AMD 12.7b experience thread

[EarthDog]

Doesnt matter how many... it would still pop up more frequent or you would see a pattern (that I have broken). Setting it back to 'default' would be still 'overclocked' speeds over the reference clocks.

What makes you say that its only cards with 10%+ overclocks?

 

[Ivy]

It can probably hit any card, even a non OC one. Mine wasnt stable at all, even at stock. By experience, a +10% OC is very stable on most cards but it will drastically go down the roof as soon as it does pass the 10%. Just by experience, i lack most hints because way to less accurate infos from other users.

Mine simply will crash, totaly randomly (doesnt matter how much load at all) and then i see a rasterized screen and thats it. Happens at all drivers 12.6 and up. 12.4 is unstable with AMDs sound output, but no other issues. Several drivers recently released got some sort of stability and DPI scaling issues, which is actually the hardest issues i ever had on AMD/ATI drivers, and i already had a lot of Radeon cards.

Previously, my card (at 12.3) was able to run up to 1180 Mhz without issues, while i was playing CIV5 max setting. Its one of the hardest leecher i ever meet. I was able to run several Unigine Heaven max setting at 1200 Mhz, but on CIV5 it would not be stable above 1180 (stock volt). However, i didnt want to drain my card so hard for no true reason. I could need the power (since i may get 30 FPS framedrops) but i clocked down to 1150 in order to give more room for safety operation and the 30 MHz is not truly helping to much anymore. The first 150 Mhz is very useful and kinda a must have, can give up to 20% more FPS or something like that (some games scale truly well with a fast core). The driver in most cases is unable to compensate, but there is no compromise, got to have it all and solve those issues.

Besides, there was no issues tackling high temps, as the card stayed stable up to 90 C (max amount i feelt safe to test around with). In real use it wont exceed 80 C but i didnt detect any gain in stability by decreasing the temps even more, but for my ears it was a huge gain not to let the fan run so high. Sometimes i dunno how those enthusiasts can stand those noisy coolers because they want to lower temps and are willing to turn theyr fan into a vacuum cleaner... i mean blower.

Apparently you got no issues at all. I wish i would know your secrets and how you manage not to have any issues. Prehaps AMD made a custom profile for "high end" boards, kinda such as RAM manufacturer are only testing and approving the most expensive boards. Thats however far from reality because the mainstream is still the majority and is not usualy having high end hardware. I could have old driver leftovers which are causing a conflict? I dunno...

 

[Frakk]

2 things i have noticed after a lot of playing about.

1# had a good look at the card its self, the aluminum GPU heat sink has flat over runs at the bottom, they extend over the RAM chips supposedly to help cool them, the problem is the flat over run is just that, there is no step up so it can sit flush over the RAM chips.

Instead the inner corner of the RAM chips push against the cooler peeling it up so there is no actual contact on the top of the RAM chips, there is a silicon strip under the cooler but not even that is in contact with the chips, instead there is a 1mm gap between the chips and the cooler other than the inner edge of the chip which are digging into the cooler.

Whats more the lower side of the PCB is bent, the bend starts where the RAM chips are pushing against the cooler.

Its really shoddy workmanship, its would not take much work, or brains just to machine press a 1 or 2mm step at the inner end of the flat bit of cooler to accommodate the RAM chips and then fasten it on the outer edge so the cooler sits properly on the RAM.

Not impressed Gigabyte, not impressed at all.

2# Overclocking with voltage seems a problem for this card, unless i'm doing something wrong?

Afterburner 2.2.3, Catalyst 12.3 / 12.6 / 12.7. does not seem to mater...

I can set whatever volts i want upto 1.3 and it will take effect when idle.

I can see it in GPU-Z, however once i start benching, 3DMark11 / Heaven etc... the volts drop back down to 1.18v and the bench crashes.

I can get 1150Mhz / 1175Mhz at stock 1.2v, to get 1200Mhz or over i need to up the volts and no mater what volts i set, 1.23 to 1.29... it just sinks right back down to 1.2v and crash once the bench starts.

If i'm lucky 10% of the time it seems to hold, 90% of the time i can sit and watch the volts drop until it crashes....

 

[scrambler]

My 7950 seems fine. 1.225 Volts in AB for 1200 Core and 1550 Memory. My old clocks of 1294 and 1650 Memory do not work now though. Instant crash.


Are you setting the power limit to +20% in AB as well?

 

[Frakk]

My 7950 seems fine. 1.225 Volts in AB for 1200 Core and 1550 Memory. My old clocks of 1294 and 1650 Memory do not work now though. Instant crash.


Are you setting the power limit to +20% in AB as well?

20+ in AB, yup.

actually can you set for 1.27v.... use the sensor tab in GPU-Z, run Heaven in window mode and watch the volts in GPU-Z?

thanks

 

[scrambler]

20+ in AB, yup.

actually can you set for 1.27v.... use the sensor tab in GPU-Z, run Heaven in window mode and watch the volts in GPU-Z?

thanks

Huh. Same thing. 1.2v. Interesting.

 

[Frakk]

Huh. Same thing. 1.2v. Interesting.

So its was working and now its not, that's why you were able to get a 1300Mhz overclock and now your not, because the volts now drop.

It just so happens that your card is able to hold 1200Mhz on stock volts, just like mine can do 1175Mhz on stock volts.

I think AMD added something to the drivers

 

[EarthDog]

Is 1.2v stock though? I thought 1.1v was?

 

[Frakk]

Is 1.2v stock though? I thought 1.1v was?

1.2v on my card

The point is the volts drop from whatever set, to 1.2v and crash...

 

[scrambler]

Maybe. I only need 1.225 volts for these clocks (1200 Core 1550 Memory). I needed 1.28 for 1295 and 1650. On stock I think I push 1150? I need the little kick for anything above that.

Something was added though, from 12.6 to 12.7. I know my 1294s were stable on 12.3, 12.4 and 12.6. For 12.7 though, I always had game crashing issues. BF3 specifically. I played my other games fine, Arma 2 mostly.

EDIT: My stock volts are 1.0. 1.03 if you feel like getting picky.

 

[voltron2129]

I just went back to 12.4. For some reason my screen randomly went black while in use, then would come back up with bubble saying amd driver stopped working...drove me nuts!

 

[EarthDog]

Maybe. I only need 1.225 volts for these clocks (1200 Core 1550 Memory). I needed 1.28 for 1295 and 1650. On stock I think I push 1150? I need the little kick for anything above that.

Something was added though, from 12.6 to 12.7. I know my 1294s were stable on 12.3, 12.4 and 12.6. For 12.7 though, I always had game crashing issues. BF3 specifically. I played my other games fine, Arma 2 mostly.

EDIT: My stock volts are 1.0. 1.03 if you feel like getting picky.

Just a note, the voltage you are adjusting has nothing to do with the memory.

 

[Supertrucker]

My 7950 has vdroop in a bad way, and after some Googling it seems common. 1.23 volts idle gives me 1.16 under load. 1.3 idle gives me 1.21 under load. If I didn't have such bad droop I'm pretty sure I could get 1300 stable, since I can already run benchmarks there just not long term game.

 

[Ivy]

Its hard measuring stats for GPU Z it seems for my exotic PC. But it doesnt seem to go above 1.16 and is not lower than 0.8. In term new drivers give same results i dunno where issues coming from.

Kinda shy to run 12.7b tests, a crashing PC is a mess. There is no agressive behaviours such as a crash on the 12.4 drivers, in term OC to high i simply may get a short lockup but not worse than that.

 

[Frakk]

Tried 12.3 from the drivers CD (which did not have CCC) same thing. volts drop to the stock levels and crash.

 

[Ivy]

You didnt pay for higher volt, else there is no reason selling 7950 anymore.

 

[EarthDog]

You didnt pay for higher volt, else there is no reason selling 7950 anymore.

Ivy, thats what we do here. This site's name is overclockers.com! We overclock! We sometimes add voltage to push that overclock further. That said, there is software that allows you, on a lot of cards, to adjust the voltage via software.

I believe what Frakk is saying is that some of the newest drivers are causing the voltage to drop back to stock. This shouldnt be happening. It doesnt happen with my cards on those drivers.

Are you trying to say AMD is doing that now on purpose or something? I dont understand what you are saying.

 

[Frakk]

As i said it also doing it on the (old) 12.3 drivers from the CD, The PCB on my card is a Gigabyte one, its not AMD's own which is apparently much better, Gigabyte's PCB is flimsy i know that much and its the last time i buy anything from them.
But to give them credit the cooler is excellent.

I also have it sitting in PCIe 16x 3, i don't know if that makes a difference?

Is it reaching its TDP limit even with the added 20%, is that even working? something to do with Windows?

I don't know whats going on.

But yes, it seems some cards Overclock to high heavens (MSI and AMD's reference for example) and others don't, there are two or three Gigabytes in this thread, we are all having overclocking problems with them.

 

[EarthDog]

PCIe slot shouldnt make a difference.

No way it should be hitting the TDP, especially at the 20% limit and stock voltage.

In most cases, any card can clock to the moon...its not brand specific. It just depends on getting a good card (luck of the draw for 95% of cards outside of say the Lightning or Asus Direct CU II or other boards with more robust PCB solutions than reference).

 

[Ivy]

You forgot to add the Hawk.