Best 7900 GT

JSKILLJSKILL
edited July 2006 in Hardware
I am looking to put a 7900 GT into my sff pc. Some ppl told me that it was not a good idea to get an overclocked video card becuase they tend to stop working or have issues and i was wondering if that was correct.. I like these three....does anyone have any opinions on which one....also if you have any other suggestions on different 7900s (overclocked or not) feel free to share your opinon.

XFX PV-T71G-UCE7 Geforce 7900GT 256MB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814150149

eVGA 256-P2-N567 Geforce 7900GT KO Superclocked
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130016

eVGA 256-P2-N564 Geforce 7900GT KO 256MB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130015

Comments

  • Sledgehammer70Sledgehammer70 California Icrontian
    edited June 2006
    In all honesty the EVGA's are the problem children in the 7900GT series. get the following card...

    XFX PV-T71G-UCE7 Geforce 7900GT 256MB
  • madmatmadmat
    edited June 2006
    I'd go with one that's not OC'ed at all and avoid any problems. One like this.
  • rapturerapture
    edited June 2006
    Can you stretch to a x1900xt? I've just replaced a 6800GT with one, never been so impressed with a graphics card before. It's a saphire thats reference design, you can even see the original ATI sticker on the heatsink but still, best graphics card purchase ever.
  • jradminjradmin North Kackalaki
    edited June 2006
    Go with a NON OC'd card.

    Take it from someone who had dealt with the problem already. It's not a good idea to get any OC'd 7900GT from any company.
  • MissilemanMissileman Orlando, Florida Icrontian
    edited June 2006
    Sledgehammer70 wrote:
    In all honesty the EVGA's are the problem children in the 7900GT series. get the following card...

    XFX PV-T71G-UCE7 Geforce 7900GT 256MB

    I have this card being delivered tomorrow. I'll let you know how it runs.

    Gonna put it in an Abit AN8-32X as a single for now.
  • CycloniteCyclonite Tampa, Florida Icrontian
    edited June 2006
    Ditto on that. It'll be here tomorrow as well.
  • MissilemanMissileman Orlando, Florida Icrontian
    edited June 2006
    Well I've had the Xtreme in for a couple of hours now. It is clocked at 520 core and 1500 memory. It kicks butt

    5476 on 3DMark06. My old X800Pro got 1200 or so.

    Card seems to be running fine. Went in to WOW and turned everything to max and it stays pegged at 64FPS and never moves. I think the in-game counter is bugged cause I had Vsync off and it still never moved off 64.

    Age of Empires3 looked awsome with everything maxed out. Don't have any other games loaded since this is a clean install

    Gotta watch the temperature though. The GPU shows 57 C idle and hits 76 C when it loops 3DMark06. Gonna check and make sure heatsink is tight. May have to get a Zalman for it.
  • Sledgehammer70Sledgehammer70 California Icrontian
    edited June 2006
    76C???? wow My card under full load never peaks over 52C
  • jradminjradmin North Kackalaki
    edited June 2006
    Eh. Thats still not bad considering the card's max is 110/120C and he's running 06. If it were up in the mid 80's on stock...then I would start worrying.

    If you get ANY artifacting on Deep Freeze in 3Dmark06 then it's game over for that card.
  • MissilemanMissileman Orlando, Florida Icrontian
    edited June 2006
    Removed and reseated the heatsink and now I idle at 46 C which I like a lot better.

    I didn't see any issues with Deep Freeze gonna go look again.

    Aslo gotta see what loaded temps are'

    This card may be running hot cause it's got a BIG overclock for an out of the box card.

    I gather from the other forums they do run a bit higher
  • MissilemanMissileman Orlando, Florida Icrontian
    edited June 2006
    Well 3 more runs and no artifacts on Deep Freeze.

    It did hit 76 on 3 samples, but mostly stayed dead on the 75 C line during the test runs.

    I would like it to run a bit cooler myself even thogh it is within the spec. They are showing it at 125 C before it thermal throttles. Dang that's HOT !!
  • jradminjradmin North Kackalaki
    edited June 2006
    75C is a good temp. Considering that it's not all that unusual to see 6800 and 7800's run in the low 80's.

    Most problems start occuring at or after day 2. I would suggest for the first week you run Deep Freeze 2 - 3 times a day. If it's going to die, you want it to die ASAP so you can get your replacement.
  • Sledgehammer70Sledgehammer70 California Icrontian
    edited June 2006
    Seeing temps in the 70's scares me... I don't care what the threshold is.... If you’re hitting numbers like that I would suggest looking into better ventilation inside your PC....
  • jradminjradmin North Kackalaki
    edited June 2006
    Sledge, are you using aftermarket coolers or what? Its normal that these cards run at full load in the high 60's to mid 70's.

    If those are running at 75c while running 3d06 then I'd say his temps are well within reason. Thats probably the hottest those cards will ever get (minus any user OCing and dust) under high use. Thats about 20C temp change, which is nominal.

    Heck I've personally seen a 6800GT run at 90C for 3 hours constantly. This was with the side panel off and a fan blowing on it, and its own fan going at full speed. The CPU was throttling before the GPU was heh. I put a Zalman cooler on it and it dropped to 59C idle 73C at full load with the side panel back on. 5 fan system, but those intels get hot!
  • Sledgehammer70Sledgehammer70 California Icrontian
    edited June 2006
    My GPU's have stock coolers on them and none of my 7800's or 7900's have ever peaked over 52C while under full load.

    Now I did own few 6800 Ultras back in he day when the cores ran at 78C stock and full load peaked in the high 80's but the 7 series is a much cooler running part. Out of all the systems I have built with 7 series card none have ever peaked in the 70's to my knowledge... I am not saying that a 70C card will blow up as there core is rated at 115C but I like to keep things on the cool side of the line. Very hot GPU = hot air = Hot computer = not so great performance... the cooler the better. :)
  • DCKCDCKC
    edited July 2006
    Guess the GT's must be mildly better than the GTX's although I have heard of memory temp issues.

    Personally wouldnt touch a 79 series again.

    BFG 7900GTX OC lasted a few days, multiple runs on 3D Mark 06, did the trick with Desktop Flashing until reboot.

    Leadtek 7900GTX Stock Clock replacement, faults not so bad, but serious texture problems in Deepfreeze after approx 3 Days.

    Turn on HDR tests, that'll kill em. Run Luna Nvidia Demo, Spikes all over the place, very pretty !!!!
  • CycloniteCyclonite Tampa, Florida Icrontian
    edited July 2006
    I've got the XFX card listed in the first post. It's been running like a champ since I got it last week.
  • EnverexEnverex Worcester, UK Icrontian
    edited July 2006
    My 7800GT normally idles around 49'c and is at around 53'c after games but lately it's been at 60'c or so, probably the weather here.
  • MissilemanMissileman Orlando, Florida Icrontian
    edited July 2006
    Well I went off and beat mine up using the mentioned demos, benches, and things.

    I'm happy to say I get 0 artifacts. Atitool shows no errors after 15 minutes. When you let it rotate though it really pours the heat to the GPU. Hit 85 C and it usually stays about 60-62 or so in most games.

    I'm gonna add an after market cooler or add it to my water kooling loop as soon as I find a block that will fit it. I just don't feel comfortable with that much heat on a chip.

    It appears XFX has got some of the problems worked out for now.
  • jradminjradmin North Kackalaki
    edited July 2006
    They've changed the memory voltage controler chips in the last month, so It looks like they may have fixed the problem.
  • Sledgehammer70Sledgehammer70 California Icrontian
    edited July 2006
    JSKILL wrote:
    I am looking to put a 7900 GT into my sff pc. Some ppl told me that it was not a good idea to get an overclocked video card becuase they tend to stop working or have issues and i was wondering if that was correct.. I like these three....does anyone have any opinions on which one....also if you have any other suggestions on different 7900s (overclocked or not) feel free to share your opinon.

    XFX PV-T71G-UCE7 Geforce 7900GT 256MB
    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814150149

    eVGA 256-P2-N567 Geforce 7900GT KO Superclocked
    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130016

    eVGA 256-P2-N564 Geforce 7900GT KO 256MB
    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130015


    I am selling one of the good 7900GT's :)

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814150139
  • jradminjradmin North Kackalaki
    edited July 2006
    The new 7900GT's are being released this week from the vendors. Memory has been upgraded from Samsung to Infinion which can handle the 2.0v. There has also been a couple caps changed and some other major changes. There may be an article coming out on the changes, and EVGA has just released a 7900GT 512 on Newegg for $359 (560/1500).

    So ya, the whole time the problem was the onboard memory that couldn't handle the rated voltage Nvidia said it could. It took about a month for Nvidia to get Infinion on their approved hardware list, then about another month of testing and then a month of re-manufacturing.
  • MissilemanMissileman Orlando, Florida Icrontian
    edited July 2006
    Well I have 2 pieces of info.

    1. I have the Samsung memory chips. Guess i have a failure waiting to happen. Somehow i lost my warm fuzzy.

    2. I removed the heatsink and reseated it before and my temps stayed at 56 C. This time I removed it, cleaned it thoroughly with reagent grade alcohol, applied some AS3 i had in the drawer, and remounted the factory heatsink. Temps are now down to 45 C idling. I guess that says about all we need to know about the quality of their heatsink compound.

    Gonna watch the temps and see if they go down a few degrees over the 3 day "cure" period.

    :honoes:
  • Sledgehammer70Sledgehammer70 California Icrontian
    edited July 2006
    jradmin wrote:
    The new 7900GT's are being released this week from the vendors. Memory has been upgraded from Samsung to Infinion which can handle the 2.0v. There has also been a couple caps changed and some other major changes. There may be an article coming out on the changes, and EVGA has just released a 7900GT 512 on Newegg for $359 (560/1500).

    So ya, the whole time the problem was the onboard memory that couldn't handle the rated voltage Nvidia said it could. It took about a month for Nvidia to get Infinion on their approved hardware list, then about another month of testing and then a month of re-manufacturing.

    I heard it was the memory controllers issue and not the memory..
  • jradminjradmin North Kackalaki
    edited July 2006
    Nope, it was the memory not able to hold the 2.0 volts it was rated at. Hence the change in memory all together on the cards. I have 2 on the way and will let everyone know how they do.
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