Radeon HD 7950 Owner's Thread

[zaydq]

Grab the 12.11 beta4 driver, big improvements.

I am on 12.11, that's why I'm so disappointed.

Looking at my graphics score, I scored 10416 which is about what it should be, however my overall score is way below what I was expecting. My CPU is almost as fast as yours so that shouldn't be the problem. Is there something wrong with my system?

I doubt it. 1150mhz even though is only 65mhz lower than 1215 but it makes a huge difference in benches. You're doing fine considering you're not at his exact clockspeeds.

And m3ta1head, your heaven score is fine. Amd made optimizations to 3dmark just like they did many other games.

 

[zaydq]

Grab the 12.11 beta4 driver, big improvements.

I am on 12.11, that's why I'm so disappointed.

Looking at my graphics score, I scored 10416 which is about what it should be, however my overall score is way below what I was expecting. My CPU is almost as fast as yours so that shouldn't be the problem. Is there something wrong with my system?

M3ta1head has an i7 and you have an i5. 3dmark11 performs better on i7s than it does on i5s. Fortunately 3dmark11 is a useless bench because most i7s dont perform much better than i5s in games.

65mhz on the core and 500mhz on the memory makes huge number differences on benchmarks.

 

[zaydq]

I pulled the trigger on a Gigabyte 7950 900mhz windforce for 269.99 after rebate The amd promo got me Far cry 3, hitman absolution and sleeping dogs for free. I am stoked! It is a little disappointing considering i just bios flashed my xfx 5850 BE to a 5870 and put aftermarket super quiet cooling on it I sold it to my buddy for 80 bucks.

I am a huge gigabyte fan, love their mobos. However the blue PCB is ugly imo, fortunately my case on this build is solid sided. Cant wait for it to arrive monday and to try out some OC'ing to compare.

Let us know about the oc'ing when ya get it. Congrts!

 

[Smartazz]

M3ta1head has an i7 and you have an i5. 3dmark11 performs better on i7s than it does on i5s. Fortunately 3dmark11 is a useless bench because most i7s dont perform much better than i5s in games.

65mhz on the core and 500mhz on the memory makes huge number differences on benchmarks.

Thanks. Just making sure I have no problems with this setup. I'm at 1200/1400 and still going. Very impressed with the card. Stays quiet despite being so fast.

 

[zaydq]

Thanks. Just making sure I have no problems with this setup. I'm at 1200/1400 and still going. Very impressed with the card. Stays quiet despite being so fast.

Nice! Everyone in the past 20 pages or so is really making a case for the crazy overclocking potential of the 7950. It is an unsung hero haha.

 

[Smartazz]

Settled on 1150/1400. Unfortunately when idle the voltage stays at boost voltage(1.25) and memory clocks stay at 1400MHz. Both MSI Afterburner and Overdrive have this problem for me. Any fixes? Thanks.

 

[Endymion FRS]

Is there any disadvantage to getting a boost 7950/7970? Do they overclock like normal?

 

[zaydq]

Not many people are invested into the boost models. I would imagine they would still overclock fairly well. My concern with them is they tend to pump in a lot of voltage to maintain a tiny 950mhz clock. This is also telling that they may or may not put in some of the best chips into these cards, which in turn would affect the maximum OC you could potentially get.

You could always put a different BIOS on the card so that you no longer use the BOOST bios. The boost is simply controlled by the bios, changing it to a BIOS from another 7950 will let you completely control the voltage, and is relatively safe if you follow instructions. You have a BIOS switch that allows you to alter one, but fall back to the other in case something occurs.


EDIT: Someone wanted to force the voltage to not spike on the forum, here is a solution that seems to work. http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2280813

 

[Smartazz]

Since stock voltage for boost is 1.25 volts, does this mean it is a safe voltage to be overclocking with?

 

[Plimogz]

probably safe enough, sure. But hot and loud and likely excessive in most cases.

 

[Isbiten]

Gigabyte 7950 WF here.
Hope it will be a long and fruitful relationship

 

[stylez777]

You could always put a different BIOS on the card so that you no longer use the BOOST bios. The boost is simply controlled by the bios, changing it to a BIOS from another 7950 will let you completely control the voltage, and is relatively safe if you follow instructions. You have a BIOS switch that allows you to alter one, but fall back to the other in case something occurs.

I was trying to search Google for this because i know I had to take some extra steps to put a different bios on my old 5850. Anyone have a link to a guide or tutorial on how to put a non boost bios on your boost card? Is there anyhting special that needs to be done to flash a non boost Sapphire bios onto a boost version of the card?

 

[Smartazz]

Heaven run @ 1215/1850

Min fps is lower than normal for some reason-the score should be higher. Temps are good-at these speeds, furmark will get the card up to 78-80C. VRMs stay below 80C, which is perhaps the secret as to why this particular card clocks so well. I've backed off my 24/7 clocks to 1100/1600 @ 1.1v to shed most of the heat-this drops temps by 10-15C all around.



Grab the 12.11 beta4 driver, big improvements.

Does having huge memory overclocks help with Heaven benchmark scores? I can't really get past 1500MHz on the memory.

 

[tigersty1e]

I can't seem to get memory voltage to work with afterburner and my msi 7950 tf3. when I change the mem voltage slider and apply, the readings from gpuz, afterburner and hwinfo don't change from stock 1.6 volts.

I can change the core voltage fine. so either this card doesn't support men voltage or I'm doing something wrong.

any help?



Posted from Anandtech.com App for Android

 

[sze5003]

MSI afterburner didn't work for me. You need to go to the settings and unlock voltage check mark there. I use trixx for my overclock.

 

[Smartazz]

At some point my VRMs hit over 130C but I don't know when it was. Is it okay if it was for a short period of time? I've been watching it now and it stays in the 70s.

 

[Plimogz]

At some point my VRMs hit over 130C

What, with Heaven or Furmark? either way, 130C is just plain too much. Is this at 1.25 VGPU?

 

[Smartazz]

What, with Heaven or Furmark? either way, 130C is just plain too much. Is this at 1.25 VGPU?

I don't remember. I just checked GPU-Z which I left on and it reported the max temp of the VRM to be 130C. Granted that is way too much, but is my card okay after being subjected to that?

 

[Plimogz]

If you card looks, sounds, smells and renders fine, it'll be fine. A figure often quoted as maximum VRM temperature is 125C. And that would be max rated temperature for long term use. So just peaking at or above it for a little while shouldn't be seriously deteriorating anything. But, long term, I would never run my VRMs (or in this case VRM#1, as it seems to always be a good deal hotter than the second one) above 100C.

 

[Smartazz]

If you card looks, sounds, smells and renders fine, it'll be fine. A figure often quoted as maximum VRM temperature is 125C. And that would be max rated temperature for long term use. So just peaking at or above it for a little while shouldn't be seriously deteriorating anything. But, long term, I would never run my VRMs (or in this case VRM#1, as it seems to always be a good deal hotter than the second one) above 100C.

Ok thanks. Temps aren't anywhere near that as I've watched it. Makes me think I can raise the voltage 1.23 volts and try to overclock some more. Any idea what the power consumption of these cards are at these high overclocks?

 

[zaydq]

I was trying to search Google for this because i know I had to take some extra steps to put a different bios on my old 5850. Anyone have a link to a guide or tutorial on how to put a non boost bios on your boost card? Is there anyhting special that needs to be done to flash a non boost Sapphire bios onto a boost version of the card?

Use a 7970 bios. It has been touted to work and you'll probably find a guide easier to do it.

 

[zaydq]

At some point my VRMs hit over 130C but I don't know when it was. Is it okay if it was for a short period of time? I've been watching it now and it stays in the 70s.

Are you sure GPU-Z isn't stating that the max it reads is 130? Use HWinfo64 since imo GPU-Z can give some shitty results at times.

 

[zaydq]

I can't seem to get memory voltage to work with afterburner and my msi 7950 tf3. when I change the mem voltage slider and apply, the readings from gpuz, afterburner and hwinfo don't change from stock 1.6 volts.

I can change the core voltage fine. so either this card doesn't support men voltage or I'm doing something wrong.

any help?



Posted from Anandtech.com App for Android

I really wouldn't suggest playing with the memory voltage on your card.

 

[tigersty1e]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tigersty1e

I can't seem to get memory voltage to work with afterburner and my msi 7950 tf3. when I change the mem voltage slider and apply, the readings from gpuz, afterburner and hwinfo don't change from stock 1.6 volts.

I can change the core voltage fine. so either this card doesn't support men voltage or I'm doing something wrong.

any help?



Posted from Anandtech.com App for Android

I really wouldn't suggest playing with the memory voltage on your card.

I'm stable to 1850mhz with my ram. error detection (decreased performance) doesn't kick in until 1900. 1.5v is supposed to be stock but my card came in at 1.6v. I want to run my ram at 1600 and tighten down the voltage.

so do you know how the answer to my question?


Posted from Anandtech.com App for Android

 

[stylez777]

Use a 7970 bios. It has been touted to work and you'll probably find a guide easier to do it.

Ya I am going to mess around with the card it should be coming in today. I don't like the fact that the boost bios pumps 1.25v into the card to gain a meager 925mhz overclock (especially hearing others are reaching 1100-1200mhz with 1.1ish volts). If I can flash to a new bios that is a non boost bios that uses less volts and then overclock to my liking i'd prefer that. If it's not possible I may just exchange it for a non boost version of a card.