XFX 7970 needs to warm up?

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htphm42

Gawd
Joined
Jul 19, 2008
Messages
934
Hi there,

So in my rig is 2 7970 XFX DD in crossfire and I think one of the card is a bit wonky. It would not run at stock settings unless I have ran my PC for about 30min, afterward it's fine, even with a bit of overclock. It's running at the second position, so temps are not a problem. I did repast the thermal paste on the top card, and haven't even touch the second one.

It's the second one that's acting up. I know because I tried it on the top position and it would artifact and not run properly unless ran for about 30min with no 3d program or else it would bsod or black screen.

Any help on why this happens and if I should be worried or not is helpful.

Thanks.
 
Sounds like there could be a bad connection somewhere that gets better as things heat up and expand. You may want to look into "baking" your card to see if it fixes it. If it's not under warranty that is, if it is just send it in for RMA.
 
Should you be worried? Depends on if it gets worse lol. Can you take a picture of the artifacts? I can compare it to what mine did before mine went out. Only workaround solution that comes to mind is under clocking the gpu or increasing the voltage...cause from what you say it develops the issue with the boost clock. (You can try a slight voltage boost with afterburner something still safe like what my card uses)

When i got my brand new replacement it would crash with any 3d test like valley....i tried upping the voltage to what the black edition is listed of using..and it was perfect form that point forward..even overclocked over 1100mhz

If you still have issues...just pm the rep here and hell get it sorted out:)
 
I already ask XFX what could be the problem. Hopefully this will end up being an RMA. It would artifact for a second or two and then just crash, so I can't really get a good screen shot of it. However, like I said, after about 30min of usage, things are fine for games, but still not so for FurMark and the likes.

This is the second AMD card that has gone bad on me. The first being the 5870 :(.

I'll try to contact the XFX rep here if I don't get a response by tomorrow.
 
Contact the guy here...these are very public forums and as such will make you a much higher priority...they get the full advantage of the positive pr while you take advantage of that situation with faster service.....in other words hell bump you to the front of the line to give xfx a better [H] reputation

If you have already put in for a support ticket...hell just grab your ticket number and have it assigned to his support desk (at least this is what you want to happen:))
 
Hey@htphm, Shoot me a PM of the ticket # and ill get you squared away.

Hardforum definately gets a priority in customer support, mostly because i frequent the forums and community boards before visiting support tickets, so community stuff gets responses within 24 hours, while ticket responses tend to take longer. @Primetime And yes, we love the + PR. ^_^
 
Just a quick follow up on the events that transpired. I contacted XFX and got reasonable responses in a relatively timely manner. I RMA'ed the card and now am awaiting a replacement card. Overall happy with XFX's service. I'm getting a 280X, so basically the same card with a better heatsink design. So yeah, hopefully my crossfire rig will be up and running by the end of the week :)
 
htphm42 said:
Hi there,

So in my rig is 2 7970 XFX DD in crossfire and I think one of the card is a bit wonky. It would not run at stock settings unless I have ran my PC for about 30min, afterward it's fine, even with a bit of overclock. It's running at the second position, so temps are not a problem. I did repast the thermal paste on the top card, and haven't even touch the second one.

It's the second one that's acting up. I know because I tried it on the top position and it would artifact and not run properly unless ran for about 30min with no 3d program or else it would bsod or black screen.

Any help on why this happens and if I should be worried or not is helpful.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

With surface mounted BGA, solder points sometimes break leading to a weak pin signal. When they heat up they expand and push better against each other causing a better signal.

An oven rebake would help fix this, but it's a 50:50 risk You might end up toasting it.

You can still grab a 280X on the cheap and it's 100% compatible in CF.
 
Ill give you a 280x or 7970 pretty cheap to be honest.

But yeah it's probably a bad solder joint. A heat gun reflow would likely fix it, but there's a risk it breaks permanently.
 
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