which 7950?

[tommybhoy]

^

It's the vrms that cause the artifacting in oc'ing imo from my findings, it doesn't matter if the core sits@50-60c, if the vrms don't stay cool enough, then the artifacts start.

Strangely though, they can get very hot@stock speeds if you slow the fans down enough but it stays stable.

 

[Geo-Gamer]

The possibility I'm considering is whether high ASIC cards are the ones running hotter while overvolted.

I don't think it's that as I bought mine with an ASIC of 92% and have it overclocked to 1150/1800 and temps are fine.

 

[MOOGLEYS]

The vrms are rated to 125.c the cooling would need to be really bad to get them that hot..

 

[tommybhoy]

I couldn't get past 1150/1450MHz until the vrms could be kept under 80c, anything above that and it was artifact city despite the core not going above 60c.

I thought I reached the ceiling with the card until I got the vrms under control.

 

[MOOGLEYS]

I couldn't get past 1150/1450MHz until the vrms could be kept under 80c, anything above that and it was artifact city despite the core not going above 60c.

Strange from everything I have read the VRM's will show no i'll effect at anything under 125.c and when they overheat they just shut down the core causing the driver to crash or system to freeze. ?

Going to have a look at the VRM's on my stock 7970 and see if I can get anymore info from them and then see what temps I can push them up to and what the effects are. I'm going to try and do a with and without heatsinks comparison and see how much difference they make.

I imagine this 7970 will end up in the pile with my 2700K by the wekend.

 

[Devrij]

Strange from everything I have read the VRM's will show no i'll effect at anything under 125.c and when they overheat they just shut down the core causing the driver to crash or system to freeze. ?

Going to have a look at the VRM's on my stock 7970 and see if I can get anymore info from them and then see what temps I can push them up to and what the effects are. I'm going to try and do a with and without heatsinks comparison and see how much difference they make.

I imagine this 7970 will end up in the pile with my 2700K by the wekend.

I noticed the voltage drop by about 0.05V once my VRMs hit the low 90s, so perhaps this vdroop is causing artifacts/instability? Obviously raising your voltage to compensate just raises your VRM temps and causes more issues, so it could be that?

 

[MOOGLEYS]

Could well be my VRM temps on a reference stock 7970 according to GPU-z are 76.c with the card at 1200/1600 1.2v. Increasing the voltage further seems to make little difference to VRM temps but the core temp shoots up and the system freezes... ??

And my god is a reference 7970 loud, when clocked up it sounds like my little Dyson hand hoover thing..

 

[tommybhoy]

Lots of great info in here, best thread in ages

Just ordered an Exreme 2 mounting plate and screws from AC in Hong Kong for £17 delivered to go onto my spare 5870 Extreme that was on one of my 6950>70's and the 5870 before that.

If all goes well and fits like it should@£37, that cooler has got to be one of the best purchases I have made ever in regards to PC's.

We'll see how long it takes to get here now.

 

[MOOGLEYS]

Not even furmark can stress my Accelero fitted 7950. Fan at %50 1080p test with 4 x AA max temp was 61.c and still silent....

This cooler is awesome....

 

[tommybhoy]

Be careful, with Furmark, better still don't use it as you can't monitor vrms on the DD, it could be tanking them, it might be fine now, but a few months down the line..

 

[MOOGLEYS]

Just playing testing performance. I like Furmark as it heats everything up quick and is good for testing custom fan profiles. Although I have given up with fan profiles with the accelero and just leave it at %50 it's silent and keeps the card well under 60.c.

 

[rallyslag]

After being confused about all the comments about the gigabyte windforce not having vram heat-sink cooling i decided to take mine apart to see . And i can confirm . ITS A LIE! more like a Chinese whisper or something . The heatsink does infact cover the ram and gpu . So i do not know were the roumour came from but its wrong

Taken from tech power up review


" At the heart of this setup is the biggest block which has a unique RAM heatsink to cool the GDDR5 modules. This heatsink also features Triangle Cool technology, which uses a series of fins and triangular clip modules to better direct airflow over the heatsink."

 

[Uncle Petey]

@Rally****,

Don't suppose you took any pics? I just checked the review and they've only got pics of the bare pcb.

Edit: love how it censors your name in posts lol.

 

[rallyslag]

I dint take any of mine but a quick qoogle

http://www.vortez.net/articles_pages/gigabyte_hd7950_windforce_review,7.html

 

[Matd80]

To the OP: http://m.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-7950-review-benchmark,3207.html quite useful comparison of 6 different brands of 7950.

This is what finally swayed me to get the HIS 7950 iceq boost

 

[Uncle Petey]

I dint take any of mine but a quick qoogle

http://www.vortez.net/articles_pages/gigabyte_hd7950_windforce_review,7.html

Ah cheers.

Can you confirm that that's exactly what you saw when you removed the cooler and that there is no additional plate/heatsink?
It's just that I don't see any heatsink on the VRM's there. All I can see is the integrated plate for the core and vram
It looks like the fans blow air through the main heatsink and onto the bare VRMs.

Edit: Sorry, didn't read your post properly. You were talking about VRAM not VRM's /Doh.

 

[spoffle]

After being confused about all the comments about the gigabyte windforce not having vram heat-sink cooling i decided to take mine apart to see . And i can confirm . ITS A LIE! more like a Chinese whisper or something . The heatsink does infact cover the ram and gpu . So i do not know were the roumour came from but its wrong

Taken from tech power up review


" At the heart of this setup is the biggest block which has a unique RAM heatsink to cool the GDDR5 modules. This heatsink also features Triangle Cool technology, which uses a series of fins and triangular clip modules to better direct airflow over the heatsink."

It's not a lie because no one's said that. You're getting confused about what we're talking about. Re-read the posts and you'll understand.

No one has mentioned VRAM, we're talking about VRMs:

http://www.vortez.net/index.php?ct=articles&action=file&id=14434

VRM = Voltage Regulation Module

VRM doesn't = RAM.

 

[rallyslag]

It's not a lie because no one's said that. You're getting confused about what we're talking about. Re-read the posts and you'll understand.

No one has mentioned VRAM, we're talking about VRMs:

http://www.vortez.net/index.php?ct=articles&action=file&id=14434

VRM = Voltage Regulation Module

VRM doesn't = RAM.

I used the word lie tongue in cheek , And i have read it wrong, sorry! . Thats why i got confused, i first though people were talking about ram chips not vrm's .
A big Hommer' DOH!'

So gpuz measures VRM temps not VRAM then ?

 

[spoffle]

On GPUZ, if it says "VRM Temperature" that's not the VRAM, it's the VRMs.

As for "tongue in cheek" that wasn't my point, my point was based on you reading it wrong.

 

[Devrij]

I used the word lie tongue in cheek , And i have read it wrong, sorry! . Thats why i got confused, i first though people were talking about ram chips not vrm's .
A big Hommer' DOH!'

So gpuz measures VRM temps not VRAM then ?

I haven't checked to see if it measures vram temps tbh. It's rarely a concern in terms of overclocking (I saw a gain of 1fps in heaven with a 100mhz VRAM overclock, so I don't push it too hard for the small gains it gives)