BFG 7900 GT OC

[DeEjAy LiM]

Does its job well. Greats FPS on all my games, especially Oblivion, Prey, and Call of Juarez. I recently bought it and just wanted to OC for fun. I've been trying to, but nothing works. I'm using NGO drivers. Every time I try to "test changes" or detect optimal frequencies," the comp will slow down and artifacts will appear all over the screen. Anyone have suggestions whether it is driver or locked card? Much appreciated.

 

[lopri]

Did you buy a brand new one or a used one? If it's new, RMA it.

 

[Powermoloch]

welcome the forums lol

NOT every card can give out rainbow colours of performance. Yet you might have a card that does well under normal use and craps out under OC tweaks. IF youre not satisfied, just RMA.

 

[DeEjAy LiM]

The card is new. Stock clocks at 475/1360. Got it last weekend at Best Buy. RMA I would have to work with BFG Tech Support right? I could just easily exchange it at the store. Still under 30 day return policy.

 

[Dainas]

I would RMA it or return it, any card that "just" works at its stock frequency and does not have atleast 20-30mhz of headroom is too fragile and will most likely age alot faster than it should(aka burn out after 6months or so of use instead of lasting damn well near forever like a video card should)

I learned this from my (both early revision) 6800GT and 9700pro which I always used at stock frequencies because they just would not overclock from day one. Both slowly started crapping out after 6month of use and died at about a year old.

 

[DeEjAy LiM]

Thanks everyone. I really could see that this was a bad card when I was playing mutilplayer on FEAR. The texture on the walls of one room went green. As soon as I exited that room, the comp locked up with artifacts all over the screen. Sadly I guess I will return it. And to think, about 200-300 dollars for a great card, only to be a POS.

 

[CP5670]

Before you return it, you may want to try using different drivers. When I had a 6800GT, the "detect max frequencies" thing would fail instantly on certain driver sets and work fine on others. I used to just use Rivatuner instead since the Nvidia control panel's OC section had some weird quirks like this.

 

[DeEjAy LiM]

That was a good idea and I even did that. Official 91.31, Omega 1.6xxx, and NGO 91.45, all the latest offered from their respective sites.

 

[BassBomb]

maybe it is overheating even at stock...

id go for straight up exchange first, because it would save you most time

 

[Dainas]

No, when textures turn compleately bright green at stock speed, its means core is going bad(garbage) and no drivers will help you, you can only underclock it alot to slow its dying. RETURN THIS CARD ASAP..its simply a dud and will most certainly burn out before your ready to upgrade. My 6800GT started flashing green textures, and then burned out for good within the week.

Some drivers do improve overclocking and artifacts by easing the load on the card for a specific task, however drivers can only whitewash the problem at best.

 

[aka1nas]

This is probably one of the older batches if he is getting it from BB.

 

[DeEjAy LiM]

Yea. Definitely going to return it tomorrow at BB. We'll see from there what's going to happen. I'm scared to try OCing again without proper cooling, like the vf900. But eventhough, the 7900gt is still a great performer

 

[DeEjAy LiM]

Okay. I returned the card and got a new one. Too scared to OC it without a VF900. Otherwise, to get a feel on how it works, I benchmarked the new card with the FEAR benchmark.

FPS:
Min: 23
Avg: 46
Max: 107

FPS Distribution:
3% below 25 FPS
53% between 25 and 40 FPS
44% above 40 FPS.

Better than the last card with almost 40-50% below 25 FPS.

 

[Dainas]

Glad to see it worked out, yeah sometimes a bad apple makes it past quality controll.