MSI 7970 OC Artifacting

samr2d2 · 6 Sep 2012 at 12:58

Installed my 7970 yesterday and everything seemed to be going ok, installed the 12.8 drivers and afterburner, idle temps between 38-45 c

Installed GW2 and after about 2 minutes of play the temps had reached 95c!

Quit out and looked around some forums, see if it was an issue with one of the graphics settings maxing out the card etc but didn't play again.

Wake up this morning and artifacts appearing on the desktop and while browsing, restart and then they became unbearable before the whole thing locks up and black screens

Reseated the card, started up again but now I'm getting artifacts on the bios screen! won't load into desktop before crashing either. tried it briefly in my old machine and it was producing artifacts there too

Looks like it's going to have to be RMA'ed to overclockers but just wondered if anyone could think of anything else to try before having to go through that ordeal

Rusty0611 · 6 Sep 2012 at 13:00

Sounds like its knackered. Especially with those temperature readings.

Gregster · 6 Sep 2012 at 13:06

I would return it. Something is not working correctly on that card (Memory I would guess). I assume you didn't overclock it at all and they are stock clocks?

samr2d2 · 6 Sep 2012 at 13:14

gregster said:
I would return it. Something is not working correctly on that card (Memory I would guess). I assume you didn't overclock it at all and they are stock clocks?

Yeah left it all at stock (1010 core and i think 1375 for memory) mainly for reasons like this.

I've made a post in the customer service forum too, wondered if it was worth re seating/pasting the cooler but worried that would void the warranty. Also seems like if that were the case any damage has already been done considering it artifacts on the bios screen.

Also i don't know how they pack other peoples stuff but i had a loose piece of thin bubble wrap placed in the box, didn't look like it was protecting anything, much less a £300 GPU

Rusty0611 · 6 Sep 2012 at 13:23

It would definitely void the warranty.

samr2d2 · 6 Sep 2012 at 14:08

Rusty0611 said:
It would definitely void the warranty.

Thought so. All back in the box now ready to send back

Still waiting for the customer service forum to message me back to sort the rma out

LtMatt · 6 Sep 2012 at 15:23

Yep i have that card and at stock my temps were around 80c and this is with the default fan profile which is very low.

Deffo a dodgy card send it back for another.

I'd be interested to know how well your next one clocks so i can compare it to mine.

Defy Belief · 6 Sep 2012 at 15:40

Even 80 sounds quite high to me, but yeah sounds like it's a dead one now so RMA.

LtMatt · 6 Sep 2012 at 16:01

Defy Belief said:
Even 80 sounds quite high to me, but yeah sounds like it's a dead one now so RMA.

7970's are built to operate between 80-85c, thats what an AMD rep on another enthusiast forum said.

Its easy to keep temps lower than that though. Its partly due to the lazy fan profile on the reference card.

EDIT Found what he said.

'7950 and 7970 have the same thermal threshold. I have five reference 7970s sitting here, and all of them go to 80-85C at load in a well-ventilated 650D.'

http://www.overclock.net/t/1292827/msi-says-my-overheating-7970-lightning-is-normal/70#post_17931716

Below that he confirms this is using the lazy silent default fan profile.

samr2d2 · 6 Sep 2012 at 17:57

LtMatt said:
Yep i have that card and at stock my temps were around 80c and this is with the default fan profile which is very low.

Deffo a dodgy card send it back for another.

I'd be interested to know how well your next one clocks so i can compare it to mine.

I nearly sent you a PM last night actually after reading a few of your posts on this forum saying you had the same card. But now it's completely fubar.

Still haven't had a reply in the customer service forum but i begrudge having to pay 10p a minute to talk about sending back a piece of faulty equipment!

sin · 6 Sep 2012 at 18:48

I got MSI 7970 OC too and at idle temps 31c and when play bf3 64c max temp

Rusty0611 · 6 Sep 2012 at 18:59

samr2d2 said:
I nearly sent you a PM last night actually after reading a few of your posts on this forum saying you had the same card. But now it's completely fubar.

Still haven't had a reply in the customer service forum but i begrudge having to pay 10p a minute to talk about sending back a piece of faulty equipment!

Indeed. The 0870 number is so historic. No decent company uses them any more (although OCUK appear to be the exception).

LtMatt · 6 Sep 2012 at 19:07

samr2d2 said:
I nearly sent you a PM last night actually after reading a few of your posts on this forum saying you had the same card. But now it's completely fubar.

Still haven't had a reply in the customer service forum but i begrudge having to pay 10p a minute to talk about sending back a piece of faulty equipment!

Feel free to drop me a trust if needed sam. Always up for comparing bits and bobs. (to clarify i mean gpu details before i get a naughty email from greg

)

LtMatt · 6 Sep 2012 at 19:08

sin said:
I got MSI 7970 OC too and at idle temps 31c and when play bf3 64c max temp

Whats your asic and default voltage please?

I haven't run stock for ages but im sure i saw it going up to 83c on battlefield 3 metro on the default fan profile.

Defy Belief · 6 Sep 2012 at 19:42

LtMatt said:
7970's are built to operate between 80-85c, thats what an AMD rep on another enthusiast forum said.

Its easy to keep temps lower than that though. Its partly due to the lazy fan profile on the reference card.

EDIT Found what he said.

'7950 and 7970 have the same thermal threshold. I have five reference 7970s sitting here, and all of them go to 80-85C at load in a well-ventilated 650D.'

http://www.overclock.net/t/1292827/msi-says-my-overheating-7970-lightning-is-normal/70#post_17931716

Below that he confirms this is using the lazy silent default fan profile.

Yeah reference models, if i'm buying a £400 lightning version of a card to hell would I want 85 degree load temps, more like 60.

LtMatt · 6 Sep 2012 at 20:01

Defy Belief said:
Yeah reference models, if i'm buying a £400 lightning version of a card to hell would I want 85 degree load temps, more like 60.

Well that's why you pay the extra. Or you just bump the fan speed up an extra 10% and watch temps drop and save yourself the ££.

FrankJH · 6 Sep 2012 at 20:09

sin said:
I got MSI 7970 OC too and at idle temps 31c and when play bf3 64c max temp

same card - and my idle is 38c (not sure if resolution would raise this as Im running at 2560*1600 on a 30" Dell) with 20% fan speed

All standard clocks - which I will run for another day or so as its only out of the box 24 hrs or so.

Not worried, just put this here for comparison for others.

LtMatt · 6 Sep 2012 at 20:13

FrankJH said:
same card - and my idle is 38c (not sure if resolution would raise this as Im running at 2560*1600 on a 30" Dell) with 20% fan speed

All standard clocks - which I will run for another day or so as its only out of the box 24 hrs or so.

Not worried, just put this here for comparison for others.

Load temps are more interesting, care to share those? Maybe run a full pass of unigine heaven (use the settings in this thread -1080p only - http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18386056&highlight=unigine+heaven) with stock clocks and the stock fan profile so i and other (cool) msi 7970 OC users can compare.

sin · 6 Sep 2012 at 20:20

asic 54.5
where do I find default voltage?

LtMatt · 6 Sep 2012 at 20:22

sin said:
asic 54.5
where do I find default voltage?

Bloody hell, i don't think ive ever seen one with that low an Asic.

Stock volts can be found by running afterburner. It should say in that. I guess you must have a stock voltage of 1.175.

How does it clock?