XFX 7950 Mining Very Hot (85° @430khash, 95°+ @ 530khash)?

[ivanmalvin]

I am wondering why I am getting such bad temperatures with my XFX 7950.

I am litecoin mining with guiminer. When I initially got this 7950, I went with all stock settings (no overclocking etc and just using the guiminer recommended settings for a 7950 high usage) and I was able to get about 530-550khash however temps hit nearly 100 after a bit.

Since then I have underclocked and have been mining at around 83°C and getting about 430 khash on the card, which is much worse than I see other people mention. My current settings for this are around 750 mhz gpu core, 300 mhz memory speed, and I voltage dropped to 1.0 (this is underclocked considerably to lower temps). Fan speed is 90-100%. I've tried many many settings but this is the best I'm able to get and stay below 85°C.

My set up is a basic midtower smallish Antec case that is certainly not optimized for cooling, but its not horrible. It has an 80mm intake fan in the front and a 120mm exhaust fan in the back. There's no hard drives or cables in the way of that air flow from the intake to the video cards. I also have a second 7850 video card installed that I mine at the same time with (I get about 320 khash max and it runs much cooler around 55-60°C).

From what I've read, I should be able to get at least 500khash and stay at around 70°C pretty easily on a 7950, even with mediocre cooling and a second card running? 

[madkind]

At first make sure that the 7850 is in the first slot. 7850s tend to run cooler anyway, and the upper card always have to bear more heat.

[gti337]

I am wondering why I am getting such bad temperatures with my XFX 7950.

I am litecoin mining with guiminer. When I initially got this 7950, I went with all stock settings (no overclocking etc and just using the guiminer recommended settings for a 7950 high usage) and I was able to get about 530-550khash however temps hit nearly 100 after a bit.

Since then I have underclocked and have been mining at around 83°C and getting about 430 khash on the card, which is much worse than I see other people mention. My current settings for this are around 750 mhz gpu core, 300 mhz memory speed, and I voltage dropped to 1.0 (this is underclocked considerably to lower temps). Fan speed is 90-100%. I've tried many many settings but this is the best I'm able to get and stay below 85°C.

My set up is a basic midtower smallish Antec case that is certainly not optimized for cooling, but its not horrible. It has an 80mm intake fan in the front and a 120mm exhaust fan in the back. There's no hard drives or cables in the way of that air flow from the intake to the video cards. I also have a second 7850 video card installed that I mine at the same time with (I get about 320 khash max and it runs much cooler around 55-60°C).

From what I've read, I should be able to get at least 500khash and stay at around 70°C pretty easily on a 7950, even with mediocre cooling and a second card running? 

Is this the XFX 7950 core edition (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150590)?  I've got two of these cards and with the intensity turned down to 17 hashing around 540 Khash they hover around 80c all day long.  Turn the intensity up to 20 and they'll easily hit 90c.  Compared to two Sapphire 7950 cards that happily run all day long at 640kHash and 72C.  Bottom line, the XFX 7950 core edition sucks for mining(At least my two do).

[ivanmalvin]

Yes, it is the XFX 7950 core edition. That could explain it...I may have to consider getting a different card in that case. I liked the idea of the lifetime warranty on the XFX, but if I'm getting 20-30% higher temps (which in my mediocre cooling situation means 20-30% lower hashrate), then this is a pretty bad deal.

The hot XFX 7950 is indeed in the first slot. I guess swapping the two cards would be one thing I could try in the meantime.

What 7950 should I be looking at getting instead? The Sapphire? I see there are several different models of the Sapphire 7950, is there a specific one that's better than the others for litecoin mining?

Thanks for the replies guys

[monkmonster]

Yes, it is the XFX 7950 core edition. That could explain it...I may have to consider getting a different card in that case. I liked the idea of the lifetime warranty on the XFX, but if I'm getting 20-30% higher temps (which in my mediocre cooling situation means 20-30% lower hashrate), then this is a pretty bad deal.

The hot XFX 7950 is indeed in the first slot. I guess swapping the two cards would be one thing I could try in the meantime.

What 7950 should I be looking at getting instead? The Sapphire? I see there are several different models of the Sapphire 7950, is there a specific one that's better than the others for litecoin mining?

Thanks for the replies guys

stress testing it with Furmak

[zackclark70]

i have found all xfx cards run hot due to being v locked

[gti337]

i have found all xfx cards run hot due to being v locked

My two are definitely voltage locked.  Weird thing is, they were both ordered at the same time and have serial numbers very close together.  One is locked at 1.250 and the other is locked at 1.179.

[wmuplayer]

The first card I bought when starting my mining rig was an XFX 7970.  It ran hot, and had artifacting.  I returned it for a new one and sold it on eBay.  I now run Sapphire and MSI 7950s and haven't looked back since.  They run super cool and are amazing overclockers.

[zackclark70]

The first card I bought when starting my mining rig was an XFX 7970.  It ran hot, and had artifacting.  I returned it for a new one and sold it on eBay.  I now run Sapphire and MSI 7950s and haven't looked back since.  They run super cool and are amazing overclockers.

lol my first card was a xfx 7950 run hot only got 600kh sent it back now i have 80 saphire vaporx 7950 oc edition dual bios
geting 630-650kh 1050mhz core 1250 mhz ram 1.050v core siting at 60c 55% fan

[unlish_uk]

never quite a fan of XFX cooling system, it feels like inefficient to me

maybe its just me 

[110110101]

I too had heat problems with the XFX 7970 while mining cgminer --scrypt, getting like <500kH/s and 75-85^o with auto-fan and temp target=85. Basically the fans where running 50%-100%.

Then I read on another forum that the card performs better for mining SHA-256 but I have not verified this.

If possibly try looking into getting other cards, or use the XFX as a furnace and keep your house warm 

[xh4]

Flash to another BIOS and undervolt it to reduce temps.

[hotsun]

Flash to another BIOS and undervolt it to reduce temps.

Are you just saying this, or have you flashed this card with a specific BIOS? I haven't heard of anyone successfully doing this, though many have tried.  I have eight of these cards, but can only run six right now since they draw a lot of current.  Any insight is appreciated.

[badbrains]

Flash to another BIOS and undervolt it to reduce temps.

Are you just saying this, or have you flashed this card with a specific BIOS? I haven't heard of anyone successfully doing this, though many have tried.  I have eight of these cards, but can only run six right now since they draw a lot of current.  Any insight is appreciated.

I have successfully changed voltage by modifying the bios. I have a bunch of XFX 7950 Core Edition DD that are voltage locked and ran very hot. After modifying the bios I can run a stable 630kh/s at about 77c with pretty mild overclock and a fan blowing on the rigs. Without external fan and a milder oc each card is stable at around 615kh/s. Before the reflash I was constantly above 85 degrees pushing 90.

Software you'll need:
VBE7
atiflash
GPU-Z
HPUSBDisk

a USB key to boot from.

I'm not going to make a how to, Google will take care of that.

edit: voltage set at 1.069v Clocks at 1050/1250 (Had stability issues with a few cards at 1.069v, changed to 1.09v)

[uberua]

Flash to another BIOS and undervolt it to reduce temps.

Are you just saying this, or have you flashed this card with a specific BIOS? I haven't heard of anyone successfully doing this, though many have tried.  I have eight of these cards, but can only run six right now since they draw a lot of current.  Any insight is appreciated.

I have successfully changed voltage by modifying the bios. I have a bunch of XFX 7950 Core Edition DD that are voltage locked and ran very hot. After modifying the bios I can run a stable 630kh/s at about 77c with pretty mild overclock and a fan blowing on the rigs. Without external fan and a milder oc each card is stable at around 615kh/s. Before the reflash I was constantly above 85 degrees pushing 90.

Software you'll need:
VBE7
atiflash
GPU-Z
HPUSBDisk

a USB key to boot from.

I'm not going to make a how to, Google will take care of that.

edit: voltage set at 1.069v Clocks at 1050/1250 (Had stability issues with a few cards at 1.069v, changed to 1.09v)

When you changed bios, did you change vddc? Did you do anything with mvddc?

[badbrains]

I only changed vddc. I set all vddc values to 1.09v. I found the cards a bit unstable any lower than that. Even after modding the bios I am still unable to adjust voltage through afterburner, trixx etc so you'll have to reflash each time time until you find a sweet spot for your card.

[uberua]

I only changed vddc. I set all vddc values to 1.09v. I found the cards a bit unstable any lower than that. Even after modding the bios I am still unable to adjust voltage through afterburner, trixx etc so you'll have to reflash each time time until you find a sweet spot for your card.

Thanks, that helped.

[badbrains]

After some more fine tuning I have found that the cards are very stable at 1.081v with clock speeds of 1075/1250. I removed the powertune argument from cgminer, negative values rob tons of hashes and plus values just add heat and very few extra hashes. They run at 640kh/s and stay below 80c with risers, good spacing and airflow. (in crates) I have one mobo (ASUS Z87-A) that is different from my others (MSI Z77A-G45) and for whatever reason I can run those cards as low as 1.069v and the temps are a few degrees lower. I'm not sure why as all my other components are identical.

[RiTz21]

I have successfully changed voltage by modifying the bios. I have a bunch of XFX 7950 Core Edition DD that are voltage locked and ran very hot. After modifying the bios I can run a stable 630kh/s at about 77c with pretty mild overclock and a fan blowing on the rigs. Without external fan and a milder oc each card is stable at around 615kh/s. Before the reflash I was constantly above 85 degrees pushing 90.

Software you'll need:
VBE7
atiflash
GPU-Z
HPUSBDisk

a USB key to boot from.

I'm not going to make a how to, Google will take care of that.

edit: voltage set at 1.069v Clocks at 1050/1250 (Had stability issues with a few cards at 1.069v, changed to 1.09v)

What BIOS did you select to flash to your 7950 card?
I found the GPU BIOS Collections site, but I've no idea which bios to replace mine with!
My current version is: 015.024.000.001.000000 (113-795ATDLTNLV13_120419SZA) and I have a XFX FX-795A-TDKC HD7950 3GD5 R
(for which I have not found any ways to changes the vdcc voltage down to reduce Heat output)

Help!!

RiTz21

[RiTz21]

What BIOS did you select to flash to your 7950 card?
I found the GPU BIOS Collections site, but I've no idea which bios to replace mine with!
My current version is: 015.024.000.001.000000 (113-795ATDLTNLV13_120419SZA) and I have a XFX FX-795A-TDKC HD7950 3GD5 R
(for which I have not found any ways to changes the vdcc voltage down to reduce Heat output)

Help!!

RiTz21

After much studying, I figured it out myself...

You use VBE7 to modify a copy of your OWN bios!
Lowering the voltage to 1.09v, I reduced the heat by 10c!
Woot woot!

RiTz21