Gigabyte HD 7950 should be 900 MHz, came stock as 1000 Mhz...?

Discussion in 'Videocards - AMD Radeon' started by mrBullseye, Jan 29, 2013.

  1. mrBullseye

    mrBullseye Member Guru

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    Hey ladies and gents.

    Just received and installed my new HD 7950 that i purchased this Saturday. I went for the factory OC:ed one. It said on both the manufacturers and the retailers home page that the factory overclock was 900 MHz, but when checking GPU-Z and CCC they both say stock is 1000 MHz. :3eyes:

    I even checked a review that included a screenshot of his GPU-Z screen and that said 900 MHz.
    http://www.pureoverclock.com/Review-detail/gigabyte-7950-windforce/2/
    The product codes are indentical: GV-R795WF3-3GD

    What gives? Did I luck out, or did I receive a returned product that was already OC'd by another customer? It seemed new enough when I opened it.

    Anyone heard of this before?

    Thanks for any replies. Peace! :nerd:
     
  2. yasamoka

    yasamoka Ancient Guru

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    The 7950/7970 BIOS is encrypted. They can't be edited yet, AFAIK. There is no 7950 BIOS that gives 1000MHz core clock by default. So no, nobody OCed this card and returned it.

    Is this the first 79xx card to be connected to your system?
     
  3. mrBullseye

    mrBullseye Member Guru

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    Okay, thats a relief, but makes the whole situation even more strange. :3eyes:

    Yes, it is the first card since my 4870x2 which broke down.

    Here is a screenshot of my GPU-Z screen: https://www.dropbox.com/s/r71jvsyxusim2hh/GPU-Z.jpg

    I also found a thread on a different forum of the exact same situation, and someone there seemed to be sure that they come factory OC:ed to 1000 MHz now. Something about a newer BIOS revision (FZ1). here is the link to that thread: http://www.overclock.net/t/1352856/my-gigabyte-7950-windforce-came-stock-at-1000-mhz-is-this-normal

    If it indeed does come at 1000 MHz as stock, then I lucked out indeed.:thumbup:
     
  4. PNeV

    PNeV Guest

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    Make sure its in your profile as a 7950 GHz Edition :D
     

  5. mrBullseye

    mrBullseye Member Guru

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    Excellent suggestion sir! Done and Done! :dave:
     
  6. yasamoka

    yasamoka Ancient Guru

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    hahaha you got one rare card right there!

    I'd shoot Gigabyte an e-mail and see what they say about this.

    If I were you, right now I'd be checking the card's ASIC quality and stock voltage. If it comes 1000MHz OCed by default, then this card should have some epic OC potential. Right-click GPU-Z on the upper left corner and check it.
     
  7. CLass

    CLass Guest

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    hello,

    yes its that new FZ1 Bios! But there are some strange things going on..
    First of All some days ago exactly that Bios was available for Download on the Gigabyte website, but only for the UD version of this Card, the Download by now is gone its not available anymore! It was declared with 1GHZ coreclock! now a friend of mine bought a new card, had that BIOS on it with factory 1ghz but he never got his card stable running and RMA'd it.

    So i guess Gigabyte was a little bit too fast with its FZ1 Bios and they removed it because of instability (at least for some cards)

    I want to try that BIOS, im mean im stable at 1.1ghz with afterburner, but a factory OC from Gigabyte is what i would prefer!

    Could you maybe send the BIOS to me? Just save it with Winflash and PM me a link or something? Would be very very nice, thanks in advance and good luck with your nice card!
     
  8. yasamoka

    yasamoka Ancient Guru

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    CLass, honestly, I wouldn't bother. If it was unstable at stock, then it seems that Gigabyte had rushed things. It doesn't matter, though, underclock to stock 7950 coreclocks, or just bump up voltage a bit.

    Have you raised voltage to achieve stability at 1.1GHz?

    I was surprised with that 1000MHz stock clock, as my friend had a 90% ASIC MSI 7950 TFIII, and he was stable up to 994MHz@stock volts (993mV) and had an error (OCCT) @1000MHz. Had to bump up voltage to 1000mV to make it stable.

    Now I don't know what ASICs those card would come with, but a lower ASIC and they'd come with higher voltage (maybe making it stable), and a high ASIC would come with lower voltage (might be slightly unstable if voltage is too low). Anyways, just guessing at this point. Gigabyte may even have raised the stock voltage slightly.

    I have a friend's Gigabyte 7950 WF3 on the way (2 weeks+). I'll be giving you guys my feedback as well.
     
    Last edited: Jan 29, 2013
  9. mrBullseye

    mrBullseye Member Guru

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    I've never heard of ASICS before. Is it an acronym for something? In any case, GPU-Z reports the ASIC quality as 59.5%. I have no idea if thats any good.

    The stock voltage is 0.805V VDDC, 1.5V MVDDC in windows and about ~1.23V VDDC under load while the mem is still 1.5V under load.
     
  10. mrBullseye

    mrBullseye Member Guru

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    If you want it, I can absolutely send you a bios dump. Will an export from GPU-Z work? (they are exported as .rom files, strange, seem to remember they exported as .bin files)

    PM me an email address and I'll get it to you! :)
     

  11. yasamoka

    yasamoka Ancient Guru

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  12. mrBullseye

    mrBullseye Member Guru

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    Okay, What is the easiset way to check that? The sensors report as I said about ~1.23V under load, but I don't know what it is set to in the BIOS. GPU-Z doesn't show me that.
     
  13. yasamoka

    yasamoka Ancient Guru

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    MSI Afterburner would show it. Just enable voltage monitoring in settings and it would show.
     
  14. mrBullseye

    mrBullseye Member Guru

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    Nah, it won't show it. I've activated "unlock voltage monitoring" in the settings, and restarted the program, but nothing shows in the voltage slider or in the HW monitor window.

    Do I need to unlock the voltage control as well?
     
  15. yasamoka

    yasamoka Ancient Guru

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    That's strange. AFAIK, that card is not voltage locked.

    Can you check what revision your card is? It's located on the PCB front side (fans side).

    EDIT: Just reread your post, yes, unlock voltage control as well. Voltage monitoring only enables voltage sensor readings.
     

  16. mrBullseye

    mrBullseye Member Guru

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    Now I've got it. I had to unlock voltage control. Funnily enough, the voltage monitoring option didn't seem to do anything.

    The core voltage is set to 1125 mV and the mem is 1.5 V
     
  17. yasamoka

    yasamoka Ancient Guru

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    Hmmmm...I guess 1125mV should make 1000MHz coreclock stable w/ 60% ASIC.

    This is all very interesting! I'm happy the card is unlocked too. It seems one of the best 7950s one could buy.

    Can you stress test with OCCT to make sure the card is stable? Make sure you have sufficient cooling first.
     
  18. mrBullseye

    mrBullseye Member Guru

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    I have the windforce GPU-cooler with three fans on this bad boy. I have been playing some Modern Warfare 3 and been testing some rthdrlibl on max settings but I can run furmark as well.
    I don't have OCCT, but I guess I can search around and find it :)
     
  19. Deathchild

    Deathchild Ancient Guru

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    This is a bios that has been available on the Gigabyte website. This is actually a bios they released some time ago, but it was removed from the site pretty quickly. As users have reported, there's been instability and what not. Actually, instability with this card is not possible since the core voltage at load is 1.25v, well it's more like: instability caused by high temperatures that is coming from the high 1.25v. High temperatures that people can't handle and, not understanding what is going on, lol.

    There's nothing special about the card, it's just come with a factory OC and higher voltage. :D Guess I ruined the party. xD

    Anyways, mrBullseye, I suggest you flash to the newest F43 bios that is on the website, as that is what I'm using right now. I've used pretty much every Gigabyte 7950 bios there is available, even a few 7970 ones. F43 just comes with lower clocks and a much lower core voltage @ 1.093v during load.

    So it'll be far more stable and you can OC it as you will, not have a voltage of 1.25v locked 24/7 during load.

    I used this bios for a while but I switched it over because the 1.25v is not necessary, it's too much.

    My ASIC is about the same btw, 59.6%. So, if all these ASIC theories and what not are true, then it should be interesting to see whether we get the same clocks and results or not. :D

    So for example, a few clocks that you can use as reference:

    Memory for me is always either 1500 @ 1.5v or 1600-1700 @ 1.6v

    1.162-1.174v - 1100
    1.212v - 1150
    1.250v - 1200

    with 1.29v or ~1.3v I was able to achieve 1250, but that was the absolute max as well, so use that only for testing/benchmarking purposes, as the temps will go very high up so make sure you have an aggressive fan profile or the window open. :D

    If you need help with flashing, I'm assuming you will, we'll help you out with that.

    edit: and 1.125v for 1000mhz on the core sounds about right. :D
     
    Last edited: Jan 29, 2013
  20. yasamoka

    yasamoka Ancient Guru

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    Yes, I have a Gigabyte R7970 myself. Very nice cooler.

    I'd be glad if you'd do so. I'm interested to see the result.
     

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