MSI 7950 TFIII rev2 problems in 3 cards out of 4.

Drangueos · 21 Apr 2013 at 17:16

I bought 4 of this cards last week, 2 for me and 2 for my friend.

My friends cards:
1st one came dead out of the box (fans spin but it doesn't show video)
2nd one it is working but the bios switch feels loose.

My cards:
1st one looks to be working ok
2nd one I got some artifacts after 3 hours of gaming and to replicate this problem took me 8 hours on the next day (mixed games and use).

After 3 hours of gaming:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2SZGLKPJbI

After 8 hours of mixed games and use:
http://i.imgur.com/TFQTdR8.jpg

nitram100 · 21 Apr 2013 at 17:23

Damn, that sucks man. I bought mine back in August 2012 and got a perfect one, it's been amazing and is a shame that not many people experienced the same.

VIPER258 · 21 Apr 2013 at 18:03

Sorry you're having so many problems. There have been so many issues with these cards for the last months. They should not be sold imo.

Hope you get get it sorted.

humbug · 21 Apr 2013 at 18:08

MSI GPU's have been full of problems of late.

RMA it and get an Asus or Gigabyte

Krisali · 21 Apr 2013 at 18:19

Same issue here. I have a dead card after a couple hours use. I have also made a post and created an RMA note. These cards definitely have some QC issues!!!

Rusty0611 · 21 Apr 2013 at 19:10

I got one as a replacement for my Windforce... first one stuck at 100% fan speed. Second one if perfect though

.

Prior to this I bought two and they both had the heat related problem that the MSI 7950s had...

phr4n · 21 Apr 2013 at 20:11

Rusty0611 said:
Prior to this I bought two and they both had the heat related problem that the MSI 7950s had...

Sorry to crash in here, I just wanted to ask what are the heat related problems you speak of. Had my MSI7950 for 6 months, have to play with headphones on the fan spins up so loud during gameplay, this kind of heat problem?

spixelspixel · 21 Apr 2013 at 20:23

phr4n said:
Sorry to crash in here, I just wanted to ask what are the heat related problems you speak of. Had my MSI7950 for 6 months, have to play with headphones on the fan spins up so loud during gameplay, this kind of heat problem?

Check your temps in msi afterburner. If the fans spin up 100 percent at around 60 degrees then you got one of the bad batch with faulty diode.

pgi947 · 21 Apr 2013 at 20:35

Besides the diode issue, the issue Rusty is speaking of was a batch of TFIII 7950's that had poor TIM application and thus got very hot very quick, MSI confirmed the issue and said users can either get a replacement or re-apply the TIM without voiding the warranty.

phr4n · 21 Apr 2013 at 21:11

spixelspixel said:
Check your temps in msi afterburner. If the fans spin up 100 percent at around 60 degrees then you got one of the bad batch with faulty diode.

78c/75% after 3 mins playing Witcher 2, stock clock.

spixelspixel · 21 Apr 2013 at 21:16

phr4n said:
78c/75% after 3 mins playing Witcher 2, stock clock.

Just looks like a hot running card, best bet is to replace thermal paste and make sure the heatsink is dust free.

arc@css · 22 Apr 2013 at 09:17

One of the worst cases I've seen.

spoffle · 22 Apr 2013 at 09:28

pgi947 said:
Besides the diode issue, the issue Rusty is speaking of was a batch of TFIII 7950's that had poor TIM application and thus got very hot very quick, MSI confirmed the issue and said users can either get a replacement or re-apply the TIM without voiding the warranty.

So they said! I replaced the thermal paste on my ones, and whilst it helped a bit, the problem was just lessened rather than fixed.

So they went from awful, to less awful but still awful.

Rusty0611 · 22 Apr 2013 at 09:28

phr4n said:
Sorry to crash in here, I just wanted to ask what are the heat related problems you speak of. Had my MSI7950 for 6 months, have to play with headphones on the fan spins up so loud during gameplay, this kind of heat problem?

phr4n said:
78c/75% after 3 mins playing Witcher 2, stock clock.

Yes there was a problem where the cards ran hot due to a combination of the cooler not sitting right (IMO) and thermal paste application being poor. I just returned mine as I was in the DSR period.

I've now finally got a good one and it sits around 65c in a HAF X at 1100 MHz @ 1.15V.

Drangueos · 22 Apr 2013 at 12:13

Drangueos said:
After 3 hours of gaming:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2SZGLKPJbI

as far as I know, this kind of artifacts most of time are related with the gpu memory.

What is the chance of that could be software related and not hardware?

because like I said the 1st time it happened was after 3 hours of gaming, the 2nd time after 8 hours of normal pc use plus games, yesterday I could use the computer around 8 hours as well and 4 hours of gaming and no problem but from the other hand I have another card that is the same model, sequencial serial number and didn't get this problem.

If this card was yours, would you return?

los · 22 Apr 2013 at 12:29

I definetly would return it. Things like this never seem to get better and fix themselves unfortunately

Krisali · 22 Apr 2013 at 13:03

Drangueos said:
If this card was yours, would you return?

Yes definitely. In my experience artifacts only get worse

emotionaltrout · 22 Apr 2013 at 15:51

Just RMA mine this afternoon for a refund.

My first card I got had the diode issue even though it was a revised card. 2nd card had the diode issue fixed and then after a few days decided that it was going to shut down my system while gaming.

Looks like the power socket on the left is dodgy because as soon as I start my machine up the motherboard/psu shuts it back down instantly.

Right power socket works fine and machine boots up fine. As soon as that left one is connected......no chance.

This is the third MSI card I've had, the first one being from another company which was sold as brand new but was sent used as it was covered in dust.

Going for a Gigabyte this time.

Krisali · 22 Apr 2013 at 16:27

emotionaltrout said:
Just RMA mine this afternoon for a refund.

My first card I got had the diode issue even though it was a revised card. 2nd card had the diode issue fixed and then after a few days decided that it was going to shut down my system while gaming.

Looks like the power socket on the left is dodgy because as soon as I start my machine up the motherboard/psu shuts it back down instantly.

Right power socket works fine and machine boots up fine. As soon as that left one is connected......no chance.

This is the third MSI card I've had, the first one being from another company which was sold as brand new but was sent used as it was covered in dust.

Going for a Gigabyte this time.

Returned mine today and going to take a chance with another. Fingers crossed

phr4n · 22 Apr 2013 at 18:30

pgi947 said:
Besides the diode issue, the issue Rusty is speaking of was a batch of TFIII 7950's that had poor TIM application and thus got very hot very quick, MSI confirmed the issue and said users can either get a replacement or re-apply the TIM without voiding the warranty.

Any link to a source on replacing TIM being within warranty, before I take a look at mine?

EDIT: Replaced TIM with AS, no dust in heatsink, temps exactly the same.