Out with the old in with the new! & some questions

[wlsmith1985]

Hi Guys

They turned up today, Got some pictures for those of you that are interested!

Questions are both came with 900mhz clocks on them, what bios are they running and are they the unlocked voltage cards? What sort of speeds could I expect from them? and why does 2nd card say bus width 32bit and bandwith 20gig?

Cheers

Will

 

[grizzla]

I think the bios version is f42

The 2nd card shows that on mine too, its because of running crossfire, if you check gpu-z when running a 3d app (the gpu-z built in bench test) it will change and be the same as gpu 1

 

[arc@css]

Nice cards and good choice. Enjoy them.

 

[Andy321]

Think you have Rev 1 cards on F42 Bios. Pretty sure they will be voltage unlocked.

As for what overclocks you will get, only you will tell by having a play. Start by upping Mhz 25/50 at a time and test with Heaven/Games. Then once you crash, start increasing the voltage and playing with the core, I wouldn't personally go over 1.25v. Keep an eye on core and VRM temps.

Also your pictures show you don't have the Xfire bridge installed, possibly causing the bandwidth results on the second card?

 

[wlsmith1985]

hehe I definitely put it on just took the photo before , Right so far im running at 1050mhz and 1500 memory just done a heaven run on max, average fps 59 managed to make it all the way through without any problems, whats the best tool to overclock it with? shall I just use afterburner and disable the amd programme?

 

[wlsmith1985]

ok, got them at 1.25v using afterburner, cranked up to 1150/1525 managed to do a heaven run on max at max temp of 70 I will try pushing a bit further see what happens!

 

[Andy321]

Looking good so far. I personally use MSI afterburner (the new 3.00 beta), available from there website.

When you download it just go the settings and put a tick in - "Unlock Voltage Control" - "Unlock Voltage Monitoring" and "Extend Official Overclocking Limits" (If you want to keep pushing). Also GPU-Z is great tool for monitoring VRM temps ect ect.

Also if your still having problem with bandwidth on the second card, I've heard that if you put a tick in "Disabled ULPS" (Ultra Low Power Saving) in MSI Afterburner, it can sort that issue out. Aswell I would push "power limit" slider to +20% if pushing over 1000mhz core to stop potential throttling

If you do use MSI Afterburner (which I would recommend) Disable AMD overdrive.

 

[Andy321]

ok, got them at 1.25v using afterburner, cranked up to 1150/1525 managed to do a heaven run on max at max temp of 70 I will try pushing a bit further see what happens!

Seems like you got lucky 250mhz+ on core is decent. What's the VRM temps?

 

[wlsmith1985]

ok its stable at 1175/1550 at the moment.. I will try 1200/1600 and have a go with the power slider etc will post back with results in a sec

 

[Andy321]

I wouldn't push much over 1500mhz (probably stick at 1500mhz) on the memory as the returns are minimal. 7950's have plently of bandwidth as it is.

 

[wlsmith1985]

ok it didn't like it at 1200/1600 crashed almost straight away, so put it back to 1175/1575 and it locked up halfway through, so ive gone for 1150/1550
seems to be stable at that

 

[Andy321]

ok it didn't like it at 1200/1600 crashed almost straight away, so put it back to 1175/1575 and it locked up halfway through, so ive gone for 1150/1550
seems to be stable at that

As long as your core and VRM temps are happy, then i'd be happy.

Just loop Heaven for about an hour or so, then play some BF3/Crysis 3/Farcry 3 ect for a couple hours, that's how I check for stability in a GPU overclock.

Keep checking temps. I wouldn't be happy going over 75c on the core and 80c VRM's. But that's just me, I like to keep my core about 70c and VRM's about 75c/80c max.

 

[NZB]

You'd be better doing one at a time and not both with the core and memory. Leave the memory at stock and see how you get on with the core then start bumping the memory up too.