Sapphire 7950 headache

[tjc50]

Been at this for hours on end. Literally cannot oc one bit. My latest attempt at getting this to run properly was deleting current CCC and doing a driver sweeper. Cleared everything of AMD and NVIDIA. After that I downloaded the new 12.4 drivers. Tried a very small oc of 1000/1250. Stock is 900/1250. No luck, do I have a dud of a card or what? At first I would get an error lower right hand corner driver display not responding. After the drive sweep and clean it is now just BF3 crashing after the load screen. Extremely pissed at my new gaming rig!!! Anyone have any advice. HAvent slept yet

 

[Pinhedd]

Overclocking is never guaranteed. Cards are only ever tested to run at their binned speed and are warrantied as such.

 

[geekapproved]

What video card did you have before? What power supply?

So it's just BF3 crashing, what about other games? If it's just BF3, try an older driver.

 

[AdioKIP]

I just got my 7950 (Saphire OC edition) and have the exact same symptoms. I cant overclock at all or the system crashes. I'm thinking I may have to use Saphires software instead of CCC and try a slight voltage bump but was hoping to overclock with no change in voltage.

 

[geekapproved]

I stopped buying factory OC cards because some of them are locked and don't allow further overclocking. It's cheaper to just buy a stock one and OC it yourself.

You don't need to bump the voltage to get a decent overclock. It's a new card, I would use the driver provided by sapphire in the box for now.

 

[JamesSneed]

Have you played BF3 without overclocking the card? Does it crash? If this is a new build I would run everything at stock for a week or two. I like to know my new builds are rock stable before I start overclocking that way I know its the OC causing the instability and not bad hardware.

 

[AdioKIP]

I've played MSFlight, Skyrim, Crysis 2, and a few others since getting my 7950, all worked fine. I've also ran 3dMark a few times. I know the overclock causes my instability since it happens IMMEDIATELY after I increase the clocks. Within 10 seconds of me boosing the clock speed from 900 to 1000 in CCC the display driver crashes.

 

[sinnerhp]

Maybe it's something with the 7950. I have two Sapphire 7970 OC edition (overclocked to 1280/1860) and they run great. PSU might be the issue though, I noticed I couldn't push past 1200 core with my old Siverstone 850 Silver, but since going to a Sea Sonic 1000 Platinum PSU I haven't had any issues...

Honestly though, what do you need to OC it for? that 7950 can handle everything out there.

 

[tjc50]

I actually ended up pushing the 7950 to its limits and it crashed my pc. actually crashed beyone recognition. Had to completely re install windows 7 and all drivers and such. I have the 12.4 now but I am not going to Oc at all for awhile until someone gets some reliable feedback. Actually with trixx and ab I cannot adjust gpu voltage. I did see in asrock extreme tuner there is a gpu V slider. Would that work the same? Of all the reading I have done, seems alot of 7950 users have Oc issues. I like the card alot it is smooth n quiet I just like to push things a bit lol!

 

[tjc50]

The most stable settings I had were to leave the power regulator thing stock. Set the rest at 1000/1350 compared to factory 900/1250. Not a very aggressive OC but it never had issues. Seems like once I break either one of those numbers It just takes a huge dump on me

 

[geekapproved]

What are you expecting?

 

[tjc50]

not sure really.. But from what I have read people are far exceeding that. Not trying to break records but would like to get best bang for my buck out of new card

 

[aicom]

Overclocking is never a guarantee. Just because some reviewers and users got an overclock most of the time, doesn't mean that it's for sure. These GPUs are binned to run stable at the frequencies specified by the manufacturer, nothing more. We've been spoiled in the CPU area for a while with very overclockable chips, such that some start taking overclocking for granted. Buy a product for the manufacturer's specification, any more than that is just gravy.

 

[mouse24]

Why has no one mentioned that it clocks up for you once there is available heat headroom? it is set in the bios to do this you can't turn it off, as a result a 50-100Mhz OC is the best you are going to get

Hang on lemme find a link as to what its called.

 

[tjc50]

mouse 24.. I didnt know that. Just thought it was sitting at factory 900 mhz. Right now I cant even do the previous stable 1000/1350. Going to try 950/1300 now. Factory settings it has no issues ... but who likes that?

 

[tjc50]

aicom deffinetly the most logical response so far I do agree! maybe that means up my psu and xfire

 

[mouse24]

mouse 24.. I didnt know that. Just thought it was sitting at factory 900 mhz. Right now I cant even do the previous stable 1000/1350. Going to try 950/1300 now. Factory settings it has no issues ... but who likes that?

Heh, maybe I was mistaken. I can't seem to find the article anywhere...

 

[jijoslin]

I'm using msi afterburner beta and I bumped my msi R7950 voltage to hd7970 level, now I'm stable at 1100 core/1575 memory with good temps!

 

[tjc50]

jijoslin what version catalyst? 12.4? Got some particle issues at only 1000 core/ 1350 memory wish I could push it harder. Now have it backed down to 925/1275

 

[jijoslin]

ccc 12.4 drivers, I think my success is due in part to having an msi reference card,used with msi afterburner,however this is also the first time I've adjusted the voltage on a card to overclock!