Radeon 7950 issues...

PowerPie5000 · 27 Sep 2012 at 20:13

Ok, i've just spent over 4 hours playing BF3 today on ultra settings (the longest gaming session with my Radeon 7950 so far) and have a few issues/niggles that concern me a bit:

1. The GPU temp never goes over 61C no matter what i run and how long i run it for (sounds great, but could be a sensor fault as it's starting to seem a bit unrealistic now).

2. I left the room for a while and when i came back there was a slight electrical/plastic burning smell... I can only assume it's from the graphics card as it's the only new part aside from my i5 3570K.

3. The graphics card has started making a slight electrical buzz sound under load (a kind of fuzzy sound)... Not like the typical squealing coil whine found with some graphics cards.

4. My VRM temps are still stuck at 24C all the time and the GPU still runs at an insanely high 1.25V when gaming! BF3 started to get a bit glitchy towards the end of my session (textures flickering and some even disappearing!).

5. Why does the GPU fan run at 100% for 6-7 seconds when i switch on my PC? It's loud and no other card i've owned has done this!

... Is any of this a good enough reason to RMA the card? And do i do this through OCUK or the manufacturer (HIS)? I've had the card for just over 2 weeks now.

Defy Belief · 27 Sep 2012 at 20:36

Temperature could just be good, what HIS card is it, i.e what cooler?

Did you remove all of the plastic bits that came stuck to the card before fitting?

Not sure on voltage or VRM temps so can't comment on that, try turning on V=sync to see if that eliminates/lessens the noise.

Could be what it does when it posts. My old 8800GT does it, all the new MSI Hawk cards do to remove dust.

RMA would be with OCUK.

PowerPie5000 · 27 Sep 2012 at 20:43

Defy Belief said:
Temperature could just be good, what HIS card is it, i.e what cooler?

Did you remove all of the plastic bits that came stuck to the card before fitting?

Not sure on voltage or VRM temps so can't comment on that, try turning on V=sync to see if that eliminates/lessens the noise.

Could be what it does when it posts. My old 8800GT does it, all the new MSI Hawk cards do to remove dust.

RMA would be with OCUK.

It's the 'HIS 7950 IceQ Boost Clock' (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-065-HS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1673)... I just find it strange that the temp never exceeds 61C no matter how much it's stressed. The VRM temps should fluctuate during usage and they usually get very hot under load, but my VRM temp readings seem to be stuck at 24C all the time (when idle and under load).

This card had none of the 'peel away' plastic on it (like some do) and the full fan speed on boot lasts for about 6-7 seconds and stops when the motherboard post/boot screen shows (the mobo screen used to show up faster after switching on the PC with my Radeon 6870... It's as if the Radeon 7950 is delaying the post/boot screen).

Defy Belief · 27 Sep 2012 at 20:49

Looking at a review it states that it's about 62 degrees full load, depending on the ambient temperature i'd say your 60 is correct. My 670 never hits over 60 and often sits below.

PowerPie5000 · 27 Sep 2012 at 21:10

Defy Belief said:
Looking at a review it states that it's about 62 degrees full load, depending on the ambient temperature i'd say your 60 is correct. My 670 never hits over 60 and often sits below.

Maybe the GPU temp sensors are perfectly fine then... It just seems weird that it will hit 61C with BF3 or Crysis 2 and then stay the same with Furmark, 3Dmark 11 and Unigine (which stress the GPU more than typical gaming would). My case does have good cooling too (4 fans) and the room temp is 23C at the moment.

The first time i loaded up Crysis 2 with this card (which was just a little while ago), it emitted a horrible and loud squealing noise... The loudest coil whine i've heard from any card! But now it doesn't do it and i didn't even change anything :confused:

EDIT: i can't find any reviews for the 'Boost Clock' version, just the standard IceQ Turbo (without boost)... Mine spikes upto 1.25V when gaming (in boost mode) which i doubt the standard version does. Mine should theoretically have higher temps than the review card which would be running at a lower voltage.

C64 · 27 Sep 2012 at 21:18

Try uengine or furmark and download gpuz and monitor temps with that just click continue refreshing this screen whilst gpuz is in the background or log to txt file.

After running if you click where it shows the temps you can change to max which shall show you the load temp it reached if you cant be bothered to log to file.

You should be hitting at least 72c load as it's normally a good 10 c above gaming temps.

If it remains at 62c running furmark or uengine then I would say defo isn't reading correctly, I wouldn't get too worried though a lot of gpu's are built to withstand very high temps I'd only be concerned if say the vrm is going above say 85c and yea that's probably the burning smell.

Gregster · 27 Sep 2012 at 21:22

I would be concerned with the burning smell and buzzing sound to be honest. Another user here blew his card and before it died he said it sounded a little like an Arc welcder. Is this what you are hearing?

PowerPie5000 · 27 Sep 2012 at 21:24

C64 said:
Try uengine or furmark and download gpuz and monitor temps with that just click continue refreshing this screen whilst gpuz is in the background or log to txt file.

After running if you click where it shows the temps you can change to max which shall show you the load temp it reached if you cant be bothered to log to file.

You should be hitting at least 72c load as it's normally a good 10 c above gaming temps.

If it remains at 62c running furmark or uengine then I would say defo isn't reading correctly, I wouldn't get too worried though a lot of gpu's are built to withstand very high temps I'd only be concerned if say the vrm is going above say 85c.

Already done that and it still stays at 61C... seems a bit suspect to me along with the stuck VRM temps :rolleyes:

.

PowerPie5000 said:
It just seems weird that it will hit 61C with BF3 or Crysis 2 and then stay the same with Furmark, 3Dmark 11 and Unigine (which stress the GPU more than typical gaming would).

C64 · 27 Sep 2012 at 21:25

PowerPie5000 said:
Already done that and it still stays at 61C... seems a bit suspect to me along with the stuck VRM temps .

it's defo not reading right if furmark is giving 62c but did you turn the fan to 100% when you ran furmark or change anything else ?

PowerPie5000 · 27 Sep 2012 at 21:26

gregster said:
I would be concerned with the burning smell and buzzing sound to be honest. Another user here blew his card and before it died he said it sounded a little like an Arc welcder. Is this what you are hearing?

It's hard to explain... kind of like a static sound, or similar to the fuzzy noise you get on an old TV when the channel isn't tuned (just not as loud). It emitted some very loud squealing when i first ran Crysis 2 on it a short while ago (after playing BF3), but now i can't reproduce that noise with the same game which is odd as i didn't change anything :confused:

C64 · 27 Sep 2012 at 21:27

what is temp #3 in gpuz thats more likely to be the vrm temp vrm should probably be anywhere from 70c to 90c

PowerPie5000 · 27 Sep 2012 at 21:33

C64 said:
it's defo not reading right if furmark is giving 62c but did you turn the fan to 100% when you ran furmark or change anything else ?

The card is running on stock settings with the fan on auto (it never goes above 48% which is around 1800rpm).

PowerPie5000 · 27 Sep 2012 at 21:34

C64 said:
what is temp #3 in gpuz thats more likely to be the vrm temp vrm should probably be anywhere from 70c to 90c

GPU-Z displays the VRM temps as:

VRM Temperature 1 = 24C
VRM Temperature 2 = 24C

... I get the same results with AIDA64 and HWINFO64 too. HWMonitor doesn't even detect the VRM sensors.

C64 · 27 Sep 2012 at 21:35

there's just no way furmark wouldn't be higher temps than gaming load can you test gaming load set the fan to manual 40% then compare with furmark with fan at 40% obviously watch temps closely so you dont overheat

Gregster · 27 Sep 2012 at 21:36

PowerPie5000 said:
It's hard to explain... kind of like a static sound, or similar to the fuzzy noise you get on an old TV when the channel isn't tuned (just not as loud). It emitted some very loud squealing when i first ran Crysis 2 on it a short while ago (after playing BF3), but now i can't reproduce that noise with the same game which is odd as i didn't change anything

Make sure it is not the PSU. Maybe a spider climbed into it and this is the burning smell (hopefully). People have been confused before thinking it was the GPU when infact it was the PSU making lots of noise.

After a thorough examination of all components, I would run a few passes of Heaven bench just to make sure all is ok.

Ohhh and My MSI LTG 680 spins up to 100% when the computer starts. The EVGA 680 doesn't though...Weird huh?

Defy Belief · 27 Sep 2012 at 21:38

C64 said:
You should be hitting at least 72c load as it's normally a good 10 c above gaming temps.

If it remains at 62c running furmark or uengine then I would say defo isn't reading correctly, I wouldn't get too worried though a lot of gpu's are built to withstand very high temps I'd only be concerned if say the vrm is going above say 85c and yea that's probably the burning smell.

Not necessarily true, Running heaven benchmark with my 670 it peaks at 59 degrees and BF3 runs at 60.

Is it furmark that isn't recommended cause it can kill gpus?

C64 · 27 Sep 2012 at 21:38

also feel the PCI IO slot on the gpu if its red hot then its obviously going over 62c

C64 · 27 Sep 2012 at 21:40

Defy Belief said:
Not necessarily true, Running heaven benchmark with my 670 it peaks at 59 degrees and BF3 runs normally at 60.

well that isn't necessarily accurate if the fan is set to auto could just be spinning up more ? try that test with the same manual fan setting but yea I do understand that bf3 is also a good gpu tester as maybe that puts the same extreme load on cards as furmark and heaven just going by my own experiences over the years and even now my gaming loads are about -10c compared to furmark etc

But yea i dont own bf3 so could be wrong but all other games for me are at least 10c cooler than furmark or heaven.

ukbilleh · 27 Sep 2012 at 21:43

I had the same whine with an old GTX 570. Wouldn't do it in game but only under certain tests when running windows experience index. Also turned out I couldn't apply any real overclock to the card as it would just instantly crash as soon as I tried.

I read somewhere that sometimes it's normal and just capacitor whine and other times it means that certain components can be faulty or near the end of their life.

After I ended up upgrading to a couple of 6950's and had none of the same problems and overclocking was ok.

Just my 2c

Defy Belief · 27 Sep 2012 at 21:45

C64 said:
well that isn't necessarily accurate if the fan is set to auto could just be spinning up more ? try that test with the same manual fan setting but yea I do understand that bf3 is also a good gpu tester as maybe that puts the same extreme load on cards as furmark and heaven just going by my own experiences over the years and even now my gaming loads are about -10c compared to furmark etc

But yea i dont own bf3 so could be wrong but all other games for me are at least 10c cooler than furmark or heaven.

Yeah I always do the tests with my same custom fan profile, BF3 is just really heavy on a GPU at ultra. My only other games I play occasionally are CS:GO and Trine and they run at about 40-45.

OP if you create a custom fan profile does it then make any changes?