7950GX2 Only working on 1 GPU problem. Help Appreciated

MeatLoaf · 3 Sep 2006 at 23:15

The Asgard said:
Right its back in its borked state and I have just ran 3D mark 06 with everest running.

GPU1 °C Min 62 Max 80
GPU2 °C Min 67 Max 70

Looks like GPU2 is not working

Do you have another mobo to try it in? Or a mate with a PCI-E system with a compatible mobo?

The Asgard · 3 Sep 2006 at 23:19

MeatLoaf said:
Do you have another mobo to try it in? Or a mate with a PCI-E system with a compatible mobo?

I have access to loads m8. I even have a spare P5W DH in my case, lol. I'm at the point now where I am pretty sick of messing around now. Spent quiet a few hours testing, reinstalling ...... I had no problem with my X1900 XT-X and I know other people have had no problems with the P5W.

Might give a X1900 Xfire system a go

redeye · 3 Sep 2006 at 23:47

I've had exactly the same problem as The Asgard. I'm running an XFX 7950GX2 on an Asus P5BDLX WiFi, E6700. Problem started in similar circumstances, running 3Dmark06 on Proxycon when the frame rate dropped from 50+ to around 25, games became slow etc.

I tried everything- re-installed the drivers, re-installed windows, checked the temps (all seemed ok). So spent 30mins on the phone to XFX support in the states (it was late at night and they were really helpful) who could only suggest everything I had already done. They thought it very unlikely it was a card issue as they are apparently all individually tested before they leave the factor. So I changed the power supply (was running a Silverstone ST60F 600W), changed the motherboard for another P5BDLX and bought another 7950. I re-installed windows and guess what, it works perfectly. I benchmarked it for days and still is fine. I put the old 7950 in and it was still around 50% slow so definately the card is borked!

I've returned the card and the manufacturer has agreed it sounds like one of the cores has died. There seems to be an alarming high failure rate with these cards, probably due to the shocking cooling on them!

The Asgard · 4 Sep 2006 at 06:56

redeye said:
I've had exactly the same problem as The Asgard. I'm running an XFX 7950GX2 on an Asus P5BDLX WiFi, E6700. Problem started in similar circumstances, running 3Dmark06 on Proxycon when the frame rate dropped from 50+ to around 25, games became slow etc.

I tried everything- re-installed the drivers, re-installed windows, checked the temps (all seemed ok). So spent 30mins on the phone to XFX support in the states (it was late at night and they were really helpful) who could only suggest everything I had already done. They thought it very unlikely it was a card issue as they are apparently all individually tested before they leave the factor. So I changed the power supply (was running a Silverstone ST60F 600W), changed the motherboard for another P5BDLX and bought another 7950. I re-installed windows and guess what, it works perfectly. I benchmarked it for days and still is fine. I put the old 7950 in and it was still around 50% slow so definately the card is borked!

I've returned the card and the manufacturer has agreed it sounds like one of the cores has died. There seems to be an alarming high failure rate with these cards, probably due to the shocking cooling on them!

Was it an intermittent fault or had one board/gpu died from the start?

Just had mine on this morning for 3 hours running Orthos and Oblivion in a nice tree/grass area. Expected it to fail and it was still working. Max temps were 80/90 on gpu 1/2. This is the worst kind of fault.

Where did you get the info from for high failure rates on these cards m8?

Morfik · 4 Sep 2006 at 13:21

Hmm, I can't see it being the cooling causing the card to fail as a) the temps aren't that high and b) the card is brand new - it's not had time to suffer from high temperatures.

redeye · 4 Sep 2006 at 13:50

The Asgard said:
Was it an intermittent fault or had one board/gpu died from the start?

Just had mine on this morning for 3 hours running Orthos and Oblivion in a nice tree/grass area. Expected it to fail and it was still working. Max temps were 80/90 on gpu 1/2. This is the worst kind of fault.

Where did you get the info from for high failure rates on these cards m8?

It worked fine for a couple of days but then just out of the blue the performance just went. Yeah it did speed up and slow down quite regularly after that but it never ran at full speed again.

That's really wierd! :confused:

I've just read a lot of threads on various forums with people having similar problems. Probably a bit OTT of me to say "alarming high", I've just had enough of these cards after the amount of time, effort and money spent to try and sort it out.

The Asgard · 4 Sep 2006 at 14:00

redeye said:
I've just read a lot of threads on various forums with people having similar problems. Probably a bit OTT of me to say "alarming high", I've just had enough of these cards after the amount of time, effort and money spent to try and sort it out.

Well mine is going back and I have requested a refund. I pretty much spent all weekend messing with the thing. While its an amazing card when it was working I can't help thinking how reliable it would be in the long run. Far too much heat on the PCB for my liking.

Not sure what to buy now. The X1900XT-X was a great card but I needed more which is why the 7950 is so attractive. ummm

MeatLoaf · 4 Sep 2006 at 14:09

How about a pair of theose 7900GTOs, assuming you have an SLI mobo.

The Asgard · 4 Sep 2006 at 14:19

MeatLoaf said:
How about a pair of theose 7900GTOs, assuming you have an SLI mobo.

I'm on a P5W DH m8

MeatLoaf · 4 Sep 2006 at 15:02

Ahh.

Only really 3 choices then, 7900GTX/GTO, X1900XT/XTX or an X1950XTX

The Asgard · 4 Sep 2006 at 15:11

MeatLoaf said:
Ahh.

Only really 3 choices then, 7900GTX/GTO, X1900XT/XTX or an X1950XTX

Only option at the moment really is back to a X1900 or X1900 Xfire.

Elvis Himselvis · 5 Sep 2006 at 11:36

Is there any way to conclusively check whether both GPU cores are operating on the 7950 GX2?

With SLi set-ups you could have an on-screen bar which showed the load split between the two cards (indicating both cards were performing), this doesn't seem possible with the 7950 (or is it a driver issue?). Riva Tuner, cool bits etc seem to detect it as a single card/core rather than as an SLi solution (which I ssume is normal for this card) as a result it's hard to know exactly what is or is not happening.

Everest shows varying temps on the two cores, with one much hotter than the other, but does this prove anything? Bearing in mind the design of the card I would expect the lower GPU to get warmer as airflow is more restricted.

Surely there must be some way to check the two GPUs are working.

The Asgard · 5 Sep 2006 at 11:57

Elvis Himselvis said:
Is there any way to conclusively check whether both GPU cores are operating on the 7950 GX2?

With SLi set-ups you could have an on-screen bar which showed the load split between the two cards (indicating both cards were performing), this doesn't seem possible with the 7950 (or is it a driver issue?). Riva Tuner, cool bits etc seem to detect it as a single card/core rather than as an SLi solution (which I ssume is normal for this card) as a result it's hard to know exactly what is or is not happening.

Everest shows varying temps on the two cores, with one much hotter than the other, but does this prove anything? Bearing in mind the design of the card I would expect the lower GPU to get warmer as airflow is more restricted.

Surely there must be some way to check the two GPUs are working.

Temps are the key. I used everest to confirm 1 GPU was not working. Determine Idle temps for the core and if its withing a few degree's under load it isn't working.

Elvis Himselvis · 5 Sep 2006 at 12:28

The Asgard said:
Temps are the key. I used everest to confirm 1 GPU was not working. Determine Idle temps for the core and if its withing a few degree's under load it isn't working.

I see, on my 7950 the range in temps on each GPU core is about 20 degrees between idle and load, so I guess in my case both cores are working. It would be really useful to see exactly what portion of the load each core is taking though.

Thanks for the pointer.

The Asgard · 5 Sep 2006 at 12:36

there did used to some load balancing graphics you could enable on SLI that appeared within the game

Morfik · 5 Sep 2006 at 23:19

Been away for the past few days so wasn't able to do anymore testing, but now I'm back i'm fairly sure what's wrong with my card.

I don't think the fan on the inner GPU is working at all. Under load the temperature of the inner GPU goes up to 115c and i'm guessing is being shutdown to prevent damage which is why my performance suddenly drops. Even several minutes after when the outer gpu has had time to cool from around 76c under full load to 66c mostly idling (in windows) the inner gpu is still at 105c. Something's clearly wrong with its cooling.

Can I RMA the card direct to MSI do you think? Suffice to say that returning anything to the company I bought it off (that I can't name) is an incredible hassle and just not worth the effort so i'd prefer to deal with MSI direct.

The Asgard · 5 Sep 2006 at 23:25

Morfik said:
Been away for the past few days so wasn't able to do anymore testing, but now I'm back i'm fairly sure what's wrong with my card.

I don't think the fan on the inner GPU is working at all. Under load the temperature of the inner GPU goes up to 115c and i'm guessing is being shutdown to prevent damage which is why my performance suddenly drops. Even several minutes after when the outer gpu has had time to cool from around 76c under full load to 66c mostly idling (in windows) the inner gpu is still at 105c. Something's clearly wrong with its cooling.

Can I RMA the card direct to MSI do you think? Suffice to say that returning anything to the company I bought it off (that I can't name) is an incredible hassle and just not worth the effort so i'd prefer to deal with MSI direct.

Glad you have sorted the cause of your problem. Wished mine was that easy.

I would always deal with the supplier first. I know some manu won't deal direct. Best give MSI a ring first and make sure you get an RMA and make sure your insured so if the card goes missing your covered.

[Duff]Chef · 6 Sep 2006 at 14:41

anyone had these problems with the evga superclocked version
ive been running mine now jst fine and consideing purchasing another to go quad core, although not sure if there will that much benefit...

jst wondered if ive bought into a problem that is happening a lot

BeelzebubUK · 6 Sep 2006 at 15:04

[Duff]Chef said:
anyone had these problems with the evga superclocked version
ive been running mine now jst fine and consideing purchasing another to go quad core, although not sure if there will that much benefit...

jst wondered if ive bought into a problem that is happening a lot

Me too - haven't built the new machine its going in yet so I'm wondering if I should just send it back and get a crossfire X1900XT setup instead.

The Asgard · 6 Sep 2006 at 16:14

Well its looking like mine was just faulty. fornowagain bought an EVGA version and so far its working perfectly. Early days because he only got it last night but it was pretty obvious in a couple of hours of testing that mine was faulty.

Really have to say that when my 7950 was actually working it was an awesome card. I have pretty much decided to give the first round of DX10 cards a miss and get something to tied me over until the 2nd gen. I can't think of a better card than the 7950GX2 to do this. My next card will definately be an EVGA because of the warranty and option for upgrade in 90 days time.

I would say go for the 7950GX2