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How to overclock a 7850 past 1050MHz?

This is the max stable I can get out of my crossfired 7850's. The useless MSI PE card is holding my lovely Powercolor back big time.

1125 / 5500 @ 1.21v (the Powercolor can do this at it's default 1.050v).

3DMark11 P11588 / Graphics 12927

7850x11251375.jpg

THats a pretty decent score despite your OC limitations. Your score are almost identical to mine @those clocks. Am more fortunate with my case Corsair R400 which has 9 fans and very good airflow alowing stable crossfire clocks of 1200/1500 @1.25. Im not comfortable with that voltage and have had these for weeks now @1150/1375 @1.176, many hours of gaming now without a single issue.
 
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I have a few more observations regarding Crossfired 7850's.

Good
*Easy install, no problems with Catalyst drivers or GPU Tool and Trixx recognition.
*Works great with BF3, almost double the fps and really smooth too.
*Great for benchmarks
*Most games see 60-90% fps increase.

Bad
*Much Noisier within an MATX case.
*Temps much higher on MATX mobo
*The odd game quirks. SKYRIM sees very little fps gains and there is weird flickering at main menu screen (game itself runs fine). F1 2011 freezes at exactly the same instant whenever I start an R&D lap. I can race a full 30 laps without issue and fps is great but I cannot start any R&D sessions. Must be a game/driver bug.
*Overclocks are only as good as your poorest card.

My opinion is that ctossfired 7850's are great, but better suit Full ATX cases and Full sized mobo's where both cards can receive adequate cooling. I may end up DSR'ing my MSI PE card because it is a munter.
 
I haven't had a chance to overclock my MSI PE yet but it does the 950 MHz on the core at its stock volts of 1.075V and has an asic of around 84% (if i remember all that correctly, I'm out at the moment). Seems like I might have got lucky?

Like I said I haven't had a chance to really test it yet and my internet is down at home so I haven't run any benchmarks. Anything I can do offline to give some feedback? I'd like to help out with the information on these cards
 
What does the asic actually represent?
ASIC represents the quality of the silicon wafer from which the GPU was was cut. Higher numbers equal better silicon and usually equate to superior overclocks at lower voltages and lower temps.

My turd of a MSI PE has just 72% ASIC and a default voltage of 1.21v. My Powercolor card has an ASIC of 84.9% and defaults at 1.050v. The VTX card I used when I started this thread was 86.2% and also defaulted at 1.050v.

Good ASIC's do not guarantee high overclocks, but it makes it more likely. What this proves is that no manufacturer currently cherry picks GPU's for their 7850's. Even MSI's premium overclocking card is plain luck of the draw. Just buy the cheapest 7850 you can find and keep your fingers crossed.

I personally will never buy an MSI card again. I could have forgiven a poor GPU on a cheap or reference card, but on one which screams overclocking greatness all over the box, I will not forgive or forget it. It's going back.

Generally
below 70 very poor
71 to 75 poor
76 to 80 good
81 to 85 very good
86+ lucky you

For me, the MSI card is useless because the minimun 3D volts allowed by BIOS are 1.21v. For a crossfired card with poor airflow this creates tons of heat and noise.
 
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Yeah its odd that the PE card had such high stock volts and is such poor silicon.

My TF3 is 83% and 1.083V stock. And the PE is meant to be better :S

Makes no sense! Seems you just got a really bad card :(
 
ASIC represents the quality of the silicon wafer from which the GPU was was cut. Higher numbers equal better silicon and usually equate to superior overclocks at lower voltages and lower temps.

My turd of a MSI PE has just 72% ASIC and a default voltage of 1.21v. My Powercolor card has an ASIC of 84.9% and defaults at 1.050v. The VTX card I used when I started this thread was 86.2% and also defaulted at 1.050v.

Good ASIC's do not guarantee high overclocks, but it makes it more likely. What this proves is that no manufacturer currently cherry picks GPU's for their 7850's. Even MSI's premium overclocking card is plain luck of the draw. Just buy the cheapest 7850 you can find and keep your fingers crossed.

I personally will never buy an MSI card again. I could have forgiven a poor GPU on a cheap or reference card, but on one which screams overclocking greatness all over the box, I will not forgive or forget it. It's going back.

Generally
below 70 very poor
71 to 75 poor
76 to 80 good
81 to 85 very good
86+ lucky you

For me, the MSI card is useless because the minimun 3D volts allowed by BIOS are 1.21v. For a crossfired card with poor airflow this creates tons of heat and noise.

It's odd that because the TF3 I had also had default volts at 1.21. At the time I didn't note the ASIC, but with the 7850 I would always suggest the Sapphire non OC, and to look out for the OCUK deals which regaulary has it for £180.
 
Thought you may be interested in some crossfire benchmarks for BF3.

Firstly, here are mu single card results taken from page 1.
bf3lr.jpg


64227302.jpg


Here's the Crossfire tests
bf3crossfire.jpg


bf3crossfire2.jpg


Scaling is greater than 90% for crossfire. AMD have done a great job tweaking their drivers for this game.
 
Well my VTX is installed and running at stock and fairly unobtrusive noise wise. A little louder than my old 9800GT w/ after market cooler but a big step ip! :)

What do I need to do crossfire etc? :)
 
ASIC quality doesn't mean anything

MSI PE was around 84% but would not OC past 1060 :eek: and to be honest, I'm not sure that was fully stable

They are the WORST 7850 cards on the market. Just ordered a PowerColor PCS+ so hopefully I'll have some decent clocks.
 
ASIC quality doesn't mean anything

MSI PE was around 84% but would not OC past 1060 :eek: and to be honest, I'm not sure that was fully stable

They are the WORST 7850 cards on the market. Just ordered a PowerColor PCS+ so hopefully I'll have some decent clocks.
I disagree with your first point.

ASIC quality matters. The lower the ASIC, the higher it's default volts. Typically, ASIC's below 73% have a default voltage of 1.21v, ASIC's above 83% have 1.075v and sometimes 1.050v. ASIC's in the middle use voltages in between.

Higher voltages = higher temps and higher noise. AMD supply lower ASIC's higher default voltage because they are more likley to need it to run stable at stock clocks. This reduces the chances of overclocking. High ASIS do not guarantee good overclocks, and low ASIC's do not guarantee a poor overclocker, but the odds follow the percentage.

As for the MSI PE being poor, I fully agree. The box for the card is pure false advertising. To coin a phrase, it is mutton dressed as lamb. They should rename this card to the "MSI 7850 Mutton Edition", because it offers absolutely nothing over their standard card.
 
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well i like my msi power edition card, nice and cool and does 1200 on the core, more than happy, when they reach £150 il get another for crossfire.

No idea how to raise the voltage on it though, cant get gpu tweak to show the voltage, and afterburner has the power limit thing. hmmm
 
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