[H] users 7950 Overclock Results

[ccityinstaller]

Hey guys,

I know everyone (including me) is foaming at the mouth to see the new 290/290X, but AMD is making us wait a little, I decided to play around with my 7950 a bit more..I have successfully moved up from #4 to #2 World Wide in FireStrike V1.1 (Single GPU)!!

I am not 100% sure why the GPU specs are wonky for both myself and Fuzzy_Ball44..Perhaps it might be due to the beta drivers? I found out that my memory was actually downclocking a bit when I was running it @ 1850mhz and the core higher then 1.275Ghz, so I settled on 1.325Ghz Core and 1.7Ghz memory for now..I am still only using 1.23V for the core, and temperatures are lovely..GPU was in the upper 50Cs and both VRMs were blow ~67C..

I am going to be getting another Golden Sample one of these at the beginning of next month, so that I can hopefully take some X-Fire records..Also going to try to gain that 27 points I need to take the lead tomorrow!

 

[SonDa5]

Hey guys,

I know everyone (including me) is foaming at the mouth to see the new 290/290X, but AMD is making us wait a little, I decided to play around with my 7950 a bit more..I have successfully moved up from #4 to #2 World Wide in FireStrike V1.1 (Single GPU)!!

I was just looking for this thread after looking at the X4800+ score of the 290x @1000mhz core somebody posted.


HD7950 has been such a great card for me.




My x score on 3dMark11 is over X4000. Not bad for a card that I bought over a year ago.


HD7950 rocked!!!! No wonder why AMD has discontinued it.


I'm looking at getting a 290 or 290 x for my Maximus VI Impact with 4770k but I'm thinking about getting a 4280k with a X79 UD4 for xfire with my HD7950. HD7950 in xfire is going to be able to perform for many games for a long time. HD7950 is one of the greatest cards ever.

 

[ccityinstaller]

I was just looking for this thread after looking at the X4800 score of the 290x somebody posted.


HD7950 has been such a great card for me.




My x score on 3dMark11 is over X4000. Not bad for a card that I bought over a year ago.


HD7950 rocked!!!! No wonder why AMD has discontinued it.


I'm looking at getting a 290 or 290 x for my Maximus VI Impact with 4770k but I'm thinking about getting a 4280k with a X79 UD4 for xfire with my HD7950. HD7950 in xfire is going to be able to perform for many games for a long time. HD7950 is one of the greatest cards ever.

I knew I could count on you at least coming to see what I was up too heheh..I actually dug this thread up to get the memory scaling graphs for a different thread, and it got me itching to see if I could take the number #1 spot..I was never really big into benchmarking, but it's kinda fun when you are bored..

So you are going to be rocking 2 different systems? Why all the extra expense vs one monster rig if I may ask? Is it going to be a LAN box or something? I like the 4820Ks, since they are so darn cheap..I almost bought one @ MC last week on impulse, but I didn't wanna sell out the dough for a MB since I had just gotten a sick deal on your favorite Z77 board, the MSI Z77 MPower!

I grabbed a $50 Ivy cpu which is going into my Z77 Extreme 4 to upgrade my Pop's machine...He is rocking an older DC ATOM (1.8Ghz w/HT) on the Nvidia ION platform..It's not bad with an SSD, but it's getting a little slow at times, and I wasn't going to deal with the hassle of just selling off a semi cheap Z77 Board...

IIRC SonDa, wasn't there some nasty issue(s) with VRM throttling on the X79-UD4/5? I know you frequent OC.net a lot, so I would poke my nose over there, because I def remember reading about it, especially with hex cores..

As for the 7950, I totally agree..This card is every bit as praise worthy as the 9700 PRO..I know at default clocks it didn't offer the same Performance Jump vs the last gen like the 9700, did, but when you O/C it...!! I am running a 50.5% O/C on the core (vs the stock 880mhz base clock)..If that doesn't scream 9700PRO status, I dunno what would! I mean if you look at the jumps from the last 3-4 generations, they are no where as large, from either Camp!

I have a line on another golden MSI TF3 that has over a 91% ASIC and will hit the same clocks as mine..I just need to find another Koolance WB, since I really want them to match..It really sucks they stopped making these blocks so long ago, since they perform so damn well..I mean my card runs cooler then most do @ stock clocks/voltage..

If you had to pick a different brand block for the 2nd card, what would you get? Looks don't matter too much to me since they are going to be mismatched anyway, but I am not an EK fan..That flaking issue turned me off from them for good, and those circles are so friggin ugly!

IF AMD's next two driver phases offer some decent 3X scaling, I will try to pick up a 3rd later on down the road since my new board can use 3 and I've always wanted to have that kinda GPU power..I can use it for mining/gaming/and CAD..

 

[SonDa5]

ccityinstaller....

I will have to do more research into that X79 UD4 mb that you mentioned the throttling problem.


I really think you need not fear the EK all copper block for Hd7970 that should fit your reference Hd7950 cad. It's a solid design with decent cooling ability and last time I checked it had a decent price.

That EK block to me is probably the best value in cooling and I don't own it. I have the nickel plated heatkiller block which isn't cheap but after all the research I have done I think the EK block all copper is beter.

 

[ccityinstaller]

ccityinstaller....

I will have to do more research into that X79 UD4 mb that you mentioned the throttling problem.


I really think you need not fear the EK all copper block for Hd7970 that should fit your reference Hd7950 cad. It's a solid design with decent cooling ability and last time I checked it had a decent price.

That EK block to me is probably the best value in cooling and I don't own it. I have the nickel plated heatkiller block which isn't cheap but after all the research I have done I think the EK block all copper is beter.

Yes please do..I would hate to see you get yourself into another situation where you are unhappy with a $200+ MB..There reallly should be no excuse for it to happen, it just seems like a serious design screw up on GB's part.

I will look at their copper blocks..I just hate to reward a company that dicked over so many of "us" that issues with the blocks flaking, pumps being destroyed etc..Some people lost whole systems to due to clogs and not being around when it happened..

I really wish I could find one of the DangerDen all copper blocks cheap..They sold them off for 75% new, and there is a guy here selling one but he is trying to get 4.5X what I know he paid for it and it's kinda hard to swallow..I would understand some mark up, but that is just too high, which is why he hasn't sold it in months.

 

[SonDa5]

That DD block is terrible design.

 

[tonyftw]

Don't quote me on this, but I think the main issue with the x79-ud4 is its bios. The board has ir3550's, so one would think it should not have throttling problems. Their x79 bioses have been hit or mostly miss.

Unless you've had issues with crossfire, two 7950's will smoke a single 290x. 7950 will go down as a legend.

 

[ccityinstaller]

That DD block is terrible design.

Hmm, didn't know that..I haven't looked into flow rates etc of any of the blocks really..I was mainly trying to see what I could find, then do a quick search etc...

Tony, you might be right..I never dived into the issue since I wasn't on the X79 platform, but I have seen it mentioned a few different times..I know that from other boards, it is more of a VRM cooling issue vs a design issue..The board with 8 DIMM slots have no choice but to cram the VRMS into a fairly small area vs the 1155/1150 sockets if they want to stay in the ATX form factor..

I will definitely being going X-Fire, since I wanna jump up to 1440P..

 

[SonDa5]

Don't quote me on this, but I think the main issue with the x79-ud4 is its bios. The board has ir3550's, so one would think it should not have throttling problems. Their x79 bioses have been hit or mostly miss.

Unless you've had issues with crossfire, two 7950's will smoke a single 290x. 7950 will go down as a legend.

The board also has 2 revison models so maybe the newest is better for over clocking.


I was aware of the high quality IR3550 VRM phases on it and its one of the main features of the MB that caught my attention. With a good working BIOS I think the MB would be awesome.

 

[Gumbi10]

Not an overclock this time, but my Accelero cooler was putting up high (comparatively) temps under load (going up to 70 degrees with a moderate overclock etc). I think the mounting had got loose or something (idle temperatures were still fine). I took the opportunity to reapply some thermal paste when I tightend the mounting plate.

Here it is benching in Valley for over an hour (think it was 90 mins actually) at stock clocks (undervolted a certain amount, I have it at 931mv there which is perfectly stable, I can go a bit lower I believe too, had it at 918 before ).

Stock memory and VRM cooling (looked beefier than the Accelero setup and a lot less work for me

http://imgur.com/xdmASXm

I'm thinking of getting into Litecoin, this card has got to be efficient at mining with the undervolting, the max power draw according to GPUZ had only spiked to 127amps for current, but as you can see it was mostly sub 60 amps (of course this is hugely variable and not fair to compare to power draw while mining but I'm just making an example of it).

Currently idling at 26 degrees core and 25 degrees for both VRMs. I wish I could transfer my Accelero to a 290/290x, but I don't think the 7970 Xtreme model is transferable to a 290/290x.