7950 No GPU Temp

[Belial88]

Gigabyte 7950 (the older version with hynix and voltage adjustment)
i7-4770k/ud3h
Dwood mod h60 2013
1.5mm shim
Removed protective shim

My GPU doesn't display temps. It's almost exactly like when you have no monitor plugged into the GPU, but I do have my monitor plugged in, I've also tried dummy plugs. I've tried multiple programs, it's exactly like if you don't have a monitor/plug into the 7950 (some programs, like trixx, just show 0*).

And, it's not exactly like that, because I can still overclock my card and have the settings stick (unlike when you don't plug in a monitor). It also shows every other IO value, I think when you unplug it it stops showing more than just the GPU temp. I still get 4x VRM temps, voltage, currents, powers, clocks, vram, utilization, etc...

The only thing that changed was tightening the dwood bracket, but the bracket was so loose my temps were worse than stock so I don't think I crushed anything (and what, I crushed the die's internal thermal diode but nothing else? makes no sense).

Thanks. Any help would be appreciated it. Does anyone know where exactly the thermal diode is on the 7950s? That might help me figure out what the problem is. All the searches I've found are just simply having to need to plug in a monitor or dummy plug (usually miners, as we're the only people who use a 7950 but don't put a monitor on it).

edit: tried it in a different pci slot. no luck.

edit2: yea ive tried everything. system restores, plugging in a gpu fan to see if it made a difference. pulling my hair out here. I'm thinking I maybe crushed it, but I have no idea where the sensor is or if that's even possible.

 

[Belial88]

Up. This really sucks.

 

[MTDEW]

Bumping this for ya hoping someone can help. :thumbsup:

Because I know this issue would drive me nuts!
And I'm just curious to see how/if it can be resolved.

 

[Face2Face]

So you were able to see your temps properly until you tightened your Dwood bracket? Does that bracket have any stops or anything in place to keep you from over-tightening?

 

[Belial88]

Not really. i removed the metal shim in place:

But it really shoudn't matter since I'm using a 1.5mm shim, which is quite large. I inspected the card and nothing is close to being crushed, there's tons of space between the ICs and plate and such.

I mean I really think crushed diode is what occurred here, unfortunately, but if someone could help me figure out where exactly the thermal diode is, I could probably replace it with some PCB solder work or something.

I mean the big problem here is that, not knowing my GPU temps, I don't know if my dwood bracket mod is successful or not, what I can overclock to, what can I mine at, etc. I have the standard discrete cheap thermal diodes with my Bitfenix Recon2 fan controller (the plain thermal diodes you see for cheap, a lot of cases and fan controllers have them) but I don't think you can get accurate core readings with them. I mean I could maybe mount one behind the gpu core on the pcb but I'm not sure how much I'd rely on it.

 

[MTDEW]

if someone could help me figure out where exactly the thermal diode is

I've spent a considerable amount of time searching for the answer to this since you posted. (as I'm sure you have also)
And I cannot believe i can't find anything for you.

I haven't given up, if I get lucky and come across anything that may help, I'll be sure and post it here.
You just know the info you need is buried in a 7950 modding thread somewhere.


EDIT: I just realized that THIS is your 7950 guide.
I just wanna say that was very helpful to me in identifying that my Sapphire 2L 7950's had the crappy 5ghz Elpida memory chips.
Excellent work on that guide BTW, very useful! :thumbsup::thumbsup:

 

[Belial88]

Thanks! It's sad that everyone says every 7950 model is good. In reality it's more like they all suck, and you just need to pick which suck doesn't affect you as much.

For example, the Gigabyte 7950s have the loudest coolers by far, the most obnoxious (3xsmall high pitched fans), and awful cooling, but everything else about the Version 1s is *perfect*, so if you replace the cooling, you get a perfect card.

I think I'll message AMD about where the diode is located (gigabyte never answers emails).

 

[Face2Face]

I'm a little confused. I thought when you use a copper shim for the AIO cooler, then removing the metal shim around the gpu was not necessary? Even if this is not true and there is no stops in place to keep you from over-tightning the mount, then you probably over-tightned it and damaged the temperature diode if it's internal? There is no information that I could find that supports an internal temperature diode though. Maybe you could hit up an AMD engineer on twitter of FB?

 

[Belial88]

No, removing the metal shim was never necessary.

AMD told me the diode is internal, so I guess I overtightened. Doesn't make much sense but w/e.

 

[Belial88]

So I'm getting another 7950.

I'd still like to do an AIO mod to it, but I don't want to break another GPU. Maybe it was because I used a 1.5mm shim, was that too big? What size shim is normally used?

Anyways, has anyone used the Sigma Cool mounts? Maybe if I use one of those instead?