7950 lovin and OC's thread

eyetrip · 11 Apr 2012 at 13:12

Ah right, mid 60's at stock 900 and around 80 at 1200 doesn't sound any better than what I get. Actually, don't think I hit 60 on stock 900 on mine, so maybe I don't need to spend a fortune on fans... yay

Gorky · 11 Apr 2012 at 14:29

eyetrip said:
Stock volts on my Asus DCU II are 1.093V. I can run at 1040 core with just one bump in volts to 1.1.

That's a 30% OC, which to be honest is pretty decent. Don't think you will find a huge amount of 7950's that will run up to 1100 on stock volts (assuming 1.093V is stock).

I think cards which reach 1200 and above are in the minority, but that's purely my opinion. I could be wrong.

Again assuming that stock is 1.093V, I think getting up to 1000 on that is reasonable - that is still a 25% OC on stock.

I was struggling to even hit 1000 though and stay stable in BF3. Temps were very low so I've got plenty of leeway to bump up the voltage for sure, and I've seen people with much better results on the same card as me so I may have a poor card. The issue with the lack of a backplate on the 7950 Asus is frustrating too as that really shouldn't have been released in that way. You can definately notice the weight of the cooler pulling down on the end of the card and I'd not be surprised if I'm getting slightly less than optimal thermal transfer from the VRMs on that side of the board. I'm sure I could sort it out with a screwdriver but I'm loathed to remove it from the case given how much trouble I had fitting it in

ChrisD. · 11 Apr 2012 at 14:38

eyetrip said:
Ah right, mid 60's at stock 900 and around 80 at 1200 doesn't sound any better than what I get. Actually, don't think I hit 60 on stock 900 on mine, so maybe I don't need to spend a fortune on fans... yay

I will have to double check though, my flat does get pretty warm in the evenings.

eyetrip · 11 Apr 2012 at 14:42

Gorky said:
I'd not be surprised if I'm getting slightly less than optimal thermal transfer from the VRMs on that side of the board. I'm sure I could sort it out with a screwdriver but I'm loathed to remove it from the case given how much trouble I had fitting it in

The cooler does not make contact with the VRM's, or the memory, on the DCU II 7950.

Yeah, they could have done a better job on it, but I couldn't argue at the price I got it.

Just put some motherboard washers on back of mine to make it sit a bit firmer, adn have stuck some ram sinks on.

Still trying to find something I can stick on VRM's....

eyetrip · 11 Apr 2012 at 14:43

MilanoChris said:
I will have to double check though, my flat does get pretty warm in the evenings.

I just spent a fortune on fans anyway

Well, not a fortune, but £60 on fans is a fair chunk!

Edit: I was originally going to go water down the line, but decided I don't trust myself with it, so spending a bit more on fans is costing me a hell of a lot less than water.

ChrisD. · 11 Apr 2012 at 15:05

I've done water, I went away as for me it is hassle, as in, cleaning it out, changing fluid etc etc. I know air needs work, as in clearing out dust but it takes me 10 minutes a month, water was worse IME. I have thought about going back, especially when I had crossfired 5850's, but my case limits me, and now with the dual fan cooler on the 7950 that need is almost eliminated. Only water I have is a H70 on my CPU.

Plus, mid 60's at the highest with 100% GPU usage is not bad, these cards will do well over 80 with ease.

Zeed · 11 Apr 2012 at 16:51

For you 12.3+ driver noobs
Maybe you should read Afterburner forums ????
THERE IS A TOPIC there that says why your max clocks are limited. And how to fix it.
Hint: you need to manually copy two files into windows system folder

ChrisD. · 11 Apr 2012 at 17:04

I already read too many forums.

How about you post a link to the thread?

Zeed · 11 Apr 2012 at 17:09

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=359671

You cant read to many forums... You can read 2 many useless ones tho

TBH it takes me around 2-3 hours a day of forums reading. Good i dont have anything better to do while i eat

ChrisD. · 11 Apr 2012 at 17:15

Ignore, posted too soon.

drunkenmaster · 11 Apr 2012 at 18:19

Got my 7950 direct cu Top through today, £314, not bad. Bit disappointed with the cooler, why they haven't done VRM cooling and why they've cheaped out on VRM's I don't know. The fact is for them the 7950 core directly from AMD is massively cheaper than a 7970 core, and an identical pcb, heatsink, vrm's, quality of parts but the cheaper core would give a circa £80 difference which is all that's required.

in fact making another run of heatsinks, and a different pcb/vrm's(I'm assuming perhaps incorrectly the 7970 uses digi vrm's like the previous series of cards, I could be wrong) costs a decent amount and saves probably sub £15 in cost, while having to design, build and validate an entire extra range of cards. Even apart from the stupidness of cheaping out on it(they could have done same cooler/pcb and just only used 6 phases power instead of 12 maybe) they could at least have put 50p's worth of alu sink across the vrm's.

Unfortunately felt really unwell today, not in the mood for ripping apart my case as I have a cooler and other stuff to mess with, will test it out tomorrow.

ChrisD. · 11 Apr 2012 at 18:23

drunkenmaster said:
Unfortunately felt really unwell today, not in the mood for ripping apart my case as I have a cooler and other stuff to mess with, will test it out tomorrow.

You must be really ill. New hardware and you're putting off fitting it? I'd have to be bed/toilet bound for that to happen.

Troezar · 11 Apr 2012 at 19:00

drunkenmaster said:
Got my 7950 direct cu Top through today, £314, not bad. Bit disappointed with the cooler, why they haven't done VRM cooling and why they've cheaped out on VRM's I don't know. The fact is for them the 7950 core directly from AMD is massively cheaper than a 7970 core, and an identical pcb, heatsink, vrm's, quality of parts but the cheaper core would give a circa £80 difference which is all that's required.

in fact making another run of heatsinks, and a different pcb/vrm's(I'm assuming perhaps incorrectly the 7970 uses digi vrm's like the previous series of cards, I could be wrong) costs a decent amount and saves probably sub £15 in cost, while having to design, build and validate an entire extra range of cards. Even apart from the stupidness of cheaping out on it(they could have done same cooler/pcb and just only used 6 phases power instead of 12 maybe) they could at least have put 50p's worth of alu sink across the vrm's.

Unfortunately felt really unwell today, not in the mood for ripping apart my case as I have a cooler and other stuff to mess with, will test it out tomorrow.

Interesting DM I've got the same card arriving Monday. Keep us posted as I can always DSR it if it's not up to the job. £314 is a good price but not if the card isn't good, much less so if it cost £350+

eyetrip · 12 Apr 2012 at 09:05

drunkenmaster said:
Got my 7950 direct cu Top through today, £314, not bad. Bit disappointed with the cooler, why they haven't done VRM cooling and why they've cheaped out on VRM's I don't know. The fact is for them the 7950 core directly from AMD is massively cheaper than a 7970 core, and an identical pcb, heatsink, vrm's, quality of parts but the cheaper core would give a circa £80 difference which is all that's required.

in fact making another run of heatsinks, and a different pcb/vrm's(I'm assuming perhaps incorrectly the 7970 uses digi vrm's like the previous series of cards, I could be wrong) costs a decent amount and saves probably sub £15 in cost, while having to design, build and validate an entire extra range of cards. Even apart from the stupidness of cheaping out on it(they could have done same cooler/pcb and just only used 6 phases power instead of 12 maybe) they could at least have put 50p's worth of alu sink across the vrm's.

Unfortunately felt really unwell today, not in the mood for ripping apart my case as I have a cooler and other stuff to mess with, will test it out tomorrow.

I do agree they cheaped out a bit, but I paid same price as you, and can't really complain too much considering.

Had I paid the £380 or so most are asking for the card, I would have felt differently.

Despite all that, the cards still clock and run pretty well, even if they are not up there with the best clocks I have seen.

Generally am pretty happy with them, and just waiting for the last piece of my build puzzle (3770K) to complete my build and then hoping to stick with setup for long time to come, with only minor changes like larger SSD's when cheaper.

Back on OCing, found I was not totally game stable at 1040 @ 1.1v, but just one more bump to 1.106V seems to have solved that.

Seems fine in games so far at 1120 @ 1.174V. Didn't see my temps go above 67 on top card at this which surprised me. Bottom card was in low 60's.

Considering the heat issues related to crossfire, especially with a cooler so large, they aren't doing too bad. Though do keep in mind I have removed the shroud from my cards.

Anyway, got plenty more gaming to do at these clocks before I will call them completely stable.

Troezar · 12 Apr 2012 at 14:06

Eyetrip what drivers and overclocking software are you using? I've read reports recently about conflicts and want to avoid any when my card arrives.

It's the final part so I'll be sorting out a proper CPU and GPU overclock and doing a tidy job of all the cables

eyetrip · 12 Apr 2012 at 14:18

Overclocking has been a pain to be honest.

I have found the 14.2 betas the best drivers.

I do not enable/touch overdrive in CCC

I install Trixx - only for the disable ULPS tick box. Afterburner doesn't have this option. Not sure if this is an issue for single cards, but in crossfire, with ULPS enabled, it was impossible to OC.

Install Afterburner, and edit the shortcut to add parameter "-xcl" without the apostrophes to the end of shortcut. When you use that shortcut, AB will tell you you need to reboot. Before rebooting, remove the parameter.

This extends the OC limits, but does not enable unofficial overclocking - the two are different. Not sure what the diff is, but I think I had more stability using parameter to extend clocks.

When the 12.4 official are out and have got my 3770K will be starting from scratch again at end of month. By then I will know all my stable OC's

dave_beast · 12 Apr 2012 at 15:14

Less than 6 months ago a 6970 cost £299 as an amazing bargain, now you can get the 7950 for that price!!!

ChrisD. · 12 Apr 2012 at 17:09

Overclocking for me has been a pain, specifically voltage control.

But with 12.4 beta and MSI Afterburner beta 15, with my BIOS in position 2, it's now quite easy.

Just wish I could go above 1200/1600.

eyetrip · 12 Apr 2012 at 17:10

MilanoChris said:
Overclocking for me has been a pain, specifically voltage control.

But with 12.4 beta and MSI Afterburner beta 15, with my BIOS in position 2, it's now quite easy.

Just wish I could go above 1200/1600.

I just wish I could REACH 1200 (With decent volts that is)

Part of me suspects that tdp limits become a problem with these cards.

I can run higher core clocks when I drop memory clocks.

Wish I could throw that power control slider to 30/40%

drunkenmaster · 12 Apr 2012 at 18:27

dave_beast said:
Less than 6 months ago a 6970 cost £299 as an amazing bargain, now you can get the 7950 for that price!!!

6970 at £299 was NEVER an amazing bargain, even slightly, more specifically because it launched at £270 iirc, and even more specifically, because a 10% slower 6970 costs 25% less and was a much much better bargain, even less of a bargain because while slower a 5850 was also available for £190 on launch, and was available well over 2 years before a 7950. Two years to double the performance and increase price over £160 for launch and months later get that down to £100 more..... no bargain there.

Great cards, sure, great bargain, not a chance, a 7950 at closer to £250 would be spot on, considering the versions we've gotten at £314, a reference version should really be going for £270ish.