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help needed, XFX ATI 7950 DD issue

Hoobs1981

Hoobs1981

Hoobs1981

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1 Oct 2013
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help needed, XFX ATI 7950 DD issue *SOLVED

Hey,

My ATI card is probably dying but i wanted to run it past you guys in case there is anything i can do.

The stock speeds are GPU 800mhz, Mem clock 1250mhz and this is on an 800w PSU

At this setting after a while my pc locks up with vertical lines, usually when playing a game or using Youtube.

Within CCC i increased the power control setting to 10%, then 20%, both gave same results.

I tried a fairly large leap and took down the clocks from 800/1250 to 500/750!
since I did this i have not noticed the crash, only when i put it back to stock, i'm not very good with this sort of thing but obviously running the card at half specs is not ideal.

is there anything i can do, is the card not getting enough power at stock setting or is it time to change cards?

cheers in advance
 
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Ok with your underclocked mode, can you show a screen print of gpu-z showing max voltage and max temperatures the card achieves in a game you know would normally crash.

Trying to work out if v-core is too high and gcard getting too hot, or if the vrm area is getting hot, or if its memory failing, or a catalyst driver issue.
 
Okay will do, am at work at the moment so will do it tonight, as far as drivers go i have done a complete clean install of the latest catalyst drivers, and monitored temp (not in gpu z) doesn't seem to go above 40c as its on a watercool loop....but I'll get the screen shot of gpuz tonight :)
 
Don't just ignore the fact Xfx may not fix it. Go to Xfx site and they is a rma section there for a reason.
Just just listen to all Internet bad stories, am sure they is plenty people also who have had good success.

Anyway about your crashing, do you have another psu you can try. What brand psu you have now?
 
I had a xfx 6870 fail on me at xmas luckily the retailer sorted out my rma,, after 4 weeks of it being with xfx I spoke to the retailer who basically said there was next to no communications with xfx and they were being terrible and there was no timeframe when I would see my card again, Luckily they sent me a gigabyte 7850 from their own stock to compensate me but I will always steer clear of xfx now, Im just glad I went via retailer and not direct.

But as above always worth trying rma if you cant fix.
 
Thanks for all your responses.

My PSU is a Corsiar 800GS, i previously had an OCZ 600 which it did the same thing.

Ill post up some gpuz screens when i get home...issue seems to be random, for example at stock settings i can load up guildwars 2 and leave it is the character select screen and it will crash, sometimes 5-10 mins other times not for around 30 mins. Same with Youtube.

Everytime i have to reboot the pc then when i load back into a game the timing can be random

Due to this issue i currently dont have anything OC'd on my pc
 
think ur card is faulty bud,had similar issue my self,was fine if i underclocked,but that only lasted for a month before the card died
 
okay so i clocked back up the GPU clock to 800mhz and have now left the memory clock setting at 750mhz and it is still stable, which is leading me to believe
it's the memory clock that is causing the issue.

Now would this mean the memory is failing, i guess there is nothing i can do about that, or is it something that can be dealt with, with maybe tweaking or something i have not really thought about like Thermal compound misplacement?

when installing my waterblock i used arctic silver on the GPU chip and thermal pads on the vram and vrms.
 
does your fan speed ramp up over 20%, if you set the fan speed to manual just for testing purposes, say 60%-70%
There should be more airflow around the vrms and memory chips, are you then able to clock the memory back up to stock 1250,and then monitor your vrm temps,

Oh wait a sec you are using a custom water block? Do you have any fans on the pcb, memory and vrm area at all?
 
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Just a few ?'s

How long have you had the card?

I assume it came with the stock cooler - Did it?

Did you run it with the stock cooler at all ? - Was it fine?

Which block did you use?

How long before it started going wrong?


It does sound like memory may be failing :( but before jumping to conclusions .....
 
AgedIdiot said:
Just a few ?'s

How long have you had the card?

I assume it came with the stock cooler - Did it?

Did you run it with the stock cooler at all ? - Was it fine?

Which block did you use?

How long before it started going wrong?


It does sound like memory may be failing :( but before jumping to conclusions .....
Click to expand...

Okay so forget what i said about the mem clock, it failed again with the gpu core back up to 800.


i've had the card for a couple of years

It came with the stock cooler, when using it with the stock cooler it still had the issue but not as much, certainly not enough to warrant me underclocking...however the temps are showing it running cooler with the water cooling.

The waterblock i am using is this one:
http://www.aquatuning.co.uk/product...aquagrATIx-for-HD-7950--Tahiti-Pro--G1-4.html

trouble is i cant put a finger on when the problems increased as i had changed somethings i.e, installed windows 8, added that waterblock.

but like i say it occasionally happened before that.
 
Your using the same block I am and provided you added a small amount of thermal paste onto each memory chip it should mean that the memory is being cooled correctly.

Although Arctic silver is not the best paste for this type of job - usually better that you use a non-conductive paste (I use arctic mx 4) - I would stress that I doubt that you have caused any problems by using silver :) but if you decide to try again then , if I were you, I would definitely go with a non-conductive type.

AND you do/did need to apply a small amount of paste on each of the ram chips as well as the core .(unless they have only added this requirement in the recent 'ish past! - my first was bought about 6months ago and such instruction was contained as it was in the second one I bought not long ago.)

Is a worry that it was already running faulty with the standard cooler - does imply that your memory problems are an old problem just getting progressively worse.:(

What I would do , if I were you is:-

If you didn't put paste on the chips then clean up block , apply/re-apply new non-conductive paste and give it a go.

If that does not work or if you did apply paste to each ram chip last time - take block of and put back the old dd cooler: then sell!
 
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AgedIdiot said:
Your using the same block I am and provided you added a small amount of thermal paste onto each memory chip it should mean that the memory is being cooled correctly.
Click to expand...

what i did was add paste to the gpu and then added thermal pads that came with the waterblock to the other chips.

do you think i should take the pads out and use themal compound instead?
 
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