Radeon HD 7950 Owner's Thread

[thujone]

the stock volts on my msi tf3 7950 was 1031mv. the 1.175v number is the stock volts for a 7970... which since this card uses the 7970 pcb it can usually handle this voltage no problem.

 

[joe_H]

the stock volts on my msi tf3 7950 was 1031mv. the 1.175v number is the stock volts for a 7970... which since this card uses the 7970 pcb it can usually handle this voltage no problem.

Disregard...my stock is also 1031mv. For some reason after my overclock test, when I used afterburner to go back to stock it kept the card at 1093mv...

 

[Zargon]

at this point I am mining at 1030 MHZ, GPUZ says ASIC is 91.9%

 

[RussianSensation]

Edit...I thought all these cards ran at the same stock voltage...does it differ from card to card? A quick google search shows results of reported stock voltages all the way from .993v to 1.175v.

Anyway stock voltage in afterburner for my card is listed at 1.093v. I can get all the way down to 1.047v at 1100/1575 without lockups, however, the Heaven benchmark starts to get some "skipping" and waves in the graphics.

Yes, they will all have different voltages (some will have the same by accident) based on their binned ASIC levels. Even your 1.047 @ 1100mhz shows how great the binning is for this MSI TF3 series of 7950 cards is. The official stock voltage for Tahiti XT @ 925mhz is 1.175V. You are exceeding that at much lower voltages. Think about the fact that AMD is putting 1.20-1.25V into the reference HD7950 B cards to run them at 925mhz GPU Boost (and ironically the Boost only works at 50% of its rated speed), with a manually overclocked 7950 @ 925mhz easily beating out the GPU Boosted card.

The fact that this wasn't investigated by AT or that a Mini-GPU after-market 7950 round-up wasn't revisited is very disappointing since the current information on 7950 is not accurately representative of what the actual consumers will be buying with their after-market 7950 cards.

the stock volts on my msi tf3 7950 was 1031mv. the 1.175v number is the stock volts for a 7970... which since this card uses the 7970 pcb it can usually handle this voltage no problem.

Exactly. The 7950 can handle more voltage than 1.175, up to 1.25V. The cooling system will most likely become the limiting factor due to high noise levels. The actual Tahiti XT silicon (whether 7950/7970) is easily rated to run at 1.25V without damage.

 

[SickBeast]

Guys the 7870 is a good deal as well at $200.

 

[RussianSensation]

Guys the 7870 is a good deal as well at $200.

Ya for sure, but where can we find a 7870 for $200? I've only seen 7850s for that price.

 

[SickBeast]

Ya for sure, but where can we find a 7870 for $200? I've only seen 7850s for that price.

Well, NCIX has an XFX "double d" 7870 for $215 AR right now. I managed to get in on a $20 off $100 deal on Friday so mine is $195.

I've been regularly seeing the 7850s hit $185 or even less if you get a crappy card with reference cooling. I could have had a Powercolor 7850 for $160 with the deal I got on Friday but I decided to get the 7870 instead for a variety of reasons.

 

[wand3r3r]

Was the first batch of hd 7950's pretty weak?

I have an asus 7950 dcuii and it's default voltage is 1.09 iirc with 6+6 pins. I toyed around with overclocking it and it ran heaven at 1025/1500 with +20% and I can't remember if I touched the memory voltages. It was pretty warm, up to 84 max between BF3 and Heaven.

I replaced the thermal paste and now it idles a lot lower and running heaven at stock was considerably lower (50's or lower 60's can't remember atm.). Now I can't even run heaven at 975core. It's cooler so I need to investigate if changing the paste has had an effect or what's going on. I tried like 1.15v on the core to no avail.

The original TIM (thermal paste) layer was probably twice as thick as what I replaced it with. The difference may be about a plastic bank card vs. a receipt.

 

[WMD]

Was the first batch of hd 7950's pretty weak?

I have an asus 7950 dcuii and it's default voltage is 1.09 iirc with 6+6 pins. I toyed around with overclocking it and it ran heaven at 1025/1500 with +20% and I can't remember if I touched the memory voltages. It was pretty warm, up to 84 max between BF3 and Heaven.

I replaced the thermal paste and now it idles a lot lower and running heaven at stock was considerably lower (50's or lower 60's can't remember atm.). Now I can't even run heaven at 975core. It's cooler so I need to investigate if changing the paste has had an effect or what's going on. I tried like 1.15v on the core to no avail.

The original TIM (thermal paste) layer was probably twice as thick as what I replaced it with. The difference may be about a plastic bank card vs. a receipt.

You possibly compromised the vrm to heatsink interface when you took it apart.

 

[Zargon]

Well, NCIX has an XFX "double d" 7870 for $215 AR right now. I managed to get in on a $20 off $100 deal on Friday so mine is $195.

I've been regularly seeing the 7850s hit $185 or even less if you get a crappy card with reference cooling. I could have had a Powercolor 7850 for $160 with the deal I got on Friday but I decided to get the 7870 instead for a variety of reasons.

nice!

 

[Rvenger]

My chip has an ASIC score of 87.9%

I can get to 950mhz stable at 1.031v (Stock)

1000mhz requires 1.06v to be 100% stable
1050mhz requires 1.09v to be 100% stable
1100mhz requires 1.13v to be 100% stable
1200mhz will never happen because it was unstable at 1.21v

Temps remained under 70c.


Not the best overclocker but is acceptable I guess. The asic score does not seem to line up with the overclock with what others are getting here.

 

[zaydq]

My 7950 needed a big voltage bump to go from 1100 to 1200. But I'm running at 1.168v. To be honest guys you don't want to go past 1.175v or elsw the card runs warm and the noise is crazy! Even at 1.168v I'm hitting temps of 80*c max with fan at 65%. The TF3 is a bottleneck for me.

 

[Silverforce11]

My chip has an ASIC score of 87.9%

I can get to 950mhz stable at 1.031v (Stock)

1000mhz requires 1.06v to be 100% stable
1050mhz requires 1.09v to be 100% stable
1100mhz requires 1.13v to be 100% stable
1200mhz will never happen because it was unstable at 1.21v

Temps remained under 70c.


Not the best overclocker but is acceptable I guess. The asic score does not seem to line up with the overclock with what others are getting here.

Put 1.187vcore and it should do 1.2ghz.

 

[lopri]

Mine is 64% and it's stable 1050 MHz/1.05V.

@Zargon: Your chip is unbelievably good, though. 0.91V for 1030 MHz?! What is your 7950's idle voltage?

 

[Rvenger]

Put 1.187vcore and it should do 1.2ghz.

I already put over 1.2v on 1200mhz.. it won't complete 3dmark and glitches like mad on the first test.

 

[RussianSensation]

Rvenger, what about 1150mhz? That could be doable still. You posted 1100 and 1200mhz but there is 100mhz of playing room in there, 1125, 1150, 1175.

 

[Rvenger]

Rvenger, what about 1150mhz? That could be doable still.

I'll test that when I get home. I did a suicide run to 1200mhz once I unlocked MSI AB. It seems that this cooler must have an excellent application of TIM because my temps are very good.


I will test my highest overclock with 1.175v. I don't think its necessary to raise above that. Hopefully it will hit 1150mhz stable at least.

 

[thujone]

from what i've noticed... it's almost a 1:1 ratio for mhz:mv. on average my card is stable at 1100mhz @ 1100mv... this trend follows for almost all clocks on my card. above 1100 though is where it gets iffy. i've gotten my card to run MOSTLY stable at 1150... but i was constantly having to go back and forth between profiles in AB and whatnot.

i've finally ditched AB altogether and i'm just overclocking using the amd overdrive thing in the CCC. just doing 1000mhz @ stock volts is good enough for me.

 

[Rvenger]

from what i've noticed... it's almost a 1:1 ratio for mhz:mv. on average my card is stable at 1100mhz @ 1100mv... this trend follows for almost all clocks on my card. above 1100 though is where it gets iffy. i've gotten my card to run MOSTLY stable at 1150... but i was constantly having to go back and forth between profiles in AB and whatnot.

i've finally ditched AB altogether and i'm just overclocking using the amd overdrive thing in the CCC. just doing 1000mhz @ stock volts is good enough for me.

Sounds like my card is similar to yours in regards to overclockability. What is your ASIC score?

 

[zaydq]

You guys think I should apply a new TIM? Sounds like everyone's card is running at similar voltages but lower temps. What's the highest fan speeds you guys hit with an oc?

 

[Rvenger]

60% at 1100 won't even break a sweat at 65c. I may not have a good overclocker but I sure have a cool running TF3

 

[zaydq]

Anything above 55% is awfully annoying haha. My fan hits 65% and my ears bleed. Though 65% keeps my 1200/1800 oc at a maximum of 80*C. Right now I'm playing gw2 and lowered my clocks down to stock since the game isn't even giving my 7950 an opportunity to sweat. I'm looking into where I can keep my computer so the fan noise doesn't bug me. Its sitting next to my monitor at the moment.

Also, I'm gunna ask a mod to change the name to Amd Radeon HD 7950 0wners + overclocking thread. Everyone cool with the thread name change?

 

[wand3r3r]

Anything above 55% is awfully annoying haha. My fan hits 65% and my ears bleed. Though 65% keeps my 1200/1800 oc at a maximum of 80*C. Right now I'm playing gw2 and lowered my clocks down to stock since the game isn't even giving my 7950 an opportunity to sweat. I'm looking into where I can keep my computer so the fan noise doesn't bug me. Its sitting next to my monitor at the moment.

Also, I'm gunna ask a mod to change the name to Amd Radeon HD 7950 0wners + overclocking thread. Everyone cool with the thread name change?

Russian should just start a new thread (being he's extremely (hyper)active). Why bother with 14 pages of clutter, just trim the wasted space. That's my opinion anyway...

 

[RussianSensation]

I am not going to start a new HD7950 overclocking thread since I don't own a 7950. I feel that a 7950 owner would best contribute to helping other 7950 owners with their respective 7950 user experiences and overclocks. This is no different than GTX670 owners starting their own thread.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2247076

And then on top of that I'll be labelled as an HD7950 salesmen.....:sneaky:

 

[Meekers]

Right now I'm playing gw2 and lowered my clocks down to stock since the game isn't even giving my 7950 an opportunity to sweat. I'm looking into where I can keep my computer so the fan noise doesn't bug me. Its sitting next to my monitor at the moment.

I am playing GW2 also and have my 7950 clocked in at 950 mhz on .993 volts(which was my stock voltage). I have no plans to raise the voltage until I run into something that needs the power. Though I have to admit I am tempted to try just to see how far it can go.