Radeon HD 7950 Owner's Thread

[3DVagabond]

Actually the reference is 1x 8 and 1x 6 pin. That VaporX card is very unique.

Not on the 7950. The "reference" is 2x 6pin.

 

[Rikard]

Not on the 7950. The "reference" is 2x 6pin.

Indeed. There are a lot of people on forums getting into trouble since they do not have the two 8 pin connectors on their PSU, and I guess they did not read the description, or there was conflicting information like that Newegg entry. I havent seen any posts with problems about the card per se, so it looks like good product though.

I did not spend more than a couple of minutes googling but the people that got the 8+8 version are all (?) living in Europe and one guy in New Zeeland. It would be curious if this card is not shipped to NA for some reason, so if someone with this model could confirm or falsify that I would be interested to know it. 3dVaggie, you live in NZ mate (love that town btw). Any chance you could take a peek in a local store?

 

[AtenRa]

Just got the ASUS HD7950 CU II V2 couple of days ago and it has 2x 6pins

 

[Rvenger]

Not on the 7950. The "reference" is 2x 6pin.

I was talking 7970, but many 7950s have a ref 7970 PCB.

 

[Rikard]

Just got the ASUS HD7950 CU II V2 couple of days ago and it has 2x 6pins

... as it should. 2x8 pin is unique to Sapphire Vapor-X.

Good choice btw! The three best coolers I think are the one you got, the one I got and the Powercolor PCS+, after reading tons of reviews. At least if you value silence. I might have gone for the Asus if it was not ridiculously overpriced when I sent my order. Post us some OC results already!

 

[zaydq]

Surprised how well this thread is going. Very interesting to see a 2x8pin connector.

 

[Geosurface]

I want to simultaneously run 3 displays with this card:

http://www.msi.com/product/vga/R7950...=Specification

in the following configuration:

40" Samsung TV on other side of the room hooked in via HDMI cable
27" Dell monitor hooked in via DVI port
23" Dell monitor hooked in via DVI to HDMI cable using HDMI to mini displayport adapter at the card

that should work, right?

tv and 23" would be 1080 res, 27" is 1200.

 

[lehtv]

I'm RMA'ing it because it's not stable at stock clocks and power limit 0. It produces artifacts, and core temp is under 60C and VRM under 70C at these default settings in Heaven 3.0. It also produces artifacts and texture errors in games where GPU load isn't that high.

Just updating on this: I got my Sapphire 7950 Boost (925MHz) Dual-X a few days ago and I've run some tests on it. This is definitely better than the Vapor-X. At power limit +20 and stock volts, I've overclocked to 1140MHz stable. Temperatures stay at very reasonable 73C core and 75C VRM's using the default fan profile. Compared to Vapor-X, the core temperature is 10C higher but the VRM is 20C lower, and the Dual-X also makes less noise. Couldn't ask for anything more. And guess what? ASIC is under 60%.

Now just need to RMA the Vapor-X.

 

[Smartazz]

Just updating on this: I got my Sapphire 7950 Boost (925MHz) Dual-X a few days ago and I've run some tests on it. This is definitely better than the Vapor-X. At power limit +20 and stock volts, I've overclocked to 1140MHz stable. Temperatures stay at very reasonable 73C core and 75C VRM's using the default fan profile. Compared to Vapor-X, the core temperature is 10C higher but the VRM is 20C lower, and the Dual-X also makes less noise. Couldn't ask for anything more. And guess what? ASIC is under 60%.

Now just need to RMA the Vapor-X.

Good to hear. I love my Dual X 7950. I undervolted it a bit and now it's really quiet.

 

[PainKiller89]

Just updating on this: I got my Sapphire 7950 Boost (925MHz) Dual-X a few days ago and I've run some tests on it. This is definitely better than the Vapor-X. At power limit +20 and stock volts, I've overclocked to 1140MHz stable. Temperatures stay at very reasonable 73C core and 75C VRM's using the default fan profile. Compared to Vapor-X, the core temperature is 10C higher but the VRM is 20C lower, and the Dual-X also makes less noise. Couldn't ask for anything more. And guess what? ASIC is under 60%.

Now just need to RMA the Vapor-X.

you talking about this card right?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...scrollFullInfo

Also is this card voltage locked?

 

[zaydq]

I want to simultaneously run 3 displays with this card:

http://www.msi.com/product/vga/R7950...=Specification

in the following configuration:

40" Samsung TV on other side of the room hooked in via HDMI cable
27" Dell monitor hooked in via DVI port
23" Dell monitor hooked in via DVI to HDMI cable using HDMI to mini displayport adapter at the card

that should work, right?

tv and 23" would be 1080 res, 27" is 1200.

I don't have much experience with dual displays. Last time I was running a dual display configuration was when I had 2 19" CRT monitors.

Hopefully someone can help ya out, but I think having a different res on the one may be problematic.

 

[Rikard]

Just updating on this: I got my Sapphire 7950 Boost (925MHz) Dual-X a few days ago and I've run some tests on it. This is definitely better than the Vapor-X. At power limit +20 and stock volts, I've overclocked to 1140MHz stable. Temperatures stay at very reasonable 73C core and 75C VRM's using the default fan profile. Compared to Vapor-X, the core temperature is 10C higher but the VRM is 20C lower, and the Dual-X also makes less noise. Couldn't ask for anything more. And guess what? ASIC is under 60%.

Now just need to RMA the Vapor-X.

Glad it is working out better for you mate! Those results sound more like what we should expect from a 7950, judging from what people write here and the reviews. Still, at stock voltage my Vapor-X gets better OC and lower temps than yours, hehe () Regarding the ASIC score, I am beginning to think it does not really mean all that much tbh.

 

[lehtv]

you talking about this card right?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...scrollFullInfo

That looks identical but the SKU is 100352-2L, mine is 11196-16-20G. Don't know if they just have a different SKU for the US market of it's a Never Settle thing or something. I didn't get any games bundled with it.

Also is this card voltage locked?

It's weird. In MSI afterburner, voltage can be adjusted but as soon as I start up a bench, the power limit resets to 0. And when voltage control is disabled, power limit works again. I tried TRIXX as well, and it seems that messing with the voltage slider has no effect. This could be a BIOS thing or maybe it'll be fixed in a future version of Afterburner.

 

[3DVagabond]

It's weird. In MSI afterburner, voltage can be adjusted but as soon as I start up a bench, the power limit resets to 0. And when voltage control is disabled, power limit works again. I tried TRIXX as well, and it seems that messing with the voltage slider has no effect. This could be a BIOS thing or maybe it'll be fixed in a future version of Afterburner.

It's definitely software/firmware related. They use Chil vregs which are software adjustable. All of these "locked" cards can be adjusted. It just means getting the correct settings/software/bios, whatever.

 

[AtenRa]

FX8150 @ 4.6GHz + ASUS HD7950-DC2T-3GD5-V2 @ 1100MHz core 1500MHz Memory
Catalyst 12.11 BETA

 

[Rikard]

FX8150 @ 4.6GHz + ASUS HD7950-DC2T-3GD5-V2 @ 1100MHz core 1500MHz Memory
Catalyst 12.11 BETA

Impressive! What is your Heaven score and FPS with that clock? And the temps (at what fan speed)?

 

[AtenRa]

Haven't run heaven 3.0 yet
Fan speed at auto, didnt watch the temps, ill rerun and report back

 

[lehtv]

@AtenRa

I ran 3DMark11 basic edition as well but the result isn't right. i7-3770K @ 4.2, Sapphire 7950 @ 1100/1250.

Any ideas what might be causing this? Graphics score should be almost 2000 higher. I haven't noticed any problems with the card otherwise. I had GPU-Z logging in the background just in case, GPU use was near 100% and the clocks stayed at 1100mhz during the tests.

Using Cat 12.10.

Can you post your Heaven 3.0 result (default settings)?

 

[AtenRa]

@lehtv

You have Catalyst 12.10, i have 12.11 BETA. That's the reason you have lower score.

 

[Rikard]

My scores (10 days old, I think that was beta 7) are rather similar to AtenRa's.
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/4956726
But why does lehtv have so high physics score? Is that the i7 talking? What influences the different categories?

 

[AtenRa]

What settings for the Heaven bench ??

 

[Rikard]

What settings for the Heaven bench ??

Maxed out
http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=34253422&postcount=606

 

[zaydq]

My scores (10 days old, I think that was beta 7) are rather similar to AtenRa's.
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/4956726
But why does lehtv have so high physics score? Is that the i7 talking? What influences the different categories?

I7s tend to yield higher physics scores on 3dmark. But don't let that fool you. In reality most games do not take advantage of hyper threading where as 3dmark does.

 

[lehtv]

@lehtv

You have Catalyst 12.10, i have 12.11 BETA. That's the reason you have lower score.

I reran it with 12.11 Beta8. It improved the score but I'm still more than 1000 points short of what you got.

EDIT:

Haha, guess what? I had VSync and 16x AF forced in CCC. Here's the REAL score:

Still not over 10K though...

 

[jacktesterson]

I can get almost P8000 with my 7850 and 2500k.... Could if i could push voltage over 1.225v

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/4964685