Hi guys,

I have some problem over clocking my Club3D HD7970.
I went for 1073 / 1542 with 20% power boost and no voltage changes. I went to play BF3 and after few hours of game play PC shut down by itself.
I wanted to fire up my PC again but no reaction , black screen ,and power button's diode wont light up. Few minutes later the PC boots up by itself again.
So i went to test the card with Furmark. 15min burn-in test brought the card to 94c and just at 99% of the test bam! Again the same problem .. pc goes off and wont turn on for next 4-5 minutes and then boots up again.
Can anyone tell me why is this happening? Is this some thermal protection kicking in on the 7970 and turns whole system off to prevent damage? Or does the card need more voltage to get this stable? Or is my PSU failing? The last option is really unlikely because i have no problems otherwise on stock settings. I really hope somebody can clear it up for me. Thanks!

I'm using Zalman 850watt PSU and got Antec 180p case with 3 intake and 2 outtake fans.
I have ordered : ARCTIC Accelero Xtreme 7970 VGA but have to wait for it to ship about 3 weeks :S http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/cooling/3480...970-vga-cooler/

I don't think i want to try it out with standard cooler, its running really hot already.

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Added on February 22, 2012, 6:35 pmIt's about 10 -15 FPS more when overclocked on my settings. Is it much? Yes and no. 10 - 15 FPS is not much when you already running at 60 or more FPS. But it is something when your non OC card drops to 40 FPS.
Basically it helps me to stay at or near 60 FPS at all times. And with proper cooling i can push it even further, so to answer your question real simple : Yes it helps much to OC the card and play any game witch is as demanding as BF3.

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Added on February 22, 2012, 6:39 pmSo is here anyone who can give me an clear answer on this? :

1. Can HD7970 when getting to hot, turn whole system off and keep it off for like 4 - 5 minutes?
2. If video card can not do that , what components can?

This post has been edited by Notoxic: Feb 22 2012, 06:39 PM

Thats what i was thinking myself sam sam. I wont OC until i get my Arctic cooler and see some acceptable temperatures.

Shepard,

I have been running this card from the moment i have installed it on MSI Afterburner, so it is using the fan profiles from it already.
With the card not being OC´ed i reach 82c in BF3 , with oc i get 85/86c.
Im pretty sure its not caused by RAM or CPU i have tested them already like crazy. Yesterday 8h of prime 95 no problems. Could be PSU but then again i turned on prime95 + and furmark to test the PSU. At stock speeds of video card there are no problems detected. I could increase the fan speed manually to try to stay at 75c just as test but of course the sound will be just to overwhelming to keep it for normal use.
My idle temp at this moment is already 63c keeping this card under 75c on BF3 will be probably mission impossible.

This post has been edited by Notoxic: Feb 22 2012, 09:06 PM

I was using auto fan speeds of MSI afterburner. Let me try this out now. I will play some BF3 with OC'ed card and try to keep it under 75c. I will tell you if its possible to achieve and what fan speeds i been need to use.
Unfortunately i have only like 2 more hours then i have to go to work so i cant test it all the way today.

Ok , i will try that in a minute. On stock settings and on Idle my core clock stays at 350mhz and Memory at 1375mhz

Setting the fan profile user defined software automatic fan control, yes it did work.
I don't know yet if it did solve the problem. Simply don't have time to test it the proper way right now. I'll let you know what the results are when i have more time. Tomorrow perhaps.

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Added on February 22, 2012, 11:17 pmOK, so i did int want to wait till tomorrow so what i did is this:

Furmark Burn-in test, windows open to went my room better lol. Speed fan 100%.
This is what i got : 80c gpu , VRM1 92c , VRM2 62c.
After 30 minutes PC shuts down.

Dunno but i think this temps aren't to high really. Maybe its the PSU after all, anyone know good way to test PSU?


This post has been edited by Notoxic: Feb 22 2012, 11:17 PM

Hi guys,

I will post the screens of my MSI afterburner. Keep in mind this temps are AFTER i swapped to user defined software automatic fan control. So the temps i am idling at are lower now as well.

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/256/msiafb.png/

Last night i went to play BF3 on 1125 / 1575 no voltage tweaks. I played it for 4.5- 5 hours, and i had no problems. Normally my PC would not survive 3,5h on this settings.
My max temps during that session were: gpu 75c , VRM1 66c , VRM2 59c.

My guess is that we probably have solved my problem by changing the fan control settings to user defined.
The fact that this card is from Club 3D probably have nothing to do with my problem. It is after all an reference card, only thing that is different from (example Asus) will be the sticker on it and maybe some stuff like cables in the package. I'm actually surprised that the manufactures still dare to mount this kind of coolers on high-end cards. It's not only bad cooling but also way to loud. Who wants to sit whole evening next to a "vacuum cleaner" for 500+ euro? My PC is really a quiet machine , or actually it was before this card. Hopefully both the temps and sound will improve with the Arctic Cooler Acelero i have ordered.

Hi guys,

Currently i walked in to some problem.
I upgraded my Catalyst driver to the latest and i wanted to unlock the unofficial over-clock mode in MSI afterburner.
All went well, but after i unlocked it, the MSI afterburner was not memorizing the new settings for the core and memory.
I was thinking that the problem was caused by MSI afterburner but i was wrong. After i searched the Internet i found that the problem was caused by the latest Catalyst driver. They blocked the unofficial over-clock ranges trough the driver. The solution is to install custom Bios for your HD7970. The process is made as easy as possible and is just actually one click operation. Keep in mind this Bios is for reference HD cards only.
After the Bios flash, your MSI afterburner will gain over-clock ranges far beyond the standard 1125 / 1575. You don't even have to touch the CFG file to change to unofficial over-clock mode.

so, what you need to do is:

1. register at http://www.overclock.net/t/1196856/officia...970-owners-club
2. download Tahiti_XT_C3860100_X00_BIOS_Dec20_2011.zip
3. unzip it.
4. runt it.
5. restart your PC.
6. thank Notoxic :>

This post has been edited by Notoxic: Feb 27 2012, 03:38 AM

Yeah i hate the stock fan as well , an horrible thing. The manufacturers should really change something, and put real cooling solutions on cards like this.
Of course i'm aware of few cards that come with better coolers , like Powercolor. But those are hard to get at release.
I'm waiting for Arctic Accelero Xtreme, hope it gets much better then.

Hey guys ,

Its been a while since my last forum visit.
As some may remember i have been waiting for the Arctic cooling accelero for HD7970.
After waiting for almost 2 months, they finally managed to ship the thing yesterday.

The installation is not easy if you do it first time. If i would do it again i would say its quite easy it just take some time to do it.
The install manual is not concluded in the package and need to be downloaded from the manufacturers site. The manual itself is not what i would call really easy to follow.

Ok, but what we want to know it how the temps and noise level are.
The temps i recorded the day before with standard cooler on my video card ( 1125 / 1575)

Idle:
GPU= 60c
VRM= 44c
27% RPM
CPU= 38c I recorded the CPU temps because i excepted to see increased temperatures with the new cooler due to the open design of it.

Stress:
GPU= 78c
VRM= 75c
77% RPM no need to explain how this sounds like , but if it say not much to you i will compare it to vacuum cleaner. Just horrible to play like that.
CPU= 66c

VERSUS the Arctic Accelero Xtreme

Idle:
GPU= 43c
VRM=44c
20% RPM
CPU= 38c

Stress:
GPU=61c
VRM=75c
100% RPM
CPU=70c

Conclusion: I am simply blown away by the performances of the Accelero. I have been reading many good things about it, before i bought it, but i haven't been excepting this!
17c decrease on Idle , 17c decrease under stress! And the most important to me the noise.. noise? What noise? There is none! Yeah thats right , i choose to cool during the games on 100% RPM because i hear almost nothing.
In fact i think the Arctic cooler is quieter on 100%RPM than the standard cooler on Idle witch was 27% RPM in my case.
I think this cooler is worth every penny you pay for it! For me its clear, from now on i will always use this coolers on my video cards.
If you have cooling problems or cant stand the noise of standard cooler , i definitely recommend this 1!

This post has been edited by Notoxic: Apr 5 2012, 09:22 PM