MSI R7950 3GB OC BE - have I done ok/is this normal?

[mistral_blue]

I got a new GC on a bit of a whim recently - I originally ordered a Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 OC Graphics Card 3GB GDDR5 (last one in stock) for £240, but turns out it wasn't in stock after all. Was offered an MSI HD7950/OC 3GB DDR5 and £40 back, which I accepted. To clarify, it looks like this - [sorry can't post URLs yet, search for "MSI R7950-3GD5/OC BE Radeon HD 7950 3GB 384-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card"] - it is NOT a Twin Frozr! I play a lot of PD2 and it seems to be managing well so far, max resolution is fine but I reckon I need to OC to get high textures to be smooth (although this may be the game as it is apparently known for crashing etc on high texture).

I think I've done ok out of it as from reading it appears to be a decent card but...

1) It runs hot (apparently they all do) but I'm talking up to 90 degrees in Kombustor, stock cooling (single crappy fan) at 100% with shroud removed [+20% power (to remove GPU spikes), stock 810MHZ GPU/1250MHZ MEM] and can then be seen to thermally throttle at 90 degrees, which is clearly hot enough! That said it's perfectly stable at 70-80 degrees during gaming. I've got an Arctic Accelero IV 280x cooler to fit to it plus some GELID GC Extreme thermal compound, which I'm hoping should bring the temps down significantly...

2) I've also tried a little light overclocking for a short period (a couple of minutes) using Afterburner to 1000MHZ GPU/1325 MHZ which is initially stable, but it does get too hot at present under 100% GPU loading, it's fine for gaming though (and stable during a long session, but temps are again 75-80 deg). If I up memory to 1400 MHZ I get the grey screen of doom and 1375 MHZ was crashing out during Futuremark, which is lower than some of the reviews I've read. Do I have a bad card or does the memory just need a little more voltage? (I've not unlocked the GPU/MEM voltage yet as I'm still on stock cooling) - I ask this as others report stable at about 1050 GPU/MEM 1575MHZ with no voltage increase...

In conclusion, from asking around and what I've read, I think I've got a capable OC'ing card for a decent price (£200), but I am concerned about the temps... any input from the Hex community to confirm or deny this please?! (just to confirm, I'm not letting it get above 80 degrees for any significant period!)

Oh and my other thought it I 'only' have a 520W Corsair PSU at the moment, when I've built my new system I'll have an 850W Corsair, am wondering if I'm getting close to the limit on power required/vs available for the card, which could be affecting things too??

[Gronich26]

I'm sorry to say you have paid through the nose for your graphics card. The 7950 was replaced by the 280 about 2 years ago. Looking online I can find an MSI R9 280 with Twin Frozr for £150.

If you are intending to keep it, I would suggest you put the Arctic cooler on, if you have a good chip, you should be able to overclock into the 1100-1200Mhz range - I got a stable 1150Mhz with my Gigabyte 7950 Windforce with 1.2v - Temps. were good but I didn't like the fan noise. I think you 520W PSU is fine - I only saw 280W at the wall on overclocked 2500K with the 7950.

[Kathir2804]

isnt the 7950 old now? it has been replaced

[mistral_blue]

It's not doing so bad O/C 1.2mV @ 1GHZ Core with 1.3GHZ Mem - although I am about to order a Corsair 980Ti Hydro GFX, which makes such figures irrelevant!