Sapphire 7950 not working with Z77 Extreme4 at GEN 3 Speeds

[SuperMoncho]

Hello:

I have a Sapphire 7950 paired with an ASRock Z77 Extreme4 (BIOS v2.7) and an i5-3570K. The problem that I have is the following:

The card is only being detected if it’s working at PCIE Gen 2 speeds and it seizes to be detected at Gen 3 speeds.

Here are some details:
- The video card is connected to the PCIE2 port (which is a PCIE 3.0 x 16 slot, all other slots are of lower speed)
- The video card will only be detected if the port is set to GEN1, GEN2 or AUTO in the North Bridge settings in the BIOS
- If the card is set to GEN 3 it stops being detected
- If the card is set to AUTO, when I run GPU-Z it detects it as running only at GEN2 speeds even with the rendering test.
- All the components are new
- All power connectors are connected to the card and I verified that it is seated correctly


So here are the questions...
-What can I do to get the card running at GEN3 speeds?
-What tests can I do to determine which of the components is at fault?
-How much should I care about this?? I know something is not right but is this a big deal??


Bellow are the complete system specs:
Intel Core i5-3570K
ASRock Z77 Extreme4
_ BIOS V2.7 (v2.0, 2.2 and 2.5 also tested with same results)
SAPPHIRE 100352-2L Radeon HD 7950 3GB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16
_ GPU BIOS version: 015.023.000.001.000000
_ Driver Ver: Catalyst 12.11 (12.10 also tested, same results)
CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3 1600
CORSAIR Builder Series CX600 600W ATX12V
Corsair CWCH60 Hydro Series H60 High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler
OCZ Vengeance SSD
LG BD-RE SATA (WH14NS40)
Windows 7 Pro 64-Bit

Other Similar Case:
http://forums.tweaktown.com/asrock/48876-asrock-z77-pro3-sapphire-hd-7850-oc-pci-e-3-0-slot-problem-no-signal-output.html

 

[abCasPeRR]

Hmmmm I have the samething but a NVIDIA card, I just noticed that in my NVIDIA control panel it says my Bus is a Gen2. When on GPU-z its 3.0. Anyways. There has been proven to be really no increase in overall FPS in benchmarks that websites have done. The most people have found is about 1-3 fps increase. But if you do find out how to fix it I would like to know how.

 

[abCasPeRR]

Hello:

I have a Sapphire 7950 paired with an ASRock Z77 Extreme4 (BIOS v2.7) and an i5-3570K. The problem that I have is the following:

The card is only being detected if it’s working at PCIE Gen 2 speeds and it seizes to be detected at Gen 3 speeds.

Here are some details:
- The video card is connected to the PCIE2 port (which is a PCIE 3.0 x 16 slot, all other slots are of lower speed)
- The video card will only be detected if the port is set to GEN1, GEN2 or AUTO in the North Bridge settings in the BIOS
- If the card is set to GEN 3 it stops being detected
- If the card is set to AUTO, when I run GPU-Z it detects it as running only at GEN2 speeds even with the rendering test.
- All the components are new
- All power connectors are connected to the card and I verified that it is seated correctly


So here are the questions...
-What can I do to get the card running at GEN3 speeds?
-What tests can I do to determine which of the components is at fault?
-How much should I care about this?? I know something is not right but is this a big deal??


Bellow are the complete system specs:
Intel Core i5-3570K
ASRock Z77 Extreme4
_ BIOS V2.7 (v2.0, 2.2 and 2.5 also tested with same results)
SAPPHIRE 100352-2L Radeon HD 7950 3GB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16
_ GPU BIOS version: 015.023.000.001.000000
_ Driver Ver: Catalyst 12.11 (12.10 also tested, same results)
CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3 1600
CORSAIR Builder Series CX600 600W ATX12V
Corsair CWCH60 Hydro Series H60 High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler
OCZ Vengeance SSD
LG BD-RE SATA (WH14NS40)
Windows 7 Pro 64-Bit

Other Similar Case:
http://forums.tweaktown.com/asrock/48876-asrock-z77-pro3-sapphire-hd-7850-oc-pci-e-3-0-slot-problem-no-signal-output.html

And also, when I installed my card into the motherboard the first time I installed it into the bottom PCIe slot and that gave me the PCIe 2.0 in GPU-z.

 

[SuperMoncho]

Thanks for the reply. I've tried other PCIE slots but only the one that I mentioned in the OP is PCIE3x16 the other is a PCIE3x8

 

[SuperMoncho]

UPDATE:

I just tested an XFX Radeon R7770 on the same port (and system) as I was testing my Sapphire 7950 and it is working at GEN 3 speeds (PCIE 3x16).

I ran 2 tests:

1. Set the BIOS to GEN3 and the card is detected with no issues
2. Set the BIOS to AUTO and run GPU-Z and it is also detected as PCIE3x16.


I'm currently in talks with Sapphire. Besides the 9750 being broken are there any other issues that I might be missing??

 

[SuperMoncho]

UPDATE 2:

Sapphire just told me to RMA the card. I'm a bit concerned, would an RMA be an exchagne for a new card or they would just service the card??

I'm afraid they'll plop it in their system and for whatever reason works fine and they just send me the card right back.

Would I be better off just RMA'ing it through NewEgg?? (I bought it less than 30 days ago)