XFX Black Edition 7970 locked voltage?

[garage1217]

Picked one up the other day, cannot seem to get voltage control over the GPU which is irritating. Using latest afterburner 2.2.3 and 12.8 drivers. Does not even read the voltage and yes, afterburner was setup for overclocking. Without voltage control, GPU is limited to around 1125, However I was very impressed with the memory clock which is not only stable to 1700, but did show an increase in performance all the way to 1700 until error correction started to show a reduction in performance around 1750.

Anyone else have one of these - or any ideas to get control over the voltage? Would like to be able to push it past 1200.

To note: Card has performed excellent. Very impressed with it even if I cannot push it quite as far as I would like. Fans are very quiet too and thermal performance has been great. Idle is around 52-55C and heavy load is around 70C. Manual control of the fans (yes they are loud under manual control) keeps it in the 60's.

 

[crisan_tiberiu]

you need to enable voltage control in Afterburner, then you can tweek the gpu vcore

 

[garage1217]

Understood, have been working with afterburner for years. It is enabled but does not read or allow adjustment of voltage on this 7970. Wonder if it is a revision change or firmware. The PCB revision is 3.1 from memory but will have to verify when I get home. Trixx reads it but cannot adjust.

 

[garage1217]

Yes sir, Re-configed. It raised frequency adjustment range but voltage is just blank. Never had a card do this. Going to totally delete drivers and re-install as well as afterburner. Will keep you guys posted.

 

[garage1217]

Uninstalled and deleted afterburner, re-installed and no change. Verified version of the card is 3.1 and core voltage is dark in the app with no adjustment possible. eula was added, unofficial overclock set to 1. All as I have always done, just no voltage control odd. Also as stated, voltage unlock is checked, monitoring is checked and I have tried both user mode and kernel mode. Notta.

 

[garage1217]

Spent hours on it tonight. Went crazy with every known trick, driver versions, sweepers, adding the missing DLL, even did a fresh install. Just everything. Well end result? Still ZERO voltage control. Looks like they have disabled voltage control on the 3.1 version xfx 7970 black edition, either that or I am missing something. Highly doubt it but possible. Ticked as I cannot return it as wife jumped on the mail in rebate.

 

[gamerkila57]

i remember reading an article that said recently AMD drivers locked the voltage in Afterburner ?

http://forums.overclockersclub.com/index.php?showtopic=182403

 

[garage1217]

Just some notes...
- Afterburner will not allow any voltage changes on this card / Does allow power control settings. Will not even show voltage

- Trixx does not give the option for voltage and does not show it. Does allow power control settings

- Gigabyte OC guru II shows voltage at 1.175 which is the same as what GPU-Z shows. This tool allows you to lower voltage but lowering it does not actually do anything as GPU-Z never changes. Gigabytes tool does not allow for power control changes. Have to do that in CCC.

So yeah, totally SOL so far with voltage on this card (version 3.1 just purchased) unless a bios mod comes out or someone figures it out. Ticks me off as I specifically bought this as I did not want a ghz edition since the extra p-state screws with gpu voltage changes! Seems like they locked it to try to promote the new version of the card.





More notes, my 3.1 version does not feature a bios switch and design is different than the review versions I have been reading on... Mine uses two DVI ports...

Example of an old style with bios switch and DVI port.
http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=858&Itemid=72&limit=1&limitstart=3






Update... Just found they did in fact change the PCB... Sounds like I am one of the first to receive a voltage locked version. Paid a crapton for this card, going to do all I can to return it. First time XFX has royally ticked me off. Some talk on the board revision...
http://www.ekwb.com/news/233/19/New-revision-od-XFX-7970-cards-brings-compatibility-issues/

Another site talking about it...
http://forums.overclockers.com.au/showthread.php?t=1020856

 

[garage1217]

Best answer selected by garage1217.

 

[garage1217]

Pretty much sums it up bigmack.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey