7970 Lightning, worth the premium?

hughythomas · 8 Nov 2012 at 15:17

Nickolp1974 said:
think i wont bother, for a few degrees just gonna wait for the 8970LTG+waterblock and enjoy my sytem for now, those temps/cpu are when running IBT so are way lower for bf3 and such.

Mate have a look back on the previous page.

This week I FINALLY got round to applying TIM to the thermal pads on my EK block (as I didn't originally as I couldn't be arsed at the time).

I'm so happy I did as my temps dropped by 20c!

I can at least now overclock my card now and get the best out of it whereas before I was artifacting all over the shop.

Just a thought!

Geeman1979 · 8 Nov 2012 at 15:34

pgi947 said:
1800 on the memory is ample, you may experience correction above 1800mhz, my limit was around 1950, hope the new card fairs as well

Hows the new card fairing up to the Lightning?

pgi947 · 8 Nov 2012 at 18:07

It's alright, won't be testing how it clocks until the weekend, nothing is pinned down atm, motherboard is sat on card, gpu isn't being held by a pci bracket and waterblock is only held in with two standoffs

It's pretty quiet and cool for a ref card, will be checking stock volts and asic of it tonight.

Geeman1979 · 8 Nov 2012 at 18:20

pgi947 said:
It's alright, won't be testing how it clocks until the weekend, nothing is pinned down atm, motherboard is sat on card, gpu isn't being held by a pci bracket and waterblock is only held in with two standoffs

It's pretty quiet and cool for a ref card, will be checking stock volts and asic of it tonight.

Did you manage to get hold of the Lightning BE bios?

pgi947 · 8 Nov 2012 at 18:25

Not as of yet, but should have my hands on it before the replacement cars arrives

Geeman1979 · 8 Nov 2012 at 18:32

Trust me your email address.

pgi947 · 8 Nov 2012 at 19:04

Done

Yaayuh! · 8 Nov 2012 at 21:15

geeman1979 said:
Worth a try! Is that the highest you can get on the memory side?

Uninstalled all ATi/AMD drivers
Rebooted
Ran driver sweeper on graphics drivers and cleaned
Rebooted
Installed 12.11 BETA6
Rebooted
Installed 12.10 CAP1
Rebooted

Ran 3DMark 2011 @ 1300MHz / 7300MHz

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/4882144

SCORE
P12316 3DMarks
GRAPHICS SCORE
11952
PHYSICS SCORE
15382
COMBINED SCORE
11512

Graphics score still "low".

pgi947 · 8 Nov 2012 at 21:22

It is indeed, iirc I hit 13000+ on gpu score with clocks not a million miles away from that.

I do recall 8 Pack saying that your CPU can also play a big factor in this as it provides the bus for the GPU's. Are you running with a strap/increased base? as this might help.

New ref 7970 has an Asic of 65% with stock voltage of 1.141v.

Geeman1979 · 8 Nov 2012 at 21:23

Rossi~ said:
Uninstalled all ATi/AMD drivers
Rebooted
Ran driver sweeper on graphics drivers and cleaned
Rebooted
Installed 12.11 BETA6
Rebooted
Installed 12.10 CAP1
Rebooted

Ran 3DMark 2011 @ 1300MHz / 7300MHz

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/4882144

SCORE
P12316 3DMarks
GRAPHICS SCORE
11952
PHYSICS SCORE
15382
COMBINED SCORE
11512

Graphics score still "low".

You also run a 3930k Cpu which blows my physics score away. So iv'e know idea! What ram speed and timings are you using?

Yaayuh! · 8 Nov 2012 at 21:25

pgi947 said:
It is indeed, iirc I hit 13000+ on gpu score with clocks not a million miles away from that.

I do recall 8 Pack saying that your CPU can also play a big factor in this as it provides the bus for the GPU's. Are you running with a strap/increased base? as this might help.

New ref 7970 has an Asic of 65% with stock voltage of 1.141v.

I'm running 125 strap.

geeman1979 said:
You also run a 3930k Cpu which blows my physics score away. So iv'e know idea! What ram speed and timings are you using?

RAM @ 2335MHz 10,11,11,21,96 1T

I've no idea either

Geeman1979 · 8 Nov 2012 at 21:33

Rossi~ said:
I'm running 125 strap.

RAM @ 2335MHz 10,11,11,21,96 1T

I've no idea either

For reference, I ran mine at 2133MHz 10,10,10,28 1T

Try those timings and see if it frees it up a bit.

Yaayuh! · 8 Nov 2012 at 21:36

geeman1979 said:
For reference, I ran mine at 2133MHz 10,10,10,28 1T

Try those timings and see if it frees it up a bit.

Nah, i don't want to be tighten them further right now, too much hassle. 10,11,11,21, 96 1T is already tight at that speed.

Nickolp1974 · 8 Nov 2012 at 21:49

@pgi what was your vrm temps compared to mem/core?

pgi947 · 8 Nov 2012 at 21:53

VRM was usually 2-5c higher then core, memory usually 2-5c lower then core.

So if Core was 40c, at best/worst VRM would be 45c, memory 35c, but more often then not the fluctuation was only 2-3c either side.

theCrim · 8 Nov 2012 at 22:12

Why did you go back to 12.10 and what was your graphics score with the 12.11 beta drivers?

12.11 have been the best drivers for 3dmark11 - http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/4880052 - 1280/1825 - cl8 1666mhz

12.7 - http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/3714589 1300/1850 - cl8 2000mhz

How many monitors do you have Rossi?

EDIT: Ahh I did not know there were knew beta drivers, my mistake.

TheRealDeal · 8 Nov 2012 at 22:14

theCrim said:
Why did you go back to 12.10 and what was your graphics score with the 12.11 beta drivers?

12.11 have been the best drivers for 3dmark11 - http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/4880052 - 1280/1825 - cl8 1666mhz

12.6 - http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/3714589 1300/1850 - cl8 2000mhz

How many monitors do you have Rossi?

He didn't, he's using 12.11 beta with 12.10 caps.

Yaayuh! · 8 Nov 2012 at 22:53

theCrim said:
Why did you go back to 12.10 and what was your graphics score with the 12.11 beta drivers?

12.11 have been the best drivers for 3dmark11 - http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/4880052 - 1280/1825 - cl8 1666mhz

12.6 - http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/3714589 1300/1850 - cl8 2000mhz

How many monitors do you have Rossi?

EDIT: Ahh I did not know there were knew beta drivers, my mistake.

As already said, in running 12.11 with 12.10 CAP1

Jesus that graphics score is a lot higher than I've ever got! Even with higher clocks...

I'm using 2 monitors.

Geeman1979 · 8 Nov 2012 at 23:01

Rossi~ said:
As already said, in running 12.11 with 12.10 CAP1

Jesus that graphics score is a lot higher than I've ever got! Even with higher clocks...

I'm using 2 monitors.

That's why I said my memory overclock didnt make much difference. More gains were from the core. Crims graphics score is just over 100 more than mine, but my core was at 1250 and his at 1280.

Gregster · 8 Nov 2012 at 23:05

Rossi~ said:
As already said, in running 12.11 with 12.10 CAP1

Jesus that graphics score is a lot higher than I've ever got! Even with higher clocks...

I'm using 2 monitors.

You could be just unlucky in the chip lottery bud. I have seen 680 LTGs with lower clocks than mine (and volts) score higher in the gfx scores than me and vice versa.