Have any of you found out a way to unlock Gigabyte 7950/7970 cards?

SickBeast

Lifer
Jul 21, 2000
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I was hoping that a BIOS mod would fix it, but I'm reading conflicting reports. Some people have claimed that the right BIOS will unlock the voltage on these cards, but others say that even if you do that, GPU-Z will report the higher voltage but in reality your card will still be running at stock volts and won't overclock any higher.

I've tried the TechPowerUp forum and the overclock.net forum as well. I'm hoping some of you have experience or know something about this. Tempered81 told me he thinks it's possible so I'm hoping someone here knows of a method.
 

Stuka87

Diamond Member
Dec 10, 2010
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I was under the impression that they removed the circuitry that does the voltage adjustment. No BIOS change is going to fix that.
 

JimmyH

Member
Jul 13, 2000
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U can flash it to F43 bios to take u from 1.25v to 1.09 unless u have FTO bios. I flashed my F1Z bios to F43 and its drawing less juice, lower temps and still overclocks same limit 1150mhz. It was very helpful back when i was bitcoin mining. Was able to mine enuff to make this card free + $$. This thread outta be useful.

https://forum.litecoin.net/index.php/topic,2641.0.html
 

SickBeast

Lifer
Jul 21, 2000
14,377
19
81
U can flash it to F43 bios to take u from 1.25v to 1.09 unless u have FTO bios. I flashed my F1Z bios to F43 and its drawing less juice, lower temps and still overclocks same limit 1150mhz. It was very helpful back when i was bitcoin mining. Was able to mine enuff to make this card free + $$. This thread outta be useful.

https://forum.litecoin.net/index.php/topic,2641.0.html
Thanks for that. So the Gigabyte BIOSes actually change the voltage? There is hope for a BIOS mod in the future, then.

Someone on TPU told me that if I flash the Ghz edition BIOS onto my card I will go from 1175mv to 1250mv which helps with overclocking.

I actually think I will prefer 1175mv as it will give me better performance per watt. I will put the Ghz BIOS on my other slot and see what happens.
 

JimmyH

Member
Jul 13, 2000
182
12
81
Mine was a ghz edition bios and flashed to F43 didn't see much improve on max overclock. Still around 1150 but probably get near 1200 w/ 1.25v for gaming but not for mining. I too prefer performance per watt and stay at comfortable 1100 gaming 950mhz mining w/ 1.09volts.
 

SickBeast

Lifer
Jul 21, 2000
14,377
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Ok thanks. My suspicion is that the cards are hardware locked to whatever they set them to at the factory. It might look like we are changing things but in reality we are not. :(
 

SickBeast

Lifer
Jul 21, 2000
14,377
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I would not hold out any hope for full voltage control :'(
I have read of a couple people who claim to have unlocked full voltage control by hex editing the bios but they did not report back with whether or not it improved their overclock.

It's so frustrating. There is a ton of info on ways to flash different bioses with these cards but not one person came back and clearly showed how or if they were able to clock higher with a different bios.
 

blackened23

Diamond Member
Jul 26, 2011
8,548
2
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Voltage control is nice but 1.4V? It's insane to attempt that high on air. 1.35-1.4V+ is squarely the area for folks on water or LN2.....

If your card is locked high at 1.2V it shouldn't be a big deal. But you could probably find an original release 7970 BIOS somewhere, I don't think voltage is locked on a hardware level.
 

SickBeast

Lifer
Jul 21, 2000
14,377
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Voltage control is nice but 1.4V? It's insane to attempt that high on air. 1.35-1.4V+ is squarely the area for folks on water or LN2.....

If your card is locked high at 1.2V it shouldn't be a big deal. But you could probably find an original release 7970 BIOS somewhere, I don't think voltage is locked on a hardware level.
From what I'm reading it *is* locked on a hardware level, including other brands like XFX.

I hope you're right.

I could try an original BIOS. That is a good idea.
 

p_monks33

Golden Member
May 22, 2011
1,292
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If you get 1050 out of it on stock volts, what's the use of overvolting? Do you need 3 more FPS? There is like a 1% chance with 1.3v you will see over 1300mhz anyway, so its not like you are going to see massive gains in performance with voltage, stop worrying about it, this is the third thread about you needing voltage to overclock more. With Titan and 780's , your not setting any records or anything with a 7000 series card, so why are you so concerned and upset about this?
 

SickBeast

Lifer
Jul 21, 2000
14,377
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If you get 1050 out of it on stock volts, what's the use of overvolting? Do you need 3 more FPS? There is like a 1% chance with 1.3v you will see over 1300mhz anyway, so its not like you are going to see massive gains in performance with voltage, stop worrying about it, this is the third thread about you needing voltage to overclock more. With Titan and 780's , your not setting any records or anything with a 7000 series card, so why are you so concerned and upset about this?
I just always like to get the most out of my hardware. A big reason why I went with AMD was to get voltage control. I saw the thread in FS/FT and then read a review of the card on HardOCP where they overvolted and got I think 1300mhz out of the card. I was excited to get a big overclock so I could compare my card with jaydip's GTX 780. I have read that a 1300mhz 7970 actually comes very close to a GTX 780.

I also like to tweak the voltage to get the best performance per watt. It's nice to find the "sweet spot" in terms of voltage and clock speed.

I'm just trying to figure this out at this point. There is no need to get hostile.
 

Jaydip

Diamond Member
Mar 29, 2010
3,691
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I just always like to get the most out of my hardware. A big reason why I went with AMD was to get voltage control. I saw the thread in FS/FT and then read a review of the card on HardOCP where they overvolted and got I think 1300mhz out of the card. I was excited to get a big overclock so I could compare my card with jaydip's GTX 780. I have read that a 1300mhz 7970 actually comes very close to a GTX 780.

I also like to tweak the voltage to get the best performance per watt. It's nice to find the "sweet spot" in terms of voltage and clock speed.

I'm just trying to figure this out at this point. There is no need to get hostile.

Dream on beast :p
 

p_monks33

Golden Member
May 22, 2011
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Im not being hostile, I am pointing out the obvious. Your not gaining anything in terms of playability by overvolting. The newer gigabyte cards that are highly clocked from the factory have plenty of juice stock to hit 1050 , maybe 1100. I have had a bunch of 7000 series cards, and only under water did voltage matter. Just be happy with your purchase, and at least get it in hand to see what it can do before putting out a PSA bashing a company.
 

KingFatty

Diamond Member
Dec 29, 2010
3,034
1
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Is there a photograph of the circuit board, so we can look at what voltage control chip is used?

If there is a software-controllable voltage controller, there may still be hope. But if it has a simple hardware control, then perhaps there could be hope for a pencil mod when you identify the correct trace to shade with a pencil.
 

SickBeast

Lifer
Jul 21, 2000
14,377
19
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Is there a photograph of the circuit board, so we can look at what voltage control chip is used?

If there is a software-controllable voltage controller, there may still be hope. But if it has a simple hardware control, then perhaps there could be hope for a pencil mod when you identify the correct trace to shade with a pencil.
Thanks King Fatty. You helped me out when I had a locked 7850 as well. Don't think I don't remember these things. :)

I will send you a clear photo when I get the card. Am I going to have to remove the heatsink? I don't want to void my warranty. I wanted to put new thermal paste anyways though.
 

RussianSensation

Elite Member
Sep 5, 2003
19,458
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I have read that a 1300mhz 7970 actually comes very close to a GTX 780.

There is only one 7970 that could dream of doing 1300mhz on air long-term and that is the Matrix Platinum. Even if you had access to 1.4V, the VRMs on that Gigabyte card could get damaged. Try overclocking on stock volts and see what your VRM temps are. I bet you are already close to 100*C when GPU is 99% loaded at just 1150mhz.

Keep in mind that some 7970s hit a wall no matter how much voltage you apply. @ Xbitlabs their Gigabyte 7970 got 1165mhz but it needed 1.25V to do that. 1300mhz on air for your 7970 card is not at all realistic no matter the voltage.

ztemps-xbt.png
 
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KompuKare

Golden Member
Jul 28, 2009
1,179
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Even if you had access to 1.4V, the VRMs on that Gigabyte card could get damaged. Try overclocking on stock volts and see what your VRM temps are. I bet you are already close to 100*C when GPU is 99% loaded at just 1150mhz.

I think that will be SickBeast's first hurdle: as I've mentioned on his other thread, AFAIK Gigabyte took away the VRM temperature monitoring on the r.2 PCBs so that would mean having to invest in an IR thermometer.
 

RussianSensation

Elite Member
Sep 5, 2003
19,458
765
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I think that will be SickBeast's first hurdle: as I've mentioned on his other thread, AFAIK Gigabyte took away the VRM temperature monitoring on the r.2 PCBs so that would mean having to invest in an IR thermometer.

I seriously would not push that Giga card beyond 1200mhz. If you look at the VRM cooling, it's a tiny strip. The main heatsink doesn't even touch the VRMs.

GIGABYTE-HD7970-2.jpg


If you get a good overclocking 7970, it should do 1175mhz on stock volts of 1.175v. If it only reaches 1050-1100mhz on stock volts, chances are you'd need to go all the way up to 1.25-1.256V to hit 1150-1175mhz. The difference in performance from 1100mhz to 1150mhz is not worth the increase in voltage from stock to 1.256V in terms of temperature rise and power consumption. Some good overclocking 7970s can hit 1200mhz on just 1.200V and then at 1.256V can hit 1240-1250mhz.
 

SickBeast

Lifer
Jul 21, 2000
14,377
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Yeah that's what I was thinking as well, RS, however I did not realize that the VRM cooling was bad on this card. I actually read on another forum about one of these cards catching on fire.

If I hit 1100mhz on stock volts I can live with that. 1150mhz-1200mhz and I will be very happy.