7900gt and what you should be aware of.

[Arkane13131]

Alot of people... with EVGA cards and some other companies.. were complaining about their 7900gt's artifacting at stock speeds.

This especially was evident in superclocked card version.

Users reported that heatsinking the memory did absolutly nothing and neither did clocking the memory at lower speeds.

now click this link.

http://www.fatonion.net/7900hot.jpg

These are the memory voltage regulators.
They are located on the back/bottom of the card, right next to the area you shade with a pencil to volt mod your card's memory.

I want you to game for an hour or so.

Wait until the card is back down to idle (usually around 40C)

Now stick your hand in there and touch those voltage regulators.


better yet... dont

I did this and got an instant blister... even though I hadnt played a game within 20 minutes.

Im running the memory voltage mod..so this might have something to do with it giving me a blister... but .2 volts wont heat it up 50C or however hotter than it was meant to be..

Perhaps if you are having some weirdness with your 7900gt...and even if you are not...
you might want to slap a heatsink on those puppies... lord knows I will as soon as I get a chance.

When I touched them it felt literally like 100C..and i didnt exactly hold my finger down... on the contrary I tapped them and recieved a small but visible blister.

 

[Exsomnis]

That's because volt-modding is not a good idea, no matter how much people will tell others to go ahead and do it. If it was a good idea, they wouldn't need volt-modding in the first place.

 

[Arkane13131]

no... its the same way on stock cards


I had a 7900gt co superclock from evga... it artifacted no matter what I did to it.

I traded it in for a new one for free...and the new one was fine. and that is the one I have volt modded...

Many people ended up with 2 or 3 of them.. at stock speeds... that artifact no matter what.

A few people on this forum had the problem... and the problems were all over the EVGA forum..

I had heard about other companies having similar problems... but not too pronounced as evga.


Dont come in here with your fanboi whining because of the 7900gt's insane OC ability...
this isnt about all that....

This is about a problem that happens on stock cards, and especially those that OC should be aware of it.

 

[Exsomnis]

Oh right, that's nasty. Have you considered emailing eVGA about it? I wasn't "fanboi whining" either, I just think that volt-modding is a bad idea on any card. :roll: If I was "fanboi whining" I would say something about the 7900GT being flawed even without volt-mods, wouldn't I?

 

[Arkane13131]

evga knows now. It was a bad problem. Only happens on some cards though, and since i did not pay for a replacement. (not shipping or anything) it didnt bother me..considering i havnt seen the new card artifact yet.. and its at 690/1950 right now 1.4 2.2

anyway again... this is just for current owners to check out... especially those who volt modded their cards.

 

[Sunrise089]

OP or others, how do you add a heatsink to something like that? What do I buy and how do I affix it?

 

[Arkane13131]

Im using some ram heatsinks... like these...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835116012

they just stick right on..and 1 is just big enough to cover both things...

sort of a waste of money to use just 1 of 8 on this thing for 10$ hehe

most people prefer copper to the cliche aluminum ramsinks that come with their aftermarket coolers... so they will have a spare ramsink (or 8) lying around (like me )

Anyway... it seems to be the mystery component evga has been searching for... reguarding the artifacting issues.

So I assume that those of us who volt mod should take extra precautions.

 

[Zstream]

Originally posted by: Arkane13131
Im using some ram heatsinks... like these...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835116012

they just stick right on..and 1 is just big enough to cover both things...

sort of a waste of money to use just 1 of 8 on this thing for 10$ hehe

most people prefer copper to the cliche aluminum ramsinks that come with their aftermarket coolers... so they will have a spare ramsink (or 8) lying around (like me )

Anyway... it seems to be the mystery component evga has been searching for... reguarding the artifacting issues.

So I assume that those of us who volt mod should take extra precautions.

Would you think the 7600GT would be in a similiar situation or totally different PCB setup?

 

[crazylegs]

Is there any knowledge of other makes (i.e. non-EVGA cards) having the same issue?

 

[Arkane13131]

Im not sure really, all I can tell you is what I experience with my 7900gt EVGA card.

 

[fierydemise]

Its quite possible that other super OCed 7900GTs (XFX) would/have exhibit(ed) the same problem

 

[RyanVM]

Has anybody conclusively shown that cooling those regulators actually improves anything? Or is this all speculation?

 

[WT]

Cooling anything should improve its stability, so I agree its a good idea to apply a heatsink wherever possible on these high end cards. Your wallets a little lighter in the end, but I would prefer the peace of mind on a hot summer day with the A/C not on yet.

 

[Sunrise089]

Originally posted by: RyanVM
Has anybody conclusively shown that cooling those regulators actually improves anything? Or is this all speculation?

This would be nice to know as well

 

[zephyrprime]

With any of the voltmods, I would definitely apply some heatsinks to the VR's to try to give them a little extra capacity.

 

[RyanVM]

Originally posted by: WT
Cooling anything should improve its stability,

My emphasis added.

You my friend are speculating

 

[Arkane13131]

Users on EVGA forums report this dramatically reducing / eliminating their artifacting problems.
A wise man once said, "Word of mouth is always speculation." however.

 

[RyanVM]

Well, that at least gives us something to go by . Maybe I'll have to look into doing that on my XFX card when I've got it out for VF900 installation this weekend anyway.

 

[RyanVM]

Well, I bought some RAMsinks for cheap from g0dMAn's FS/FT thread in this forum (he's got a bunch more too if anybody else wants to try it), so I'll let you guys know if cooling them does anything for me

 

[The Dome]

Well after about an hour and a half of CS:S I saw no artifacts and while they were hot, not too much more than what I have felt on a x1800xt at the recent lan at my house. What kind of airflow do you have in your case? maybe a tad more would help things out?