Gigabyte 7950 WF3 Bios - What did yours come with?

Nelly · 15 Dec 2012 at 20:49

Definitly voltage locked @ 1.25v, unlocked in MSI Afterburner, set it to 1.256v. but when running Heaven 3.0, kept at 1.25v.

I must be the first person to get a voltage locked Gigabyte 7950 WF3 lol.

rolypolyman · 15 Dec 2012 at 22:55

What are you monitoring the voltage with, gpu-z consistently showed lower voltages than I was putting in. Should be ok to go up to 1.3v though you do so at your own risk. Mine was 'locked' at 1.09v for load until I ran AB and it opened voltage to 1.3v, that is usually the max.

Nelly · 15 Dec 2012 at 23:02

rolypolyman said:
What are you monitoring the voltage with, gpu-z consistently showed lower voltages than I was putting in. Should be ok to go up to 1.3v though you do so at your own risk. Mine was 'locked' at 1.09v for load until I ran AB and it opened voltage to 1.3v, that is usually the max.

Was using Afterburner, wont reduce or increase voltage - stays at 1.25v, the thing is I know it's from a totally new batch of cards, because where I bought it from was out of stock 3 days ago, then had 60+ in stock.

The new batches coming through are voltage locked, should be okay if buying from OcUK, until they run out of current stock.

rolypolyman · 15 Dec 2012 at 23:05

Are they the same model number as Ocuk, GV-R795WF3-3GD

Nelly · 15 Dec 2012 at 23:10

rolypolyman said:
Are they the same model number as Ocuk, GV-R795WF3-3GD

Yep exact same model, except with a bios that even isn't on the Gigabyte website - FZ0

I just did a serial number check here >> http://ggcs.gigabyte.com/service/CheckWarrantyStatus_IN.aspx

Warranty coverage starts from 19th November 2012, so that must be the date of manufacture.

rolypolyman · 15 Dec 2012 at 23:23

Thanks for that I just checked mine, warranty 15\10\12- 14\12\15, bought on 19\11\12.

Nelly · 15 Dec 2012 at 23:30

rolypolyman said:
Thanks for that I just checked mine, warranty 15\10\12- 14\12\15, bought on 19\11\12.

Hehe no problem, quite useful - not many people know about the Gigabyte Warranty Status tool I guess, can use for motherboards, graphics cards, etc.

As for this Gigabyte 7950 WF3, an extra 100MHz core speed, so 1000MHz out of the box will be most welcome by those who just plug the card in, and don't overclock.

I bought it hoping I would have a card I could play around with, tweak the voltage, use low voltage to overclock, feel robbed lol.

rolypolyman · 15 Dec 2012 at 23:47

I've just checked half the world on Gigabytes site for your bios and there is no trace. Very strange and there is no card with 1000 core stock that I can find. :confused:

krichards · 16 Dec 2012 at 13:47

I've got the same as you. Got the card a few days ago, and it has got the FZ0 Bios on it too and 1GHz at 1.25v seems to be stock.

The card doesn't seem voltage locked though. In Afterburner settings, if you check force constant voltage, the voltage slider works fine and I've verified 1.3v and tested mine at 1.275GHz there.

The trick is you have to click that force constant voltage option, otherwise none of the core voltage selections work.

Nelly · 16 Dec 2012 at 13:53

krichards said:
I've got the same as you. Got the card a few days ago, and it has got the FZ0 Bios on it too and 1GHz at 1.25v seems to be stock.

The card doesn't seem voltage locked though. In Afterburner settings, if you check force constant voltage, the voltage slider works fine and I've verified 1.3v and tested mine at 1.275GHz there.

The trick is you have to click that force constant voltage option, otherwise none of the core voltage selections work.

Damn I didn't tick that box.

Can you also reduce voltage? Also does the GPU voltage drop down to 0.806v when the card is just in desktop still when you use force constant voltage?

I boxed mine ready to send back! lol, would appreciate the info.

krich · 16 Dec 2012 at 14:10

Nelly said:
Damn I didn't tick that box.

Can you also reduce voltage? Also does the GPU voltage drop down to 0.806v when the card is just in desktop still when you use force constant voltage?

I boxed mine ready to send back! lol, would appreciate the info.

Reducing voltage works fine when forcing constant voltage. I have just now used GPU-Z whilst changing the voltages in Afterburner and I am able to reduce or increase voltages and they are setting correctly and showing in GPU-Z.

The GPU voltage isn't dropping down to 0.806v when force constant voltage is enabled though - I think it breaks that but atm, this seems the only way to get voltages up/down and actually applied.

I've tried Trixx and that doesn't work too well either. Did you try the Gigabyte OC Guru II utility? That seems to let you decrease (not increase) from 1.25v, though not sure if it breaks Powerplay or not.

Nelly · 16 Dec 2012 at 14:19

krich said:
Reducing voltage works fine when forcing constant voltage. I have just now used GPU-Z whilst changing the voltages in Afterburner and I am able to reduce or increase voltages and they are setting correctly and showing in GPU-Z.

The GPU voltage isn't dropping down to 0.806v when force constant voltage is enabled though - I think it breaks that but atm, this seems the only way to get voltages up/down and actually applied.

Thanks for the info, I really appreciate it.

I assumed that if I used 'Force Constant Voltage' it would break powerplay settings, not really any good to me if it does that. I don't want 1.2v+ pumping through it constantly.

krich said:
I've tried Trixx and that doesn't work too well either. Did you try the Gigabyte OC Guru II utility? That seems to let you decrease (not increase) from 1.25v, though not sure if it breaks Powerplay or not.

I didn't try Gigabyte OC Guru II, I did when I had a Gigabyte GTX 670 back in June, but it didn't work very well was buggy - Gigabyte have released newer versions since then, so guess they ironed out some bugs.

krichards · 16 Dec 2012 at 14:23

Nelly said:
Thanks for the info, I really appreciate it.

I assumed that if I used 'Force Constant Voltage' it would break powerplay settings, not really any good to me if it does that. I don't want 1.2v+ pumping through it constantly.I didn't try Gigabyte OC Guru II, I did when I had a Gigabyte GTX 670 back in June, but it didn't work very well was buggy - Gigabyte have released newer versions since then, so guess they ironed out some bugs.

No problem

If you want, I can try OC Guru II later today and let you know? I'm wondering if it might not break Powerplay and let you reduce voltage, which is seemingly what you want to do.

Nelly · 16 Dec 2012 at 14:28

krichards said:
No problem

If you want, I can try OC Guru II later today and let you know? I'm wondering if it might not break Powerplay and let you reduce voltage, which is seemingly what you want to do.

Saves me unboxing, and installing again. Would be interesting to see if that works. Thanks.

What is the maximum core clock you can get at 1.25v? I tried 1200MHz, but artifacts in Heaven 3.0, 1150MHz seems fine, didn't try 1175MHz. At least Powerplay works with locked voltage @ 1.25v

krichards · 16 Dec 2012 at 14:34

Nelly said:
Saves me unboxing, and installing again. Would be interesting to see if that works. Thanks.

What is the maximum core clock you can get at 1.25v? I tried 1200MHz, but artifacts in Heaven 3.0, 1150MHz seems fine, didn't try 1175MHz. At least Powerplay works with locked voltage @ 1.25v

No worries, give me an hour and I will try it out and let you know.

At 1.25v, 1.2GHz is stable here. I've tested it in Heaven 3.0 and a couple of games. 1.275v gets me 1.25GHz and then 1.3v seems mostly alright at 1.275GHz.

I haven't played with the memory yet

krichards · 16 Dec 2012 at 15:05

Changing the voltage in OC Guru II does nothing, so it appears that Afterburner and forcing constant voltage is the only way to adjust the voltage up or down with BIOS FZ0.

Nelly · 16 Dec 2012 at 15:16

krichards said:
Changing the voltage in OC Guru II does nothing, so it appears that Afterburner and forcing constant voltage is the only way to adjust the voltage up or down with BIOS FZ0.

So in a sense these are voltage locked, have to sacrifice power saving features for the luxury.

krichards said:
No worries, give me an hour and I will try it out and let you know.

At 1.25v, 1.2GHz is stable here. I've tested it in Heaven 3.0 and a couple of games. 1.275v gets me 1.25GHz and then 1.3v seems mostly alright at 1.275GHz.

I haven't played with the memory yet

Looks like you have a good card there, I would have probally kept mine if it was stable at 1200MHz, I'm kinda fickle to having a good overclocking card.

Thanks for doing the checks, was interesting to know your results.

krichards · 16 Dec 2012 at 15:21

Nelly said:
So in a sense these are voltage locked, have to sacrifice power saving features for the luxury.Looks like you have a good card there, I would have probally kept mine if it was stable at 1200MHz, I'm kinda fickle to having a good overclocking card.

Thanks for doing the checks, was interesting to know your results.

You're welcome

Yeah, I think you're right. Will see if another BIOS comes to light and as more get this new batch, will be interesting to see if there are any developments or workarounds.

I'm WCing mine so even at 1.3v, it's barely getting passes 40 degrees Celsius. I kinda wish there was a way to get a bit more than 1.3v so I could push further to see how far it would clock, but it seems like a solid card and I'm having fun with it

Nelly · 16 Dec 2012 at 15:27

krichards said:
You're welcome

Yeah, I think you're right. Will see if another BIOS comes to light and as more get this new batch, will be interesting to see if there are any developments or workarounds.

I'm WCing mine so even at 1.3v, it's barely getting passes 40 degrees Celsius. I kinda wish there was a way to get a bit more than 1.3v so I could push further to see how far it would clock, but it seems like a solid card and I'm having fun with it

Sounds awesome.

I've got a decent motherboard, I don't want mediocre clocking cards for it, but it is a silicon lottery as they say... I just seem to get bad luck usually when trying to aquire decent o/c cards lol

rolypolyman said:
What are you monitoring the voltage with, gpu-z consistently showed lower voltages than I was putting in. Should be ok to go up to 1.3v though you do so at your own risk. Mine was 'locked' at 1.09v for load until I ran AB and it opened voltage to 1.3v, that is usually the max.

rolypolyman said:

I've just checked half the world on Gigabytes site for your bios and there is no trace. Very strange and there is no card with 1000 core stock that I can find.

Click to expand...

Did you have to 'Force Constant Voltage' to enable voltage increase, with your Bios versio of the 7950? If so, did it break power saving features when in desktop etc?

krichards · 16 Dec 2012 at 16:04

Nelly said:
Sounds awesome. I've got a decent motherboard, I don't want mediocre clocking cards for it, but it is a silicon lottery as they say... I just seem to get bad luck usually when trying to aquire decent o/c cards lol
Did you have to 'Force Constant Voltage' to enable voltage increase, with your Bios versio of the 7950? If so, did it break power saving features when in desktop etc?

Yeah, just noticed. You have the same mobo as me too