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7970 DCII can't overvolt

Martini1991

Martini1991

Martini1991

Caporegime
Joined
18 Sep 2009
Posts
30,509
Location
Dormanstown.
Hey guys, I recently switched from a GTX 680 to an AMD Radeon DCII 7970.
In my eyes it was a downgrade which I only did so I could run 1920x1080 3D on my Sammy 700D screen since Nvidia lacking any support for the monitor could only do SBS which translated to 980x1080.

My GTX680 did 1260MHZ on stock voltage, my 7970 is chugging along at only 1100MHZ, so all in all, fairly disappointed right now.

Having read reviews, and having the 7970 DCII, the card was designed for OC'ing, to have voltage thrown at it.
I know that there were problems with DCII's originally, but I think mines a revised model.

I've seen a lot of posts of people having the exact same problem without any solution.

I do however have a ROG board, and I know the 7970 DCII can do some weird stuff with a ROG board when connected to the voltage outpoints or whatnot, so maybe that'll be a way for me to overvolt it?

I've tried afterburner (Unlocking voltage, enabling unofficial OC, the EULA)
I've tried Trixx
I've tried GPU tweak

Cheers.
 
Wow that's really dissapointing, I have a directcu card and hold them in very high regard. Wasn't there a utility on the driver CD?
 
Gpu tweak should work, it might need a different version particularly for that model, not sure. Trizz/afterburner likely won't work as its a different pcb and probably different voltage control.

IT was really unclear if the bios controlled voltage stuff for the DC11 was via adding hardwired connections from certain points on the pcb to , I dunno, usb, something or other, or if it was some clip up thing that came in the box. I got the impression it was a soldering job which made it worthless IMHO.

Definitely mess around with gpu tweak more, on my Asus 7950, I found it to be more of a hinderance than a help, its a reference pcb though and afterburner works, its going back because frankly its a joke. Asus have half arsed their DC stuff this gen, other than being very very quiet at stock settings both load and idle, its rubbish.

Tweak took a while and randomly would allow settings to work, and other times not, no idea why. Have a look on their forums, maybe there is some afterburner config style line you need to put in to make gpu tweak work at max limits?
 
GPU tweak's a massive let down.
It lets me go from 1112mv to 1125mv, it's really not even worth it.

The DCII BIOS controlled stuff I agree was really stupidly unclear.
Getting sick of some AIB's quite frankly.
Where's a real paper manual for example?

My GTX680 at 1300MHZ would walk all over my 7970, it's disappointing =/.

psychodil said:
Wow that's really dissapointing, I have a directcu card and hold them in very high regard. Wasn't there a utility on the driver CD?
Click to expand...

I've tried it.

Also, my Direct CU II isn't 1000MHZ at stock.
I've changed the switch at the top of the card as that was the only way to get it to work at 120HZ.
I half wish I'd just gone passive 3D and did an EDID override for my 680 to work in Nvidia 3D Vision/
 
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Perhaps the best bet is to edit the voltages/clocks on the bios that you have working with 120hz. Back up the bios first though obviously. I always mod my bioses once I find what clocks/volts are stable just so I don't have a program running in the background.
 
Does the DUII come with a BIOS switch? You could try flashing the sapphire or MSI BIOS to the backup BIOS and see if that allows you unlock the voltage. Other then that I think you going to have to wait until ASUS either provides a new BIOS for the DUII model or updates afterburner or alternatively send it back under DSR and get the Sapphire OC edition with the custom cooler.

I have to say I'm surprised you got the DUII edition as there were quite a few complaints that on the 7950 DUII edition the heatstink wasn't making proper contact with the chips and was overheating even with a mild overclock was applied.
 
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I had two Asus HD7970-DC2T-3GD5 TOP cards both had to be RMA back to the supplies.

As I observe strange artefacts small noise grain/dots for certain colours on the screen at resolution of 2560x1600 using the dual-link dvi output. When I drop the resolution down to 1920x1200 these artefacts disappear.

When I connect using a display port cable to the monitor I see no artefacts at 2560x1600.

The switch on the card is to enable the dual-link dvi output on the card only.

I found a paper startup guide in with the CD and the manual may be on the CD?

Both MSI or ASUS O/C software unlock the voltage settings up 1300mv for me.

I found that one card could not be O/C past 1150 on the core and the other 1125, without major artefacts being seen. Extra voltes did not help and I found that both work best at low volts 1100mv.
 
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psychodil said:
Perhaps the best bet is to edit the voltages/clocks on the bios that you have working with 120hz. Back up the bios first though obviously. I always mod my bioses once I find what clocks/volts are stable just so I don't have a program running in the background.
Click to expand...

Radeon BIOS editor doesn't support the 7970's yet.

And afterburner really won't do anything to my 7970 voltage wise.
 
Judging by a couple other forums(asus's own usual and their "rog" forum), Asus don't seem very interested in letting it overvolt.

As I said before, my belief is Asus has simply done a half job trading off older products reputation.

My 7950 certainly was quiet, I'll give it that, I've returned it for a reference 7970 for £15 more, its faster, but most certainly louder. People who say the reference cards are quiet are mental, its not loud, it has no need to go to uber noise levels, but reference cards with blower fans aren't even close to silent under loud in a quiet case(neither are Nvidia's). Reference coolers suck, I got it specifically because of price and intention to watercool.

The 7950 I had was very very quiet both idle and stock speed/stock voltage even under load, well done there. But it ends up as a card that pretends to be premium but isn't a good overclocking card, that and they screwed up the heatsinks on all the first batches.

7970 seems to be even worse, custom PCB to enable better power delivery, better power cooling, memory cooling, bigger heatsink(still overly cheap on the actual size of the heatsink under that shroud), and then they screw it all up by making it all but unoverclockable......

I haven't liked Asus for some time, mobo's dying, cheaping out on everything and substandard products.

Send it back, basically it was sold as no less than a better overclocking card, otherwise 95% of the changes they made are pointless, it doesn't overclock well as they've essentially removed the most important aspect.

I got fairly lucky in that the place I got mine was easy to return to up to 30 days after you receive it, elsewhere you might have to moan to whoever sold it to you that its basically not fit for what its advertised for.

The asus sucks because its overbuilt for something 99% of people don't need, then they remove the vital voltage control.

The MSI sucks because its overbuilt even further, give you voltage control, but even for Ln2 cooling its overkill and overpriced.

Sapphire OC/VTX style heatsink and reference PCB seems to be the aircooling way to go this gen, custom pcb/big name cards have been a turd. Gigabyte, good sink, ref pcb.... simple and effective.
 
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psychodil said:
Flash it to a TOP bios, then voltage control should work. 1100 Mhz on stock volts is pretty good, what are temps like?
Click to expand...

Temps are stupid low, like 50c max under load :p
I haven't got a TOP BIOS at hand.
I did find an Asus 1000MHZ/1400 one which I assume is the TOP BIOS, it wouldn't flash though for some reason.
I'm still under the impression Asus have altered the DCII and I've got one of that batch.

dave_beast said:
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18362066

Running this BIOS on my card now and easily does 1250 in 3dmark11 and heaven 3.0 without artifacting, and my only limitation is my PSU!!!
Click to expand...

I don't need to unlock my clocks, for whatever reason they're unlocked to like 1600MHZ.

Although your utility says it unlocks voltage to 1300 in AB, since mine will be different VRM's, it wouldn't work would it?
@ DM.

I've noticed people complaining, but the DCII's were overvoltable, it seems they've decided to handicap them with a different VRM, I'm assuming to all the problems they had with them.
I'm hoping Asus's GPU tweak 3.0 will fix my problem, but I doubt it.
I got this 7970 pretty cheap, it'd cost me more to get a reference model, this was a downgrade from my GTX680 anyway (Which at auto wasn't very loud unless it was going full pelt in a game, then the fan would kick up, but certainly not over the top)
I may go back to my GTX680 and just buy Nvidia's 3D Vision, the only reason I have a 7970 is for Tridef.
 
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This is what I get, which is what happened when I tried flashing it in DOS before (Except before it was a totally text error)

StupidAMDASUS.png
 
I force flashed the TOP BIOS.
They've definitely changed the VRM's, I get the same thing in GPU Tweak, no voltage control in MSI Afterburner.
Shameful.
 
I don't think you're understanding.
The card has different VRM's, all the BIOS's in the world can't fix the problem.
The VRM library of MSI Afterburner/GPU Tweak, etc, etc needs altering.
 
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