• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

Sapphire 7970 bad?

G

grandpatzer

Gawd
Joined
Feb 24, 2010
Messages
641
I'm starting to kind of regretting choosing sapphire, logicaly thinking doesn't Sapphire bin the good 7970 to become those high OC cards that they release in couple of months?

I mean if the Atomic makes 1300mhz on core it means Sapphire took all the ones that handled that so it decreases the amount of good reference 7970 for sapphire compared to something like a reference powercolor which has more good OC cards 7970 with better OC potential?
 
Well, by that logic, pretty much every reputable brand has multiple versions that would be binned. MSI lightnings, xfx blacks, sapphire toxics, etc etc. I wouldn't worry too much, guess that a fair number of launch available reference cards are with whatever chips they first got their hands on.
 
Like he said, every company will be binning. It's a crap shoot, just like if you get an LCD with a bad pixel or not.
 
It's ALWAYS been the luck of the draw. Same with CPUs. I know people who would return their CPUs because they can't achieve their target CPU frequency. I am going to push my cards alittle after I break them in :)
 
Thats true, but considering companies like Asus and Sapphire are known for making overclock cards.

I know there are smaller companies that only sell ref cards.

What I meant is that it might be possible that it is less likely get a good card from the likes of Asus, Sapphire, MSI and XFX because of binning.
 
Consider that these boards came to them pre-assembled. I would assume they would be assembling boards with non-standard pcb's for their overclocked modded cards when they can get just the gpus from AMD. They wouldn't pay full price for a preassembled board and then try to tear it down. They'd just wait until amd sells them the components individually. Basically its why you won't see custom cards for a while.

This is pretty much business as usual in my experience. So in that regard I'd say this is actually the BEST time to buy a cheap card as you're more likely to get non-binned parts that are straight from AMD with a simple sticker from Sapphire, XFX, Asus etc slapped on it.
 
It seems that historically, reference cards tend to overclock fairly well. It's usually the stock cooling holding them back. I'm not so sure this time around though as the 28nm process seems to run hella cool plus AMD seems to have made their stock cooler better.

It really is just luck of the draw. I'm sure it's possible to get a reference card that doesn't o/c by 10mhz, but it doesn't seem likely this round as AMD cautiously set their factory clock on these cards, imo.
 
Haste266 said:
It seems that historically, reference cards tend to overclock fairly well. It's usually the stock cooling holding them back. I'm not so sure this time around though as the 28nm process seems to run hella cool plus AMD seems to have made their stock cooler better.

It really is just luck of the draw. I'm sure it's possible to get a reference card that doesn't o/c by 10mhz, but it doesn't seem likely this round as AMD cautiously set their factory clock on these cards, imo.
Click to expand...

yes it seems overclocking the card 18% on core/memory makes it equal to 2x 6950 2gb or a 6990, it even bests them in certain situations and with min fps much better in eyefinity in some games.
 
My sapphire just arrived, can't even pass 1200 OC without artifact...

I have also seen several other sapphire couldn't even pass 1170...

Looks like they did pull out the good ones...
 
There is binning and there is binning. My first Sapphire 5970 had issues getting to 900 without extreme voltage. When the fan died, my RMA replacement 5970 had better core over clocking but worse memory. The Revision 3 5870 (giant fan but no voltage control) could bench to 1010MHz on stock voltage. I got those later two cards when Sapphire had already released specialty cards with binned chips.

It also seems like powertune +20 is even more necessary here than it was for the 69xx cards.
 
shansoft said:
My sapphire just arrived, can't even pass 1200 OC without artifact...

I have also seen several other sapphire couldn't even pass 1170...

Looks like they did pull out the good ones...
Click to expand...

1200MHz without voltage increase is pretty damn good...
 
Well, he didn't say if he touched the volts or not. If that's stock it's amazing, it's its at 1.3 I'd be curious to know the temps and how airflow/circulation is.
 
shansoft said:
We are in [H] for some reasons.... ;)

I have seen almost any card outside of sapphire got 1250 or above without a issue, that is what really piss me off...
Click to expand...

Except the other xfx's and Asus that people have mixed results with just like any card. They're all reference and it's variable, what more did you expect?
 
First thing I'll likely do is peg my 2 cards at 1125MHz and see what happens. If they'll play SWTOR like that on my 3 monitors I'll probably jus leave em there and be happy. I'd rather try and go as high as I can without voltage increases because I don't like heat and noise.
 
shansoft said:
We are in [H] for some reasons.... ;)

I have seen almost any card outside of sapphire got 1250 or above without a issue, that is what really piss me off...
Click to expand...

so a 30% overclock on the stock cooler pisses you off, but if you got a 35% overclock you'd be happier than a pig in shit?
 
That's_Corporate said:
so a 30% overclock on the stock cooler pisses you off, but if you got a 35% overclock you'd be happier than a pig in shit?
Click to expand...

Actually, its not about temperature problem here, it's the chip itself.

I am just testing a stable clock right now, and it seems 1200 is not as stable as I thought, it still artifact in Furmark, but not noticeable unless I really take a look at it..

I adjust the clock up and test it and see if it artifact, there is no way temperature can rise up instantly and cause the artifacts to appear.

And yes, I would be happy like a madman if I got what [H] got... ;)

EDIT, it seems MSI Afterburner shows that the voltage is vary around for some reason... odd ball...
 
grandpatzer said:
Thats true, but considering companies like Asus and Sapphire are known for making overclock cards.

I know there are smaller companies that only sell ref cards.

What I meant is that it might be possible that it is less likely get a good card from the likes of Asus, Sapphire, MSI and XFX because of binning.
Click to expand...

Are there any video card companies they DON'T sell over clocked cards? If you are worried about this, wait four months, then buy the absolute fastest 7970 card sold by any GPU manufacturer. Then you can rest easy that your card may have binned %2 higher than other card.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top