Radeon HD 7950 Owner's Thread

[Joseph F]

Nice! HD7970 PCB + 6+8 pin power and MSI TwinFrozr cooler = winning 7950!

1.1ghz HD7950 > GTX680 for $310 considering at 1025mhz it's already just a hair behind:

*snip

Congrats on your new card. Sounds like a winner. Stock volts for HD7970 are 1.174/1.175V, so you have plenty of room. Temps in mid-70s to low-80s are perfectly fine.

Download HWInfo64 to monitor your VRM temperatures.

So, he's actually undervolting, and overclocking by 50%? (over ref. 7950)
Consider my mind blown.

 

[Shmee]

very cool. I may pick up one or two of these real soon if I get a job real soon. Curious, how bad would the bottleneck be on PCIE 2.0? system in sig. Assume I would be OCing and OVing.

 

[RussianSensation]

very cool. I may pick up one or two of these real soon if I get a job real soon. Curious, how bad would the bottleneck be on PCIE 2.0? system in sig. Assume I would be OCing and OVing.

2% performance difference between PCIe 2.0 x8 and PCIe 3.0 x16 (0-1% between 2.0 x16 and 3.0 x16 on 7900 series cards). I think HardOCP found 2-3% for AMD, more for NV.

So, he's actually undervolting, and overclocking by 50%? (over ref. 7950)
Consider my mind blown.

His card may be undervolting. Mine does. I put 1.200V into MSI afterburner to get maximum GPU voltage of 1.174V. Average is around 1.092V for me at 1150mhz, card drawing 192.5W.

That's what I keep saying. The reviewers never spend any time doing this sort of thing. They take an HD7900 series card, pump voltage to 1.25-1.3V, go for max overclocks, get something like 1200mhz, measure power consumption at 240W and finish the review. They don't take the time to find out that the card may actually run such frequencies at much lower voltage, probably because of time constraints or laziness.

 

[3DVagabond]

His card may be undervolting. Mine does. I put 1.200V into MSI afterburner to get maximum GPU voltage of 1.174V. Average is around 1.092V for me at 1150mhz, card drawing 192.5W.

That's what I keep saying. The reviewers never spend any time doing this sort of thing. They take an HD7900 series card, pump voltage to 1.25-1.3V, go for max overclocks, get something like 1200mhz, measure power consumption at 240W and finish the review. They don't take the time to find out that the card may actually run such frequencies at much lower voltage, probably because of time constraints or laziness.

You're kinder than me. Honestly, why would someone pump more voltage than what is needed for the card to be stable, then make a big deal out of how much power the card is using, if they weren't trying to skew the power usage results? I can't believe they are that incompetent.

Considering how much they O/C on stock voltage, I'd like someone to show us what minimum voltage would be for stock performance levels. For all of these folks who are extra concerned with power usage. You know what I mean?

 

[Shmee]

interesting PCIE results. In that case, I assume my CPU and south bridge would be more of the bottleneck then, and not the PCIE with the GPUs.

 

[KompuKare]

That's what I keep saying. The reviewers never spend any time doing this sort of thing. They take an HD7900 series card, pump voltage to 1.25-1.3V, go for max overclocks, get something like 1200mhz, measure power consumption at 240W and finish the review. They don't take the time to find out that the card may actually run such frequencies at much lower voltage, probably because of time constraints or laziness.

Yes, even Computerbase never managed to get their 7850 past the PowerTune max (1050Mhz). I was looking for 7850@max vs 7950@OC benches and the only ones I found were at ht4u.net:
http://ht4u.net/reviews/2012/powercolor_radeon_hd_7850_pcs_plus_im_test/index12.php
and
http://ht4u.net/reviews/2012/gigabyte_radeon_hd_7950_oc_windforce_3_im_test/
(afraid they're all those dynamic charts like Computerbase use so no images to embed :-( )

Anyway, I cannot find the voltages they use in their OC tests, but they are consistent in that for the OC benches they always use the same five games (Alien vs. Predator, Crysis Warhead, Dragon Age 2, Metro 2033, The Witcher 2) so it makes it possible to compare although not every review will have card listed and in their database I could not find the OC figures.

But I did add them up myself and on average
Card core / ram av.FPS Watts
HD7850 [1200/1450] 38.94 165.02
HD7950 [1060/1575] 62.23 185.15

So that makes the £180 for the 7850 vs the £240 for 7950 look like a very good bargain. Wattage isn't that much more either (although they had no figures for theh 7950 running faster than 1060Mhz).

Incidentally, most of their GT670 draw around 180W at stock (except for the Asus TOP which they measured at 200W at stock) so the 7950 is not only cheaper but it's power usage is not that bad. But the Asus 670 TOP shows that board component choices etc. play a big part in too. I know from underclocking my 5770's RAM that memory uses a fair bit of power too.

 

[zaydq]

Hey all!

I'm at work so I can't follow up much until I get home this evening. I've got photos showing my clocks. Highest gpu temp is 79degrees @ 1200/1600 @ 1.132v. Fan speeds were noisy topping @ 75%. I easily managed 1100/1375 on the stock volts (1.086v) and could probably get more before having to up voltages. The 7970 runs at stock volts of 1.175v so I could ptobably push the card to 1300/1700 but I think the overclocking potential has been proven. From 880mhz -> 1200mhz consitutes a 36% increase in core clock and a 28% increase (1250mhz ->1600). This card clearly has a lot more headroom if you were to go with aftermarket cooling as voltage walls clearly aren't the issue. I will also note that the gains in upping voltage dwindle as you go higher (meaning as you up the voltage you won't be overclocking a whole a lot further). Asic quality is 85.9% which is admirable and seems to be the average for anyone buying this card.

I give this card a 5/5 as I pretty much just got a 680 at these oc's. I will probably pursue seeing what the max this card can go @ before I hit high temps and/or the complete maximum. I used Msi afterburner with asus gpu tweak to unlock frequencies. I can almost guarantee at stock volts you will get 1100/1375 since I'm not the only one to hit that. This cards a winner!

Just fyi my pc mark score went from 7081 -> 9008(or something like that) with these ocs which put me in the top tier of 7950s in terms of score... Except I did it with stock air cooling .

(When should I worry about temps?)

 

[Silverforce11]

Your stock volt is my OC volt This card's stock volt is 0.987, dunno why its so low.

I'm running 1.087vcore and 1,125 mhz. I didnt see much gains for upping ram clocks, i left it at 1400 and call it a day.

Plus the PCS+ fan is quiet at <60% speed, I've got it on 55% and highest temps looping Unigine is 73C. If u leave it on auto, its inaudible but temps reach ~80C.

 

[zaydq]

Your stock volt is my OC volt This card's stock volt is 0.987, dunno why its so low.

I'm running 1.087vcore and 1,125 mhz. I didnt see much gains for upping ram clocks, i left it at 1400 and call it a day.

Plus the PCS+ fan is quiet at <60% speed, I've got it on 55% and highest temps looping Unigine is 73C. If u leave it on auto, its inaudible but temps reach ~80C.

Haha yeah it is. But I was able to oc to 1175/1375 without upping the volts so all in all there's not much difference. Memory clocks yielded very small gains during my benchmarks, core clock is what made a load of difference. I left the fan on auto which may explain why the temperatures read so high. I will reattempt at 55% fan speed and maybe it won't be so darn loud. Also keeping it at a steady fan speed won't allow temps to jump up faster leaving the fan trying to keep up. My every day clocks will be probably be 1200/1600 if I can keep it stable and have it relatively quiet. Considering the 7970 runs at higher volts I doubt my card will have trouble pushing 1.132v as opposed to 1.175v. I don't find it necessary to run higher than 1200/1600 considering its on par with a gtx 680 stock. I'm worried about temperatures though. I'm okay with 70-76 degrees under extreme gpu load but anything higher worried me. I know my old 8800gtx ran in the 90s but each card has it's own limits.

 

[Rvenger]

zaydq, I ordered the same card yesterday and it will be here tomorrow. I hope my luck is as good as yours. I haven't had good luck with AMD as of late. I think this is going to be the first videocard that I overclock as well.

 

[Darkrage]

You guys think this card be enough to handle 2560x1600 rez of a 30" dell? looking for single card solution in $400 range.

 

[thilanliyan]

Man this deal is tempting...

 

[zaydq]

zaydq, I ordered the same card yesterday and it will be here tomorrow. I hope my luck is as good as yours. I haven't had good luck with AMD as of late. I think this is going to be the first videocard that I overclock as well.

Well I haven't heard of a single person getting a poor overclocker... Seems to be almost guaranteed! Its a great card even at stock for the price. You should be able to get a small oc at the very least that will put you on par with the 7970/gtx 670.

You guys think this card be enough to handle 2560x1600 rez of a 30" dell? looking for single card solution in $400 range.

Not sure. This card would do just as good as anything under the 400 dollar range. I'd also look at the gtx 670 which is around the 400 mark.

Man this deal is tempting...

Its a GREAT deal when you're on par with a 500-600 dollar gtx 680

 

[thujone]

MSI 7950, just got it today with a 6 --> 8pin adapter.

i just got mine today... was stoked to see the 8 pin/7970 pcb. kinda disappointed cuz i was in the same boat as some of the other people and i'm using an older psu with only 6 pin connectors.



the foam liner thing that the card sits in inside the box... it lifts out and there's another compartment below that has the 6>8 pin adapter. they just put that 2xmolex>6pin on top to fool ya


just mentioning this because i didn't immediately notice this... and went into a flurry of PSU browsing lol

 

[zaydq]

1250/1600 was stable in everything but heaven. I believe the issues the card is facing is overheating more so than walls. 1200/1600 runs heaven once or twice before it runs too hot and begins artifacting.

 

[thilanliyan]

Well, I just placed an order for mine...should be here by about Friday.

I will test mine and see what it does. It WILL be water cooled after making sure the card is not DOA.

I'll have to modify my waterblock to take into account the rotated GPU and shim...hope it works out!!

I sold my 2gb 6950 for $170 to help pay for the upgrade...hopefully with enough bitcoin mining, this upgrade will be "free"! My other 6950 will be kept working for mining.

 

[zaydq]

With watercooling you shouldn't hit the temperatures keeping me from overclocking higher . I plan on running 1200/1600 temps hit 70 max at 50% in regular gaming. Its just heaven that gives me temp issues.

 

[RussianSensation]

I sold my 2gb 6950 for $170 to help pay for the upgrade...hopefully with enough bitcoin mining, this upgrade will be "free"! My other 6950 will be kept working for mining.

Perfect timing. If GTX660 for $249 ~ GTX580 in performance, the prices on HD7850 will plummet well below $200, lowering the resale values on 6950s even more. 1792 SP @ 1100mhz 7950 should be 75% faster in BTC than a stock 6950 (so looking at ~568-570 Mhash/sec). You should sell the other 6950 too and grab a 2nd 7950

 

[thilanliyan]

You should sell the other 6950 too and grab a 2nd 7950

Yeah I was considering it, but honestly I want to go back to a single card at some point and having 2 7950s means I probably won't for a while.

Maybe once the 7950s drop in price even more I may. And actually, I want to see what the power use is like once I OC the 7950. If after OCing, my PSU is marginal, I most likely won't go for another 7950. I have my 6950 undervolted to 0.995v as it is and is doing 330MH/s, which is not bad I think.

 

[Binky]

FYI - Amazon is now showing this card (almost) in stock. It's listed as "ships 1-2 days." Of course, this is without the Newegg game bundle, but possibly without tax for some.

 

[thilanliyan]

Okay I got my card, but is there a way to underclock the memory to less than 300MHz? The lowest I can go in afterburner is 650, but the lowest that it will actually set is about 825MHz.

I'm having the same problem with my other 6950 except that will not actually set any value below 1250MHz.

HELP!

 

[Joseph F]

I don't know the answer to your question, but why would you want to? Are you &#3647; mining?

 

[thujone]

so i finally got around to overclocking my card tonight. these cards are amazing. i'm running the kombustor stress test. 1.1v +20 1100/1250 (didn't bother with ram yet). first try runs it no problem.

i set the fan to 100% to see the min temp possible... sat at 60C. and you can hear the fan almost everywhere in my house lol. set the fan back to auto. it's now at 71C... but at only 52% fan speed. barely louder than my system/rad fans at load. pretty impressed with this cooler just right off the bat.

 

[RussianSensation]

Okay I got my card, but is there a way to underclock the memory to less than 300MHz? The lowest I can go in afterburner is 650, but the lowest that it will actually set is about 825MHz.

I'm having the same problem with my other 6950 except that will not actually set any value below 1250MHz.

HELP!

I enabled "Unofficial Overclocking Mode = 2" in MSI Afterburner by editing the MSIAfterburner.cfg with Notepad and putting these 2 lines in under [ATIADLHAL]:

UnofficialOverclockingMode=2
UnofficialOverclockingEULA=I confirm that I am aware of unofficial overclocking limitations and fully understand that MSI will not provide me any support on it

With mode 2, my card drops to 685mhz (from 850mhz before), but not below. I tried ATI Tray tools and it locks up my system. Power consumption difference for some reason is barely changed dropping the clocks from 1375mhz to 685mhz, unlike my 6950 card that also had a 3*C drop in temperatures too when I dropped the clocks. No temperature drop on the Sapphire with lower clocks.

so i finally got around to overclocking my card tonight. these cards are amazing. i'm running the kombustor stress test. 1.1v +20 1100/1250 (didn't bother with ram yet). first try runs it no problem.

Congrats!! Welcome to > GTX680 performance for $310 club and cheap/nearly free GPU upgrades on the AMD side for as long as bitcoin mining is profitable. :thumbsup:

 

[thilanliyan]

I enabled "Unofficial Overclocking Mode = 2" in MSI Afterburner by editing the MSIAfterburner.cfg with Notepad and putting these 2 lines in under [ATIADLHAL]:

UnofficialOverclockingMode=2
UnofficialOverclockingEULA=I confirm that I am aware of unofficial overclocking limitations and fully understand that MSI will not provide me any support on it

Thanks, that did the trick.

Now to worry about the temps lol. At 0.968v and 955MHz while mining, the card is getting up to 72C!! Meanwhile my 6950 is loading at 0.995v for 50C!! Does the 7950 run THAT hot?