[H] users 7950 Overclock Results

Overclocking Gurus - I've a question for you!

I've a Sapphire 7950 and I'm very happy with the card.

I've done some overclocking on this and on stock voltage, with +20 Power Limit, I can go up to 1135 on core and 1590 on memory (stable) with very acceptable temps (less than 70 on GPU core and between 60 and 65 on VRMs) and on the whole seems okay to me.
My 3DMark 11 graphics score are like 10200 on Professional and 3050 on Extreme and still very respectable for stock voltages. Unigine max settings at 1920X1080 is about 51 avg fps.

However, it all seems a bit weird (at least to me) once I increase the voltage. The stock voltage is 1.125V and even taking it upto 1.156V, I cannot get a further 10 MHz increase on the core, i.e. it still is not stable at 1150 core with 30mV increase in voltage (the Mem clock is still at 1590 MHz).

Does this seem odd, I do not want to take the core to 1.2V in order to test this, but it seemed logical to me that with a slight increase in voltage (like 30mV) I could push my core clock a little higher. I do understand that every card is different but just wondering what a generalized consensus is. My ASIC is about 59%.

Also, my understanding is that its not the voltage that kills the components, rather it is the heat that it generates that is the killer.

Despite the ASIC score it looks like you have a good chip. 1.2v should be no problem for over clocking. Just watch your gpu and VRM temps. IF your card gets too hot it will become unstable.

What Sapphire HD7950 do you have? Sapphire makes about 5 or 6 different HD7950s.
 
Thanks SonDa5 - I want to hit 1200 on the core, your scores just make me jealous!! And out of curiosity since your card is a 7990 cloaked as a 7950 :D, what is your ASIC score?

Sapphire Dual X model, not sure if this is the official name( not the Vapor or the Flex editions).

As for the temps, for the most part I've heard people say that keeping it within 70 is the most ideal and if that is the case, I'm running close to it already, though I've left the fans on auto.
 
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Thanks SonDa5 - I want to hit 1200 on the core, your scores just make me jealous!! And out of curiosity since your card is a 7990 cloaked as a 7950 :D, what is your ASIC score?

Sapphire Dual X model, not sure if this is the official name( not the Vapor or the Flex editions).

As for the temps, for the most part I've heard people say that keeping it within 70 is the most ideal and if that is the case, I'm running close to it already, though I've left the fans on auto.



Watch the vrm temps as well. Sapphire made a few different Dual X models. Good cards.

My card is ASIC 83% but I don't put alot of trust in those ASIC scores. I h ad a GTX 560ti 448 that could do 1100mhz core and had a ASIC score in low 70s.
 
Sry for going off topic here. But my Msi 7970 BE lightning has a Asic 66% and is running 1200Mhz. So i am not shure that those with high Asic score clocks any better than those with low score.
 
Thanks for your inputs, I may go home and muster up the courage to set the voltage to 1.2V in an effort to bump my core clock higher.

Will report back on how it goes.
 
Sry for going off topic here. But my Msi 7970 BE lightning has a Asic 66% and is running 1200Mhz. So i am not shure that those with high Asic score clocks any better than those with low score.

lower asic quality means that it needs more voltage to get the same clock as a higher one.

I have 2 7950, 1st is 77% asic with 0.993v default and 2nd is 72.5% asic with 1.031v default.

I can get both to work at 960mhz on default voltage
1000mhz I need 1.031v on the 1st one and 1.068v on the 2nd one
1100mhz I need 1.100v on the 1st one and 1.150v on the 2nd one
 
lower asic quality means that it needs more voltage to get the same clock as a higher one.

I have 2 7950, 1st is 77% asic with 0.993v default and 2nd is 72.5% asic with 1.031v default.

I can get both to work at 960mhz on default voltage
1000mhz I need 1.031v on the 1st one and 1.068v on the 2nd one
1100mhz I need 1.100v on the 1st one and 1.150v on the 2nd one

That would explain why on my ASIC 58% 7950, I cannot bump my core clock by another 15 (from 1135 now) with a simple 30mV bump in voltage..
To get to 1150MHz on core clock I need a lot more volatge (I've tried upto 1.155V) but I guess I need somewhere in the 1.2V range and that would obviously send the temperatures up too
 
I went upto 1.18V but it still is not stable at 1150 core clocks. My temps aren't bad, with fans on Auto the GPU maxed at 67 and the VRMs at 65. I guess winter is helping with the cooling.

But looking at GPU-Z, I now wonder why it shows voltages different from what I've set in Aferburner.
In AB, I bumped voltages to 1.18V and in GPU-Z logs I can see VDCC in excess of 1.22V.
Which of these is the correct voltage to read?
 
I went upto 1.18V but it still is not stable at 1150 core clocks. My temps aren't bad, with fans on Auto the GPU maxed at 67 and the VRMs at 65. I guess winter is helping with the cooling.

But looking at GPU-Z, I now wonder why it shows voltages different from what I've set in Aferburner.
In AB, I bumped voltages to 1.18V and in GPU-Z logs I can see VDCC in excess of 1.22V.
Which of these is the correct voltage to read?



Get rid and delete MSI Afterburner and go with TRIXX 4.4.0b which works great and offers voltage control for memory over clocking.

http://www.overclock.net/t/1265543/the-amd-how-to-thread#post_17399313

Make sure you are running the newest version of GPU-Z.

Watch your temps.
 
Thanks SonDa5.

I've an issue with Trixx, when I hit the Reset button on the Overclocking tab, it sets the VDCC voltage to 1250mV, it should be setting it to 1125mV, my default voltage ??? very odd and hence I decided not
to use Trixx.
I'm sticking with MSI AB for now but I love the Custom Fan setting on Trixx, where you can set a speed for a given temperature on a graph, very slick. I wish AB had something similar.
 
Thanks SonDa5.

I've an issue with Trixx, when I hit the Reset button on the Overclocking tab, it sets the VDCC voltage to 1250mV, it should be setting it to 1125mV, my default voltage ??? very odd and hence I decided not
to use Trixx.
I'm sticking with MSI AB for now but I love the Custom Fan setting on Trixx, where you can set a speed for a given temperature on a graph, very slick. I wish AB had something similar.

It does.
Afterburner Settings, "Fan" tab, check "Enable user defined software automatic fan control", set your points, click OK.
 
Thanks SonDa5.

I've an issue with Trixx, when I hit the Reset button on the Overclocking tab, it sets the VDCC voltage to 1250mV, it should be setting it to 1125mV, my default voltage ??? very odd and hence I decided not
to use Trixx.
I'm sticking with MSI AB for now but I love the Custom Fan setting on Trixx, where you can set a speed for a given temperature on a graph, very slick. I wish AB had something similar.


When you hit the over clocking tab you are in control. You set it to where you want to run your voltage and clocks. Find what is stable and cool and then set it and done.

I have read many threads on the subject and that TRIXX version I posted in the link above is the best for over clocking Sapphire cards. Also make sure you completely uninstall MSI AFter burner from your system before tryin Trixx.
 
I'm still tweaking my Sapphire HD7950 950mhz edition.

Not too long ago I upraded to fujipoly extreme thermal tape on VRM and RAM and put some Cool Laboratory Liquid Pro on the die. With my Heatkiller water block my card runs very cool.

1370/1800 3dMark11 run.

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/5566083
 
When you hit the over clocking tab you are in control. You set it to where you want to run your voltage and clocks. Find what is stable and cool and then set it and done.

I have read many threads on the subject and that TRIXX version I posted in the link above is the best for over clocking Sapphire cards. Also make sure you completely uninstall MSI AFter burner from your system before tryin Trixx.

Yes I get the overclocking part, just that hitting Reset, setting the voltage to 1250 seemed very odd and I lost confidence in Trixx, thats all.

I guess for now, I've satisfied my overclocking itch, I'll look forward to being amazed by what others can achieve.
 
1370 on the core... :eek:

How far can you possibly take it!

Ambient temps were around 60C for that clock speed. I think if I used chilled ICE in my loop or liquid nitrogen I could go faster. That is with 1.26v on GPU.
 
Hello, first post on this forum. Lots of usefull information to be found on these pages. thanks guys.
This is what I've been able to achive on my brand new gigabyte 7950 windforce. ASIC 63,9%.
It came with new bios with def. clock at 1000/1250. So far I took it to 1150/1575 at 1.15v stable in AB. Mind you, I dont use heaven or unigine to stress test, but rather just play crysis 1 for ~1 hour to test. I played far cry 3 and BF3 for 3 hours straight without a single artifact, so that stable enough for me. Max temp after that gaming session was 70°C with the case closed, and 66°C with the case open on both sides, so quite a significant difference. I'll have to work on some more airflow in the future. Fan speed was set to auto, and it maxed out at 55%. Fans were definetly not inaudiable as some would want you to belive, but it was within the acceptale levels for my liking.

It will however not go past 1150mhz no matter the voltage, which makes me feel kinda sad. I was hoping for at least 1200mhz considering it didnt take that much voltage to reach 1150. Well, you take what you can get, right? Could be even worse, my friend has identical card with 72% asic score and his card is not stable at 1100/1575 at 1,175v.
 
Hello, first post on this forum. Lots of usefull information to be found on these pages. thanks guys.
This is what I've been able to achive on my brand new gigabyte 7950 windforce. ASIC 63,9%.
It came with new bios with def. clock at 1000/1250. So far I took it to 1150/1575 at 1.15v stable in AB. Mind you, I dont use heaven or unigine to stress test, but rather just play crysis 1 for ~1 hour to test. I played far cry 3 and BF3 for 3 hours straight without a single artifact, so that stable enough for me. Max temp after that gaming session was 70°C with the case closed, and 66°C with the case open on both sides, so quite a significant difference. I'll have to work on some more airflow in the future. Fan speed was set to auto, and it maxed out at 55%. Fans were definetly not inaudiable as some would want you to belive, but it was within the acceptale levels for my liking.

It will however not go past 1150mhz no matter the voltage, which makes me feel kinda sad. I was hoping for at least 1200mhz considering it didnt take that much voltage to reach 1150. Well, you take what you can get, right? Could be even worse, my friend has identical card with 72% asic score and his card is not stable at 1100/1575 at 1,175v.

Pump in more volts. Base stock 7950's with boost use 1.25v to reach 925mhz. So just give it more juice.

I myself need 1.3v to reach 1200mhz. And around 1.275v for 1175mhz.
 
Ok, I checked vrm temps and they are a bit high while playing FC3. 94°C max, so I turned up the fan additional 5% to keep it in the mid 80s. Looks like standard stuff on most gigabyte versions. Im gonna try the method of a case fan installed close to gpu and see if I get better results.
 
Juzh - Congrats on your new 7950 and the overclocks.

VRM hitting 94, yes I would not like to keep it there for sure, do you have good case ventilation and fans?

Also just out of curiosity, since I've a Sapphire 7950 about a month old, what graphic score do you get on 3dMark 11 P and X modes with your best OCs. Also, if you have tried Unigine Heaven 3.0(which incidentally is a great stability test for GPU overclocks imho) what avg fps (and temps) do you get at all maxed settings at 1080p.

Finally what drivers are you using, I ask since 13.1 decreased my scores and avg fps on benches, so I switched back to 12.11 Beta.
 
Juzh - Congrats on your new 7950 and the overclocks.

VRM hitting 94, yes I would not like to keep it there for sure, do you have good case ventilation and fans?

Also just out of curiosity, since I've a Sapphire 7950 about a month old, what graphic score do you get on 3dMark 11 P and X modes with your best OCs. Also, if you have tried Unigine Heaven 3.0(which incidentally is a great stability test for GPU overclocks imho) what avg fps (and temps) do you get at all maxed settings at 1080p.

Finally what drivers are you using, I ask since 13.1 decreased my scores and avg fps on benches, so I switched back to 12.11 Beta.

Just got another sapphire 7950 boost edition (925 version). With my old sapphire boost edition. I would get 1200/1575 overclock, score around 1301 in Heaven maxed out in 1080p.

With 2 of them i get 2589 maxed out in 1080, both clock to 1200/1575 at 1.3v. Using 13.1 drivers
 
Very impressive clocks.

Yea these sapphire rock for overclocking :) You just need to have to cooling to drive it.

I tried out the All in 1 cooler mod thats going around the net. It lets me get 1200mhz on the GPU, maxing out around 53C
 
All in 1 cooler mod, what is that. Let me look it up on Google.

Just 53 @1200 core and 1.3V, WOW!
 
All in 1 cooler mod, what is that. Let me look it up on Google.

Just 53 @1200 core and 1.3V, WOW!

http://www.overclock.net/t/1203636/official-amd-ati-gpu-mod-club-aka-the-red-mod

Buy the mounting Bracket here for $8 http://triptcc.com/ Direct link to the mount http://triptcc.com/product/fan-bracket/

IF you plan to do it....which isnt really hard to do, make sure to get a 7900 Shim as well, they go for like 3-4 bucks.

and since our Sapphires come with VRM/Memory heatsink thats all 1 piece, You can leave it on to cool them, With the Mounting bracket, it has support for VRM Cooling. So its a win/win situation for sapphire owners :)
 
Juzh - Congrats on your new 7950 and the overclocks.

VRM hitting 94, yes I would not like to keep it there for sure, do you have good case ventilation and fans?

Also just out of curiosity, since I've a Sapphire 7950 about a month old, what graphic score do you get on 3dMark 11 P and X modes with your best OCs. Also, if you have tried Unigine Heaven 3.0(which incidentally is a great stability test for GPU overclocks imho) what avg fps (and temps) do you get at all maxed settings at 1080p.

Finally what drivers are you using, I ask since 13.1 decreased my scores and avg fps on benches, so I switched back to 12.11 Beta.

I described my case setup, my way of stability testing and clocks on previous page near the bottom. I am now running with the case open. I have not yet tested in any benchmarking/stress tool. I'll post results when I have the time to get into it. 13.1 for the moment, but I might take your advice and try with the 12.11.
edit. Core temps are now low 60s when oc'ed with fan at 55% in FC3/crysis. BF3 never puts up any pressure at all (max 58°C).
 
http://www.overclock.net/t/1203636/official-amd-ati-gpu-mod-club-aka-the-red-mod

Buy the mounting Bracket here for $8 http://triptcc.com/ Direct link to the mount http://triptcc.com/product/fan-bracket/

IF you plan to do it....which isnt really hard to do, make sure to get a 7900 Shim as well, they go for like 3-4 bucks.

and since our Sapphires come with VRM/Memory heatsink thats all 1 piece, You can leave it on to cool them, With the Mounting bracket, it has support for VRM Cooling. So its a win/win situation for sapphire owners :)

Thanks for the info, I will look into it.:D
 
How are you guys going over 1100 core/1575 memory in afterburner? I've got my MSI TF3 maxed with stock volts @ 1100/1575, but afterburner doesn't allow to go any further
 
How are you guys going over 1100 core/1575 memory in afterburner? I've got my MSI TF3 maxed with stock volts @ 1100/1575, but afterburner doesn't allow to go any further

Not sure about MSI, but on Gigabyte you can update BIOS that will expand that range, but will limit the Voltage adjustment to 1.2v I believe... It's a trade-off I guess...:cool:
 
How are you guys going over 1100 core/1575 memory in afterburner? I've got my MSI TF3 maxed with stock volts @ 1100/1575, but afterburner doesn't allow to go any further

Follow these instructions. I don't think the .dll part is necessary anymore, so try it without those steps first.
 
Not sure about MSI, but on Gigabyte you can update BIOS that will expand that range, but will limit the Voltage adjustment to 1.2v I believe... It's a trade-off I guess...:cool:

My MSI has dual Bios, one that is unlocked:D Although I doubt I could even use 1.2v without overheating. But I know it can go much higher then 1100 if I was able to do that on stock volts:cool:
 
Hello.
I own a GB 7950 WF3. I can achieve 1100MHz core clock but with а lot of power - around 1.194V. Do you think it is normal? Personaly i think it's not very good score.
 
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Despite the ASIC score it looks like you have a good chip. 1.2v should be no problem for over clocking. Just watch your gpu and VRM temps. IF your card gets too hot it will become unstable.

What Sapphire HD7950 do you have? Sapphire makes about 5 or 6 different HD7950s.

Hey Sonda5, what bios version do you have for your Sapphire 7950 950mhz edition cards?
 
Hello.
I own a GB 7950 WF3. I can achieve 1100MHz core clock but with а lot of power - around 1.194V. Do you think it is normal? Personaly i think it's not very good score.

Its not good, no, but its not really awful.

A lot of people have cards that take 1.25v for 1100. Try 1.25v and see if it gets you anywhere, as that is where a lot of people stop, and a lot of voltage locked cards come stock at 1.25v now.
 
I can get 1150MHz with 1.256V. and almost 1200MHz with 1.3V. but i prefer not to pass 1.2V. because i don't feel very comfortable. However my temps on auto fan profile are very low - max core temp on 1.2V. is 65 degrees and VRM - around 66 degrees.
 
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Running the Sapper BIOS found here: http://www.overclock.net/t/1281711/hd7950-revised-with-reference-hd7970-pcb-club


That isn't the BIOS that the card shipped with. It is a BIOS that Sapphire customer support sent me via email.

Any chance you can give me the BIOS version number from gpuz? Thanks!
Anyway the reason why I'm asking is that I think my bios is causing my vrm's to bust through the roof with high temperatures. I don't think its the gpu's cooling because the 950mhz cards have beefy vrm cooling.
 
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