Sapphire 7950 dual x boost won't overclock past default clock 850mhz

[WhiteSnake91]

Due to wanting to help BF4 low fps problems I decided to overclock my 7950 a little bit to see if it would help...I set the core speed to 1100 and vram to 1300 on my sapphire dual x hd7950, but in gpu z and MSI afterburner, the speed never goes above the old default 850mhz on the core, or old 1250mhz for the memory. I've seen others have this same problem googling but nobody ever had an answer besides "raise the power limit to +20" but....mine is already set at +20. I set a custom fan profile once the card would reach 70c to set the fans to 100%. Card stayed at about 63-65c using MSI Kombuster.

My problem atm seems to be the GPU refusing to go above 850mhz on the core clock and 1250 on the vram.

here's a link to a topic with others.....maybe it's an inherent flaw to the sapphire 7950? Mine is only two 6 pin connectors....I read only that others came with 8 pin connectors. https://www.sapphireforum.com/showthread.php?31006-Sapphire-7950-vapor-x-boost-problem-and-more/page2&s=8c4aebd5d56087631624c0d3fde0e9c5

On idle my core rests at 501mhz but the vram stays full speed at 1250 constantly. In that topic they said the core should go to 300mhz on idle and the vram to 150mhz.

Seems to have been going on for years now with the sapphire...I wasn't aware of this when I bought it... it also idles at 43-45c which seems high. Gaming, it went to 58c in a multiplayer BF4 match just now.

I've now tried three different programs, CCC, Trixx, and Afterburner. Is it an inherent flaw to the sapphire 7950?

People have talked about updating the bios or modding the bios....seems way over my head honestly, I always heard about that bricking your card.

 

[sincreator]

If your 7950 has a dual bios switch, you could try out a modded bios. It worked awesome for my MSI 7950. http://www.skybed.be/temp/xtremesystems/7950/ These modded bios for the dual x allows for a few different clock speeds. The modded bios will have everything allready done for you with the voltages, disabling ULPS, and the cards clock speeds. I'd start with the lowest clocked bios, and then try the others if everything is good. If you run into a problem you can switch the bios switch and revert back to the default bios.

Good reading: http://www.overclock.net/t/1395490/ati-hd-7950-7970-bios-mod-thread Post #95 refers to your card specifically, and that is where I got the link for the modded bioses.

I use a moderate clocked bios on my card. 1100/1500. I even tested the 1300/1600 bios for my card. It worked fine except I really need water cooling to operate it 24/7 at those clock speeds.

Make sure your card has the dual bios switch before attempting a bios change. One is read only and will be your default bios, so it is pretty much a fail safe in case something goes wrong. The other position has the original bios as well, but will allow you to update the bios. If something goes wrong with the modded bios, you shut down the computer and switch the position back to the read only bios. Boot back up and everything should be back to defaults. Then if you want you can reflash your original bios back on, or try another bios from the list I provided. The guy that mods the bioses really knows what he is doing as well.

 

[WhiteSnake91]

Thx for the help I'll read up some more on it. I just tried Radeon Pro and that didn't make it go above 850mhz either sadly. Edit: Mine actually does have the switch....funny it's never mentioned on the product page on newegg. I thought the dual bios thing was only for the fancy Vapor-X higher tier version. All may not be lost after all...lol.

Any reason why the core speed would go down but the memory stays at 1250 always? If I mod the bios will it still downclock itself when just browsing the internet? I don't want it at 1100mhz core speed constantly, I don't want to run my electric bill up

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202006

 

[sincreator]

Yes everything will work normal, and you should also see the correct speeds while idle afterwards. Kahboom takes great care in creating the modded bioses, and he covers all the bases. I could never get above 1025/1400 with my TF III 7950. Then once I installed the modded bios everything was where I wanted it to be at 1100/1500mhz. Even when I would manually set 1.2v I couldn't hit that speed, so whatever he moddified fixed my limitations.