I ran 2 7970s on an Antec 520w for a few months last year.  The 520w is still in good shape.

I'll have some free Pandas

A68isJxDFDwLP2F8R3vXUd6TdKhdBytY36

yeah man, the heat is absurd with the cold temps around it.  I thought about returning them all but with the cost of shipping and the few days/week or so of not having them running it just seems like I'd lose more money than it's worth.  Plus I bought most of them when they were 300 bucks. Even with throttling hashrates I think that still makes them worth it for 300 bucks, but the heat is still a nono.

If they can't release a bios that fixes it I'll slap copper all over them and just switch brands from now on.   Actually I'm pretty sure I'm switching brands anyway.  

A lot of guys just do it in cgminer with; --gpu-vddc 1100 or whatever voltage.

I have to say though, after reflashing all my cards with VBE7 I will forever do it this way from now on.  It's rock solid and you never have to worry about messing with it in software as the software doesn't always do it right and isn't always reliable.


To the guys who made VBE7 "Darkhmz, DroiDMester, & whoever else"; you guys rule and many thanks  
http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/vbe7-vbios-editor-for-radeon-hd-7000-series-cards.189089/




The links are at the end of the 1st post on the page, they aren't easily seen at first glance.
http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/attachments/vbe7-0-0-7b-exe.52628/

Updated with more pictures.

I would like to see if they are going to fix the problem so I can avoid having to do anything that will void the warranty.  I have emailed them with a very large earful, so we will see.

If they do nothing, I will rip off the heatsinks and put copper ones on.  And I as well will stop buying Sapphire and move to Asus, MSI, or Gigabyte.

Also, this is the card Model #: 100363BF4L

VBE7.  I can confirm it does work on the 280x toxic as I also did it yesterday.  I'm starting to wonder if most new cards can now be modified.  I made this thread before I knew about doing so.

http://rumorscity.com/2013/12/09/how-to-modify-video-bios-to-undervolt-gpu-in-linux/
http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/vbe7-vbios-editor-for-radeon-hd-7000-series-cards.189089/

It is indeed aluminum.

Yeah 100C is definitely too hot.  Do your cards throttle at all?  Hashrate bouncing up and down and not a solid constant 730ish?  They start throttling right around 105C it seems, which is AMDs way of saying it's too hot.  Hashrates end up dropping to the 500s and stay that way.

The Sapphire are under 2 year warranty, I imagine if they don't fix this they are going to be swamped with RMAs eventually.  Let's hope it doesn't come to that.

Yes hashrates drop sometimes when monitoring apps are open.

Last years model 7970 of the same card the VRMs run in the 70s-80s.

I don't know what they did different.  I pulled off the heatsinks on the 280x and the thermal padding is very thick which probably isn't helping.  The thick padding almost looks like it would just smother the VRMs instead of helping them.  I might try and remove the heatsinks and padding on one of them again and plug the card in to test.  In a bit.  I'm fooling around with some other things atm.  

I hear ya man


This is for the VRM temps not core temps.  VRM temps can be read in GPUZ

You are right.  I have a toxic that performs great too.  This is for the cards that have throttling issues

For all of you that have throttling 280x's from running scrypt that bounce from 64-99% it is because the VRMs are running over 100C!

Last year's 7970s did not have this problem!

So after buying some heatsinks yesterday and getting ready to put them on, guess what I found when I opened a card up?  Heat sinks already on the card...

So what is going on?!?!?!  MSI released a fix for their cards.  SAPPHIRE GET YOUR ASS IN THE GAME AND FIX THIS NOW.

Just to be clear I have many 280x Sapphire OC running spaced apart by a window that has been 0 degrees outside with a box fan exchanging the air and the VRMs are still overheating

And for those that may be confused VRM temps are not core temps.  Use GPUZ or another monitor for reading VRM temps.




Alright I took a couple screen shots for you guys.

Both rigs are near a wide open window with box fans exchanging air with the freezing outside.  The 7970 rig is at 80% fan speed, the 280x is at 100% and the 280x rig is also on the bottom shelf with access to more of the cool air from outside since it is a wire shelving unit and there is plenty of space below it for airflow.  Now if VRM temps are in the 100's when it's 0 degrees outside, what can you imagine it will be in the summer!!!

Also, the throttling isn't so bad on this rig (ATM).  The rig in the living room has hashrates throttling to the 500s because it is warmer.

Here is a system with last years 7970s.  All Sapphire OC


Here is a system with 280x's.  All Sapphire OC

bump for move

Does somebody have a step by step guide for setting up mining in Linux?  I prefer Xubuntu, or something lightweight and fast, Ubuntu would be fine too though.  I've tried many of the guides on the internet and they all seem to come up with an error at one point or another.

This is for GPUs

I'm just looking for something straight forward.

Mah Man  

Just hang in there guys they will get it worked out.  Maybe some of you coin veterans could offer help to the devs?

This coin can make it.  Nearly 20,000 views in a few days is enough popularity to say that it can.  

Are any of you getting this?  I have been getting this on all my 2nd day orders all of a sudden.  It goes to UPS then they drop it to the post office taking 3+ days.

What kind of crap is this?

I normally use next day air for big expensive items but given that they charge the extra fee on a per item basis regardless of how little the weight, it makes no sense to use it on large orders of many things. 

No doubt man, yeah I can confirm from the 1 Toxic card I have it never throttles ever.  I haven't checked the temps yet, but I will and report back.

I found this thread below.  Looks like I've got some work to do.    I was going to put all new high performance/quality fans and mx5 and whatnot anyway since my old 7970 fans are just about all dead.  lmao

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?286705-How-To-Curb-excessive-VRM-temps-under-full-GPU-load-on-Sapphire-Vapor-X-7950s

I'm so glad to finally have this all figured out.

that's a good plan.

I just wonder what they did different where last years model of nearly the same doesn't have this problem

alright guys.

well first off I figured out how to stop this problem by modifying the BIOS.  But in learning so I figured out what is actually causing it.  It is that the VRM temps are very high.  Which is why now I am not going to quick fix the issue until the underlying issue is solved.

All the VRMs on all my 280x's are in the high 90s and early 100s.  All the VRMs on all my 7970s are anywhere from the 60s to max 80s.  All the video cards are in the same general area with the same spacing between each other and all next to a wide open window exchanging air outside that has been in the freezing temps.

So with freezing outside air, why on earth are the VRM temps 100+?

I've got an 850w gold powering 3 280x
I've also got another 850w of the same psu powering another 3 280x and a mobo/cpu/ram on a different machine

The PSU's are not pushing out hot air (just regular warm air) nor are the fans spinning fast which leads me to believe they are doing just fine.

I do undervolt everything though.