HD 7970 XFX Black Edition Crossfire Bad

GreenGoose

GreenGoose

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Aug 17, 2004
Messages
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The HD7970 XFX Black Edition cards suck in crossfire! The cooling solution is great for one card but they run way too hot with two causing crashes while gaming.

Setup:
ASUS Maximus IV Extreme-Z Motherboard
Two XFX Black Edition FX-797A-TDBC in crossfire in slots 1 and 3
Cooler Master ATCS 840 Case with very good air flow.

Photo:
DSC02381.jpg


Under full load, the bottom card's temp is in the high 60's and the top card in the mid 90's. Fan speed at 100%. After 15 minutes of gaming it freezes because of heat. This is even with the open slot between them. I had to take my sound card out or the bottom card would over heat too.

If I take the door off of my case and place a large fan next to my computer I can game all day long with no problems. The top card stays in the mid 80's then with no crashes with the fan blowing in. It appears the mid 90's is the crashing point for the HD 7970.

I was worried about this when I bought them for crossfire; however, I thought I would give it a shot for a quieter cooling solution. I should have bought the reference design for crossfire.

I will be returning the cards to Newegg for a full refund. Since they are covered by Newegg's Standard VGA Return Policy I won't have to pay a restocking fee. I just ordered two of the MSI reference design cards. Maybe I can put my sound card back in with those.
 
Have you switch the two card positions just to make sure the current top card isn't defective with the way thermal paste was applied? I was debating getting two of these also and just want to make sure.

Thanks
 
Oh, and in case anyone is interested, the HD 7970 in crossfire blows my GTX 580's in SLI away. I can completely max BF3 at 2560X1600 with frame rates never dipping below the 70's and average around 100.
 
thanks for the results, i'll keep this in mind i decide to go crossfire down the road. if pointing a house fan at the cards resolves the problem, maybe you don't have enough airflow through your case? do you have a side fan? also i think you're going to get hit with a 15% restocking fee at Newegg since the cards are not defective. or maybe you can make a case that they are, since they don't function in crossfire?
 
XpediencY said:
Have you switch the two card positions just to make sure the current top card isn't defective with the way thermal paste was applied? I was debating getting two of these also and just want to make sure.

Thanks
Click to expand...

It's the same either way. My sound card was originally in the bottom slot below the second video card. This caused the second card to overheat very quickly to the high 90's when gaming.
 
Porter_ said:
thanks for the results, i'll keep this in mind i decide to go crossfire down the road. if pointing a house fan at the cards resolves the problem, maybe you don't have enough airflow through your case? do you have a side fan? also i think you're going to get hit with a 15% restocking fee at Newegg since the cards are not defective. or maybe you can make a case that they are, since they don't function in crossfire?
Click to expand...

My case is large with two 120 fans blowing right through the cards. It's not enough. My GTX 580s never had an issue there. I don't have a side fan.

If you read Newegg's Standard VGA Return Policy there is no restocking fee. All HD 7970's sold at Newegg have the Standard VGA Return Policy. There are other Newegg return policies that do have a 15% restocking fee.

http://www.newegg.com/HelpInfo/ReturnPolicy.aspx
 
I chatted with a rep yesterday and was told I'd be charged a 15% restocking fee if the card is not defective. What constitutes 'defective' could be a grey area though.
 
GreenGoose said:
My case is large with two 120 fans blowing right through the cards. It's not enough. My GTX 580s never had an issue there. I don't have a side fan.

If you read Newegg's Standard VGA Return Policy there is no restocking fee. All HD 7970's sold at Newegg have the Standard VGA Return Policy. There are other Newegg return policies that do have a 15% restocking fee.

http://www.newegg.com/HelpInfo/ReturnPolicy.aspx
Click to expand...

Actually that's not 100% true; I had to RMA my 7970s and they charged me a restocking fee until I contacted CS. There is no restocking fee only if it's defective.
 
too hot that caused crashes??

you should get rid of those defective cards, It'll get those off your hands , I'll pay shipping ;)
 
Sufu said:
Actually that's not 100% true; I had to RMA my 7970s and they charged me a restocking fee until I contacted CS. There is no restocking fee only if it's defective.
Click to expand...

That's not it all what their policy says. It does not say it has to be defective. It only says it has to be returned within 30 days of purchase. Other Newegg return policies outline the restocking fee. The Standard VGA Return Policy makes no mention of a restocking fee. I did a little research on Google and confirmed this true on other forum posts.
 
GreenGoose said:
That's not it all what their policy says. It does not say it has to be defective. It only says it has to be returned within 30 days of purchase. Other Newegg return policies outline the restocking fee. The Standard VGA Return Policy makes no mention of a restocking fee. I did a little research on Google and confirmed this true on other forum posts.
Click to expand...

well when in doubt, ask. it can't hurt to check with Newegg before you start the RMA process.
 
Porter_ said:
well when in doubt, ask. it can't hurt to check with Newegg before you start the RMA process.
Click to expand...

Yeah, they're closed today or I'd call. Either way, these cards aren't going to work from me in crossfire. I doubt anyone else would want to pay me full retail for them. I'll let everyone know for sure on the return policy Monday.
 
GreenGoose said:
Yeah, they're closed today or I'd call. Either way, these cards aren't going to work from me in crossfire. I doubt anyone else would want to pay me full retail for them. I'll let everyone know for sure on the return policy Monday.
Click to expand...

Send them an email. I sent one last night and had a response this morning.
 
I'm not approaching those kind of temps at all on my BEDD cards. Mine are a bit further apart due to my X79 board. Also, I have 4 120mm fans blowing from the side in my HAF 932 case so my airflow is excellent.
 
No side fans on your case. I've found dual fan vid cards that dump air into the case really need airflow over them from the side to reduce temps.
 
I guess the hot air from the bottom card exhausts right into the intake of the top card.

A stronger wind tunnel from front to back of case could help. As others said a side panel fan that shoots colder air on them is the easiest solution.
 
manofthem said:
Simple solution: water cool them! That would be hardcore!
Click to expand...

Yup.

No worries with water.
Alternative, water on the top card and leave the second one alone.:D

Hehehehehe,,,,,,,black edition should be renamed the BSOD edition. No excuse for those cards running too hot.
 
I've been playing around with the air flow. The temps go way down with air blowing directly on top of them. Load temps in the low 70's for the top card. Blowing air long ways front to back has little effect. I don't have a side fan on my case. I would have to rig up a fan to blow directly on top of them. hmmmmmm......
 
You could always get you a better case that has more room for air and side fans to blow air on your video cards and board. I am using an IN Win Dragon Rider case on my 7970 crossfire setup and max temp so far I have seen it go up is 57-54 it is idling 32 right now . I do have six 120 fans on the side though! :D
 
GreenGoose said:
I've been playing around with the air flow. The temps go way down with air blowing directly on top of them. Load temps in the low 70's for the top card. Blowing air long ways front to back has little effect. I don't have a side fan on my case. I would have to rig up a fan to blow directly on top of them. hmmmmmm......
Click to expand...

Should be easy to mod your case. Buy a dremel and go to work. I'd put two 120mm fans on the side.
 
Heat rises, in your case, it's rising to your top card and your top card is using already warm air to cool itself.
 
DooKey said:
Should be easy to mod your case. Buy a dremel and go to work. I'd put two 120mm fans on the side.
Click to expand...

That's exactly what I was thinking. I think two 120 fans would solve the problem well. I'm a little nervous to start cutting on my pretty aluminum side door. I wish I knew a skilled craftsman near me.
 
I agree with the case being the problem, not the cards. I own the same case, and while it does have great air flow, it lacks a bit in the pci area. You could always just use one of the various rear aftermarket bracket fans for the exhaust running perpendicular to the pcie slots.
 
GreenGoose said:
That's exactly what I was thinking. I think two 120 fans would solve the problem well. I'm a little nervous to start cutting on my pretty aluminum side door. I wish I knew a skilled craftsman near me.
Click to expand...

Is there a metal shop in your town or close buy. You could take the side cover and have them punch it out for you and then you could drill the screw holes no probs.
 
I would have to agree that getting rid of heat seems to be your problem. That's why I didn't go with the black edition 7970. It doesn't pump the heat out the back but dumps it right back into your system. That's fine if you have great negative to positive airflow in your case. These things get hot though. I added 2 120 mm fans and 2 90 mm fans to the ones that came with my case. Before I did that the system diode was getting up to 69 C and the top 7970 was reporting 96 C when under full load for both cards. After the fans system might get to 61 C or so on the system diode(intel systems by default shut off @ 68 or 69 C on the sys diode for safety) and the top card tops out around 90-91 C max. But my system has a lot more heat producing items in it than yours appears to. It does have a side fan though. You can see what I did and what I'm seeing with the no-black editon 7970's over here
 
GreenGoose said:
That's exactly what I was thinking. I think two 120 fans would solve the problem well. I'm a little nervous to start cutting on my pretty aluminum side door. I wish I knew a skilled craftsman near me.
Click to expand...

like the other guy said, just get a dremel and if you have any old cardboard boxes laying around use those to practice on. dremels are a must have around the house in my opinion anyways.
 
I assume you're talking about the dual fan design when you say black edition? As there's also a black edition with the reference design (AFAIK).

Where do those dual fan designs exhaust the heat? Left and top side of the card? The top doesn't look very open.
 
Skakruk said:
God, what a disaster. That article has confirmed my suspicions that the DD cooler is all gimmick/aesthetics, and very little substance.
Click to expand...

It depend a lot on the case, i have a haf932 and never had problem with custom cooler. I buy them because they are more silent than stock . My video cards never passed 70c even when heavily overclocked.
 
curious to see how they do in the ft02, im still using mine, the vertical mount cases from Silverstone also worked wonders on hot gtx 480/580 cards...cards that dump heat into the case need a well ventilated case or they are just trying to cool themselves off with warm air
 
I've actually got the cards cooled down now after working on it through the weekend. All it took was a more aggressive fan profile through MSI Afterburner.

My case also comes with an air duct that attaches on the back of the case that is supposed to draw hot air off of the expansion card area. I completely forgot about it because I've never used it. I don't have an extra 120 fan for the duct so I had to order one. Should be here tomorrow. Some reviews say that the duct doesn't do shit while others say it works great. I'll see tomorrow if it helps further.
 
it seems like the PWM are not cooled adequately, same issue I had with the 4870 and the Arctic cooling heat sinks, the Reference card uses the enter mounting plate as a giant heatsink for the PWMs, this one probably has some stick on smaller finned heatsinks.

Good luck, you'll probably need more air flow since those cards are dumping roughly 4-500W of heat into your case.
 
I would imagine a single 140mm fan modded into the side-panel would be enough. Just getting that direct flow of cold air onto the cards would make a BIG difference.
 
Flyinfinni said:
I would imagine a single 140mm fan modded into the side-panel would be enough. Just getting that direct flow of cold air onto the cards would make a BIG difference.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I've noticed all of the new high end cases are designed with a large fan in the side panel. It's there for a reason.
 
GreenGoose said:
Yeah, I've noticed all of the new high end cases are designed with a large fan in the side panel. It's there for a reason.
Click to expand...

Yeah it is:) Mine came with a single 120mm fan over the GPUs, but I just replaced it with a 140mm since the rear exhaust fan died and I didn't have a spare 120 and the side panel was already drilled for either 120 or 140, so I moved the 120 to the back and replaced it with the 140. Temps seem to be a little cooler with it as well actually though I haven't really monitored super closely. I didn't really expect a difference:)
 
There is also the issue that quite a few 7970's just have really awful temps. I bought two and while one of the 7970 was fine the other was much warmer and would approach TJmax in crossfire even with the fan going at 100%. That card was RMAed back to Newegg as defective. It is being replaced with a BEDD that should arrive later this week.
 
GreenGoose said:
That's exactly what I was thinking. I think two 120 fans would solve the problem well. I'm a little nervous to start cutting on my pretty aluminum side door. I wish I knew a skilled craftsman near me.
Click to expand...

For a 120 mm fan port, go to Lowes or HomeDepot and buy a 4.5 in hole saw for a drill.

Aluminum is like butter to a good hole saw.....it will take about 30 seconds to cut the hole.

I have several Wolf Bi-Metal hole saws I've purchased from Lowes, max about 25 bucks.

Drill the screw holes, cover the deal with a Filter-Rite screen and you are good to go.

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/2...Black_Aluminum_Fan_Filter.html?tl=g47c223s549
 
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