**MSI HD 7950 TWIN FROZR BOOST DIODE PROBLEMS - IMPORTANT INFO!!**

[Barnold]

@IC3 Thanks for the references on the OC'd clock speeds. Have you OC'd the boost bios or have you OC'd the non-boost bios and then given it the stable voltage treatment?

Pardon my ignorance but if voltage is stuck at 1.25v in boost mode then why does it need to be made consistent in afterburner. If it's locked at 1.25v then it'll always be at that voltage right?

 

[IC3]

@LtMatt, stock

Boost because sadly enough none of the bioses worked on my card, still waiting for reply from HIS but it will take up to 2-3 days, if not longer...

1.25v is only when Boost kicks in and because the card while playing sometimes doesn't need these clocks i downclocks but if theres action the boosts kicks in again.
So to have stable OC you have to put a constant voltage and +20 power.
If I get a non boost BIOS that HIS will send me hopefully, I will creat a thread and do a quick video on Youtube as theres lots of people who searched for this BIOS and some of them weren't that lucky as others (inc. me...)

 

[LtMatt]

Yes ill be wanting that bios if you get it IC3. I have to be honest though i think you've got more chance of winning the lottery than HIS sending you a non boost bios that will work with your card.

 

[IC3]

Yes ill be wanting that bios if you get it IC3. I have to be honest though i think you've got more chance of winning the lottery than HIS sending you a non boost bios that will work with your card.

Yep, but I rather try and know for sure.
Why do you need a HIS non boost bios? I see you have an 7970 MSI...

 

[LtMatt]

Yep, but I rather try and know for sure.
Why do you need a HIS non boost bios? I see you have an 7970 MSI...

I have a 7950 xfire setup as well, wanted to try it out. However one of my HIS Ice-Q 7950's was a bit faulty, ran 10-15c hotter than the other so sent it back. Got my replacement coming tomorrow. I only tried it out for a couple of days before it went back so im still learning the crossfire ropes. Aside from the GPU heat issue i was quite enjoying it though.

 

[IC3]

I have a 7950 xfire setup as well, wanted to try it out. However one of my HIS Ice-Q 7950's was a bit faulty, ran 10-15c hotter than the other so sent it back. Got my replacement coming tomorrow. I only tried it out for a couple of days before it went back so im still learning the crossfire ropes. Aside from the GPU heat issue i was quite enjoying it though.

If in worse case scenario they will not provide me a BIOS, I will try to disable the Boost option by editing the BIOS. Did you try the gigabyte 7970 bios?
I tried all the BIOSes which worked in other users cards but it doesn't seem to work with my card. I did put the switch to position 1 so it should have worked, but knowing my luck, I'm not suprised

 

[LtMatt]

If in worse case scenario they will not provide me a BIOS, I will try to disable the Boost option by editing the BIOS. Did you try the gigabyte 7970 bios?
I tried all the BIOSes which worked in other users cards but it doesn't seem to work with my card, I did put the switch to position 1 so it should have worked, but knowing my luck, I'm not suprised

I did indeed try that bios. I trusted that Virus fella to ask for it. No dice. It is possible to edit the bios i believe and stop this, but ive not attempted it yet. This thread will show you the way.

http://www.overclock.net/t/1395490/ati-hd-7950-7970-bios-mod-thread

 

[IC3]

I did indeed try that bios. I trusted that Virus fella to ask for it. No dice. It is possible to edit the bios i believe and stop this, but ive not attempted it yet. This thread will show you the way.

http://www.overclock.net/t/1395490/ati-hd-7950-7970-bios-mod-thread

I got my BIOS from Skyjawa but didn't work either...
Editing BIOS seems risky, I will have a read tomorrow.
Cheers for the thread

EDIT:
My cards ASIC quality is 79.8% is that any good?

 

[LtMatt]

I got my BIOS from Skyjawa but didn't work either...
Editing BIOS seems risky, I will have a read tomorrow.
Cheers for the thread

EDIT:
My cards ASIC quality is 79.8% is that any good?

I think the OP of that thread will actually do it for you if you ask. I haven't got round to it yet as i haven't had the setup working long enough, but i am seriously considering it if it means i can make use of zerocore and ULPS but lower the boost voltage at the same time.

Wait you have a HIS Ice-QW Boost with an Asic that high? I though all recent HIS Boost cards were binned for low Asic. Mine were both 65% and 67.3%. My dodgy one was 65%. Will see tomorrow what my new one is. I'm pretty sure HIS are binning them to be 70% or lower though. That way it will work best with a low asic card that needs high volts (1.25v boost anyone?) to achieve core speed.

 

[IC3]

http://scr.hu/0ozg/pokii

and reading from HWiNFO64 after 15 min of BF3

http://scr.hu/0ozg/hzxg4

 

[LtMatt]

http://scr.hu/0ozg/pokii

and reading from HWiNFO64 after 15 min of BF3

http://scr.hu/0ozg/hzxg4

Blimey. How long have you had the card? How does your card like that 1.25v voltage? High asic cards normally don't like the voltage too high or they get toasty.

Whatever you were playing there barely drawed 90 watts so didn't look to much of a strain.

 

[IC3]

Blimey. How long have you had the card? How does your card like that 1.25v voltage? High asic cards normally don't like the voltage too high or they get toasty.

Whatever you were playing there barely drawed 90 watts so didn't look to much of a strain.

Stock it runs at 61-63c and after OC of 1100/1500 with constant voltage the highest I've seen was 73c under crysis 3 BETA.
Temps I get with 1100/1500 OC during normal games is around 68-70c with fixed fan which goes to 60% when the card hits 69c

I turned on BF3 Noshar canals TDM to just show the 1.25v voltage for around 5 min+

 

[LtMatt]

Stock it runs at 61-63c and after OC of 1100/1500 with constant voltage the highest I've seen was 73c under crysis 3 BETA.

I truned on BF3 Noshar canals TDM to just show the 1.25v voltage for around 5 min+

Nice at stock and with mild overclocks high asic cards do typically run cooler, but im shocked that you have the same level voltage with such a high asic card. Will let you know what my new one is tomorrow. What fan speed do you use for those temps and how far can you push the overclock without artifacts/crashes?

 

[IC3]

Nice at stock and with mild overclocks high asic cards do typically run cooler, but im shocked that you have the same level voltage with such a high asic card. Will let you know what my new one is tomorrow. What fan speed do you use for those temps and how far can you push the overclock without artifacts/crashes?

The highest I pushed my card was 1204/1600 with temps jumping 74-78c under 3dmark and heavy heaven benchmarks with fixed fan speed of 64-67%

Heres roughly what I set the fan speed in MSI AB - http://scr.hu/0ozg/oms1a

EDIT

Catzilla - http://scr.hu/0ozg/z2ze8 after that I did 1600 on memory and it tested it on 3dmark but can't find any screens shots. Will have a look on my over drive...

EDIT:

Crysis 3 - http://scr.hu/0ozg/qzelz 1 hours session on High/Very high

http://scr.hu/0ozg/u3mmv - After 45 min+ of BF3

 

[Drangueos]

Wait you have a HIS Ice-QW Boost with an Asic that high? I though all recent HIS Boost cards were binned for low Asic. Mine were both 65% and 67.3%. My dodgy one was 65%. Will see tomorrow what my new one is. I'm pretty sure HIS are binning them to be 70% or lower though. That way it will work best with a low asic card that needs high volts (1.25v boost anyone?) to achieve core speed.

I have 2 MSI 7950 TF3... one is 59% asic and the other one amazing 52.3%
they do 960mhz at 1.100V and 1000mhz at 1.150V.

I think it is a world record for the lowest asic on 7900 series

 

[Barnold]

Little update on my situation:
Waited almost 3 weeks and I still hadn’t heard anything back from MSI or OCUK.
Ended up ringing their customer services. They apologised and actually agreed to just send me a new card as they’d expect MSI just to send them a new card in return. So a big thumbs in terms of customer service (though would have been nice if they’d done it 3 weeks prior to that, but ohh well, more MSI’s fault for not sorting it out).
Anyway, they sent a new card to me, it arrived the day after.
The card contained a voucher for Far Cry 3 (first card didn’t) and unlike my initial card this card uses the 7970 PCB. So double win as it should OC nicer than a reference PCB!

Using MSI afterburner I forced the fans to run at 25% constantly (as the auto fan speed was too efficient in getting temps up high enough (ohh the irony!)), booted up Crysis 3 and allowed it to get up to 68 degrees and there was no automatic 100% fan speed issues, so looks like the thermal diode issue is fixed too!

I took a look at the ASIC and it’s only 60.9% Apparently that’s on the low side of things, but having googled it it’ll be more than enough to OC to some half decent speeds, especially with the 7970 PCB. That and as mentioned before it has a default higher voltage than most cards so it should hopefully cancel itself out (I think that logic's right, please correct me if not lol)

So I’m a happy bunny again and can start PC gaming again. Felt weird going back to my 360 gain

 

[se_vietboi]

Oh I better get in contact with OcUK as well then But greats news for you! I hope I get a similar card. Tried fiddling with clocks yet?

 

[chris-82]

Do these cards still have problems

 

[Barnold]

Not had a chance to fiddle yet. I've never OC'd a GPU before so I doubt I'll be too adventurous to start with but will let you know once I do!

An in terms of the problems, I don't think so. My initial card was bought in February and was a part of the 'known issue' batch with the faulty thermal diode. The new ones work fine as far as I can see and have heard

 

[se_vietboi]

I was told to wait 28 working days! That's roughly 6 weeks meh.