7950 Underperforming

[Lean L]

Hey all,

I have a 7950 that does not seem to perform as well as it should. It is the Sapphire 7950 boost edition. Both 3dmark 11 and Heaven's benchmark 4 (735) says that is should do better.

So far I have reinstalled the drivers and cleaned the registries.

i5 2500k @ 4Ghz
4x4GB GSkill Ripjaws 1600
Gigabyte GA 68XP-UD3
120GB SSD

 

[lopri]

Check if it's throttling, especially memory. I saw on a few occasion the memory frequency halved when I pushed my 7950 hard. If it throttles without overclocking, I'd RMA it.

 

[MTDEW]

The Sapphire 7950 boost will "throttle" the 3d speeds for the core as low as 800 to 850mhz with the power settings at default while under load.

If you move the power control settings to +20% in CCC under AMD Overdrive, your card will maintain its boost 3d speed of 925mhz on the core and you should see the numbers you are expecting.

 

[RussianSensation]

If you move the power control settings to +20% in CCC under AMD Overdrive, your card will maintain its boost 3d speed of 925mhz on the core and you should see the numbers you are expecting.

Seconded. This can also be done in MSI Afterburner or Sapphire Trixx.

What's your 3Dmark11 score?

 

[Lean L]

The Sapphire 7950 boost will "throttle" the 3d speeds for the core as low as 800 to 850mhz with the power settings at default while under load.

If you move the power control settings to +20% in CCC under AMD Overdrive, your card will maintain its boost 3d speed of 925mhz on the core and you should see the numbers you are expecting.

Does that also increase the voltage to the core? What I don't understand about the throttling is why if the card is already overvolted by so much. I'll report back in a bit when I get a chance to try again.

 

[MTDEW]

We say the card is "throttling", but as you may have noticed i put that in quotes. (even in my above post)

But actually the card isn't "throttling" to 850mhz.
It is actually "boosting" to 925mhz when it can and still maintain its TDP limit.
7950 With Boost

 

[MTDEW]

Think of it This way
The reason you always see the term "throttling" is because its easier to understand when you view it that way. (see below)
But AMD will argue that the boost cards don't throttle, they "BOOST!". LOL

TDP = Thermal Design Power
AMD's PowerTune technology maximizes performance without exceeding a cards Thermal Design Power (TDP). GPUs consume electrical energy while in operation, and convert this to heat energy that is removed by fans and cooling devices. The rate of energy consumption is limited by a cards ability to deliver power to the device and cool it by removing the heat that is generated. So if a card is exceeding its TDP, PowerTune will kick in and throttle the cards performance to match the cards intended TDP.

Higher speeds and voltage cause PowerTune to kick in and throttle performance to keep the card from exceeding its TDP.

Adjusting the cards powertune limits adjusts the TDP, thus allowing the card to operate at higher speeds / temps without throttling.

Your card can only "boost" when it can and still stay within the set TDP limit.
So to keep it "boosted", you can adjust the powertune limit to ensure it does.

So it really does come down to whether you view the 925mhz as "boosting".(like AMD does)
Or the 800-850mhz as "throttling".(like most of us do)

In other words, your card is working as AMD designed and only boosting when its within its TDP limit.

 

[Termie]

By the way, what do you mean by 3dMark says it's not performing how it should? If you haven't overclocked, you will be below average in the report it provides on the website, but that doesn't mean it's not working correctly.

 

[Tweak155]

Think of it This way
The reason you always see the term "throttling" is because its easier to understand when you view it that way. (see below)
But AMD will argue that the boost cards don't throttle, they "BOOST!". LOL

TDP = Thermal Design Power
AMD's PowerTune technology maximizes performance without exceeding a cards Thermal Design Power (TDP). GPUs consume electrical energy while in operation, and convert this to heat energy that is removed by fans and cooling devices. The rate of energy consumption is limited by a cards ability to deliver power to the device and cool it by removing the heat that is generated. So if a card is exceeding its TDP, PowerTune will kick in and throttle the cards performance to match the cards intended TDP.

Higher speeds and voltage cause PowerTune to kick in and throttle performance to keep the card from exceeding its TDP.

Adjusting the cards powertune limits adjusts the TDP, thus allowing the card to operate at higher speeds / temps without throttling.

Your card can only "boost" when it can and still stay within the set TDP limit.
So to keep it "boosted", you can adjust the powertune limit to ensure it does.

So it really does come down to whether you view the 925mhz as "boosting".(like AMD does)
Or the 800-850mhz as "throttling".(like most of us do)

In other words, your card is working as AMD designed and only boosting when its within its TDP limit.

This is a good description, never thought of it that way. I now consider the boost cards as throttled, assuming they would be able to operate 100% of the time at the "boost" speeds.

 

[Lean L]

Just got 840 on Heaven @ extreme and 1080p. I overclocked it to 1050/1340. The 7970 gets about 1070 so I'm still underperforming right?

 

[Termie]

Just provide us your score (total and graphics) from 3dMark11.

 

[Lean L]

Graphics Score 7211
Physics Score 6954
Combined Score 7280

 

[Termie]

Graphics Score 7211
Physics Score 6954
Combined Score 7280

It does seem that your Graphics Score is a bit low. It should probably be somewhere around 8500.

This is what I would recommend - install and run MSI Afterburner, and run 3dMark11 while Afterburner is logging GPU usage and clock speed. In the first four test scenes in 3dMark11, you should find that your GPU usage is near 99% and that your clock speed is at betwen 850 and 925.

 

[MTDEW]

Lean L,
What drivers are you using?
I'm using 13.2 beta 5's
I'll do a run at 1050/1340 here quick and post back.
I'm running a pair of Sapphire 7950 boost cards, i'll disable one.

 

[Lean L]

I'm on 13.1 as far as I remember this card was always underperforming

 

[MTDEW]

Just ran Heaven 4.0.
single card - 1050/1340

1920x1080
8x AA / fullscreen
preset - custom
Quality - Ultra
Tess - Extreme

FPS - 33.0
Score - 832
min - 18.6
max - 70.5

Edit: try 1125/1350, and it should get close to 7970 if i remember right.

1125/1350
(everything else same as above)
FPS - 34.5
Score - 869
Min - 18.7
max - 74.8

 

[MTDEW]

Just got 840 on Heaven @ extreme and 1080p. I overclocked it to 1050/1340. The 7970 gets about 1070 so I'm still underperforming right?

You sure that 7970 score isn't Heaven 3.0?
And not Heaven 4.0.

 

[Stuka87]

My 7950 @1175 scores a 9180 for graphics. Cant recall what it was stock.

 

[MTDEW]

3DMARK 11 BASIC EDITION (Performance preset) ver. 1.0.3.0
AMD driver - 13.2 beta 5
Single GPU scores (x-fire disabled)


cpu - 4.7ghz (2600k)
GPU - 1125 / 1350 (+20 pwr tune)
G - 9744
P - 8832
C - 9027

cpu - 4.7ghz (2600k)
GPU - 1050 / 1340 (+20 pwr tune)
G - 9347
P - 8790
C - 9051

cpu - 4.0ghz (2600k)
GPU - 1125 / 1350 (+20 pwr tune)
G - 9743
P - 7766
C - 7974

cpu - 4.0ghz (2600k)
GPU - 1050 / 1340 (+20 pwr tune)
G - 9339
P - 7792
C - 7932

My specs....
2600k @ 4.7
Asus P8Z68 -V Pro
16gb (4x4) G-skill sniper DDR3
2x Sapphire 7950 OC Boost Edition
Intel SSD
WD HDD's
Asus Xonar DG audio
Corsair HX850 PSU
CM HAF X case

Lean L,
My scores should all be just a bit lower than yours running a single card and same cpu speed.
Since Im running x-fire, my cards are running at PCI-E x8 , whereas your single GPU should be at PCI-E x16.

 

[aaksheytalwar]

3770k at 4.3
7970 1125 1575

P10600+
G11k+
Phy 10k+
C 9k+

 

[Termie]

3DMARK 11 BASIC EDITION (Performance preset) ver. 1.0.3.0
AMD driver - 13.2 beta 5
Single GPU scores (x-fire disabled)


...


cpu - 4.0ghz (2600k)
GPU - 1050 / 1340 (+20 pwr tune)
G - 9339
P - 7792
C - 7932

....

The OP's Graphics score should be about 10% lower than this at stock speed, or 8500, which is what I said earlier.

OP, we have confirmed that you have a problem with your card, at least in 3dMark11. Can you run Afterburner during a 3dMark11 benchmark to confirm GPU usage and GPU clocks?

 

[RussianSensation]

Graphics Score 7211
Physics Score 6954
Combined Score 7280

Download MSI Afterburner. Run 3DMark with MSI afterburner open and then check the GPU and memory clock speed in MSI afterburner for that run. The GPU clock should be pegged at 925mhz at all times with CCC at +20%. Setting CCC PowerTune to +20% has nothing to do with GPU's Vcore.

Alternatively, try the 2nd bios on your card (there should either be a button or a switch on your card). Flick the bios switch when the computer is turned off and restart.

 

[MTDEW]

The OP's Graphics score should be about 10% lower than this at stock speed, or 8500, which is what I said earlier.

OP, we have confirmed that you have a problem with your card, at least in 3dMark11. Can you run Afterburner during a 3dMark11 benchmark to confirm GPU usage and GPU clocks?

Yeah, I wondered if those numbers were while he was still throttling also, so that is why I added (+20 pwr tune) to be sure he benches the same.

And just a thought, hopefully OP has the 2500k IGP disabled and isn't running Virtu, that could hurt also.
Might as well grab GPUZ and check for PCI-E x16 too.

And as stated, he really needs to get setup to monitor the clock-speeds in real-time with AB/Rivatuner OSD.

 

[Lean L]

I just ran 3dmark 11 again with +20% at stock. It seems to have fixed it.

Graphics Score 8507
Physics Score 7303
Combined Score 7283

Thanks guys for all the help and educating me on power tune. I thought it was a new buzzword for voltage boosting haha.

 

[Lean L]

BTW the overall score is weirdly calculated in 3dmark11. My combined score rose by 3 but both my gpu and physics score rose more than that.