Powerful AMD Cards in SG-05

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sammyMaX

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I'm planning an ITX build and I want to use an AMD card because the Never Settle Reloaded makes it a great deal and because I really want the compute performance GCN gives. I know that there are 7870s that fit, like this, but with my budget, it would be better if I could put in a 7950. This thread is the only time I have ever seen a 7950 fit, and I'm not sure if qwksi1 just got an abnormally cut PCB or something, so I'm afraid of ordering it. Meanwhile, this Twin Frozr is 261mm, which is just barely under the max length. Does anyone have a 7950 in their SG05, without modding? How well does it run?

Oh, and I know of this 7970, but that's a bit expensive for me.
 
Just going to say, that you need to find a card 10" and under. In that thread with the 7950, it is bizarre that he was able to fit the 7950 PCS+ card as the one listed on newegg is 10.8". I didn't find a 7950 that is 10" or shorter. Maybe go with nVidia, gtx760 is at the same price point as the 7950 right now and most look to be around 9.5".
 
Quiet room.

If you're dead set on an AMD GPU card, you can fit a 10.5" card in the SG05 but you'll need a dremel or similar cutting tool that can handle thin steel.

It's an easy mod to do, you just cut a rectangular hole in the steel chassis frame (not the plastic bezel on the front).

Here's an example.

If you're not willing to do this you're stuck using 10.2" cards. Pretty sure that's the actual max clearance on the PCI slots anyway.

This is where I would normally go on a bit about the superior power/thermal efficiency of Kepler cards, and why that's a good thing in a tiny case, but I'll leave it out this time.
 
kjeldoran said:
Maybe go with nVidia, gtx760 is at the same price point as the 7950 right now and most look to be around 9.5".
Click to expand...
True, 700 series is looking pretty attractive...I was thinking of doing bitcoin mining, but I guess that was a stupid idea anyways because those things are so hard to mine now :(

Are you sure that the 7950 Twin Frozr won't fit, though? I read that 262mm was the max length, and the card is 261mm.
 
crABtoad said:
This is where I would normally go on a bit about the superior power/thermal efficiency of Kepler cards, and why that's a good thing in a tiny case, but I'll leave it out this time.
Click to expand...

I see what you did there :D
 
sammyMaX said:
True, 700 series is looking pretty attractive...I was thinking of doing bitcoin mining, but I guess that was a stupid idea anyways because those things are so hard to mine now :(

Are you sure that the 7950 Twin Frozr won't fit, though? I read that 262mm was the max length, and the card is 261mm.
Click to expand...

I believe the 262mm is the internal length, 261mm would sure cut it close enough that I wouldn't be comfortable shoving it into the case for fear of damage.
 
kjeldoran said:
. Maybe go with nVidia, gtx760 is at the same price point as the 7950 right now and most look to be around 9.5".
Click to expand...

Be very careful doing this. I currently have a GTX760 sitting here dormant because the only drivers that support it are a broken load of crap.

Not decided if it's going back or i'm going to have faith in NVidia to sort it out.
 
760 has the same chip as long established cards: 660ti, 670, 680 and 690. What particular issue are you having that leads you to brand the drivers 'broken'? Which version are you running? 320.49 or something else?
 
It's an Asus DirectCu GTX760 2GB. Bought over a week ago. I got it home and decided that it would be a good opportunity to have a fresh install. So I swapped my HD7850 over for it, formatted and reinstalled Win 7 x64.

I went to the NVidia site and grabbed the latest drivers for the card - the 320.49 WHQL. Installed them and on reboot, it got as far as the login screen. When I tried to enter my password the screen went black and nothing would respond, resulting in a hard reset.

Next bootup I got onto the Desktop for about 5 seconds when I got hit with a BSOD. Another reboot, another BSOD.

Thinking it was drivers as that was the trigger, I dropped the 320.49 betas on there. Same thing, only with the odd "Driver has Recovered" error. It wouldn't actually stay stable on the desktop long enough for me to get near a game.

So I looked for some other driver package to try - I found some older ones online used by reviewers, 320.39. Same with those - frequent BSODs, driver recovery errors, and black screens. Oddly, I managed to get into a game and it ran smooth like butter, but as soon as I dropped back to desktop, it would totally lock up.

I dropped my HD7850 back in, wiped the NVidia drivers, and put the latest AMD ones on, and all is well and completely stable. It's that kind of "plug and play" that I love, I don't want to spend hours poring over driver sets to figure out which is the most stable, and that's something I've always had with NVidia cards.

So yeah, I've got a £220 paperweight sitting on the desk next to me - so excuse me if I sound a little bitter. :)
 
You might have a defective card. Can you return/exchange it?
 
I can - but if I get into a game it runs flawlessly. Same if I don't have the drivers installed.
 
No if's and but's - just return it. This is not something anyone should put up with.
 
Take it back, sounds DOA to me. The drivers work for those cards, and you've already done enough troubleshooting to isolate the card.
 
Had a bit of an "oh, sod it" moment and sent the card back.

Then ordered something even better. :D
 
Did anyone actually attempt to put the MSI 7950 Twin Frozr in this case? I just bought the card from amazon and based on just a few threads here and there, the card should fit in the sg05.
 
Sorry for the late reply...in my previous post here there's a picture of an XFX Radeon HD 5870 card. These cards are about ~11.14" (~283mm) long. So, that's a pretty huge graphics card in an SG05. You can fit about 10.2" before cutting as well, but you need a shoehorn to get the card in and you have to be gentle.

edit: MSI 7950 TF is about 10.2756", you will almost definitely need to cut the case.
 
He indicated that he already bought the card he was asking about. I am, however, genuinely surprised that you can fit cards greater than 10.2" in the SG05 without modding. That PowerColor HD 7970 seems like it's 11.22", can you verify this?

Just to make sure...did you eventually get the motherboard installed under that card? :D
 
crABtoad said:
He indicated that he already bought the card he was asking about. I am, however, genuinely surprised that you can fit cards greater than 10.2" in the SG05 without modding. That PowerColor HD 7970 seems like it's 11.22", can you verify this?

Just to make sure...did you eventually get the motherboard installed under that card? :D
Click to expand...

Yup, fits with plenty of room, now getting an h70 is still a wip
http://t.co/GSRJf3UJNp
 
Just an update. I did have to mod the sg05 to fit the 7950 TF3. Its about a cm too long it seems.
 
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