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Adding a cheap 7950 for xfire with 7970

Diagro

Diagro

Diagro

Soldato
Joined
3 Jun 2012
Posts
11,255
Hey

Im wondering if I would see a boost if I added a 7950 to my DCII 7970.

I dont think I would bother watercooling the 7950 as it would only be used if an application demanded the added performance.

So far I have seen that as long as the 7950 is clocked the same I wont have any issues with it reducing clocks on my 7970.

Do these two cards work well together? And if so which has the quietest cooler so not to be louder than my 3 x 180mm fans.
 
There is someone on this forum that runs 7970+7950 iirc.

/side note Be aware that if it's in a rv02/ft02 you need to be careful with the heatpipes/heatsink orientation if you're adding extra heat, silverstone recommend exhaust cards.
 
OptimaLnrg said:
There is someone on this forum that runs 7970+7950 iirc.

/side note Be aware that if it's in a rv02/ft02 you need to be careful with the heatpipes/heatsink orientation if you're adding extra heat, silverstone recommend exhaust cards.
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I will have a look for this person.

Yea its a FT02, I can understand by they recomend that after quickly thinking about it.
I may have to get a waterblock for it then :)
 
Diagro said:
Hey

Im wondering if I would see a boost if I added a 7950 to my DCII 7970.

I dont think I would bother watercooling the 7950 as it would only be used if an application demanded the added performance.

So far I have seen that as long as the 7950 is clocked the same I wont have any issues with it reducing clocks on my 7970.

Do these two cards work well together? And if so which has the quietest cooler so not to be louder than my 3 x 180mm fans.
Click to expand...

I have 7970/50 CrossFireX, the best suited 7950 for you would be the IceQ as it vents out the back, I think it will be slightly louder than your DCII under load, but it's not that bad really and it switches off completely when not in use.

You need 2X CrossFire bridges but AMD gpus come supplied with one anyway.

The 7950 won't drop your 70 clocks at all, but it won't utilise the 70 gpu as much as the 50's unless you clock the 50 higher than the 70.

7970@1010MHz/7950@1100MHz usually gives matched gpu utilisation for me, idk for sure if it makes much of a difference, but that's what I do anyway.

Note that voltage oc'ing is more of an issue on 79 CrossFireX(had 6950/70 CrossFire previously and it wasn't an issue as I had a self made custom added voltage bios)due to ulps and only works through trixx for me due to a voltage locked XFXDD 7950, you have to access the 50 first or you don't get to touch the voltage.

If the cheap 7950 is an XFX DD, then the cooler is utter rubbish imho , in CrossFireX it can't keep the vrms cool enough under voltage and gets mental loud too.

I ripped it off and put an old AC Extreme on it with a shim and a 7970 Extreme bracket, it is that bad a cooler, very disappointed in it's oc'ing abilities as it looks the part.

If your using 1080p@60Hz, it's not worth it though unless ~£230 is burning a hole in your pocket as it's not going to give you much more than what your 70 is giving you now.

This is coming from a 120Hz 3D@1080p user though, my excuse is it boosts up considerably some hard hitting 3D titles:D, in a couple of 3D titles though, CrossFire has a negative impact.:(



If you don't get a 7950 that can't sit@1100MHz comfortably in CrossFireX, then you won't get much oc'ing out of your DCII, but it's still potent enough for me, @£500(for me and 2 different AMD game offers:D) on stock cooling, 7970/50 CrossFireX justifies the ~£100 saving over proper 7970 CrossFire for all the extra performance it may give.

If you take anything out of this, make sure it's the IceQ, as I'm still kicking myself that I dsr'd a perfectly good, cool running rear venting 1200/1575MHz 7950 due to hearing it@stock in my quiet setup- in hindsight, zero core switches it off@idle and would be perfect for me now in CrossFireX.
 
If I'm reading the specs right the iceq 7950 is 29.5cm long?

If so that's too long if op has the magicool rad installed in the ft02. It would *just* fit without it.
 
tommybhoy said:
I have 7970/50 CrossFireX, the best suited 7950 for you would be the IceQ as it vents out the back, I think it will be slightly louder than your DCII under load, but it's not that bad really and it switches off completely when not in use.

You need 2X CrossFire bridges but AMD gpus come supplied with one anyway.
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Why the need for 2 x Crossfire bridges ? :confused:
 
Thank you for the guidence peeps.

I will be on the look out for a 7950 waterblock on the cheap and if I find one then I will get a 7950 that I can alter the voltage on.

Thanks a lot for help
 
tommybhoy said:
If you take anything out of this, make sure it's the IceQ, as I'm still kicking myself that I dsr'd a perfectly good, cool running rear venting 1200/1575MHz 7950 due to hearing it@stock in my quiet setup- in hindsight, zero core switches it off@idle and would be perfect for me now in CrossFireX.
Click to expand...

:eek:

I'd have trouble sleeping at night if i was you tommy. :p
 
whyscotty said:
Thanks for clearing that up :)
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:cool:

LtMatt said:
:eek:

I'd have trouble sleeping at night if i was you tommy. :p
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It's ok matt, I'm a handsome dude so I sleep well.:D

I sent it back before I got the OC as it was audible@idle with a very slight 'scraping' noise which wasn't any use for me as I know it would have drove me mad.

I would have bought another instead of the DD, but the price I got it for@£40+ cheaper was hard to resist, realistically, even £40 doesn't jusdtify an extra 100MHz that I won't notice anyway.:)

Oh and a Happy New Year folks!:D
 
tommybhoy said:
It's ok matt, I'm a handsome dude so I sleep well.:D

I sent it back before I got the OC as it was audible@idle with a very slight 'scraping' noise which wasn't any use for me as I know it would have drove me mad.

I would have bought another instead of the DD, but the price I got it for@£40+ cheaper was hard to resist, realistically, even £40 doesn't jusdtify an extra 100MHz that I won't notice anyway.:)

Oh and a Happy New Year folks!:D
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I know, every time you send me a trust there is a little picture from your gmail account. :D

Tommy im on the lookout for more G1. If you know anyone with some, let me know please old chap. ;) I know you're not a dealer of G1, but gotta spread the word somehow. :cool:
 
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Lol, matt, I've got the Alpenföhn glue matt, I never thought about sending that with the G1, but I don't know if it's permanent or not.

Pete said he used to dab a small spot of superglue on a corner of the heatsinks along with using tim was the best you could get regarding temps, and they pop off easy enough with a bit of rocking if you need to take them off.
 
tommybhoy said:
Lol, matt, I've got the Alpenföhn glue matt, I never thought about sending that with the G1, but I don't know if it's permanent or not.

Pete said he used to dab a small spot of superglue on a corner of the heatsinks along with using tim was the best you could get regarding temps, and they pop off easy enough with a bit of rocking if you need to take them off.
Click to expand...

I looked into that tommy when i thought about buying those heatsinks. Its permanent, so the lookout for more g1 continues. I really like the G1 stuff, it comes off easily but if you put loads on and push hard (thats what she said) it stays on pretty well.

I can't believe arctic stopped making it and now only provide permanent adhesive. :(

Don't know if you saw the picture i posted the other day but i missed one of the heatsinks off, i used tape instead but id like to take it apart and put the G1 on instead, also the chunky heatsink to the right of the vrms which is on the chl 8228 voltage regulator, i want to turn that so its sideways. It would get much more air from my front 200mm fan that way. Can't believe i didn't think of that when i was putting it together.

EIJjV.jpg



EDIT

HOLY THREAD DERAIL BATMAN!

Sorry for the massive thread derail, got carried away and thought i was in the accelero thread. :o
 
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