2ms 1920x1200  ***Asus N71Jq laptop *Intel I7 720QM Processor *Mobility Radeon HD5730 1gb *8gb Ram *Windows 7 64bit  ***Acer 5750 laptop

* A clear conscience is usually a sign of bad memory *

1. gigabyte 7970 ghz edition (GV-R797TO-3GD)

2. windows 7 64bit sp1

3. i5-3570k

4. XFX core edition 850w

5. adata 2133mhz 8GB

My question wasn't about the slider, my question was why does it work at +0% after catalyst crashes and recovers, but not before then.

Also I think its strange to expect people to run a card at +20% at its base clock speed. I would rather not have to, because yes, saving electricity should be a concern for most people. But this is something I'm also asking gigabyte tech support about aswell. I came to the amd forums to try and get information only about the driver.

Sorry if this sounded rude, but I'm trying to be as quick as possible because I'm burning something in the kitchen haha