Radeon HD 7950 Owner's Thread

[MBrown]

Sitrep: I think my throttling issues were due to MSI Afterburner and CCC not working together properly...and yes I did have the override disabled in CCC. I uninstalled MSI Afterburner and I'm just using CCC to OC and GPU-Z to record my frequencies and I haven't had any issues yet. I will continue testing though.

 

[bigsnyder]

Temps on my 7950 TF3 are decent, but I'm thinking about changing the thermal paste before summer to see if I can bring them down a bit more. I have some Cooler Master Thermal Fusion 400 sitting around . . . should that work alright for a GPU, or would anything else be significantly better?

The TF3 is one card that can benefit from a good TIM change. I just used some PK-1 on mine with great results.

 

[Phaethar]

The TF3 is one card that can benefit from a good TIM change. I just used some PK-1 on mine with great results.

I just replaced the TIM on my new TF3 last night. When I picked it up on Wednesday and installed it, it was hitting upper 70's and lower 80's under full load with 100% fan. I put some MX-4 on it last night, and was staying in the mid 60's under full load with much lower fan speeds as well. This was at 1100/1300 at default voltage.

Also, not sure how big a difference it made, but when I took off the heatsink I noticed that a screw was missing. It was one that attached the fans to the heatsink itself. It looked as though the metal tab on the heatsink was bent and the screw hadn't been able to take hold. I found the screw in the box, bent the tab back, and was able to tighten it up.

 

[GrantMeThePower]

Ok - tell me what is your asics quality(right click on the GPU-Z).
This GB GHZ bioses are not very stable - this is just my observation. See some pages backward - i posted a link how to reflash your card. Try F43 bios version. By the way what is your bios? Check again in GPU-Z in the first tab.

Ok. Will check when I get home.

Thank you again!!!

 

[Stuka87]

i havn't ran any benchmarks or stress tests just kinda checking fps in game so i don't wanna go to far i only got a 500watt psu(rosewill or w/e at that) gonna upgrade soon....

i been reading around but what are the clocks i should be able to reach at stock voltage on my his 7950 turbo? i don't really wanna up voltage and shorten life of the card....it performs very well as is...

If its a good 500W PSU, you should be fine. I have a 520W PSU and even under full CPU/GPU load, at the wall, I think I was drawing around 420W (Have the numbers at home). I have a 80% efficient PSU, so 420W at the wall is going to be 340ish for actual output?

Not sure what CPU you have, but my Phenom II at 4GHz is not exactly power efficient. And I have the voltage bumped on my 7950 OC.

 

[Face2Face]

Arctic Accelero Xtreme 7970 installed on MSI Twin Frozr III 7950


Time to disassemble the good ole' MSI TF3.

I am going to keep the MSI memory/vrm plate heatsink on the card.This will also help stiffen the card so it will not sag while installed.

It's a Big Boy!

I already ran into a problem though. The top the MSI heatsink plate is hitting some of the cooling fins on the new cooler

 

[Stuka87]

Just trim those fines on the cooler. It wont have much of an effect on its performance.

 

[Face2Face]

No worries though - Glad I have a Dremel tool

Installed and ready to go.

Fit's right in with my color scheme

^ No card sag with the stock MSI plate intact

 

[tigersty1e]

let us know your before and after vrm temps.

I have the same card and cooler. I took off the stock plate and attached the included small vrm heat sinks with thermal tape.

I actually think the stock plate does a terrible job at cooling. the plate doesn't make good contact with the vrm because they installed standoffs between the card and plate.


Posted from Anandtech.com App for Android

 

[thujone]

i've always felt like the achille's heel of the tf3 is the vrm sinks/plates



always wondered if 3rd party ramsinks would help

 

[hjalti8]

i've always felt like the achille's heel of the tf3 is the vrm sinks/plates



always wondered if 3rd party ramsinks would help

it may look weak without fins of any kind but it has always been the best performer according to infrared thermography :

http://www.hardware.fr/articles/853-17/thermographie-infrarouge-cartes-graphiques.html

 

[Face2Face]

Just did a quick run through of Unique Valley benchmark and 3DMark 11

@ 1200/1800 1.175v for the core and 1.65v memory

VRM max temps of 72c. Max temps of the Core 51c.

30c drop from the stock HSF with the same settings!!!

Manually set 100% fan speed because it's so freaking quiet. Very happy so far. I will get a chance to do some gaming later on and see how she does over a longer period of time.

 

[BallaTheFeared]

Just got my TF3...

First thing I went to do when I opened the anti static bag was to remove the hsf and replace the TIM.

However the top left screw has a warranty void if removed sticker on it, woe is me.

 

[Face2Face]

Hey Balla, is it a 6 + 6 Pin? If it is that would explain the low ASIC.

 

[lavaheadache]

Just got my TF3...

First thing I went to do when I opened the anti static bag was to remove the hsf and replace the TIM.

However the top left screw has a warranty void if removed sticker on it, woe is me.

that card is going to need a fair bit of voltage to clock sky high

 

[BallaTheFeared]

Yeah 6+6, and a lame sticker!

 

[Face2Face]

Yeah 6+6, and a lame sticker!

Sorry man. I don't know why MSI decided to do this to the newer models. Still very good chances she can clock high Just give her some voltage.

 

[bigsnyder]

Just got my TF3...

First thing I went to do when I opened the anti static bag was to remove the hsf and replace the TIM.

However the top left screw has a warranty void if removed sticker on it, woe is me.

Supposedly MSI is one of few companies that will still honor warranty after removing the cooler. Ask around over at ocn

 

[thujone]

it may look weak without fins of any kind but it has always been the best performer according to infrared thermography :

http://www.hardware.fr/articles/853-17/thermographie-infrarouge-cartes-graphiques.html

nice link!


also interesting to notice that the vrm's on 7950's seem to be a lot closer to the gpu than a lot of other cards

 

[BallaTheFeared]

that card is going to need a fair bit of voltage to clock sky high

What's a good clock?

I did a 5 minute (or something) run of Valley on the shipping voltage @ 1125MHz

No artifacts, but my room is hot right now (sun room aka man cave) it will cool off tonight, hit 60C @ 65% fan... I might get out the blow dryer, shhhhh.

 

[bigsnyder]

1100 and higher is considered good

 

[Vesku]

That's pretty good for the ASIC quality, I got a lowish ASIC (~70%) Gigabyte 7950 WF3 and it gets testy once it nears 1100MHz even with voltage bumped up quite a bit.

If you are concerned with warranty I'd ask MSI directly regarding replacing the TIM, my impression is that MSI and Gigabyte are beginning to rein in their warranties a bit.

 

[Stuka87]

What's a good clock?

I did a 5 minute (or something) run of Valley on the shipping voltage @ 1125MHz

No artifacts, but my room is hot right now (sun room aka man cave) it will cool off tonight, hit 60C @ 65% fan... I might get out the blow dryer, shhhhh.

Doubt it will stay stable at that speed with stock voltage (Unless its a boost model). Even for 1100 I had to bump mine up a bit.

 

[BallaTheFeared]

Doubt it will stay stable at that speed with stock voltage (Unless its a boost model). Even for 1100 I had to bump mine up a bit.

Is there a better program than MSI AB to monitor this stuff?

Look ma, I maxed it out

Sorry first time, my cherry is getting popped as we speak.

Edit: It seems to be changing the voltage on it's own, 1.18v during another run of valley.

 

[Vesku]

Have you run any games or benchmarks at those settings? Pretty amazing if it's actually stable at that voltage and clock given the ASIC quality.