EVGA 7900 series cards artifact/bsod fix?

[likewhoa]

7900gtx has similar issues?

 

 

yes the last one with Infineon memory just gave crappy results in benchmark equal to my 7800GT. now this new one is giving me even worst results. I will tweak some more before i request a replacement. I didn't pay good money to get a card that performs at 7800GT scores.

[jumpman]

Im sick of this ., im going with ATI.

[OldGuy]

I'm siitin' on 2 out of three 7900gtx's...go ahead and go with ATI...unless you can afford a 7950, which seems to have bypassed all the BS us 7900 owners have had to go through. Still waitin' to see some benchies from XenoS an Uncle Dave with their replacement 7950's......

[likewhoa]

stepping up to a 7950x2 is looking like the smartest move in this situation right about now

[OldGuy]

stepping up to a 7950x2 is looking like the smartest move in this situation right about now

 

Yes but I'd like to see what us El stupidos' that went for SLI have to cry over with seeing some 7950 benchies...two cards totalling almost $1K is perty stupid when you sit down and really think about it..fortrunately I have an ultra D I can stick my second 7900gtx into...Doesn't really make me feel any better though

[likewhoa]

definally, those x2 scores own the sli systems. but do they overclock well?

[XenoS]

I finally got my eVGA 7950 GX2 yesterday. Had to remove one of the posts so it would fit onto my motherboard, but that wasn't a big deal. Peformance is double over my eVGA 7800 GT CO at the setting I prefer (1920x1200 with AA & AF on). The only problem I'm forseeing here is how hot this card gets. It hit 96C while playing FEAR for a few minutes, and idles at 69/56 celcius. I only have air cooling, but even so it's usually pretty decent most of the time with the case. Looking in the 91.47 drivers it looks like 122c is the point at which it throttles back, so I'm hoping the thing was designed with this high level of heat in mind. If so then I'm happy, and if not then I'm worried lol. Anyways, here are some benchmarks if anyone is curious. ;-)

 

Edit: Neither situation is SLI. Sorry for any confusion I may have caused.

 

eVGA 7800GT CO (In second slot @ x2 PCI-E)

No Overclocking

Forceware v84.21 (High Quality)

 

3DMark05 (Default Run @ 1024x768)

Score: 6771

GT1 - 30.9 fps

GT2 - 19.1 fps

GT3 - 33.7 fps

CPU Score: 3952

CPU Test 1: 1.9 fps

CPU Test 2: 3.6 fps

 

3DMark05 (1920x1200 / 4xAA / 16xAF)

Score: 2763

GT1 - 13.8 fps

GT2 - 5.5 fps

GT3 - 17.8 fps

 

3DMark06 Score: 3665

SM2.0 Score: 1478

HDR/SM3.0 Score: 1399

CPU Score: 1642

 

Counter Strike Source

1920 x 1200

Maxed Settings

4x AA / 16x AF

55.27 fps

 

F.E.A.R. (v1.06)

1920 x 1200

4x AA / 16x AF

Maxed Settings

No Soft Shadows

 

Minimum: 14 fps

Average: 24 fps

Maximum: 52 fps

 

72% below 25 fps.

16% from 25-40 fps.

12% above 40 fps.

 

--------------------

 

eVGA 7950 GX2 (In first slot @ x16 PCI-E)

No Overclocking

Forceware v91.47 (High Quality)

 

3DMark05 (Default Run @ 1024x768)

Score: 12592

GT1 - 47.9 fps

GT2 - 37.8 fps

GT3 - 70.6 fps

CPU Score: 6722

CPU Test 1: 2.9 fps

CPU Test 2: 7.0 fps

 

3DMark05 (1920x1200 / 4xAA / 16xAF)

Score: 6608

GT1 - 34.5 fps

GT2 - 14.2 fps

GT3 - 37.7 fps

 

3DMark06 Score: 7631

SM2.0 Score: 3510

HDR/SM3.0 Score: 3378

CPU Score: 1856

 

Counter Strike Source

1920 x 1200

Maxed Settings

4x AA / 16x AF

158.33 fps

 

F.E.A.R. (v1.06)

1920 x 1200

4x AA / 16x AF

Maxed Settings

No Soft Shadows

 

Minimum: 32 fps

Average: 54 fps

Maximum: 135 fps

 

0% below 25 fps.

25% from 25-40 fps.

75% above 40 fps.

[red930]

eVGA 7800GT CO (x2 PCI-E)

No Overclocking

Forceware v84.21 (High Quality)

 

3DMark05 (Default Run @ 1024x768)

Score: 6771

 

That's kind of a low score isn't it for x2 PCI-E,I scored 72xx w/1 card,no OC on system at all.

 

This was Franzkefka's #'s b4 he blew up a card,OCed though

 

Opteron 146 Cab2e fpaw @ 2.9ghz

500/[email protected] | 13143

470/[email protected] | 12666

[XenoS]

That's kind of a low score isn't it for x2 PCI-E,I scored 72xx w/1 card,no OC on system at all.

Oops, hehe. No SLI was used for my scores. When I wrote x2 PCI-E what I meant was one single card in the second PCI-E slot, which was set to 2x, and x16 PCI-E meant the top slot running at 16x. Sorry, I should have been clearer.

 

So to sum it all up:

 

1) I own a single eVGA 7800 GT CO and have been using it with my DFI SLI-DR motherboard since early winter of 2005. I use it in the second PCI-E slot to keep heat off my NF4 chipset, and thus the graphic card is running at x2 (times two) speed. Other folks here at DFI Street have shown that running at x2 in the second PCI-E slot instead of x16 in the primary PCI-E slot has little to no impact on 3D performance.

 

2) I decided to spend the big bucks and buy two BFG 7900 GTX OC cards on August 6, 2006. Since I like to run all my PC games at 1920x1200 with 4xAA and 16xAF whenever possible (due to owning a Dell 2405FPW LCD monitor) all I was really after was a bit more performance, double preferably though more is always nice . From my research, two 7900 GTX cards running in SLI looked a bit better performance-wise than one 7950 GX2, and so is why I went that route to begin with.

 

3) Several days after installing my two new BFG 7900 GTX OC cards they began to act very buggy. This happened whether they were running alone in either of the two slots, or in SLI mode with both installed. Research showed that a lot of people seem to be having the same kinds of problems. I was unable to complete any benchmarks without encountering major issues myself, such as all the points listed in the first post of this thread, and this is why I don't have any 7900 GTX based numbers included in my previous benchmarks post. As I posted a while back in this thread, I did manage to complete one run of 3dMark05 in SLI mode with the two BFG 7900GTX's while running two power supplies, but this was a lucky fluke more than anything and the score was over 1600 marks lower than what my single 7800 GT generally scores, proving once again that something was seriously wrong with them BFG's.

 

3) NCIX, the store I purchased both BFG 7900 GTX's from, agreed to take the faulty cards back on August 17, 2006, provided everything was still together and in mint condition. They said they would give me a single eVGA 7950 GX2 card in exchange as well as a refund of the difference, and I was perfectly happy with that. They recieved my RMA return on August 25, 2006, and on September 8, 2006 my brand spanking new eVGA 7950 GX2 arrived.

 

4) Performace of this single eVGA 7950 GX2 is exactly what I was hoping for over the single eVGA 7800 GT CO it's replacing. All I have to solve now is the heat issues, though even as hot as it gets sometimes (90c and up) I've yet to see any visual anomolies or bad behaviour, unlike my eVGA 7800 GT CO which shows really bad texture flashing between 75c to 80c. I noticed the point at which the 7950 GX2 throttles back it's clock speeds to prevent damage to the core is a bit higher than the 7800 GT (122c vs 105c if I recall correctly), so it looks like it may be designed with a bit more heat in mind. There is a vent on the rear of the card, but sadly the open design of the fan and heatsink assembly don't really force hot air out that way.

 

The only problems I encoutered when installing my 7950 GX2 that others might be interested to hear:

 

A) One of the support posts that hold the two cards together had to be removed. This was only needed because it would hit my SATA ports, all of which are in use on my particular motherboard. The screws are pretty small, but it was easy to do.

 

B) Had to change my DVI cable from one head to the other. The one closest to the motherboard wouldn't allow the BIOS to post for some reason.

 

C) I also had some trouble getting the card to sit flush in it's PCI-E slot too, so this might have played a role in the POST difficulties above as well. Fix involved using pliers to bend the metal bracket on the graphics card upwards a bit. Part of this is my Cooler Master case, which are known to cause problems with PCI card installations.

 

D) Can't use the second 2x slot anymore. The 7950 GX2 must go into the top most x16 slot. The card will work in the second slot, but not in dual GPU mode.

 

E) Forced to use the new 9-series Forceware drivers, which are probably going to be buggy for a while yet. Looking at the 91.47 documentation, it appears that Nvidia is at least aware of the worst of it now, so hopefully it won't take them too long to fix. Can't say I like the design though, which neither looks nice nor is intuative, the whole reason why Nvidia changed them all around I believe.

 

And that's my whole story pretty much. I think I'll be happy with the 7950 GX2 for at least a year. At some point a DirectX 10 card is going to become a neccesity I'm sure, just like nine eventually did, but my plan is to hold off for as long as possible... hence why I'm upgrading now instead of simply waiting. I don't really want a first gen DX10 card if it can be helped.

[likewhoa]

I use it in the second PCI-E slot to keep heat off my NF4 chipset, and thus the graphic card is running at x2 (times two) speed. Other folks here at DFI Street have shown that running at x2 in the second PCI-E slot instead of x16 in the primary PCI-E slot has little to no impact on 3D performance.

 

I can tell you from experience that running the card in the bottom slot at 2x will show some performance decrease but running at x16 will be the same as running it at x8 which is done by switching the jumpers on your motherboard. You would have seen better scores running at x8 on the bottom slot as it would have been on the top slot at x16, since the card will not saturate the full 16 speed but will stay close to 8x. Glad you're enjoying your new 7950X2 card as I am waiting on queue for one also.

[UncleDavid218]

I'm still waiting for a waterblock from Danger Den for the 7950... argh

[likewhoa]

I'm still waiting for a waterblock from Danger Den for the 7950... argh

 

heh me too,.. do you mean this waterblock???