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New Sapphire 7950 OC Issues

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dlauth

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Feb 18, 2013
Got a new Sapphire 7950 a few days ago.

I started overclocking the card today and have a few questions.

I can get the card up to 1190mhz on 1200mV on 3dmark 11 no problem. The temps stay below 70c but it wont go any higher. Am I at the peak of what the card can handle even if the temps are down?

The thing is, I can not for the life of me open Farcry 3 or BF3 with the overclocked settings. I thought the point of a OC is to test stability?

I emailed newegg and told them the card was having issues in games and they ended up giving me an RMA. If the card isnt OCing like it should, I can just send it in for a new one.

Also, during 3dmark I had the fan on auto and the temps are fine. I even tried 100% fan on games and they still lock up.

Recap

1. Am I at the peak of what the card can handle even if the temps are down?
2. I thought the point of a OC is to test stability. Why does the benchmark pass but games fail?
3. Avg OC for this card?
3. Send it in?

Thanks in advance.
 
Edge overclocking cant stand games. Even if you run them, you will see texture glitches, antialiasing errors and so forth. Your best bet is putting the voltage up at max alloved, and see how high you can up the clocks in games without seeing any glitches at all. And go easy on ram. There is no point overclocking them past 1700.

I am using 7970 on 1.25 1200core, and this fella can do 1295core 3dmark stable with 1.28, but does it work in games like that? nooope.
 
You RMA'd the card? Oof.. There was nothing wrong with it. Your overclock was just unstable at that voltage.

1. Seems like it for that voltage, yes.
2. A game isnt a benchmark... the benchmark may not have tested something used in the game(s) you used.
3. 1100+. Anything over 1200 is gravy.
4. Hell no dont RMA, its not broken.
 
The thing is, it doesnt seem to matter what the voltage is at. I can get 1160 in game with just the 20% max power. If I max out the voltage, I can maybe add 10-20mhz to the core but thats it. The temps are still pretty low.

How can I go any higher on the core, if the volts will not go past 1.3 but the temps are low?

I thought benchmarking was the thing to use when overclocking to find stability, not games. What your saying is to be in game while changing OC settings?
 
You cant...

You test quick with benchmarks, or looping them like Unigine Heaven 4. Did you run it once and think it was OK?
 
I think all the new sapphire cards are voltage locked, so you can move the voltage slider all you want, but it wont change. And I read on another forum that sapphire used crappy voltage units on vapor-x's, these units hitting 130 degs with increased voltages-> thus voltage lock

I guess only non-voltage locked cards left are the first gen 7900 series, earthdog feel free to correct me on this point, I'd love to know if there are any non-voltage locked 7900's on the market.
 
This would be unfortunate if they are locked. Would also like to know if any are unlocked.
 
dlauth, Overclocking a GPU and being able to run a benchmark isn't the same as being able to run a game. I can bench my 5850 at 1000/1145 all day stock is 725/1000 but I can't play most games at those clocks. You need to figure out what overclocks are stable for what games. I know I can play BF3 at 850/1140 and found this through testing the card on it. There is nothing wrong with your card you just need to find where it's stable for games.
 
I believe my card is voltage locked :( I put voltage as a monitor through afterburner and even at stock voltage it shows 1.25. I up the afterburner to 1.3 and it flickers from 1.25 to 1.3 ONLY if the core clock is at or over 1170mhz. It is not stable in games at this speed.

I believe a stable clock is at 1160mhz for this card. So since it is locked, watercooling it will have no affect on OCing?

Would setting the BIOS switch to 2 do anything at all?

I would really like the card to not be locked, this alone is a reason for me to return it.

What cards are not locked?

Should I get a 670 instead? I run a 3 monitor setup.
 
Last edited:
1.25 volts is good. Unlocked voltage is 1.3 on 7900 series, with vdroop to 1.25 too. Voltage above 1.3 comes with a really difficult hardware mod, which I will be asking people about once I get into the benching team. So yes, your card is unlocked. That is a mediocre overclock, one you can be content with. I dont think you can run games really smoothly with 1 7950/3 monitors.

Bios question --> no
 
something that hasnt been said yet. Manufacturers do not guarantee overclock ability just cause it doesnt game when oc'd does not make it defective. If you do manage to RMA it. Dont be surprised if you get the same card back.
 
S_I_N : I understand :)

Just a thought though, I forgot to checkmark the force volatage and now I can get the card to lock on 1.3. I will try to OC it more than 1160mhz when in games to see if I can get it stable. Also interested in the hardware mod.

Dont like how you say its a mediocre overclock. I thought what I got to was above average for this card.
 
Locked the voltage at 1.3 and am now able to get 1190mhz core in farcry 3. Played for over 40min at this setting and no issues.

Temps are around 70c, that ok?

I dont think I can get much higher though. Is this a decent OC right now?

Some people said there are a few OC utilities that allow 1.4 volts, this correct?
 
Well, sapphire trixx lets me bump up the voltage to 1.38V in it, but it actually equals 1.3 voltage at GPU-Z, w/o vdroop. So I really think 1.3 is the limit for 7900's.

I think you can be content with that overclock. I dont think you would want any higher tho, doesn't it make noise?

I run my 7970 1.25v @ 1200mhz and it reaches 90 degrees. Ofc my aftermarket cooler wouldnt let that happen, but it is tuned to be silent during gameplay. :thup:
 
EarthDog said:
1.3v isnt the limit for 7970's... or the 7950 I had.. I can go up to and achieve over that.
Click to expand...

How so, highest mine would go on gpu-z was 1.34 when it was at room temperature, it dropped till it was 1.29 as the heat went up.
 
The most MSI AB will give me is 1.3 on voltage. I use AB due to the ingame monitoring.
 
ozan said:
How so, highest mine would go on gpu-z was 1.34 when it was at room temperature, it dropped till it was 1.29 as the heat went up.
Click to expand...
I have a different card.

The bottom line is the card I have can hit 1.35v hot/cold whatever.
 
Thinking about ordering a 2nd 7950. Anyone heard anything on the revision 3 of the sapphire 7950 that I have?

I want to know if it OCs well
Is it locked?
 
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