Radeon HD 7950 Owner's Thread

[dlock13]

I have a question for the owners in this thread. What made you choose this card over the 7970? I'm just wondering because I'm in the market for a new card, and I can't decided what to do. I currently have a GTX 560 Ti, and I'm trying to decide what would be the best upgrade path.

 

[hjalti8]

I have a question for the owners in this thread. What made you choose this card over the 7970? I'm just wondering because I'm in the market for a new card, and I can't decided what to do. I currently have a GTX 560 Ti, and I'm trying to decide what would be the best upgrade path.

because the performance diffrence is so small. You only need to clock a 7950 5-10% higher than a 7970 to match it performance-wise.
So with a quality 7950(like the TF3) you could actually be getting more performance max-oc vs max-oc if you got a poor 7970 or a voltage locked one(which seems to be getting quite common, at least with cheaper models).

 

[dlock13]

because the performance diffrence is so small. You only need to clock a 7950 5-10% higher than a 7970 to match it performance-wise.
So with a quality 7950(like the TF3) you could actually be getting more performance max-oc vs max-oc if you got a poor 7970 or a voltage locked one(which seems to be getting quite common, at least with cheaper models).

So I spend $300 for roughly the same performance as a $400 card? Hm.. This seems like a no brainer to me.

How do we feel about this card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150589

 

[hjalti8]

So I spend $300 for roughly the same performance as a $400 card? Hm.. This seems like a no brainer to me.

How do we feel about this card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150589

I would rather take this instead since the Double D cooling is rather poor and isolates the pcb from airflow:

MSI TF3 has great vrm and pcb cooling according to infrared imagery: http://www.hardware.fr/articles/853-17/thermographie-infrarouge-cartes-graphiques.html

 

[spinejam]

I have a question for the owners in this thread. What made you choose this card over the 7970? I'm just wondering because I'm in the market for a new card, and I can't decided what to do. I currently have a GTX 560 Ti, and I'm trying to decide what would be the best upgrade path.

I chose a couple MSI 7950 TFIIIs over the 7970s mainly for the great performance/$. My xFire 7950 has been running fine and powers my Shimian 1440p nicely. :thumbsup:

 

[zaydq]

I bought the 7950 because it came in at $300 when the 7970 was still $400+. Perf. to price ratio is unbeatable when you're looking for a card to overclock.

 

[zaydq]

should i be worried by this?

I don't see anything out of the ordinary?

 

[chimaxi83]

Might be his +12V at 0.704V. Probably just a software glitch, because your system wouldn't be functional if that number was correct.

 

[makken]

does anyone know what settings anandtech uses for their heaven benchmark scores in their reviews?

edit: is 70C too hot for this card? That's what it seems to be maintaining while benchmarking. VRAM is a couple degrees higher at 73C

 

[Clorky]

Hello everyone. I can't get antiliasing to function. I tried everything, older drivers, SMAA injectors, changing AA mode in CCC, but the anti-aliasing just doesn't work in any game. Where's the problem?

 

[Clorky]

After uninstalling the drivers and restarting PC, games runs well, pretty weird... But the anti-aliasing settings even after installing the drivers HAS NO AFFECT on the game whatsoever, i really need to find a fix, because i just don't get it.

 

[Smartazz]

does anyone know what settings anandtech uses for their heaven benchmark scores in their reviews?

edit: is 70C too hot for this card? That's what it seems to be maintaining while benchmarking. VRAM is a couple degrees higher at 73C

70C and 73C is fine.

 

[Plimogz]

To my fellow MSI TF3 7950 (built on 7970 PCB w/ the 6+8 plugs, to be exact) owners:

Does anyone know the precise thickness of the thermal padding used to cool the memory and VRMs? I'd like to put a little heatsink onto the one uncovered RAM chip on my 7950s (probably attached with thermal tape) but to do so obviously involves removing the complete heatsink assembly and before I do that I would rather, if at all possible, have some thermal pads handy in case something needs changing or whatever.

Also, having read good things about the Fujypoly Extreme thermal pads which they stock over at FrozenCPU.com I've been toying with the idea of replacing the stock material with some of those if it indeed looks like they would perform better. So it would be great if I could know what thickness(es) to order without first removing the heatsinks.

Otherwise I suppose that I would have to bite the bullet, bring out the calipers and risk damaging or contaminating the current pads before ordering replacements.

Anyway, any input regarding either pad thickness or performance would be warmly appreciated.

 

[Rikard]

After uninstalling the drivers and restarting PC, games runs well, pretty weird... But the anti-aliasing settings even after installing the drivers HAS NO AFFECT on the game whatsoever, i really need to find a fix, because i just don't get it.

If you want us to help you we need a lot more information. Please describe exactly the proceedure how to duplicate your problem.

 

[szvwxcszxc]

It's funny, I have my crazy awesome gaming PC and I haven't played a single game yet - or even installed one.

Lol
holidays + run own business = no time for fun

 

[makken]

After some more fine tuning, it looks like I have pretty weak memory. I can't get occt to pass without errors at anything above 1250mhz.

Core looks stable up to 1150mhz. 1175 starts throwing errors :-(

 

[MBrown]

I just bought a sapphire 7950 vapor x. I am getting some terrible performance with Crysis 2. I have the settings at ultra presets with dx11. The frames constantly bounce between 30 and 80 fps making the game unplayable. Is this normal?

Update: I found out what my issue was and I feel like a total noob. Something was running in the background that was taking up 60% of my CPU.

 

[Smartazz]

I just bought a sapphire 7950 vapor x. I am getting some terrible performance with Crysis 2. I have the settings at ultra presets with dx11. The frames constantly bounce between 30 and 80 fps making the game unplayable. Is this normal?

DX11 barely adds anything to the game. Download the Maldo HD mod if you want better graphics.

 

[szvwxcszxc]

After some more fine tuning, it looks like I have pretty weak memory. I can't get occt to pass without errors at anything above 1250mhz.

Core looks stable up to 1150mhz. 1175 starts throwing errors :-(

I was able to overclock and run graphics benchmarks (i.e. Heaven) with no problems; I ran at the 7570 settings of 1375MHz / 925MHz. I didn't try anything higher; and during the time I had set the fans to 100% in CCC and changed it back after the benchmarks. I didn't try any higher.

You may see my HWBOT in my sig.

 

[Opyders]

Hey, guys. I tried overclocking my 7950 today and it started artifacting.

My settings in Afterburner are 1.156v, +20 power limit, 1150mhz core, and 1575 mem. What should I change to stop the artifacting? It's also somewhat rare for it to artifact. In fact it only happens uncommonly in bf3. Also, my asic quality is 64.6%. That's pretty shitty, right?

Edit: One more question. Would a 3570k @ 4.5Ghz bottleneck two 7950s?

 

[headhumper]

Should I just get the Msi Radeon HD 7870 HAWK and enjoy the savings over a 7950 ?

 

[Eureka]

Should I just get the Msi Radeon HD 7870 HAWK and enjoy the savings over a 7950 ?

Well, the question is, would you be maxing out every game at high settings at really high resolutions?

 

[headhumper]

Well, the question is, would you be maxing out every game at high settings at really high resolutions?

1680x1050
Best settings possible
enough AA to make it sexy
don't really need 60fps in all games

 

[Eureka]

1680x1050
Best settings possible
enough AA to make it sexy
don't really need 60fps in all games

I believe a 7870 should max out every game now at 1050p, give or take a few super-games (crysis, metro). It's not a very demanding resolution.

 

[Opyders]

Should I just get the Msi Radeon HD 7870 HAWK and enjoy the savings over a 7950 ?

I'm using a 7950 with a 1680x1050 monitor at the moment. It maxes out every game with all AA except for Far Cry 3 and hitman absolution. I have to turn AA completely off in Far Cry 3 and Hitman Absolution on the lowest AA setting to get 60 fps while not overclocked.