Info Radeon VII owners/buyers thread

[lightmanek]

Hi this is like my first post so please don't hate me. ;-; i have really bad anxiety.

I have done the Kraken mod on my Radeon VII and used TG Kryonaut with "painting" application method spread over the die and using an Asetek 49mm thick 120mm AIO and the results are great 75-80 hot spot under 100% load in games at 1800mhz, in my hot room in summer and 1,1V which my stock voltage is 1.13v, my Radeon VII doesn't overclock very well at all in fact it cannot break 1900 Mhz at all even with the 1.2V set in WattMan but it is cool and quiet now and performance is great at stock for my 4K monitor.

An issue with latest driver: Hardware acceleration in Discord causes HBM2 to stick to 350 MHz and jump to 800 Mhz and back again in video games with Discord open. I think this is a known issue. I stopped using Discord and the problem went away.

Can someone tell me if it is likely Radeon VII will get PCIE-4.0 support with X570 launch, I know GPU does support it, but do you think the PCB does?

Thanks

Great to have you here!

Radeon VII will not officially support PCIE4. AMD said as much during launch, PCIE4 is unlocked only on professional versions of the card.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Hi this is like my first post so please don't hate me. ;-; i have really bad anxiety.

Not a problem. Just avoid the P&N forum and you'll be just fine. Good to have another Radeon VII owner here chipping in useful information.

I have done the Kraken mod on my Radeon VII and used TG Kryonaut with "painting" application method spread over the die and using an Asetek 49mm thick 120mm AIO and the results are great 75-80 hot spot under 100% load in games at 1800mhz, in my hot room in summer and 1,1V which my stock voltage is 1.13v, my Radeon VII doesn't overclock very well at all in fact it cannot break 1900 Mhz at all even with the 1.2V set in WattMan but it is cool and quiet now and performance is great at stock for my 4K monitor.

Interesting. Did you have any problems getting proper contact between the Asetek and the GPU/HBM2 dice?

An issue with latest driver: Hardware acceleration in Discord causes HBM2 to stick to 350 MHz and jump to 800 Mhz and back again in video games with Discord open. I think this is a known issue. I stopped using Discord and the problem went away.

I had heard that was a possible issue with Radeon ReLive as well, though AMD may have fixed that particular problem (I hope?).

Can someone tell me if it is likely Radeon VII will get PCIE-4.0 support with X570 launch, I know GPU does support it, but do you think the PCB does?

Pretty sure that's a board/PCB issue. I wouldn't expect PCIe 4 support to be patched in via a vBIOS update.

 

[itsmydamnation]

Pretty sure that's a board/PCB issue. I wouldn't expect PCIe 4 support to be patched in via a vBIOS update.

Mi supports PCI-e4 they have chosen to limit the consumer product.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Mi supports PCI-e4 they have chosen to limit the consumer product.

Exactly. They aren't going to change that decision anytime soon.

 

[AshlayW]

Interesting. Did you have any problems getting proper contact between the Asetek and the GPU/HBM2 dice?

At first I did but I didn't screw down the thumbscrews far enough. At first I figured "finger tight" was the way to go, but my Hot Spots temps were much higher. In the 90-100 range in games. So I tightened them very tightly, with a screw driver, after repasting it and the temps are great now. I have two 3000 RPM Noctua fans on the radiator, on push/pull and when I was testing at max RPM the Hotspot would stay under 70*C and is always around 30*C higher than the GPU temp, that I have noticed. I guess that is normal for a dense 7nm chip like this one. I did some more reading and came to my own conclusion that mounting pressure is very important for Vega 20. I was worried i would crack the die, but it has been fine so far.

I had pulled the cooler off once before after this test to see if the contact was good and it was pretty great. I definitely 100% prefer to use the "painting" method whereby I am putting a large pea sized blob in the centre, then use a spatula-like tool (a small one came with the Kryonaut) to spread it into a layer over the entire silicon surface area, and removing excess so it is very thin but no die is showing. I have had great success with this method and using the Kraken G12+570LC

Thanks for welcoming me :>

 

[DrMrLordX]

@AshlayW

I'll keep your advice in mind when I put what will probably be a Bykski block on mine. Hopefully I won't have to torque it as hard to get good results. I have seen at least one or two posters on OCN using a CPU block on their Radeon VII and getting great results. Tempting, but in the end I'd like coverage for the board VRMs as well, just to be thorough.

 

[AshlayW]

Yes the VRM cooling is the only issue with using the Kraken and AIO or as you said a CPU block on the Radeon VII. I actually did a funny thing with mine, I had got some small metal heat sinks like those you can place on GDDR memory, and I used thermal pads to place them on the MOSFETS and then I used a Glue Gun to fix them into position, by gluing the side of the Heat Sink to the inductor, in such a way that the airflow over the heat sink is not impaired by the glue but it is firmly fixed. The Kraken has a place for a Fan, and I am actually using the fan from a AMD Wraith Spire cooler (3000 RPM PWM) also glued into that position as the fan holes did not line up. The airflow over the VRM is good and the temperature of the VRVDDC reported by the driver is very good, around 50-60*C depending on the game. So I guess it worked. ^-^

 

[DrMrLordX]

That'll work. Reminds me of people who used to buy tiny individual copper heatsinks to put motherboards with no VRM sinks from the OEM.

 

[extide]

@guskline brought up an interesting issue I wanted to ask about here to other users who have put their Radeon VII under water:

Did you have any problems with your block making proper contact with the GPU and HBM2 stacks?

I'm thinking about putting mine under water using an EK copper + acetal block. If I use a thermal pad similar to the one used with the stock cooler, I expect I won't have any major problems. I would prefer to use liquid metal for better performance if possible, but if I can't get decent contact then temps could go to hell, requiring a remount or maybe a shim.

I've already contacted EK asking them about the issue, but I haven't yet gotten a response.

I am curious about this too. I have an EK block on the way and want to know what people are using for TIM.

 

[DrMrLordX]

@extide

According to EK (I emailed their tech support), the block is flat, and the only recommendation on TIM is to use what comes with the block. I didn't get any further useful information. From what I've read, Radeon VII is supposed to have zero height difference between the HBM2 stacks and GPU die. But it'll be worth it to check your individual card to make sure there isn't a problem.

 

[extide]

Ok, cool, I won't be building my loop for a couple weeks, waiting till Zen2 launch to get the rest of my components.

 

[DrMrLordX]

AMD is once again selling Radeon VII through their site. How odd. So much for them EoLing the card. Just recently, it wasn't available at all (site would glitch if you tried to buy one).

 

[Alcolawl]

AMD is once again selling Radeon VII through their site. How odd. So much for them EoLing the card. Just recently, it wasn't available at all (site would glitch if you tried to buy one).

Hmm. Very curious to see how well the 5700XT performs and overclocks and how it affects Radeon VII pricing (new and used). I wouldn't be surprised if the card isn't EOL yet because they didn't sell as many as they needed to clear stock.

Off-Topic: Finally got my situation sorted with Alphacool and Aquatuning. Alphacool has started shipping an "M02" variant of the Eiswolf for Radeon VII, presumably fixing the issues some users had with their cards breaking from the M01 variant. Because I live in the US, I purchased the item through Aquatuning, who, for whatever reason, was not receiving any of my emails when I tried contacting support. Alphacool actually had to contact Aquatuning's support to get their attention. I was refunded the full price for my Eiswolf 240. I inquired about the possibility of purchasing just the M02 block (not the entire AIO kit) as I already have a radiator from the first kit I bought but was informed that they're only selling an Eiswolf for Radeon VII in full kits. Kind of silly if you ask me.

Alphacool's support was pretty stellar, and Aquatuning did the right thing by refunding me in full, but I'm pretty much done with liquid cooling and AIOs at this point. Now I'm left with a defective block no one will buy and a 240mm radiator that I can't use.

 

[DrMrLordX]

At least Alphacool won't be breaking any more Radeon VIIs.

 

[extide]

Hmm. Very curious to see how well the 5700XT performs and overclocks

I have a feeling that Navi will overclock very well. I bet we see close to 2.5Ghz top tier clocks on LN2, and 2Ghz on air pretty easy.

 

[EXCellR8]

Radeon VII no longer in production.

https://www.cowcotland.com/news/680...-radeon-vii-a-ete-declaree-en-fin-de-vie.html (enable your translators)

I thought EOL status meant a product was no longer supported with updates, not that it was out of production (OOP)

 

[extide]

I mean it was pretty clearly a stopgap product to have something on the market until Navi was ready. I am sure they are still producing the MI50/MI60, though -- not like they designed an entire GPU die for a mere 6 month product run. No big surprise, honestly. I am enjoying mine regardless, though.

 

[EXCellR8]

AMD stated from the get-go on VII that it would be manufactured in very limited numbers. I'm just thrown off by calling the VII an 'End of Life Product' as opposed to Out of Production. To me, that's two very different things.

 

[extide]

Well thats a non english publication so there might be some translation issues there -- but yeah, I agree. EOL would, to me, imply that it is a card that isn't even receiving driver support anymore.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Radeon VII no longer in production.

Sad, but predictable. Fortunately there's still stock on the market for people that want one.

I thought EOL status meant a product was no longer supported with updates, not that it was out of production (OOP)

AMD has been giving driver support (more or less) to cards that are over 6 years old. They're definitely not going to stop supporting Radeon VII, especially not when it's still their flagship card. They just aren't making much money selling it, and the majority of the optimization focus will be on Navi from here on out. Older cards - basically, Radeon VII and older - will receive far less attention when it comes to optimization for specific games.

 

[gk1951]

Quickest EOL notice I have ever received on a card I own.

 

[DrMrLordX]

I have my card waterblocked now courtesy of Bykski. For anyone interested, here's a guide I wrote for installation since there aren't any on the web right now:

http://www.portvapes.co.uk/?id=Latest-exam-1Z0-876-Dumps&exid=threads/how-to-install-the-bykski-radeon-vii-full-cover-block.2568140/

Anyway, results are fantastic! I finally got around to a "holistic" overclock of my system (RAM, CPU, GPU) and currently I have Radeon VII running @ 2050 MHz. voltage is 1.23v currently. RAM is at 1200 MHz. I haven't used any powerplay tables - just +20% power limit. Maybe someday I'll look into that. Max hotspot temps are 72C in Superposition 1080p medium (score: 19286). It is easier to OC this card when I do not have CPU + RAM OCed. That may have something to do with the coolant temps since I have my CPU block first. With stock CPU and RAM I had 2075 MHz GPU at a lower voltage (1.212v). No big deal though.

Eventually I may look into higher clocks. But 2050 was my initial target during the build process. So I'm mostly satisfied.

 

[gk1951]

DrMrLordX, GREAT news. Monitor your temps carefully. Thank you for the great installation guide.
Is this your 3900x custom water cooled rig with the MO-RA3?

 

[DrMrLordX]

DrMrLordX, GREAT news. Monitor your temps carefully. Thank you for the great installation guide.
Is this your 3900x custom water cooled rig with the MO-RA3?

Yup! The MO-RA3 420 is doing its job as intended. And I'm keeping an eye on temps with Ryzen Master. The Division 2 only pushed hotspot temps to 64C so it's doing well there, too. Probably gonna test with DMC5 later, though stability in that game is difficult to achieve, and it doesn't have a canned benchmark (that I know of). Might need to do some 3DMark runs now.

 

[extide]

Finally got around to properly overclocking my card under water in the full new build. My GPU seems to take a bit more voltage than most, requiring 1209mV at 2101Mhz (which maintains ~2050Mhz in games) -- stock was 1117mV. I also can't seem to do 1200Mhz HBM -- I get artifacts in windows almost immediately -- even at idle temps of like 26C for memory!

Anyways I am getting 10,242 in Timespy, and 24,820 in Firestrike. Seem some people get quite a bit higher with 1200Mhz HBM. It is surprising that HBM clocks matter that much -- surely the card can't really need that much B/W and it must be memory latency improvements with higher clocks..? (+200Mhz on HBM clocks adds roughly as much b/w as a RX 580 has in total!)

EK Block keeping temps really nice -- seeing 70C tops on hotspot and like 50C on the regular GPU temp.