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MSI 7950 being temperamental

aneesh99

aneesh99

aneesh99

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Joined
8 Apr 2013
Posts
19
Hey guys, newbie here so hi! :)

I picked up a 7950 TFIII when it was @ £220 which was a good price at the time, but I've been having issues with it since I got it. It seems to be a bit temperamental, it will ocassional hang in games, the driver will crash, and when it restarts and I jump back in game, it starts artifacting. I need to restart my PC to get rid of them.

Tried all the usual tricks (both BIOS, drivers, fresh install etc) but no joy. It seems quite strange because it doesn't happen with any regularity, anyone have any ideas? Worth an RMA?

Edit: Using GPU-Z, it seems that the voltage drops when it does the crashing/stalling routine. Any merit to that?
 
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Welcome to the forums :)

Is it a V1 or a newer edition of the card. I think I saw a post on the forums saying V1 cards can be swapped out for the newer v2 cards free :)
 
I'm not sure, how do I check? The manufacturer code is V276-033, I think that's V2...

Minor side note, my ASIC score is pretty horrific, it's 50.1% Could it be the big voltage drop (1.3V in AB drops to 1.21-1.23V, Trixx isn't that much better) and crashing is because of that?
 
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If it were my card I would definitely RMA. The onus is on the vendor (MSI) rather than the purchaser to make it work as advertised. If it is at stock clocks or pre-overclocked stock clocks, then you are fully entitled to a working one. I imagine you have been a bit unlucky and should swap it out.
 
The key thing for an rma is can you replicate the fault fairly easily? As in at stock if you leave it looping heaven or something will it happen? If so get an rma sorted out, msi turn around is quite quick too :)
 
tried setting power control slider to 20% in ccc/performance/amd overdrive? that usually helps,then id be looking at pc memory to makesure its 100% stable
 
It's quite strange, 3DMark11 works fine (P9200), Heaven loops fine with great temps, CPU passes IBT on 20 passes and memtest doesn't give any errors. But Sleeping Dogs, The Witcher 2 and Planetside 2 all lock up... But even in the games, the issue is still a bit random, it seems to crash when things get more intense and the voltage drops more. It's a damn shame, I never even got around to really overclocking it :(
 
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Tried a fresh OS install? If stressing it can't reproduce it then I'd be looking at something causing an issue specifically with those games.
 
Don't have the time to do that right now, exams are looking and I've got a dissertation to finish. I fresh installed drivers in safe mode though, no difference
 
did you set the power control slider to 20%?

is pc overclocked or stock? could try one or two clicks more northbridge voltage and dram voltage,see if that helps
 
Yeah, it's overclocked. I knocked it back to dead stock and it was doing the same thing. I always put the power control slider on +20%, that doesn't seem to make a difference either.

I think I'll ring up and dicuss it with the RMA team tomorrow, if it's not eligible for RMA because it's not a common occurrence then I might just send it back by DSR. I'm quite gutted about it :(
 
what are the temps like. I know MSI didn't do a belt and bracers job on mounting the TFiii cooler on some of the cards so it might be due to a badly mounted HSF ?
 
Temps are really good, even when overclocked to 1150/1575 looping on Heaven for a few hours, core temp sits at 62 degrees, VRM1 at 65 and VRM2 70 degrees. I don't understand why b benchmarking and overclocking runs awesomely but a slightly some demanding games don't? I'm clutching at straws here :(

Edit: I'm convinced it's the terrible ASIC score and massive voltage drop (it drops over 0.07V on TW2 and SD)
 
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would be good if you had a spare psu to test with,other than that I would take a chance on another msi 7950 and see if that's any better,if it does exactly the same you know its something to do with the other pc components
 
I'll give a different PSU a shot tonight, funnily enough, I just replaced that with the TX750 in my sig :) May as well fresh install to whilst I'm at it.

If it's not my PSU, then god knows what it is!
 
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Same thing with a different PSU, I'm seeing a massive different in applied and reported voltages. I forced 1.3V in AB to see what would happen, GPU-Z, HWInfo and AB are reporting sub 1.22V under load... This can't be normal right? Even my other 7950 doesn't do this...
 
Sorry for the triple post, I can't believe this...

If I force a constant voltage, I hardly get any drop, on stock and overclocked settings... I was testing 1150/1450 with 1.3V just to see, and GPU-Z, AB and HWInfo all reported between 1.285V and 1.3V. It was quite comfortably trundling along during the Sleeping Dogs benchmark and powered through the bit where it usually hangs. Is the BIOS on the 7950 bugged for voltage control or something?
 
Nah, the other one is an older Sapphire 7950 Dual X. The voltage would drop a bit too much for my liking (around 0.03 to 0.05V) but it worked fine, it didn't need much voltage even when overclocked.

So they question is, what do I do about my MSI one? I don't particularly want to open AB everytime and force a constant voltage...
 
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