MSI TwinFrozr III HD7950 3GB / Sapphire 7950 VideoCard + Sleeping Dogs - $318 Newegg

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D

Disconnect

Member
Apr 5, 2006
27
1
71
It's already loud, so more voltage is not an option. I had to force the fan to 72% to keep it at 70C while running OCCT.

It runs games smoothly, just doesn't overclock well.
 
B

Binky

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
4,046
4
81
Disconnect said:
It's already loud, so more voltage is not an option. I had to force the fan to 72% to keep it at 70C while running OCCT.

It runs games smoothly, just doesn't overclock well.
Click to expand...
Compared to mine, you're running a LOT of voltage. Did you try overclocking on default voltage (1031 on mine)? Have you looked at the VRM temps? Do you really need 1.08v just to get 1000mhz?

70C is not a high temp. You don't need to push the fan that hard to hold that temp.

My own MSI 7950 runs great at 1075mhz with default voltage. I can mine bitcoins with the same 1075mhz with 1.012v and the system is fully stable as long as I don't run games. It's even stable at 1100mhz with 1.012v but it occasionally glitches, so I backed off to 1075mhz. Almost all of the reports I have seen indicate that a 1000-1100 overclock is pretty easy with stock voltages. Once you start going above that, you have to push a lot more voltage. It doesn't seem worth it to me - just shoot for the best overclock on stock-ish voltage.
 
exar333

exar333

Diamond Member
Feb 7, 2004
8,518
8
91
Binky said:
Compared to mine, you're running a LOT of voltage. Did you try overclocking on default voltage (1031 on mine)? Have you looked at the VRM temps? Do you really need 1.08v just to get 1000mhz?

70C is not a high temp. You don't need to push the fan that hard to hold that temp.

My own MSI 7950 runs great at 1075mhz with default voltage. I can mine bitcoins with the same 1075mhz with 1.012v and the system is fully stable as long as I don't run games. It's even stable at 1100mhz with 1.012v but it occasionally glitches, so I backed off to 1075mhz. Almost all of the reports I have seen indicate that a 1000-1100 overclock is pretty easy with stock voltages. Once you start going above that, you have to push a lot more voltage. It doesn't seem worth it to me - just shoot for the best overclock on stock-ish voltage.
Click to expand...

Definitely ot the case for all of these cards. 1000mhz is way above what mine will do on default voltage. That's with VERY low ambients and great case airflow. FWIW, the one I got was a 7950 PCB also. I really don't care to much about the OC ability, since it's for someone else who won't really know how to tweak the card at all and I don't want to troubleshoot any issues remotely. :D The stock 880mhz and silent running will be great for the person I am building it for.

I suspect a lot of people posting high specs have really loud cards. That's why before the price drop on the 7950, the 670 was such a better choice for me. It overclocked decently and didn't increase the db much at all. These 7950s would be awesome for H2O setups because they should OC to the moon with a lot of voltage. They seem a mixed bag at stock voltage, but can't beat the value at just over $300 with a free game.
 
D

Disconnect

Member
Apr 5, 2006
27
1
71
Binky said:
Compared to mine, you're running a LOT of voltage. Did you try overclocking on default voltage (1031 on mine)? Have you looked at the VRM temps? Do you really need 1.08v just to get 1000mhz?

70C is not a high temp. You don't need to push the fan that hard to hold that temp.

My own MSI 7950 runs great at 1075mhz with default voltage. I can mine bitcoins with the same 1075mhz with 1.012v and the system is fully stable as long as I don't run games. It's even stable at 1100mhz with 1.012v but it occasionally glitches, so I backed off to 1075mhz. Almost all of the reports I have seen indicate that a 1000-1100 overclock is pretty easy with stock voltages. Once you start going above that, you have to push a lot more voltage. It doesn't seem worth it to me - just shoot for the best overclock on stock-ish voltage.
Click to expand...
Stock voltage on mine is .981V, with a max OC of ~930MHz. At 1.08 the max is 1036MHz. I Just ran OCCT again, and the GPU temp reached 72C. Max on both VRMs was 70C according to GPU-Z.

I'll probably just accept this as bad luck, but receiving what I suspect is an open box card is upsetting.
 
RussianSensation

RussianSensation

Elite Member
Sep 5, 2003
19,458
765
126
Disconnect said:
It's already loud, so more voltage is not an option. I had to force the fan to 72% to keep it at 70C while running OCCT.

It runs games smoothly, just doesn't overclock well.
Click to expand...

OCCT, Furmark, MSI Afterburner GPU Burn-in tests are not games though. You should always achieve the highest stable overclock in real world the applications you use. For example, in games my card only hits 62-64*C at 99% GPU load but 71-74*C in bitcoin mining. That means for most people my card only hits 64-65*C in games but for me bitcoin mining is the more realistic personal workload.

All those other programs such as OCCT, Furmark, MSI GPU burn in tests are only good for overclock stress testing, not temperature or noise level stress testing because games or other light applications won't reach those temperatures. Unless your card reaches 70*C in games as it does in OCCT using 72% fan speed, you may have more headroom. :thumbsup:

Not sure why you have stopped at 70*C either. Videocards are fine running 85-90*C at load. The most important thing is VRM temperatures, not GPU temperatures (unless 90*C GPU temperatures cause actual overclock instability). Modern GPUs are rated for 97-105*C, for example the entire GTX600 series line isn't in danger until 97*C. 70*C, especially in OCCT synthetic heat test, is extremely conservative.

chocobaR said:
I received a 7950 PCB also. Booted up with blue lines on the screen. Had to turn off then turn back on the monitor to get them to disappear. Sluggish performance in the same games I played with my GTX 460 at the same settings. Also some stutter. GTX 460 did 60 FPS at low settings in Guild Wars 2. My 7950 did 50. Don't know what was wrong with the card I had. Defective and/or bad drivers? I RMAed it the next day. Disappointed.
Click to expand...

Not sure how that's even possible. Are you sure you ran the game at similar level of settings or used Auto Detect? HD7950 @ 880mhz should be nearly 2x faster than a GTX460.

appearance%201920.png


Also, there are no driver problems in Guild Wars 2 on AMD cards. Nearly perfect Cross-fire scaling already with 4x HD7970 GPUs not even breaking a sweat powering 5x1 Eyefinity.

Sounds like you had a faulty card, which is unfortunate. Your performance is not at all representative of how 7900 series run GW2.
 
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B

Binky

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
4,046
4
81
RussianSensation said:
Sounds like you had a faulty card, which is unfortunate. Your performance is not at all representative of how 7900 series run GW2.
Click to expand...
Or just a botched driver install or something else with the drivers. I'd suspect the drivers first, but a bad card is always possible.
 
chocobaR

chocobaR

Golden Member
Sep 17, 2001
1,956
1
76
RussianSensation said:
Not sure how that's even possible. Are you sure you ran the game at similar level of settings or used Auto Detect? HD7950 @ 880mhz should be nearly 2x faster than a GTX460.

appearance%201920.png


Also, there are no driver problems in Guild Wars 2 on AMD cards. Nearly perfect Cross-fire scaling already with 4x HD7970 GPUs not even breaking a sweat powering 5x1 Eyefinity.

Sounds like you had a faulty card, which is unfortunate. Your performance is not at all representative of how 7900 series run GW2.
Click to expand...

I put low settings. Best Performance is what it's called on GW2. I didn't change the graphics options. I uninstalled all nvidia drivers and used Driver Fusion to make sure all the files were gone. Then I popped in the 7950, installed 12.8 and tried a few games. Batman AC, DayZ, GW2 and D3. Also tried using ATI Tray Tools but it was giving an error. A fix on the net said to download a missing .dll and put it in the ATT folder. Loaded up ATT and my screen went nuts and computer locked up. First time I had to reset my computer since it was built one year ago.

http://i.imgur.com/2VnxJ.jpg Settings I use to get 60 FPS with my GTX 460. 7950 stuttered and had 40-50. No clue what was wrong with it.
 
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RussianSensation

RussianSensation

Elite Member
Sep 5, 2003
19,458
765
126
ATi Tray Tools is terrible. Never worked well with any of my AMD videocards.

The best way to install an AMD card into a system with NV card is to do a full OS reinstall OR uninstall NV drivers (using their Uninstall option), NOT running any driver cleaner program after as that can mess up windows OS registry!!!, and then install AMD drivers 12.8 using Express install; then install CAPs and restart. Running driver cleaner application after any AMD driver uninstall is a no-no. It has proven to cause more problems than the benefits it provides. I experienced major issues going back to Radeon 8500 when I used Driver Cleaner /Driver Sweeper type of programs.

The other problem is your videocard's clocks could have been stuck at 500mhz GPU especially if you browsed the Internet with adobe flash videos. This happens because there is a UVD bug with Adobe Flash which requires disabling Adobe Flash hardware acceleration on AMD cards to force back 3D clocks after browsing websites with flash. Not saying this happened to you but this is a known problem that even I experienced when I got my 7970. It's a 30 second fix. Without this fix, there is a chance you are playing videogames @ 2D clocks with your new HD7900 series card! Even if you close all your browsers, unless you restart your computer, your videocard can be stuck at 500mhz indefinitely until the next reboot. Considering most people browse the internet between gaming, this is a common problem. Any GPU performance anomalies should be checked in MSI afterburner + HWinfo64 for GPU load clock speeds, GPU % utilization, VRM temperatures and GPU temperatures. Those 2 programs are a gold-mine for diagnosing problems.
 
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chocobaR

chocobaR

Golden Member
Sep 17, 2001
1,956
1
76
RussianSensation said:
ATi Tray Tools is terrible. Never worked well with any of my AMD videocards.

The best way to install an AMD card into a system with NV card is to do a full OS reinstall OR uninstall NV drivers (using their Uninstall option), NOT running any driver cleaner program after as that can mess up windows OS registry!!!, and then install AMD drivers 12.8 using Express install; then install CAPs and restart. Running driver cleaner application after any AMD driver uninstall is a no-no. It has proven to cause more problems than the benefits it provides. I experienced major issues going back to Radeon 8500 when I used Driver Cleaner /Driver Sweeper type of programs.

The other problem is your videocard's clocks could have been stuck at 500mhz GPU especially if you browsed the Internet with adobe flash videos. This happens because there is a UVD bug with Adobe Flash which requires disabling Adobe Flash hardware acceleration on AMD cards to force back 3D clocks after browsing websites with flash. Not saying this happened to you but this is a known problem that even I experienced when I got my 7970. It's a 30 second fix. Without this fix, there is a chance you are playing videogames @ 2D clocks with your new HD7900 series card! Even if you close all your browsers, unless you restart your computer, your videocard can be stuck at 500mhz indefinitely until the next reboot. Considering most people browse the internet between gaming, this is a common problem.
Click to expand...

No I checked the clocks. Wasn't 2D. Maybe Driver Fusion messed something up then. Didn't know it was bad when installing AMD Catalyst.

I use MSI Afterburner to show me GPU usage, temps, etc. on my screen when I game so I can see what's happening with my card.

What about the blue lines on my monitor? Couldn't really find anything on that.
 
L

lilvaratep

Member
Nov 19, 2012
127
0
0
I was wondering if you get a high pitched noise when you turn your fan up to a high percentage, or if you get flickering in unigine heaven w/ max settings. also, why did you underclock the memory from 1250 to 625?

I'm getting a weird high pitched reverberating noise whenever my fan goes up to high speeds. Also get flickering white color at random areas in guild wars 2, diablo 3 on the left edge of the screen, skyrim when i overclocked to 1000/1500 at stock voltage with black flickers, and unigine heaven i get flickers white in the sky.

all of the flickers were very thin lines except for skyrim, which was a block. should I return and get a different one?
Also, the asic score is 91.6%
 
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