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Hey Everyone,

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

So i bought three used Gigabyte 7970's... for cheap!  So far, one of the three actually posts and is able to get into windows.  The previous owner swears they ran months ago... but they were water cooled.  He since put the stock coolers back on.... using thermal compound on the VRM's instead of thermal pads.  I've taken the one operating card, cleaned it up... put some proper thermal compound on the GPU and Pads on the VRMS.

The card posts and gets into windows.  I load MSI Afterburner and GuiMiner.  As soon as i start to mine... the card INSTANTLY goes to 98+^C and core clock Rapidily fluctuates between 501 & 1050. The card does hash, but it's low.  After about a minute... It doesnt feel like the card is putting out 98+^C.... so something isn't right!  I've installed fresh drivers, i've tried both BIOS switch positions on the card and i'm thinking about reflashing.  Any suggestions?

Thanks

Bump

Definitely sounds like a heating issue. The card is probably underclocking automatically to avoid overheating. Have you checked to make sure the fans are fully working and you have a solid connection between the heatsink and gpu?

I also had 2 watercooled 7970s mining LTC for a few days. One of them fried with temps at 50c and I could only get 500kh out of them. 7950s would be better.

Nah, you were doing something wrong. 7970's are king under water, heat makes them much less efficient. I've had several going for a few months now no prob, so you probably fried the VRMs or RAM because it gets hotter than hell mining LTC. If you don't have some serious cooling on the VRMs and decent heatsinks on ram it will throttle the card. Gigabytes don't report VRM temp, at lest not the WF3 ones.

Are you sure they have the stock cooler? It might be possible it's missing a shim, so that the heatsink doesn't actually have contact with the GPU at all. The frame around the GPU is something like 1/2mm taller than the gpu, so you could have 1/2mm of thermal compound...

Yes, the cards have the stock fans and heat sink.  I'd be very suprised if this issue was caused by the heatsink.  My thinking is either the bios or hardware is fried....?

the silver shim around the GPU is there... slightly scratched, but its there.

UPDATE:  ok I stand corrected.... I took the heatsink off and I clearly didn't put enough thermal compound on.  Actually I think it was enough... but that shim does create a slight gap, so more compound is needed.  I put the card back into the PC.. started it up and yes.. it improved.  Temporarily :p the temp started at 60 and gradually got to 98, where the core clock started to throttle again.  So the probablem still persists of it getting too hot and throttling.  Whats next.....:s

Try flashing the BIOS just in case the original owner put a modified version on them.

Hehe, told ya...

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/14971/ex-blc-1051/EK-VGA_Supreme_HF_HD7970_Cu_Adapter.html

Thermal compound is actually a pretty terrible conductor of heat at any extreme thickness. If you've got any sizable gap at all the card will over heat.

Thermal pads is what you need, thermal paste is not good solution in the places where its not direct contact.
Intel failed the same way with recent processors.

I'm going to reflash the two broken cards... which is difficult without them even posting (black screen).  I believe I need use a loaner card while flashing the 7970 in dos.

I also bought an after market cooler... a Gelid.  Arctic was all sold out, but these Gelids do fill in the gap over the GPU and i've heard decent things about them.  Keep ya'll posted.

UPDATE:  I installed the Gelid Cooler on a "Dead" Gigabyte 7970.  I put it into a Mobo with a loaner 5770.  Initially I was going to Flash through DOS... but surprisingly I was able to get into Windows with both cards installed (I've had issues before).  Using ATI WinFlash, I flashed the newest Gigabyte 7970 Bios (techpowerup.com).  I shutdown and then installed just the 7970.  Nothing... absolutely nothing on the monitor (DVI & HDMI).  I go back to using the loaner card and installing the oldest bios on the 7970.  Same results, but when checking out GPUz, it somewhat recognizes the card.  http://s8.postimg.org/ivvq6aof9/Untitled.png (http://s8.postimg.org/ivvq6aof9/Untitled.png)
What I find interesting is that GPUz see's it, MSI afterburner see's it, but I still can't use it as a independent card.  GUIminer does not see it.  I was hoping to use the 5770 to see whats going on while mining with the 7970... no go :(

What next?

Quick review on the Gelid Cooler on a Gigabyte 7970... not fun!  As for the actual temperature improvements... not sure yet.  I need a working card.  But in terms of installation... the instructions... SUUUCCCCK!  And none of the VRM heat sinks work for the gigabyte 7970.  I had to use the stock cooler.  Not overly impressed... so far.

Bump

No Suggestions on what to do next?

Sorry bud, I'm out of ideas. I have some gigabyte 7970 wf3 cards, they do alright under water but I know I've got good hs contact. The VRM temp can throttle the card, but I doubt it having an inadequate heatsink would keep the card from posting, it would just throttle under mining...

I did have a plate cooler on the memory chips, and they got so hot to the touch under mining that I actually burned myself on the plate. I switched to individual memory heatsinks and they run a lot cooler. Pretty sure that was causing some throttling problems too, but you aren't using memory to post either.

You've tried both bioses on the cards right?

There's three bios's. I tried the newest and oldest.  No result.  I'd really like to get these to work... nothing like overcoming a good challenge.  I did use ATI WinFlash and not the DOS version.. Do you think that would make a difference?

No, I mean the backup bios switch on the front edge of the card. Should be next to the crossfire bridge...

Not sure on the bios flash program. I would assume the program would do a checksum verify after loading the bios though?

Wait, you reset the heatsink and it temporarily worked, and then started heating up again? I think you found your issue, but just didn't completely fix it. Have another look at your thermal paste. Maybe get an accelero III? They're only like $85 on Newegg, and you will see lower core temps.

Is a $85 dollar fan really necessary? Whats the difference beteween that and one of the many $10-30 dollar fans?

I think there may be some confusion

Pontiacg5: I did try both switches on the card.... But I'll try again.  I'll even try reflashing the other side of the switch.

CrazyAtes:. I have three gigabyte 7970's. Two are fried and i'm trying to get them running again.... Which includes changing out heatsinks and fans.  As for the card you're referring too, it's working, but gets extremely hot, way to quick.  I was hoping to get an accelero locally, but unfortunately they were all sold out.  I ended up buying a Gelding and just put it onto the functioning card today.  While the gelding does not have the quality of the Arctic Accelero.... Brutal instructions and expect to spend a lot of time assembling....... The results are impressive.  The card is running much more stable and substantially cooler.  Success! Thanks to everyone help :).  Now I just gotta get the other cards to work... The challenge continues.

ditto, dont waste money on a cooler. If you look on the for sale section of this site you will see someone selling that card with a cooler on it and his hash rate does not justify that extra expense and time.

The Stock Cooler for the Gigabyte 7970 isn't the greatest.   When I had these cards a year I ago, I know they 80^C under good conditions.  The current 7970 that I have running, was going to 100^C and then throttling down.  I had to get an after-market heatsink/cooler.  I spent $50 on the Gelid and so far, it's money well spent. 

While on the topic of just after-market heatsinks/coolers.... I bought the Arctic Accelero for my 6990's.  WOW.... while I got a deal off ebay for two of them... I would have paid full retail!  The temps are low and MUCH Quieter!  I live in  an apartment, so for the sake of my Sanity... Quiet is good!  I do have one rig that is water cooled.  I think eventually i'll have to be doing this for everything... especially once we're in summer.  But that's a long term project.

It's not an $85 fan. It's a full replacement for the heatsink (with 3 fans). And it usually drops the core temps down on any GPU you install it on.

Success!!!  Looks like I've got them to work.  Freakin Miracle!  I flicked the bios switch... then updated the bios and sure enough, after drivers.. it works.