7950 Crossfire Usage issues..

LtMatt · 24 Mar 2013 at 11:54

Gregster said:
It is all good and I am sure if you are happy flashing BIOS's, you can easily get these cards working.

You shouldn't have to flash a bios to get a card working though. It should be sent back. If everyone does that then the issue with this bios won't ever get fixed. Don't risk voiding warranty or bricking the card Moogleys. Send it back for a different model or a complete refund.

Chrisoldinho · 24 Mar 2013 at 11:56

MOOGLEYS said:
Ok so it's not windows as I'm now getting the same problem again but on a single card. The clock speed is jumping between 800 and 925 almost constantly during use at stock settings. Setting the power bar to +20 makes no difference. This is causing stuttering and jerkiness in game.

After a good read it seems the problem is the boost bios. The simple fix is to re-flash with the stock bios but it seems the newer HIS iceq cannot be flashed even though they have a dual bios. Apparently the card after flashed will just not display as there is a hardware lock in place. I'm also not willing to try this on a few days old card that should work out of the box.

So it seems HIS are selling cards with a borked boost bios that causes very noticeable performance issues and have decided to not allow people a simple flash to stock to fix.

Both these cards are being returned I have had enough now. One is faulty the other is not fit for use so will DSR.

MOOGLEYS said:
HIS 7950 ICEQ BOOST H795QC3G2M

I have not tried to flash the bios so cannot confirm if the bios can be flashed or not.

Any idea where I could get hold of a none boost bios for this card? I have searched and asked all over.
is the his iceq boost 7950 a reference design?

skyjawa said:
Yeah the boost bios is rubbish on these, luckily I could flash both mine.

I tried the 7970 giga bois but one of the fans sat at 100% no matter what I tried

Chris.

MOOGLEYS · 24 Mar 2013 at 11:57

LtMatt said:
I've had a good look round but cannot see a lot of other cards having this issue. Where are you getting this from?

I do not wan't to link to other forums but if you search there a quite a few brands with the same problem using the boost bios.

A few examples from a quick search.

I need help guys. I just bought a Sapphire Dual X 7950 Boost edition yesterday and i immediately noticed on afterburner that GPU usage keeps on fluctuating whenever i'm gaming and benchmarking with 3dmark vantage, 3dmark 11 and heaven dx11. It couldnt stay in a specific percentage (%).

The boost bios acts like that it's a well documented problem that AMD are choosing to ignore.

I flashed my original card with a boost edition bios so they would be in sync. What a mistake. Fps were all over the shop in crossfire mode! Not to mention voltage. I found that if i put 20% on them it seemed to fix the fluctuation a lot at stock speeds (850-925) but when i overclocked them beyond those speeds it would just go silly again on the fps and voltage (monitored through AB).

My Windforce 7970 cannot maintain it's 1100Mhz clock it drops off suddenly causing jumping in Battlefield 3 ?

LtMatt · 24 Mar 2013 at 11:59

Chrisoldinho said:
Any idea where I could get hold of a none boost bios for this card? I have searched and asked all over.
is the his iceq boost 7950 a reference design?

Chris.

Here you go skip, non boost version. Have at it.

HIS H795F3G2M
GPU Device Id: 0x1002 0x679A
113-SV1G01-002
Tahiti B0 PRO 3GB/384B GDDR5 DLDVI-I/HDMI/2XMINI-DP 800E/1250M
(C) 1988-2010, Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
ATOMBIOSBK-AMD VER015.013.000.010.000705
SV1G01.002
Clock State 0
Core Clk: 800.00 MHz
Memory Clk: 1250.00 MHz
Flags: Boot
Clock State 1
Core Clk: 800.00 MHz
Memory Clk: 1250.00 MHz
Flags: Optimal Perf
Clock State 2
Core Clk: 800.00 MHz
Memory Clk: 1250.00 MHz
Flags: UVD
Clock State 3
Core Clk: 300.00 MHz
Memory Clk: 150.00 MHz
Flags:

Download link

http://www.sendspace.com/file/2m8ly7

MOOGLEYS said:
I do not wan't to link to other forums but if you search there a quite a few brands with the same problem using the boost bios.

A few examples from a quick search.

The boost bios acts like that it's a well documented problem that AMD are choosing to ignore.

Please trust me the links of these 'forums'.

Moogleys have you increased the power slider to +20%?

MOOGLEYS · 24 Mar 2013 at 12:00

Chrisoldinho said:
Any idea where I could get hold of a none boost bios for this card? I have searched and asked all over.
is the his iceq boost 7950 a reference design?

I tried the 7970 giga bois but one of the fans sat at 100% no matter what I tried

Chris.

Techpowerup have a stock HIS bios but I have no idea if it is the correct one or not so use with caution.

http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/index.php?page=1&architecture=ATI&manufacturer=HIS&model=HD+7950&interface=&memSize=0

Chrisoldinho · 24 Mar 2013 at 12:02

LtMatt said:
Here you go skip, non boost version. Have at it.

HIS H795F3G2M
GPU Device Id: 0x1002 0x679A
113-SV1G01-002
Tahiti B0 PRO 3GB/384B GDDR5 DLDVI-I/HDMI/2XMINI-DP 800E/1250M
(C) 1988-2010, Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
ATOMBIOSBK-AMD VER015.013.000.010.000705
SV1G01.002
Clock State 0
Core Clk: 800.00 MHz
Memory Clk: 1250.00 MHz
Flags: Boot
Clock State 1
Core Clk: 800.00 MHz
Memory Clk: 1250.00 MHz
Flags: Optimal Perf
Clock State 2
Core Clk: 800.00 MHz
Memory Clk: 1250.00 MHz
Flags: UVD
Clock State 3
Core Clk: 300.00 MHz
Memory Clk: 150.00 MHz
Flags:

Download link

http://www.sendspace.com/file/2m8ly7

you are a star. i have looked everywhere for this

last question, is the 7950 iceq boost a reference design?

MOOGLEYS · 24 Mar 2013 at 12:04

Chrisoldinho said:
you are a star. i have looked everywhere for this

last question, is the 7950 iceq boost a reference design?

From what I read it is based on a reference design but uses cheaper Elpida ram instead of the Hynix of the reference. This can cause some stability issues when flashing bios's.

Let us know how you get on as I'm interested to see if it works.

Chrisoldinho · 24 Mar 2013 at 12:05

MOOGLEYS said:
Techpowerup have a stock HIS bios but I have no idea if it is the correct one or not so use with caution.

http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/index.php?page=1&architecture=ATI&manufacturer=HIS&model=HD+7950&interface=&memSize=0

is that the one you just linked to on send space?

LtMatt · 24 Mar 2013 at 12:06

Moogleys have you increased the power slider to +20%? As i can replicate a similar issue on my card when i exceed my cards TDP limit.

Chrisoldinho · 24 Mar 2013 at 12:08

MOOGLEYS said:
From what I read it is based on a reference design but uses cheaper Elpida ram instead of the Hynix of the reference. This can cause some stability issues when flashing bios's.

Let us know how you get on as I'm interested to see if it works.

will do, thanks. that will explain the poor memory overclocks i can achieve!

LtMatt · 24 Mar 2013 at 12:10

Chrisoldinho said:
will do, thanks. that will explain the poor memory overclocks i can achieve!

Even if you have hynix ram its still lower rated than the hynix ram that comes with a 7970 so it will never clock as well.

MOOGLEYS · 24 Mar 2013 at 12:10

LtMatt said:
Moogleys have you increased the power slider to +20%? As i can replicate a similar issue on my card when i exceed my cards TDP limit.

Yes mate no difference. Tbh I kind of get the feeling no matter what I do voltage wise the card overrides it and does it's own thing. Under volting the card only seems to apply to the stock speed as soon as the card boosts it whacks 1.25v up its pipe which I think is why it is hitting it's TDP and dropping the clocks to compensate.

MOOGLEYS · 24 Mar 2013 at 12:11

Chrisoldinho said:
is that the one you just linked to on send space?

No idea. I linked to techpowerup who have all the bios files available.

LtMatt · 24 Mar 2013 at 12:12

MOOGLEYS said:
Yes mate no difference. Tbh I kind of get the feeling no matter what I do voltage wise the card overrides it and does it's own thing. Under volting the card only seems to apply to the stock speed as soon as the card boosts it whacks 1.25v up its pipe which I think is why it is hitting it's TDP and dropping the clocks to compensate.

Spot on there mate. I can replicate the issue. Its TDP based. It has to be a bios issue. My money is on the TDP limit being set incorrectly. If this was AMD's fault it would have been picked up in the official reviews. My money is on AIB bios with incorrect TDP limit set.

Chrisoldinho said:
is that the one you just linked to on send space?

Yes its the same ive downloaded and checked.

MOOGLEYS · 24 Mar 2013 at 12:48

Chrisoldinho said:
will do, thanks. that will explain the poor memory overclocks i can achieve!

Any joy ? I'm impatient...

Chrisoldinho · 24 Mar 2013 at 13:07

MOOGLEYS said:
Any joy ? I'm impatient...

Didn't work

3 black screens, flashed both cards as well.

Seems to BIOS either wasn't a none boost version of the IceQ, the search continues :rolleyes:

Chrisoldinho · 24 Mar 2013 at 13:08

I'd happily use the Gigabyte 7970 BIOS on both of these cards, if I could get the damn fan to stop running at 100% all the time.

MOOGLEYS · 24 Mar 2013 at 13:20

That's a shame.

Can you not adjust the fan speed manually with the 7970 bios ?

tommybhoy · 24 Mar 2013 at 13:49

There is a possibility something else is at fault, as mine don't suffer the problem moogleys getting.

LtMatt · 24 Mar 2013 at 13:54

tommybhoy said:
There is a possibility something else is at fault, as mine don't suffer the problem moogleys getting.

What is Moogleys using that you're not?