Folks, I just thought I'd give you all a bit of a warning when it comes to 7900 GTs that are factory OC'd, as most on the market are. This is a useful read if you are considering buying one, so take some time and just browse through this post.
It seems that many of the early build (not all) 7900 GTs just cannot cope with the OC that have been added to them. They will run stable for a few days, and then the core and memory chips will just 'spazz out', causing intermittent effects such as freezing, artifacting, and all other manner of nasties.
Obviously manufacturers have taken note of this and most 'new' 7900 GTs are fitted with better voltage control and cooling solutions, but there are a large number of 'old ones' still out there, so their is a chance that you might order one of these 'duds'.
Take this into account when considering buying a BFG, XFX, eVGA or Asus 7900 GT, as you may well have to RMA them after a few days. On the other hand, don't let this put you off buying the 7900 as it is an undeniably amazing card for its price.
SOLUTION - For those whom do happen to have an old 7900 GT that has these problems you have two options. You can either RMA your defective card and pray that your manufacturer ships a working one, and fast, or underclock the card back to standard speeds. The latter is quite a sad thing to have to do when having payed extra cash for a faster card, but sometimes its better than waiting weeks for a replacement to be sent. Use a program such as Rivatuner or Coolbits (both available from www.guru3d.com) to set the clock speeds to JUST under the standard clocks. A good clock speed that should run stable and still be of a good speed is 448 on the core (450 is standard) and 653 on the memory (660 is standard). Hope that helps any of you suffering with a 'naughty' 7900.
Here are a few links to website and forums that have info about the problem:
http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTA2OSwxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==
http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=14044
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=32083
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=32113
- Cheers, Ali the Diabetic.
It seems that many of the early build (not all) 7900 GTs just cannot cope with the OC that have been added to them. They will run stable for a few days, and then the core and memory chips will just 'spazz out', causing intermittent effects such as freezing, artifacting, and all other manner of nasties.
Obviously manufacturers have taken note of this and most 'new' 7900 GTs are fitted with better voltage control and cooling solutions, but there are a large number of 'old ones' still out there, so their is a chance that you might order one of these 'duds'.
Take this into account when considering buying a BFG, XFX, eVGA or Asus 7900 GT, as you may well have to RMA them after a few days. On the other hand, don't let this put you off buying the 7900 as it is an undeniably amazing card for its price.
SOLUTION - For those whom do happen to have an old 7900 GT that has these problems you have two options. You can either RMA your defective card and pray that your manufacturer ships a working one, and fast, or underclock the card back to standard speeds. The latter is quite a sad thing to have to do when having payed extra cash for a faster card, but sometimes its better than waiting weeks for a replacement to be sent. Use a program such as Rivatuner or Coolbits (both available from www.guru3d.com) to set the clock speeds to JUST under the standard clocks. A good clock speed that should run stable and still be of a good speed is 448 on the core (450 is standard) and 653 on the memory (660 is standard). Hope that helps any of you suffering with a 'naughty' 7900.
Here are a few links to website and forums that have info about the problem:
http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTA2OSwxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==
http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=14044
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=32083
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=32113
- Cheers, Ali the Diabetic.
