Radeon 4870 1GB Problem

Motherboard: ASRock A780GMH/128MB
CPU: AMD Phenom II x4 940 @ 3000 MHz (3.0ghz)
RAM (tell us the number of sticks and if you´re using different brands): 4096 MB (2x 2048 DDR2-SDRAM) Kingston Hyper-X Memory 1066
Video Card: SAPPHIRE 100259-1GL Radeon HD 4870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card
PSU (Yes, in fourth place.) Detailed specs of the three main rails are a MUST! (...or at least the Brand & Model): PC Power & Cooling S75CF 750W EPS12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply
Additional PCI cards:
Number of fans present: 2 32 CM fans in front and side, room for more fans on top and back. Case is a full tower with great air flow, case is always really cool.
Operating System : Windows Vista Ultimate 32 Bit.
Video Card Drivers in Use ( and tried ): Catalyst 9.2, 9.4, 9.6, 9.7, and the newest 9.8 (9.8 is the one I use now.)
Apps/Games causing issues ( and if they've been patched ): Just about any demanding game.
All major components check 100% after thorough testing ( eg. Memory & Memtest86 ): Checked out fine, no errors were found.
System clean of viruses / spyware etc: Yes, it's clean, I reinstalled windows, have AVG completely up to date, scan the computer everyday with it + Windows Defender. No viruses or harmful programs found.


Ok now I am really flustered, I just checked AGAIN and it started doing it again even after getting my room temperature under control and the graphics card is at 68 Celsius under heavy load. With Rivatuner I've captured my GPU and what it's doing, it seems that it goes up to the top of of the chart and plummets all the way down during these fps 'drops' and remains so for around 5 - 10 seconds and then the chart blasts straigh up again to the top. I will see if I can get a picture of it and post it here.

Again this only happens when I am playing games and it just randomly drops. It's not when I change areas either, when I change areas I get a half second pause and the FPS never change. So, my question would be whether or not 68 degrees celsius = overheating? I wouldn't think so, but who knows. My CPU never heats up to 60.

Don't think that this normal GPU behavior, shouldn't it stay constant/consistent for smooth FPS?

 

I have found out that it is not an over heating issue, I have found this out for certain now. The GPU usage chart is not normal and shouldn't have these 90 - 100 FPS drops as seen in the GPU usage. That's when I am experiencing the drops is when it bolts down. It constantly does it and I have sent E-mails to tech support to Sapphire in hopes of resolving the issue.

Are there anyone here that would know why a GPU would have such a fluctuation? I hope it isn't a faulty card, but if it is the techs will definitely be able to tell me right away. I sent them everything from the cards BIOS dump, the SKU/PN number, to the picture that I posted here and the description of the problem.

An example of what happens would be when I play Call of Juarez: Bound In Blood, using fraps to monitor my FPS I'll be getting 120 - 150 FPS and during these drops I get around a 20 - 30 FPS for around 10 - 30 seconds. Then it shoots right back up again. Using RivaTuner I was able to catch these drops and take a screenshot with RivaTuner. As you can see in the GPU usage that is abnormal fluctuations. Especially when I can be sitting completely still in the game and it still happens.

Any ideas of how to fix this problem?

 

The temperautre is absolutely normal for high end cards, they are expected to run in the 60-80s
Regarding GPU usage I'm not quite sure what's going on :s

 

Yeah, I know that it is normal now, I talked with some knowledgeable sources over at AMD's forums and they've told me it's normal and that however the GPU usage isn't. The fluctuations it's getting is very awkward and that I should be getting a fairly constant FPS without the 90 - 100 FPS drops that occur during these drops.

I just hope that someone is able to help me, it's driving me crazy lol. It's not super bad, it's just super annoying. Most of the time they last for around 10 seconds at most, however it's still enough to cause concern with the frequency at which they occur. It's deffinitely more annoying in online games when you are trying to accomplish stuff though.

 

Just to get ahold of the techs at Sapphire in order to get the problem solves. There were a few people who told me to disable everything in the background and this is done anyway by me using AMD Fusion on Expert profile, I have it set to literally kill everything that isn't required by windows to function. It has no effect on the cards problem.

My response from a tech was that it was a problem with the card itsself. Saying it's a faulty card, so I'm not sure whether to wait on the sapphire tech or the tech I sent my information to. Or to go ahead and get the RMA number from the tech that told me I should return the card.

 

Yep it must be a faulty card then, definitely return it, let's they send back one that works!:-D