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Cannot even touch OC on HD7950

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latProd

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Apr 7, 2012
Hey guys, not a real OC overlord so please excuse any noobism.
I can't even touch OC'ing in MSIAB or even CCC without games, unigen etc crashing and freezing.
I got a gigabyte windforce 3 7950 with stock clocks of 900 and 1250 memory.
I've read several different places that you can easily push 1000 without even
messing with voltages. Which I haven't messed with, by the way.
I can't even push it up to 925 without freezing and crashing in games etc.
Can anyone shed some light on this? Do i have a ****ty card that
is extremely sensitive? Temps are always really low, they don't push 50c even after hours of gaming
on high settings, so that can't be it.
Does my motherboard or CPU interfere? I have done this before with other cards, no problem, so i don't get it.
Can anyone give a some good settings, maybe I'm being a ****** here.

Asus p8z68-v pro
OCZ SSD
i5-3570K Processor (at 3,8 ghz)
 
correct me if i'm wrong... but doesn't the CCC include an automatic overclocking software package.

Obviously this might not provide what you're looking for... but have you tried the CCC yet?
 
Thanks guys, but yes, i have the latest drivers (this has been going on for the 5 months i've had the card during several driver versions) and I have tried the CCC and MSIAB. As soon as you even try a little tiny OC it becomes unstable so that games freeze up every 2 minutes.
It's ridiculous.
 
latProd said:
Thanks guys, but yes, i have the latest drivers (this has been going on for the 5 months i've had the card during several driver versions) and I have tried the CCC and MSIAB. As soon as you even try a little tiny OC it becomes unstable so that games freeze up every 2 minutes.
It's ridiculous.
Click to expand...

when you run the ccc overclock software it should show you the on card temps. What are they reading?

if those temps look alright (<80C) double check the temps of the card with a different device... to make sure the inboard temp sensor is working properly. Try OCing the card with the side of your case off and a standard room fan blowing on it. see if it isn't stable that way. we need to eliminate the (high) possibility of high temps messing with your oc attempt.

are you still using the stock fan/heatsink on the card? what about the ram?
 
Yeah sorry, i forgot to mention that. :bang head
Temps are awesome, I've run both 3dmark and other tests, and it almost never goes over 60, idling at approx 40 on max oc settings.
(1100, 1575 mem and 20% power limit).
This is in both CCC and MSIAB.
GPU-Z shows the same thing. Windforce 3 is pretty good at keepin it cool.
So I am 100% certain it is not a temp issue.

Also, i forgot to mention that all games just suddenly jump back to windows every now and then for no reason. This is without overclocking also. It just seems weird to me.
 
If you haven't already, try moving the card to the other PCI-E x16 slot. And assuming you have at least a 500W PSU, make sure both 6-pin PCI-E power connections are fitted securely in the card, and that both are capable of delivering 75W apiece.
 
redduc900 said:
If you haven't already, try moving the card to the other PCI-E x16 slot. And assuming you have at least a 500W PSU, make sure both 6-pin PCI-E power connections are fitted securely in the card, and that both are capable of delivering 75W apiece.
Click to expand...

beat me to it.

:D

yep... check the port and psu. many cheap psus can't deliver on their energy ratings... one of the followup steps will be to try out someone else's psu and see if it's a power issue.
 
Hmm good idea. I'll try the other port and see if it helps.
I got a Seasonic 750W PSU (about 6 months old) so it's definately not cheap :thup:


I can't do it right this moment so i'll report back once i've done it.
Do you think the port it's in now could be faulty somehow?
 
Failure

Well, tried changing ports, but results are exactly the same.
With no OC i can run unigen fine, stable as a donkey's a-hole, but as soon as i try adding a teensy weensy OC to it, it crashes, as well as games. It's weird.
 
Heh... That would be one hell of a hassle as I got a fully equipped DAW installed. It'd be a ***** to do that and then later realize it was some other component screwing with my GPU.
 
Have you checked the cards default voltage, it can actually vary by card make and model. My 7950 wouldnt come anywhere near 1000 core with its default voltage, whereas it could do 1050 core at the highest of the stock voltages.
 
No I haven't checked. I'm a bit nervous when it comes to voltage so I haven't fiddled with it. How do you determine default voltage anyway?
 
I just did some searching based on what you said, Supertrucker, and it actually seems like you need to up the voltages on the gigabyte cards to be able to get any higher than the stock 900 value. So thanks for that, I'll try it as soon as i get home from work.
 
gpu-z will tell you. Also, these are essentially 7970 cores and AMD themselves will throw 1.21 volts through them with the ghz bios so long as cooling is sufficient. And that is enough voltage for me to hit 1200+ core. Id say its reasonable to expect the card to live its full life at that voltage if AMD is willing to push it stock on the ghz cards.
 
Thanks man.
So what voltage value do you run to achieve 1250/1750 ?
 
Hehe I see. :thup:
Well, the windforce 3 cooler is surprisingly effective, so I'll try to fiddle around with the voltages to atleast get it up to 1000, ffs.
Thanks for your input!
 
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