Majority of Radeon 7950 cards have 1792 cores, but the MSI 7950 has 1920 cores.
Can someone explain why their card appears to have these extra, and what they do/ what difference it might make?
I can't link, not got the post count sorry!
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Majority of Radeon 7950 cards have 1792 cores, but the MSI 7950 has 1920 cores.
Can someone explain why their card appears to have these extra, and what they do/ what difference it might make?
I can't link, not got the post count sorry!
I assume you're looking at this card from scan?
All 7950s are made from salvaged / binned 7970 dice (the actual piece of silicon at the heart of a GPU is called a die), which means the silicon has 2048 cores on it. Usually, 256 are fused off (i.e. disabled) to create a 7950, typically because those sections of the silicon have a flaw that means they don't work properly. It is *possible* that MSI have decided to enable some of the cores that are normally fused off, presumably because in their testing they worked properly. If it's correct, it means the MSI card has just over 7% more shading power, which would probably equate to it being up to 5% faster in some games (it would depend heavily on the game in question).
This wouldn't be entirely unusual - a lot of 6950 cards were perfectly good 6970 dice that were disabled in software simply because AMD needed to fulfil stock of 6950s. However, I don't believe that any AMD partners released a 6950 with a different core-count to the official version. It's quite a bold step from MSI.
Well I've ordered one. I'll have to post some scores on it when it's all built.
PS: The Spec sheet from MSI http://media.msi.com/main.php?g2_ite...geViewsIndex=1
As scaryjim said, Ati isn't the only one who does this, the gtx560 and gtx560ti are the same it's just that bad cores have been masked off. (note the gtx560ti 448core is actually the same as the gtx580 it's just got too many faulty core to be masked off to the gtx570 level so they made a new card out of it.)
Also, due to the way production quoters are estimated in advance, sometimes chips with working cores will get masked off just to meet the quoters.
Must say it's a bold move by MSI to offer unlocked cards, brands have generally avoided this because of the risks involved eg a core might of been masked off because it only fails under load, which will lead to a rather unstable card.
Don't get me wrong I love the way you can sometimes unlock a card and get a free performance bump out of it ;) but one person doing it to one card is rather different than a company getting enough safely unlockable chips to release it as a model.
Misprint ?
Guru 3d says 1792 "The R7950 is packed with 1792 shader processors harbored in Compute Units segments (28 of them). "
http://www.guru3d.com/article/msi-ra...r-iii-review/2
Ditto at TP
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/M...win_Frozr_III/
Just saw slightly different model.
Don't know Phage. I've bought one, so when I plug it in I'll update the thread with my findings.
The extra cores turns it into a (sort of) 7960 (i.e. between the 7950 and 7970 :) ).
It's mentioned in a few tests as 1920 (and 1792 so I think they're not looking at the actual card either way and just quoting reference literature :D ), and on MSI's own website. Look for MSI R7950-2PMD3GD5/OC The Frozr III is a different card although they announced that has 1920 too (http://emm.msi.com/display.php?List=34&N=1585).
Yes - I wonder what the facts are - Have you let GPUz have a look at it yet ?
I have to build it first Phage :D
Confirmed as 1792 cores.
:(
Ah well - still a good card !
Might be worth emailing Scan and letting them know.
I've emailed MSI too, and asked them to replace it with a card to the specification they advertise :D
Should be a laugh!
Excellent. After all it's on the spec sheet as well !
Let us know how you get on.
Oh well. Hopefully MSI will see the funny side, get their act together and update their documentation (Scan too). You never know, they might just give you another one to CrossFire it as an apology for misleading you as a consumer /notlikely :p
You've still got a great card there :mrgreen:
I've simply asked that they issue me with an RMA for this 'faulty' board that has almost 10% less cores than they advertise, so they can ship out one with 1920 cores.Quote:
Originally Posted by timread
They're free to send me a 7970 of course :woowoo:
OK so they're replied back saying they're sorry, and it was a mistake on the marketing department's part.
I've thanked them for confirming they falsely advertised the card, but saying they're sorry isn't good enough.
I've likened this to them selling me a car they advertise as having a 2.0L engine, which I buy and when I get it and look at the engine, it's only a 1.8L.
They need to either give me a card of the spec they advertised, or better. I don't think I'm being unreasonable.
You know. I think it might just work.