XFX doesn't do a good job testing their OCs.

B

Bop

2[H]4U
Joined
Oct 1, 2003
Messages
3,307
I got my 2 7800GTXs about 2 months ago now, and they have been giving me problems since day one. On the stock coolers games like Battlefield 2 would freeze @ the stock speed of 490/1.3 after around 1 or 2 hours.

I then upgraded to Koolance NV2 waterblocks. I would eventually crash in either a 3dM2k3 loop or long game playing sessions. Now I am using Swiftech MCW55s and I am achieving around 46-48C load(cards on the same loop as the CPU). On stock speeds my cards still lock up. After reading that one OC thread I pretty much have to take the speed down below 486mhz, so I'm running at 460mhz which is thankfully 100% stable for 14 hours. Also once in awhile I will see a triangle error(things popping out of the polygons) with the RAM at 1.3ghz. Above 1.34ghz is a polygon popping fest.

I guess an ambient temp of 80F could help cause the instability but this occurs even with watercooling, so really there is no excuse. I have 2 80mm fans on the side of my case blowing on the ramsinks. I'm going to try one last 3dM2k3 nature loop tonight, and if I wake up and find my system has froze at 487mhz core I'm going to be quite dissapointed.


The performance difference is quite minimal between the two clocks so I am quite satisfied at gaming at that speed so I'm not returining it. But It is still dissapointing. The bottom line is XFX needs to test their cards more thouroughly.
 
I think the real issue with the XFX is that they effectively turned off the 3D throttle. None of the other OC'd cards do this. They can all drop back to 450 when things go badly.

To compare:

XFX GTX EE
3D Clock - 490, 40 Mhz Delta, 1.4V
3D Throttle - 490, 35 MHz Delta, 1.4V
2D Clock - 275, no delta,1.2V

eVGA GTX KO
3D Clock - 490, 40 Mhz Delta, 1.4V
3D Throttle - 415, 35 MHz Delta, 1.4V
2D Clock - 275, no delta,1.2V

ASUS TOP
3D Clock - 486, 50 Mhz Delta, 1.4V
3D Throttle - 415, 35 MHz Delta, 1.4V
2D Clock - 275, no delta,1.2V
 
HeavyH20 said:
I think the real issue with the XFX is that they effectively turned off the 3D throttle. None of the other OC'd cards do this. They can all drop back to 450 when things go badly.

To compare:

XFX GTX EE
3D Clock - 490, 40 Mhz Delta, 1.4V
3D Throttle - 490, 35 MHz Delta, 1.4V
2D Clock - 275, no delta,1.2V

eVGA GTX KO
3D Clock - 490, 40 Mhz Delta, 1.4V
3D Throttle - 415, 35 MHz Delta, 1.4V
2D Clock - 275, no delta,1.2V

ASUS TOP
3D Clock - 486, 50 Mhz Delta, 1.4V
3D Throttle - 415, 35 MHz Delta, 1.4V
2D Clock - 275, no delta,1.2V
Click to expand...
yeah dude...!?!?! i mean fucking delta...ok?
 
Wouldn't the card only throttle if it was reaching max temps? On air my cards were at 85C max load(ran rthdribl 16xAA for 30 mins) and 48C on water.

The cards should be stable w/o artifacts at their advertised speeds 24/7 <90C.
 
What are you using to adjust the clocks. Power strip does not seem to work on them. Does riva tuner?? (could find nothing on their site that would tell me). Don't want to play with unknown utilities as power strip would not uninstall off my system once I tried it so had to remove through registry. Appreciate any help. My two cards run in the 70's under load. I have two 120mm side fans blowing on them. Have seen no artifacts or problems so far.
 
Bop said:
Wouldn't the card only throttle if it was reaching max temps? On air my cards were at 85C max load(ran rthdribl 16xAA for 30 mins) and 48C on water.

The cards should be stable w/o artifacts at their advertised speeds 24/7 <90C.
Click to expand...


True, if you are keeping them that cool, you should be good for the core. I wonder if the memory causes issue or perhaps the voltage reg heatsink. I put a small fan on the VReg heatsink area of my card along with some BGA heatsinks on the back for the memory. Those items got hot enough that you would not want to touch them. Since doing so, it gave me another 50 MHz on the memory. New max is now around 1450.



MaxGhz said:
What are you using to adjust the clocks. Power strip does not seem to work on them. Does riva tuner?? (could find nothing on their site that would tell me). Don't want to play with unknown utilities as power strip would not uninstall off my system once I tried it so had to remove through registry. Appreciate any help. My two cards run in the 70's under load. I have two 120mm side fans blowing on them. Have seen no artifacts or problems so far.
Click to expand...

Rivatuner 15.7 works great. You can also use Coolbits. Either one will do the job.
 
I'm using OCZ BGA ramsinks on my cards(front and back) and they didn't help with my RAM at all. I'm also running 2 80mm slim fans side by side blowing on the cards and no luck :(
 
Have you tried testing your cards individually? I'm not sure it would be accurate to say that XFX does not test their cards. Maybe they do - maybe they don't.

You certainly don't - based on what you're done so far. :D

By the way - what kind of job do you do where you can afford two XFX cards but also can play BF2 for 14 hours straight? Also - are they hiring? :D:D:D
 
Bop said:
I'm using OCZ BGA ramsinks on my cards(front and back) and they didn't help with my RAM at all. I'm also running 2 80mm slim fans side by side blowing on the cards and no luck :(
Click to expand...

Well, looks like you have all the bases covered. Then, it would indeed look like you have a bad card that may be holding back the pair.
 
MUCHO said:
You certainly don't - based on what you're done so far. :D
Click to expand...

Well, looks like he is only trying for stock speeds. You would assume that you do not have to do the QA work for XFX, would you? ;)
 
HeavyH20 said:
Well, looks like he is only trying for stock speeds. You would assume that you do not have to do the QA work for XFX, would you? ;)
Click to expand...

Right - my point is - maybe both his cards suck - maybe just one. To say XFX does poor QA based on his experience thus far is a pretty big leap of logic. On the other hand, he hasn't even bothered to test his cards 1 by 1. :confused: He should find out which card is the problem and RMA it.

I had a 9800 Pro come direct from ATI. It was DOA. Did I go on the net and tell everyone that ATI had poor QA? No - I just RMA'd the card and got a replacement. Bottom line is - it happens. Do you have any idea how many lemons Toyota makes? Thousands! Does that mean their QA sucks?
 
Yeah, it's a hard call to say whether or not their QA is flawed. I'd be curious to know what their test matrix/testing criteria are. If it's anything like I'd imagine, it involves a hardware burn in cycle that is limited to an hour or two to keep things efficient. Furthermore, the systems they use might have better PSU's, lower ambient temps, and they likely don't test for SLI stability. Perhaps individually the cards are stable.
I personally have an XFX 7800GTX EE and have not had any issues with it. All the XFX cards I have purchased have served me well, and like MUCHO said, for the hundreds of thousands of good parts they turn out, it's that few percent that makes all the noise and feels so screwed. Like everthing in life, it's a gamble.

I'd contact XFX if I were you, they have been quite facilitous in the past with issues like this. They may very well replace the boards for you. :)
 
I'm still in the process of testing the boards. If I can't get them to work in SLi at all then I will test them individually.

I'm running the cards at 486mhz\1.3ghz and its been running 11.5 hours. So the 4mhz increase will do zip for performance anyways :) I'm also going to mod my radiator to try to eek out some better temps.

The RAM is what I'm not to sure about. At 1.35ghz like I said above, the polygons become all screwy. At 1.3 I'm not sure if my eyes are playing tricks on me but once in a while playing a game like WoW I think I see the polygon popping for a split second. I guess I'll back down to 1.28 or so just to be safe or increase the RPMs on those 80mm fans.
 
great.. im about to buy a XFX 7800 GTX EE and now im a bit worried.
 
Before I got my XFX cards I checked around for tech reviews and builder sites. At least one builder (Overdrive PC) has used the cards in very highend machines with fantastic results.

I have had no problems with mine at the factory 490 and 1.3 clocks. I do have two 120mm fans on the side of the case direct at the vid cards similar to Overdrive PC's set-up.
 
Why anyone buying a factory oced card buys anthing than a KO is beyond me.

There i said it. Now to wash and fold my EVGA bed spread
 
I've had zero problems out of my XFX 7800 GTX 490 1.3. Maybe you should call them? Have you even tried this yet? I would imagine...since they made the card....you should call them first? Downing XFX here will do nothing to solve your problem if you suspect there is a problem with the cards. ;)
 
i have a xfx 7800gt and im having the same problems. If i overclock it at all it ends up freezing after gaming for a bit. The highest i can go and keep it pretty much stable would be 456/1.06 and it comes stock 450/1.05. Im pretty dissapointed with not being able to oc it more even when i installed zalman 700-cu on there. Let me know if you end up contacting xfx, i might consider letting them know and see what they say.
 
Triz08 said:
i have a xfx 7800gt and im having the same problems. If i overclock it at all it ends up freezing after gaming for a bit. The highest i can go and keep it pretty much stable would be 456/1.06 and it comes stock 450/1.05. Im pretty dissapointed with not being able to oc it more even when i installed zalman 700-cu on there. Let me know if you end up contacting xfx, i might consider letting them know and see what they say.
Click to expand...

You're not having the same problems. His cards can't run at stock speeds without freezing up. Your card can't overclock for crap. Big difference! Overclocking is always a gamble. Cooling is not a problem with the GT - stock cooling is plenty. Its not a hot card.
 
OT sorry for the small thread steal here:

if you remove the heatsink and replace the thermal goo with AS5 and put the stock heatsink back on does that void the XFX warranty? and if it does not has anyone done so and where the results good?

thanks(sorry again for the steal)

Buck
 
I ran my computer again @ 490/1.3ghz for around 14 hours and now its fine... seems kinda strange. I think it was after I updated the drivers, who knows.

I'll be running another test tonight. (In other news I reached 2.8ghz on my CPUs! :) )
 
Bop said:
I ran my computer again @ 490/1.3ghz for around 14 hours and now its fine... seems kinda strange. I think it was after I updated the drivers, who knows.

I'll be running another test tonight. (In other news I reached 2.8ghz on my CPUs! :) )
Click to expand...
well you seem to have started another avalanche of XFX hate. good job ;)

both of my xfx cards have been solid.
 
Well the problem is last time I ran it for 12 hours no problem I ran it again the next day and it crapped out. I'm going to give it one more try tonight just for proof.
 
All I can say is I have really pushed these cards in Far Cry, Doom III etc etc. and the graphics are unbelievable as is the performance with no hitches and they remain in the 80 C's at the highest. I am sure there is no looser in the 7800 series whether it is XFX or the other brands. Some a little faster, but at these speeds/graphics who really cares.
 
my XFX is fine at stock speeds, and cooling. 42c idle, 63 load after running a few loops of the first three tests in 3dmark05.
 
I did some more testing and I think I'm on to something. Whenever I have coolbits installed and overclocking enabled it seems to just lock up. I just ran it at stock with coolbits disable for one 8 hour session and then a 5 hour session with no problems. However the day before that I had 2 or 3 lockups with coolbits on.

Btw infiniti thats not how you get load temps, you need to run a windowed program like RTHDRIBL as the second the program is closing it almost instantly drops 20C, so your really around 73-85C
 
Just run MBM and use any benchmark you like, then check the High/Low log and you can easily see what your vid card hit for temps.
 
I'll try the MBM method when I get a chance later this weekend.
 
After some testing it seems the lockups only occur with overclocking the card enabled, no matter the speed. Sounds funny but its a definite pattern
 
Ok the problem is fixed in the new drivers, enabling coolbits doesn't cause lockups and my card is 15+ hours stable at 513mhz :) w00t
 
Good news! You may be able to go to 525 and 1400 plus on the memory. These cards just keep clocking, if you have enough case cooling to prevent heat build up in the case.
 
MaxGhz said:
Good news! You may be able to go to 525 and 1400 plus on the memory. These cards just keep clocking, if you have enough case cooling to prevent heat build up in the case.
Click to expand...
535/1.4 is what i got it too with 58C load...and still going, just got it yesterday.
 
Yeah, I am in awe of what these things will do. Still can't believe the 3DMark 05 scores!!
 
Anything past 513mhz wont see a benefit until 527mhz with the way the 7800GTX clocks work, and my card fails to pass 1mhz past 526mhz. I am at the end of the road on the core here.

Memory wise I see serious artifiacting past 1.34ghz even with two 80mm fans side by side blowing on the cards so no more OC'ing that :(

I think I can settle with 14,115 3dmarks in 2k5 and eleventy billion FPS in my games :)
 
god i wish i could get to those clocks. Cant get past 473/1.25 with my xfx 7800gt. Cant even run games stable at 462/1.15. sigh
 
First off, your running a GT while I'm on a GTX and second, I'm on watercooling :p That will explain much :p
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top