[H] users 7970 Overclock Results thread

Eluder79 said:
I started to push the card last night to 1.2GHz @ 1.225v on the core, and saw some minor artifacting in BF3, so I'm going to give it a little more juice to see if it artifacts or if that stabilizes the card, but oddly enough, the VRMs didn't get any hotter than they do when I am running a lower OC. Possibly because my fan is running a little higher, but not by much, so I guess nothing to worry about it.
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Well today I tried to undervolt my card to 1.075v (from 1.112v) with and both 925/1375 and 1000/1425 and tested with Furmark v1.9.2 and fans manual 60%. I only 1 degree lower on core temp and 1 degree lower in VRM, which could even be due to lower ambient temps. Seems like these cards don't really get affected by small voltage/clocks changes...
 
Hit 1200/1700 @ 1.225v (everyday overclock is 1125/1575 @ 1.175 stock voltage). Heaven and BF3 runs through without artifacts but 3DMark 11 straight up ends the benchmark during the jungle tesselation test with an error popup.

Heaven score: http://i.imgur.com/n7GMM.png
 
1204/1803 stable at 1.212v. Any higher results in artifacts or instability.

Gigabyte Windforce. :)
 
EDIT: the latest AMD drivers broke things like GPU Tweak and Trixx. AB doesn't work either. So I can't increase voltage.

Maybe I'll go back to the other drivers.
 
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Going to post this again since most people doing clean installs are having issues.

if Trixx reports 300/150 and says ULPS is enabled and Afterburner has 0 mhz on the sliders in unofficial OC mode, and GPU-Z shows 300/150 as the front page 3d clocks:

Two fixes.
1) uninstall the current driver with catalyst manager, use atiman 6.3.1 afterwards, do the several reboots, install the supersampling preview RC11, then do an upgrade in place install without uninstalling the rc11, and AB And Trixx will work again.

I've personally verified #1 as this is what I did to fix this.

2) Download Atipdlxx.dll http://www.mediafire.com/?lk3pjnlz4oa74sl

copy Atipdlxx.dll to syswow64 in windows folder (for 64 bit)
system32 (for 32 bit)
(this may have to be done in safe mode)

Once GPU-Z reports 925/1325 instead of 300/150 for the 3d clocks (front page, not the sensors page), then AB and Trixx will work.
 
1300/1700 on mine so far at 1.25v, and I still haven't hit the max lol, and thats on AIR :)
 
Is it safe 1156mv with air cooling (Accelero 7970) ?.
My 7970 does 1205/1575 with that voltage, looks like a pretty nice OC chip.

Idle: 27°
Full: 45°
VRM Idle: 29°
VRM Full: 58°



 
Got my DCUII stable with a 10 run Metro 2033 bench at 2560x1440 w/SSAA enabled at 1175/1700 at stock voltage of 1.175v. No artifacting at all, yes, I watched all 10 runs to ensure nothing popped up. :)
 
Been testing this one since i got my new system up and running, seems this 84% chip(1.06v under load) will do 1125/1575 all day with no artifacts or freezes. So after going through this thread i decided to give it a go with Trixx and it just did 1250/1575 in Leo and Heaven with no artifacts or freezes and a sizeable increase in score, yes there was some unmanly giggling involved. 1300 would crash Leo just right after loading but hey i'm not complaining :D

Temp's are good too; with an Accelero @40% i'm seeing 55C under load for the core and 90C/79C for the VRM's which is well within spec. Will do some more mem testing later but for now i'm focussing on making sure that the core is stable.

Edit: Seems when using Trixx it default's me to a higher Vid seeing as it's now 1.1v under load. Was kinda hoping that 1170mv default setting would be ignored but ah well.
 
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Mines can do 1300/1600Mhz but i need to bump the voltage to 1210mv(a bit too much imho), i think i will stay with my current oc, 1230/1600 1117mv.
 
m3t4lh34d said:
1300/1700 on mine so far at 1.25v, and I still haven't hit the max lol, and thats on AIR :)
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Do you game on that on air? The fan must sound like a jet engine!! Thats why I water cooled. I run the same clocks and doesnt break 42deg and its quiet!!!
 
Not a 7970 owner, but a humble owner of a lowly Sapphire 7950 OC @ 1270/1790 @ 1.26v. Not 24/7 clocks though as it gets unstable after a bit, run it at 1180/1750 @ 1.18v at a medium fan profile for 24/7 clocks.

http://3dmark.com/3dm11/2813675 - P9517
 
Hey all,

I didn't want to make a new thread for this, but does anyone have information about a 7970 OC'd v. a 7950 OC'd? Of course I expect a 7970 to perform better, but how much better? Some sites/threads suggest that the difference is nominal, maybe a few percentage points at best.

Any insight would be great. Thanks.
 
aoya said:
Hey all,

I didn't want to make a new thread for this, but does anyone have information about a 7970 OC'd v. a 7950 OC'd? Of course I expect a 7970 to perform better, but how much better? Some sites/threads suggest that the difference is nominal, maybe a few percentage points at best.

Any insight would be great. Thanks.
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I don't think either card is worth the MSRP costs.

Between both cards the performance is clock for clock very close. I don't think the slightly better performance of the HD7970 is worth the added costs.
 
SonDa5 said:
I don't think either card is worth the MSRP costs.

Between both cards the performance is clock for clock very close. I don't think the slightly better performance of the HD7970 is worth the added costs.
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he didn't ask your opinion on cost. take your thread crap elsewhere.

why are you even reading this thread if you don't think either card is worth it? perhaps because you think they are worth it and are butthurt because you can't afford it? or just some ndivia troll?
 
aoya said:
Hey all,

I didn't want to make a new thread for this, but does anyone have information about a 7970 OC'd v. a 7950 OC'd? Of course I expect a 7970 to perform better, but how much better? Some sites/threads suggest that the difference is nominal, maybe a few percentage points at best.

Any insight would be great. Thanks.
Click to expand...
There's very little difference (<5%) once they're running at the same clock speeds. However, statistically speaking, you'll find the 7970's will generally clock higher than a 7950, which is another advantage of buying a higher-binned chip.
 
Mr. K6 said:
There's very little difference (<5%) once they're running at the same clock speeds. However, statistically speaking, you'll find the 7970's will generally clock higher than a 7950, which is another advantage of buying a higher-binned chip.
Click to expand...

The difference seems to be around 100mhz in the OC department if HWbot is to indicate something.
so 5% same clocks and 100mhz more at average OC capability.
Meaning a watercooled 7950 is likely to be 100mhz short of a similiar 7970.

If one runs 1920x1080 or 2560 or such resolutions a 7950 sits just fine.
I assume the difference will increase once you go 3 screens eyefinity.
 
Working on my core right now;

1200mhz with 1.193volts on water, 43C max with all fans @5v.
I'm liking my VRM temps since I've been seeing some threads about hot VRMs, this EK block is doing its job. :)

Sapphire TriXX
Looping 3dmark and BF3 stable(BF has been my biggest OC tester, if its not stable, crashes rather quickly)

ss.jpg
 
Have a new MSI 7970 and ugh, it sucks compared to my old Sapphire so far. Not sure what it is. It defaults to 1.05v in MSI AB and will run 100% stable @ 1052mhz // 1701mhz but if I go over 1052mhz on the core, it will crash almost instantly. I cant get to 1100mhz even with a voltage bump. I cranked it up to 1.25v (1.2v actual) and it crashes within minutes in BF3. Tried both RC11 driver and the 12.2 driver thinking maybe it was that.

Im hoping it has more in it as youd think it would being 1050mhz stable @ 1.05v but I dont know right now ;/

**So I found the problem. HEAT. Seems this card will lockup when it hits 75c instantly when overclocked. Stock settings its fine above 75c, but with a higher core clock it doesnt like it. Finally got passed the 1100mhz mark atleast. I have an Accelero on the way so it should be interesting when that comes.
 
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devil_trigger said:
Working on my core right now;

1200mhz with 1.193volts on water, 43C max with all fans @5v.
I'm liking my VRM temps since I've been seeing some threads about hot VRMs, this EK block is doing its job. :)

Sapphire TriXX
Looping 3dmark and BF3 stable(BF has been my biggest OC tester, if its not stable, crashes rather quickly)

ss.jpg
Click to expand...


Wow sick card you have there man! Nice full cover block too. Low volts, low temps, high speeds... Can't beat that.
 
doz said:
Have a new MSI 7970 and ugh, it sucks compared to my old Sapphire so far. Not sure what it is. It defaults to 1.05v in MSI AB and will run 100% stable @ 1052mhz // 1701mhz but if I go over 1052mhz on the core, it will crash almost instantly. I cant get to 1100mhz even with a voltage bump. I cranked it up to 1.25v (1.2v actual) and it crashes within minutes in BF3. Tried both RC11 driver and the 12.2 driver thinking maybe it was that.

Im hoping it has more in it as youd think it would being 1050mhz stable @ 1.05v but I dont know right now ;/

**So I found the problem. HEAT. Seems this card will lockup when it hits 75c instantly when overclocked. Stock settings its fine above 75c, but with a higher core clock it doesnt like it. Finally got passed the 1100mhz mark atleast. I have an Accelero on the way so it should be interesting when that comes.
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The problem is that you can only raise the voltage 0.125 past the VID of any 7970 without running into overcurrent protection. Try setting the voltage to 1.175 (since you have a 1.05V card) and see if the core clock range / stability are improved. My 7970 is a 1.05V card and will clock to 1210 on the core at 1.174V.

For stability testing: I suggest running loops of Crysis 2 benchmarks; use the Adrenaline tool to generate an autoexec file and modify it so that 60/120/etc. loops are run. Crysis 2 has been by far the best stability test I have used -- settings that are stable in Heaven are usually not stable in Crysis 2. For stability testing, I also do not trust anything that is not DX11-based (e.g., Furmark/OCCT) as some of the hardware in the GPU (tesselator, etc.) is not being engaged.
 
So my reference msi from ncix for $530 showed up today.
Only had a couple hours of joy before I had to go work.
81% asic 925 core stock. So far 1125/1575 is rock solid with stock volts and 37% fan speed. Voltage seems to vary from 1.054-1.096 not really sure what the deal is with that. At 1125 gpuz showed 1.054 flatlined.
Gpu tops out at 70c but most surprising is vrm temps only reached 62c. Once again reference cards are always the best for ati. So glad I didn't get a dcuII now.
Will push more later tonight.
 
XFX R7970 Black Edition - 1200/1600 @ 1.212. max temp ~ 68 @ 65% speed. Played hours of BF3 on it with no artifacting so I reckon it's a stable clock.
 
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I set 1.175 in afterburner and gpuz reads 1.09 or so, at 1150mhz core on stock volts gpuz was reading 1.04 to 1.05v.

I loop heaven and play BF3 and normally one will error/crash if the other one doesnt lol...
 
Got my refrence msi 7970 in finnaly been sitting in the box for the last 3 days taunting me. Been working on my stupid theater. Any way with fan at 50% it does 1125 with no volatge and stays under 65c running heaven for 3 hours so I'm happy. Its 10 foot away in a server rack so I cant hear it.
 
Powercolor 7970
ref PCB w/custom dual fan cooler
TriXX
1170/1650 @ 1.170v (stock) is my current setup. I messed around with it for a bit and just cannot do 1200mhz without tons of artifacts. Im pretty happy with my results tho.

EDIT: Weird, last night I just could NOT get 1200mhz without tons of artifacts, but today with 1.200v I can do 1233mhz and 1800mhz on the ram. Awesome!

7970-1233-1800.png
 
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Can someone help me out here? I've been tweaking my DC2T for weeks and am still not sure what stability test is good for the memory overclock??? I've reached 1150 on the core at stock volts with a custom fan profile (which I probably don't even need), running 3DMark11, Heaven and GPU Tool. I just remain baffled on the memory. I keep tweaking it up and keep getting incremental performance gains - I don't see any artifacting or errors until about 1900. I have it at 1775 for daily use, but everytime I read someone posting that these types of memory clocks are way too high and the error checking is kicking in I doubt myself again. Anyone have a straightforward method for testing the memory stability?
 
AFAIK, the only way is to keep increasing until you see a loss, rather than a gain.
But to be honest, if you're only seeing marginal increases why bother, all that does is require more power, producing more heat and at a benefit of 1-2 FPS, just not worth it.
 
Installed a new water loop in my rig and the increase in the 7970 OC with an EK full coverage block is awesome! On stock air with a custom fan profile I was able to do 1125~1575 1.175v +20%. On water I'm hitting 1225~1825 1.175v +20%! 300Mhz increase over stock GPU and 450Mhz over stock memory at stock volts cruising 38c max under full load! :D
 
Evil Scooter said:
Installed a new water loop in my rig and the increase in the 7970 OC with an EK full coverage block is awesome! On stock air with a custom fan profile I was able to do 1125~1575 1.175v +20%. On water I'm hitting 1225~1825 1.175v +20%! 300Mhz increase over stock GPU and 450Mhz over stock memory at stock volts cruising 38c max under full load! :D
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Add some volts, will ya :p
 
Evil Scooter said:
I might later on... right now I'm pretty freakin' happy what this lil gem will do on stock volts. :p
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It's a heck of a chip for sure. I think mine tops out at 1150-1175MHz on stock, but I'm only cooling the core with water.
 
Results
1130 Core
1600 RAM (haven't pushed the mem further, yet)
1.17 volts (stock)

Type Card
XFX 7970 BE Ref cooling

Overclock Tool
MSI Afterburner

ASIC: 64.4%

Stability Test
Furmark, Heaven, 3DMark11, BF3

A fullcover on this baby would be fun...
 
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