Windows 7 Radeon HD 5770 - problem or not

[DirtRider]

I was running a GeForce 8800 GTS 512 card and decided an upgrade was in order. So off I went did a bit of research and on this purchased a RadeonHD 5770 1G.

Well from day one playing BFBC2 became a nightmare with game freezing (few seconds at a time) in the game. Also I would always have a major freeze on my first spawn. Never did have these issue on my 8800 card? Anyway after trying everything and asking on various forums it seemed that there was no solution to my problem. So I took the card back and changed it out for a GeForce GTX 470 at a much higher price. My issue with game freezing was sorted out however this then lead me to further upgrading CPU, MB and RAM.

This was the first ATI card I have ever tried and will be the last, maybe I just had a dud card who knows. Anyway lately I seem to be seeing a lot of people experiencing similar issue with this card on Win7.

So my question is there a problem with this card and drivers on Win 7 or is this card just not that good a card

 

[kemical]

The 5770 is a mid range card at best and I wonder which driver you tried as latest catalyst releases had fixes for BFBC2 .

 

[DirtRider]

Well I eventually even opened a support ticket on the manufactures web site and everything they suggested I had already done. Download the latest drivers from the ATI web site and everyone confirmed that this was the one to use. Some also suggested that at times AMD and Intel don't always work that well together. It also seemed that some owners just took this as being a glitch in the games they were playing. I also went to the extent of having the tech from the supplier of the card come and check it out. Other felt it was AV software doing it anyway at the end of the day changing back to GeForce fixed the issue. Ok I also realize that the GeForce card is a higher spec but my lower spec old card never had the issue

Also it was not only BFBC2 but other games that also started the freeze that was not there before

 

[TorrentG]

Since you switched from NVIDIA to ATI, it would be a good move to use Driver Sweeper from Guru3d.com to clear out ALL NVIDIA AND ATI files/drivers/settings from the system.

Best if used in safe mode. Reboot to normal mode and then install the latest ATI driver from here:

Link Removed

Also when the ATI card is in, makes sure it has the required internal power connection(s) hooked up correctly.

 

[DirtRider]

Thanks I did do that but glad you mentioned it as it may be overlooked by others if they do the same thing

 

[TorrentG]

Cool...

Which PSU do you have? If you don't know exact model, do you know its wattage rating?

The card draws 108 watts alone according to this:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-5770,2446-15.html

 

[justposted]

I have had exactly the same problem with my 5770 512, changing from a 9600GT. Stuttering/pauses in Battlefield BC2 and Dirt2, MW2 (single player mode) running at <20FPS and so on. Crysis and Resident Evil 5 much better, but 2/5 isn't great performance.

More details of my set-up here, in case it helps anyone else with the same issue, but I haven't found an answer myself: Link Removed

 

[DirtRider]

Well I just got to say since I have been reading these W7 forums this one and another I am only seeing threads on ATI cards that people are continually having issues with. So far I have not picked up one on NVIDIA. SO this leads me to believe even more that I will never try another ATI card again

 

[nmsuk]

Been using ATI cards since the 8500 and have never had a problem. I'd say I'm lucky but my mates have ATI cards and also have no issues with them.

 

[Nibiru2012]

I have used ATI cards for the last 2 years and had no issues with them at all. Same with just about everyone I know.

They have all switched from nVidia to ATI and never regretted it, plus these guys are very heavy gamers.

I thinks it's just an individual thing and such.

 

[Highwayman]

I'd put myself in that group too... I never really like the 9800pro, ditched it for Nvidia and stuck with various cards from them for about 6 years till this year, jumped o the 5870 and been very happy with it, although I'd go back to Nvidia happily on my next major upgrade once they sort out the heat/high wattage of the next generation of the Fermi if they haven't abandoned it in a year or two, the recent 460 card seems a good step in that direction so far...but ATi has a big lead on bangs for bucks at the minute which is hard to ignore.

 

[cybercore]

I can hardly add more than what's been so far said here. With ATI cards use Catalyst 10.3 which currently remains the best. Another important thing already mentioned is sufficient PSU and in rare cases bios upgrade.

GTX 470 is faster than ATI 5770, hotter (wattage), more expensive, and large enough not to fit some motherboards. ATI 5770's horsepower is close to 4870. + DX11.

A good read on ATI 5770 with benchmarks can be found here (December 2009):

Radeon HD 5770 Review


Its performance can look like:

 

[justposted]

That may be true (that the 5770 is an excellent card) but the reason for this thread and tons like it is that the 5770 drivers appear to prevent it working well with several very popular games. In my case it runs Resident Evil and Battlefield BC2 @ 70FPS with my preferred options, but Modern Warfare 2 (singleplayer only) @ 5-20 FPS and Dirt2 @ about 30FPS with a lot of pauses/stutters. That's significantly worse that the 9600 GT that it replaced in both cases.

Great card, but there is something wrong with the drivers somewhere. Lots of people have great experiences with lots of cards, ATI or NVIDIA, but the 5770s seem to have generated a lot of problems. So can I respectfully ask that this thread not be turned into an ATI vs NVIDIA debate? What is certainly true is that a few of us have an issue here and were hoping to get some help solving it!

Thanks.

 

[cybercore]

Welcome to the forums, justposted. : )

Good info thank you for sharing :

Resident Evil and Battlefield BC2 @ 70FPS with my preferred options, but Modern Warfare 2 (singleplayer only) @ 5-20 FPS and Dirt2 @ about 30FPS with a lot of pauses/stutters. That's significantly worse that the 9600 GT that it replaced in both cases.

So can I respectfully ask that this thread not be turned into an ATI vs NVIDIA debate? What is certainly true is that a few of us have an issue here and were hoping to get some help solving it!

Good suggestion. That's what we are trying to do in this thread:

With ATI cards use Catalyst 10.3 which currently remains the best. Another important thing already mentioned is sufficient PSU and in rare cases bios upgrade.

Currently I own ATI 5870, and I also can witness that not all Catalyst versions provide smooth performance. Like many ATI users, I find Cat. 10.3 so far the best for 5000 series.

As for NVIDIA chips, they are great. I personally like NVIDIA cards.

To repeat the core suggestions for ATI 5770, to try to ease things a little bit:

1. Try Catalyst 10.3 (use driver sweeper)
2. Make sure the PSU is sufficient
3. Upgrade bios if needed

 

[justposted]

What a friendly welcome, thanks cybercore.

In my case I would rather not update my motherboard BIOS as the only one that is more recent is a beta. Might try it as a last resort, but it's always a bit hair-raising!

My PSU should be more than adequate: Corsair TX650

CCC 10.4 and 10.6 were worse than 10.7 for me. Didn't try 10.3 though, so I'll give that a blast. It was put out before the 5770 512Mb (my card) existed I think, so that might stop it working for me.

Thanks for the advice, anyway, and I'll let you know what I find.

 

[cybercore]

In my case I would rather not update my motherboard BIOS as the only one that is more recent is a beta. Might try it as a last resort, but it's always a bit hair-raising!
...
Didn't try 10.3 though, so I'll give that a blast.

I personally wouldn't upgrade my bios to a beta version. As for Catalyst 10.3, it should feel a little smoother in Dirt 2, it won't increase your FPS though.

 

[kemical]

Hi justposted and welcome..
may I ask what your other drivers are like? Many fail to update motherboard drivers and the like as these are just as important as any graphics driver.
You also say the next bios update is beta. Check what the actual bios is upgrading as it could be worth considering. I use a beta bios for example because it updated my RAID chips bios so don't dismiss these updates out of hand.
A couple of good tips are:
A: Try this forum here: Videocards - ATI Drivers Section - Guru3D.com Forums IMO it's one of the best around for graphic drivers and problems..

B: Checkout this guide: Link Removed Not only does it have some great tips but his other guides will help you run your system at it's optimum level.

 

[justposted]

SOLVED!

I feel like an idiot, but solved my problem simply by reseating my card. Can't believe I didn't try it before, but I suppose the fact that it worked so well in some games just threw me. Complete answer is copied below, Link Removed due to 404 Error:


Well, I've solved it! Unfortunately it was the last thing I tried (edit: thinking about it, this is sort of inevitable as I didn't need to try anything else afterwards, but you know what I mean).

Noticed that GPU-Z was indicating "PCI-E x16 @ x2". Ignored it before, thinking it was something that I just didn't quite understand. Thanks to Google, I worked out to reseat my card and it popped up to "@ x16". Now running MW2 at around 40FPS with my settings (depending massively on the scene complexity, obviously, but never dropping below 30FPS).

So after about 10 hours spent trying different drivers it took 10 seconds to pull and reseat the card and all was well. Ah well, am ridiculously pleased to have got there in the end. Just goes to show - never ignore the basic options. Just wish I'd tried them in this order myself:

1) Check that card is running at full speed in 3D games (via GPU-Z)
2) Reseat the card (and check GPU-Z)
3) Put your BIOS to fail-safe settings or reset by removing battery
4) Try various different drivers

Presumably MW2 highlighted the issue because, for whatever reason, it relies on that PCI interface more than most games.

Hope this saves somebody else some time, anyway.

 

[kemical]

That's great! Thanks for updating your thread too...

 

[Badders]

Another thing worth mentioning. I have the Radeon 5850 and was having problems with Borderlands. It was fine for maybe 15 mins, then slowed right down and bombed, usually taking the whole PC with it. On the 1 occasion I got back to Windows, my RAM usage was at 97%. I tried going from driver 10.7 to 10.7b, but this didn't fix it. In the CCC, I disabled Catalyst AI and this solved the problem.

Pete.