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7970Observation/Important Information (Please Read)

Well I just snagged the BIOS editor from Overclock.net that should allow the card to operate at 1.3v and allows CCC to go to 2GHz/2.5GHz. After my replacement card, for the returned card (b), and I finish backing up everything on my OS drive I will do a fresh Windows install and flash the BIOS using the editor and the switch. So this weekend I will either have a $549 paperweight or a modded and hopefully over-voltable card.
 
To know which VID card you have:

Run MSI afterburner with the /rr174 command line switch. You will get 2 numbers, for example 00000174 and 00003xxx

There are 3 or 4 default vids: 1050 mv, 1125 mv, 1175 mv.

Lower VID GPUs overclock higher, and with less volts than higher VID GPU's...

Lower VID GPU's are those with the second number starting with "3".
 
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Teenyman45 said:
Well I just snagged the BIOS editor from Overclock.net that should allow the card to operate at 1.3v and allows CCC to go to 2GHz/2.5GHz. After my replacement card, for the returned card (b), and I finish backing up everything on my OS drive I will do a fresh Windows install and flash the BIOS using the editor and the switch. So this weekend I will either have a $549 paperweight or a modded and hopefully over-voltable card.
Click to expand...

Afterburner will allow up to 1.3V and the new 2.2.0 Beta 11 released today will allow up to 180% of the default clocks, so 1665/2385. just an alternative if you don't want to monkey with the BIOS.
 
I am aware of what Afterburner can do when you plug in the EULA waiver. Did not know about Beta 11 till you mentioned it and I am glad that I still have the option to view the actual voltage. Seeing only the target voltage in Trixx was giving me bad information as per some of my earlier posts on this point. The issue may resolve itself after a clean format and reinstall. As things stand, my card hits 1200 (yay!) but doing anything to voltage actually seems to make it less stable under heavy load which concerns me. I would still, hopefully, have a clean BIOS because of the little switch.

I will also be putting a call in to Sapphire's tech support to see if they are aware of and can explain why there are these major VID differences. The XFX rep I spoke with yesterday had little to offer on this issue regarding the different BIOS voltages some cards seems to have and told me I was putting too much thought into it. He instead said the voltages on the cards were constantly varying and that the "minor" differences were more likely due to many of the cards being hand tested and tuned as there were still only a few thousands of chips.
 
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You need to read unwinder's post on guru3d. XFX and Sapphire will be more worthless than a pile of bricks if you ask them about this--don't waste your time. The only way you would get any information is if you speak to a hardware engineer, and good luck with THAT.

There are four voltage bins on the GPU's, which represent the GPU quality from the Fabs. If you run msiafterburner with the /rr174 switch, it gives you a number on the right, and you can calculate your GPU quailty from that (go read the guru3d forums). Higher quality GPU's are in the "3" range, and have a lower default voltage (1.112v, 1.050v, 1.02v), with the higher the number on the right, the lower the voltage. The thing is, the 1.050v Vid cards will artifact in CCC if you keep the voltage at stock, so you will need to increase the voltage to reach max CCC clocks, but these cards will overclock farther at the same voltage than the 1.175v Vid ones. I haven't seen anyone with a 1.02v Vid card...would be nice to see how far that goes with 1.175v.

Some people have problems if the real measured (not set) voltage is above 1.20v, and I don't know if that's just random, or if it relates to the bins or not.
 
Spoke with a tech at Sapphire today who said that the lower voltage was done to prevent excess power from damaging the cards, even if at the expense of top speed. He stated the 1.17v BIOS was a pre-release BIOS. So that can be taken for whatever it might be worth. <insert shrug here>
 
lol....don't believe that.
Listen to Unwinder. There is a formula showing the GPU quality in relation to the /rr174 switch in afterburner.
 
AMD uses the following table to select VID depending on ASIC quality:

up to 2F90 (up to 75% quality) - 1.1750V
up to 34D0 (up to 80% quality) - 1.1125V
up to 3820 (up to 85% quality) - 1.0500V
up to 3A90 (up to 90% quality) - 1.0250V

If you have multiple GPUs use:

MSIAfterburner.exe /sg0 /rr174 to select and dump the first GPU
MSIAfterburner.exe /sg1 /rr174 to select and dump the second GPU and so on...

For exemple, I have 4 Asus 7970, and 1 is VID 1.112v while the 3 others are 1.05v. So I have alot of headroom to OC those cards with waterblocks. :)
 
AB.png


this is all gibberish to me so i hope it's right. 378/3ff = 888/1023 = 87%

not bad.
 
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Right, now start overclockin em at 1.175v (target) and see how far you can push them clocks!

That 87% quality card had BETTER go up to 1225 mhz @ 1.175v rock solid.
 
My replacement XFX Black Edition (reference cooler) video card has a reading of 2830 and defaulted to 1.174v. It also does 1200/1600 at 1.174. Unlike my slightly higher quality Sapphire, this card was stable at 1225 w/ 1.2v, which was a random value input and not an incremental testing increase. All the present testing rounds were done at 80% fan speed. Temperature for the XFX peaked at 77C, but mainly stayed at 74-76, in a 22-23C room. 1.3v testing will be done later.

Unlike with the Sapphire card, Furmark correctly identified the XFX card as a 7900 series rather than a 5900 series Tahiti. This might indicate that my Sapphire issues really are the result of registry fragments from my long ago sold 5970. Again, more testing and cake to follow.
 
I'm glad it doesn't mean much. Mine is 2ee0 which is not meant to be so good.

However overclock is:

1200/1600
Voltage stock 1175
Fan curve set to about 1.1 x Temperature
Max temperature during Furmark 15min test is 67c
Max fan speed 74

Sapphire Reference card
Tool is MSI Afterburner beta 11
 
Mine is 2db0 = 77%

I can't hit 1125MHz stable at 1175mv. Yesterday it was working fine, today no. Noticed artifacts in Crysis, black squares on the top of huts, only when inside. Foliage/water looked perfect. Backed down to 1100MHz, same thing. 1075 MHz works perfectly though, just going to leave it there. I can hit 1125MHz on 1200mv but upping the volts doesn't seem to be worth the extra heat, at least on air.
 
The geek VID rage is now full ON all over the internet! :)

Some geeks are even asking retailers to open their boxes to spot grey 6 pins conmnectors to get better VID cards!

Some people are really stupid... Sigh...
 
Falkentyne said:
Right, now start overclockin em at 1.175v (target) and see how far you can push them clocks!

That 87% quality card had BETTER go up to 1225 mhz @ 1.175v rock solid.
Click to expand...

i'm not sure if my line of thinking is right, so correct me where i'm wrong, but all this tells me is that my chip is probably not be the limiting factor. there are still other components that affect the overclocking potential (quality of the power circuitry, etc.). so while i have a low VID chip, that doesn't mean i'm guaranteed a high overclock. regardless of voltage i artifact at 1175 core, so i've settled at 1150/1625 (nothing to scoff at).
 
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Falkentyne said:
Right, now start overclockin em at 1.175v (target) and see how far you can push them clocks!

That 87% quality card had BETTER go up to 1225 mhz @ 1.175v rock solid.
Click to expand...

I'm still in the process of finding out how they OC, it's hard because each one is starting @ diff voltages.

right now 1125 I'm running 1.13v on both cards, thought I think only the 1.05v card needs it. I'll push more tonight ;P
 
Porter_ said:
i'm not sure if my line of thinking is right, so correct me where i'm wrong, but all this tells me is that my chip is probably not be the limiting factor. there are still other components that affect the overclocking potential (quality of the power circuitry, etc.). so while i have a low VID chip, that doesn't mean i'm guaranteed a high overclock. regardless of voltage i artifact at 1175 core, so i've settled at 1150/1625 (nothing to scoff at).
Click to expand...

As far as the power circuitry goes, a reference board is a reference board is a reference board. Those parts should all perform about the same unless there is a severe defect in one part acting as a weak link. An example would be a severe temperature issue like my RMAed Sapphire card (b).

Some review sites had issues maxing out the CCC values at stock voltage. Forum lore shows that this is indicative of a low VID, provided those same reviewers were using powertune at +20%. The reviews that got over 1200MHz on core largely seem to have done so by adjusting voltage with a BIOS flash, Brent's review sample seems to be the exception to this and it would be good to know what the VID on his card was. After all, my "binned" or "cherry picked" XFX Black chip rates an ASIC value of only 643 whereas my regular Sapphire card (a) rates a 763 which just places at 1.125 and yet the lower rated chip is presently overclocking better with operating at only 1-2 degrees higher temperature under Furmark load.

The cards that can hit high volts without issues beyond elevated temperatures appear to be those with a default VID of 1.175(4). The chips with higher ASIC values may well be able to hit higher clocks in theory, but this seems like it will be entirely dependent on "convincing" or reprogramming them to accept more than 125mV of additional voltage.
 
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Mine is 370 in hex, so 880/1023 = 86%. With no voltage unlock, Afterburner reads a GPU voltage of 0.949V. With vdroop, does this mean my card has a stock voltage of 1.05V?

I didn't have time to overclock the memory, but I was only able to get 1200/1575 at 1.175V. When I went to 1225MHz, my card locked up. Will try again tonight on the memory clocks.
 
Floppington said:
Mine is 370 in hex, so 880/1023 = 86%. With no voltage unlock, Afterburner reads a GPU voltage of 0.949V. With vdroop, does this mean my card has a stock voltage of 1.05V?

I didn't have time to overclock the memory, but I was only able to get 1200/1575 at 1.175V. When I went to 1225MHz, my card locked up. Will try again tonight on the memory clocks.
Click to expand...

Just open after burner, enable voltage monitoring / unlocking and you can see what the default voltage is set to.
 
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