Sapphire Radeon HD 7970 Dual-X

railven

Diamond Member
Mar 25, 2010
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So, I got my card in and am having some...weird issues.

For starters, the card's idle clocks are 500/150 @ 1.175v versus my reference card which are 350/150 @ 0.08V

Is this normal?

I've been having random crashes with one game, Tera Online, which I had no issues running with my old card (at higher AA too.) Crossfire works for that game, but I get some bad tearing which I don't like. Eitherway, got other issues to resolve.

So because of my case's layout I ended up installing the Dual-X on the PCIE0 slot with the Ref on PCIE2. There is more room for each card and it resolved my heat issues.

Now, I go and I play WoW, no issues. Getting 60 FPS with 24xSSAA which makes me happy. I load up Tera, and bam game locks up, then is running at <20FPS, I notice the Dual-X is no locked on Idle Clocks 500/150 @ 1.175V. I exit game, launch anything else, still stuck on Idle. I reboot. Fixes issue.

Load up Tera again, again locks up. So I'm starting to think my settings are to high, return everything (but my OC to normal - but am now looking into the OC which was just 1125/1575@1.175V). Game locks up.

Shut down, hook monitor to Ref GPU. Tera works fine. Makes me think the new card isn't taking the OC I gave it nicely. Which will suck, but oh well.


TL;DR
How does AMD's boost work? This card is labeled as having Boost which I'd rather turn off. Is it possible? I didn't find any boost option in CCC.

Are 500/150 @ 1.175v idle clocks/volts normal? Much higher than my old card. It won't seem to downclock the volts, even if CFX is disabled through CCC.
 

railven

Diamond Member
Mar 25, 2010
6,604
561
126
Figured it out after a few benches.

Guess my new Sapphy Dual-X doesn't like 1125/1575 clocks @ 1.175. Worked on 4/5 games I was testing.

Drop the OC to 1120/1550 and that one problematic game worked fine. Gonna test some more later.

What are acceptable CFX temps? Sapphy Dual-X non-Vapor model is hitting 60C, Ref Sapphy w/Accelero is hitting 50-55C.

Should have bought the Vapor-X model. Oh well.