Recently purchased a Sapphire HD5830, upgrading from a Nvidia 8800.

Installed card and drivers without any issues. When I am playing games, any games, after a few minutes I'll noticed the CPU usage spikes up to 99.9% for about 15 seconds before dropping back to normal again, ~60-70%. This results in the audio breaking up and dropping to 1-2fps during the high CPU periods. The CPU will return to normal for about 20 seconds before again spiking up to 100%, all cores maxed out. This happens on all games I play, at any video settings. Same results with all video settings down to minimum and resolution down to 1024x768.

I opened up a process monitor on a second screen to check and see which process would be spiking up to ~100%, but the individual processes do not actually go up. The game process usage stays the same - the only difference is the overall usage graph confirms it is near 100% CPU. I'm not sure if there are hidden processes, but strange I'm not seeing the cause.

So I thought it could be an audio driver conflict, I uninstalled the ATI HDMI audio driver. Re-installed a Sound Blaster card disabling the on-board audio, still no change. Reverted back to various old Catalyst drivers (fully uninstalling before installing alternate), still no change.

Running Windows 7 and out of ideas

6/7/2011 12:25:45 AM

sounds like the card isn't receiving adequate power and is throttling itself down.

what kind of PSU are you using, and did you remember to plug in the auxiliary power connector for the card?

6/7/2011 12:30:58 AM

I'm running an Earthwatts 500 with (2) +12V Rails

I have (2) 2x3 power connectors going to the card

6/7/2011 12:37:41 AM

I'd have to agree with Noen -- very possibly a power supply issue.

http://www.amd.com/us/products/desktop/graphics/ati-radeon-hd-5000/hd-5830/Pages/hd-5830-overview.aspx#3

According to the system requirements, 500w is the absolute minimum -- may be in your interest to purchase a stronger power supply at Best Buy and see if this resolves your problem. I say Best Buy because if it doesn't fix your problem, its easy enough to return it.

6/7/2011 8:21:43 AM

dear lord don't buy anything at best buy. newegg.

6/7/2011 8:49:21 AM

Ok sounds easy enough, I'll swap it out with a bigger power supply and see if that fixes the issue

6/7/2011 9:02:58 AM

Quote :

"dear lord don't buy anything at best buy. newegg."

I think I hate Best Buy as much/more so than just about anyone on here -- However, for the sake of easy testing, they will be your best bet to quickly get a power supply. Keep in mind, power supplies have no restocking fee at Best Buy. If it doesn't fix your problem, return it -- was an easy "rental". If it does fix your problem -- either keep the power supply, or return your "rental" and order a power supply from Newegg.

6/7/2011 12:58:30 PM