7950 Crossfire Usage issues..

LtMatt · 13 Jun 2013 at 17:40

banjoted said:
Thanks mate. You really are a star. A couple of questions if that's OK:

1. You refer to Windows 98. I'm running Windows 7. That all OK?
2. I came across this method. Looks a little easier?
3. Would I overclock as normal after this? Do I have to avoid Afterburner as I've seen mentioned elsewhere?
4. I presume the change is permanent. That is, unless I flick the switch back?

1. Yes its just so you can flash the card in dos which is the safest method.
2. You can flash via windows but its not the safest way. Also sometimes you need to force the flash to make it work (thats what the -f command is). Last time i tried the windows method it didn't force the flash and it borked the bios and i had to flash the card in dos anyway. If the bios is a perfect fit it should work, but i don't take the risk as i got stung when i did try it.
3. No afterburner works 100% with this non boost HIS 7950 Ice-Q bios. You can overclock normally. Stock clocks will become 1070/1500 and stock voltage will be vary depending on your cards asic. As long as you can run stable on those clocks and at that voltage you'll be golden. I;ve owned 5 7950's, all have been able to run those clocks at that voltage.
4. The change is permanent. The card thinks its a non boost HIS Ice-Q. The card also gives you up to 50% power tune. Flick the switch back to bios 2 if you want the old bios back.

You do have a HIS 7950 Ice-Q boost card ? If you do then you shouldn't have any problems.

tommybhoy · 13 Jun 2013 at 17:55

LtMatt said:
The card also gives you permanent 50% power tune.

???

Just checking, isn't it up to 50%?

Or is it a permanent 50% even though it's adjustable(on mine anyway)?

LtMatt · 13 Jun 2013 at 17:56

tommybhoy said:
???

Just checking, isn't it up to 50%?

Or is it a permanent 50% even though it's adjustable(on mine anyway)?

Correct up to 50%. I'll edit my post.

banjoted · 13 Jun 2013 at 18:38

LtMatt said:
1. Yes its just so you can flash the card in dos which is the safest method.
2. You can flash via windows but its not the safest way. Also sometimes you need to force the flash to make it work (thats what the -f command is). Last time i tried the windows method it didn't force the flash and it borked the bios and i had to flash the card in dos anyway. If the bios is a perfect fit it should work, but i don't take the risk as i got stung when i did try it.
3. No afterburner works 100% with this non boost HIS 7950 Ice-Q bios. You can overclock normally. Stock clocks will become 1070/1500 and stock voltage will be vary depending on your cards asic. As long as you can run stable on those clocks and at that voltage you'll be golden. I;ve owned 5 7950's, all have been able to run those clocks at that voltage.
4. The change is permanent. The card thinks its a non boost HIS Ice-Q. The card also gives you up to 50% power tune. Flick the switch back to bios 2 if you want the old bios back.

You do have a HIS 7950 Ice-Q boost card ? If you do then you shouldn't have any problems.

OK mate, thanks

banjoted · 13 Jun 2013 at 19:17

Right, done! I think. How do I test that it's working?

banjoted · 13 Jun 2013 at 19:19

Ah - the default has become 1070/1500! Mate, you're a god amongst men.

LtMatt · 13 Jun 2013 at 19:58

banjoted said:
Right, done! I think. How do I test that it's working?

banjoted said:
Ah - the default has become 1070/1500! Mate, you're a god amongst men.

Atta boy.

banjoted · 13 Jun 2013 at 20:36

OK - I have issues. Crashing issues specifically.

I do wonder if it has to do with the fact that the default setting is now 1500 for the memory. Prior to all of this I've never been able to OC the cards beyond 1300/1350. I've tried applying a lower clock both through CCC and AB, but I'm still crashing. Happens every time I start a 3DMark bench and just now in Remember me :-(

Should add that GPU-Z is showing the memory clock at 1500 even when I downclock.

LtMatt · 13 Jun 2013 at 20:39

banjoted said:
OK - I have issues. Crashing issues specifically.

I do wonder if it has to do with the fact that the default setting is now 1500 for the memory. Prior to all of this I've never been able to OC the cards beyond 1300/1350. I've tried applying a lower clock both through CCC and AB, but I'm still crashing. Happens every time I start a 3DMark bench and just now in Remember me

Should add that GPU-Z is showing the memory clock at 1500 even when I downclock.

Ok don't worry we can get you a bios with lower clocks. What type of crashing are you getting? Can you recover from the crash or does the pc completely lock up and you have to press the reset button?

What's the furthest you've managed to clock the memory?

LtMatt · 13 Jun 2013 at 20:48

banjoted said:
OK - I have issues. Crashing issues specifically.

I do wonder if it has to do with the fact that the default setting is now 1500 for the memory. Prior to all of this I've never been able to OC the cards beyond 1300/1350. I've tried applying a lower clock both through CCC and AB, but I'm still crashing. Happens every time I start a 3DMark bench and just now in Remember me

Should add that GPU-Z is showing the memory clock at 1500 even when I downclock.

Have you reinstalled drivers + overclock tools? Sometimes gpu-z can take a while to update.

If you're still having problems try this bios. Just cut and paste it onto your usb stick and flash both cards again. This bios is exactly the same but uses lower core and memory clocks so should work better. 1000 core and 1400 memory.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/4q2awk

Let me know how you get on.

banjoted · 13 Jun 2013 at 21:13

Before now the highest clock on the memory I've been able to achieve is 1300. Are there any bios available to that spec mate? Really sorry to keep asking things of you.

Oh and yes, everything was reinstalled ;-)

LtMatt · 13 Jun 2013 at 21:19

1400 is the lowest it goes. You do have the HIS 7950 Ice-Q Boost right? Can you increase the vram voltage in afterburner or HIS Tool? You should be able to. Maybe that would make the memory stable.

If all else fails just go back to the stock bios and use option 1.

banjoted · 13 Jun 2013 at 21:24

Yep, definitely two boosts. I'll try the 1400 bios and up the vram. What setting is safe for the voltage do you reckon?

banjoted · 13 Jun 2013 at 21:53

Right, new bios installed and....

... it just ran the 3DMark bench fine! I won't get too excited just yet but very promising. If it all goes **** up I'll flick the GPU switches back to 2 and try your first option.

Seriously mate, I really appreciate all the time you've spent helping me today. I work as a publisher online and you wouldn't believe the number of vile cretins I have to endure every day. It's things like this that remind the internet can actually be a great place.

A pint on me next time I'm in Norwich ;-)

banjoted · 13 Jun 2013 at 21:55

Saying that....

I just noticed that Afterburner recorded 0% usage on the second GPU during that test. Xfire is enabled in CCC. Odd?

UPDATE: OK, all is working well. But these GPU numbers looks pretty 'spikey' to me, no?

LtMatt · 13 Jun 2013 at 22:36

banjoted said:
Right, new bios installed and....

... it just ran the 3DMark bench fine! I won't get too excited just yet but very promising. If it all goes **** up I'll flick the GPU switches back to 2 and try your first option.

Seriously mate, I really appreciate all the time you've spent helping me today. I work as a publisher online and you wouldn't believe the number of vile cretins I have to endure every day. It's things like this that remind the internet can actually be a great place.

A pint on me next time I'm in Norwich

No problem mate, happy to help.

banjoted said:
Saying that....

I just noticed that Afterburner recorded 0% usage on the second GPU during that test. Xfire is enabled in CCC. Odd?

UPDATE: OK, all is working well. But these GPU numbers looks pretty 'spikey' to me, no?

Are you running the 13.6 Beta drivers and the 13.5 Cap file from here?

Make sure you've got the power limit at +20% as well.

Try playing an intensive game with vsync off like battlefield 3 and see if you get more constant usage. Hard to tell which a benchmark running unless you have the OSD running.

banjoted · 13 Jun 2013 at 22:38

Yep, 13.6 and power limit at +30%

LtMatt · 13 Jun 2013 at 22:42

banjoted said:
Yep, 13.6 and power limit at +30%

Set up the on screen display in afterburner and monitor gpu usage in a game with vsync and any fps limiters off. Or you run unigine valley or something as the afterburner osd works with that. I normally see around 90-98% usage on both gpu's on valley. It rarely gets to 99% as the scenes change too often.

banjoted · 14 Jun 2013 at 08:30

Thought I had it all working again last night but started getting some random freezes in games (system would recover after 5 seconds or so) and then eventually crashing again. To be honest, this is becoming far too big a hassle. I'll probably try your first suggestion tonight but just about ready to sell these two cards and get a GTX 780 if I'm being honest!

LtMatt · 14 Jun 2013 at 08:35

banjoted said:
Thought I had it all working again last night but started getting some random freezes in games (system would recover after 5 seconds or so) and then eventually crashing again. To be honest, this is becoming far too big a hassle. I'll probably try your first suggestion tonight but just about ready to sell these two cards and get a GTX 780 if I'm being honest!

It sounds like the core is crashing. Try bumping the core voltage 2-3 notches and you should be stable.

However you can always go back to other bios and try the first option. Sounds like you have a crap clocking card in there somewhere.