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Help with my 7900GT CO

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3 May 2006
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Hi All
Been reading the forum for a while now and just purchased a evga 7900 GT CO 256mb. I see everyone' o/c figures and numbers but my card is showing core clock frenquency 500mhz and memory clock frequency at 750 mhz all stock figures. I see settings going as high as 1350 and more but why is it my slider only goes as far as 1.00 mhz for the core and 900mhz for the memory while others are going much faster. I am presently still using the original fan and havent o/c my card yet. My current drivers are the xtreme 84.37 v2.
Also by viewing the temp under the video driver settings , my card is at 50celcius, is this normal with a stock 7900GT CO fan?
Can anyone help me?
Thanks
Wiz
 
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Dave is right. It's all about DDR in terms of memory (wait till you use ATI tool, that'll divide your memory by 2 again, but it's all the same speed really.)

As for the temperature. 50c is about right under load, nothing to worry about at all. If you go for the Zalman though that temperature will drop A LOT.
 
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Thanks a lot for all the info....feel much better.
Is there any other cooler for my card instead of the zalman, just incase my local computer store doesnt carry them. IS the zalman the best priced/value cooler?
Thanks
Wiz
 
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Well, there are other things that will do the job (though few things that are as effective), but all the best air solutions will involve removing the stock heatsink and replacing it with a better one. The Zalman vf900 is probably the best of the bunch though it's more mature brother the vf700 is pretty good too and cheaper.

Very few high street retailer will stock any Zalman products (sadly) but you may be able to find a separate 'exhaust' or ' blower'. These are separate devices that fit under or over a graphics card (or some other component) and take up a PCI slot or two (they don't actually fit into the PCI slot, they just take up the space where a PCI device would fit and blow or suck air from the hole where a PCI device would be seen at the back). They don't have anywhere near the effect of a specialise graphics card cooler, but they can shave a degree or two from your load and idle temperatures.

I actually use both a Zalman vf900 heatsink (actually on the card) and an antec vcool blowing cooler air from outside the case onto both the card and the heatsink. Works a treat.
 
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Hi All
i just installed a zalman vf-900 and must say....WOW the temp on my GPU went down to 40 from 50. The question i have now is which program to use in order to test how much i can overclock?
Usually 7900 GT CO can be overclock by how much? I have pretty good circulation and plenty of fans in my thermaltaje xaser case.
Thanks
 
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At stock volts, something like 550/1600 i'd guess. You might find though that you're better off with something like 530/1750, which will also likely be attainable even with any volt mods.
 

kbc

kbc

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man_from_uncle said:
I actually use both a Zalman vf900 heatsink (actually on the card) and an antec vcool blowing cooler air from outside the case onto both the card and the heatsink. Works a treat.

That thing must make a lot of noise... :)

Bit more volts will see it way past 600MHz core Wizzardmk! :p

But since Summer is already here... my card is idling quite high now at 46C on 1.5v - I was tempted to put 1.55v to see how much it'll go. But the extra heat and the season might put me off.
 
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kbc said:
That thing must make a lot of noise... :)

Bit more volts will see it way past 600MHz core Wizzardmk! :p

But since Summer is already here... my card is idling quite high now at 46C on 1.5v - I was tempted to put 1.55v to see how much it'll go. But the extra heat and the season might put me off.

Oh, I’ve done the volt mod long since and am playing at 680/1650 at the moment no problems. There is such an odd balancing act with the memory though that there might be a better medium.

The cooling solution I am using though is audible on max settings, but not much more than that. The Zalman is virtually silent in my case, even on max settings and the vcool on anything less than max is close to silent. This is by far the quietest gaming PC I’ve ever seen myself. Oddly though the hard disks cause a resonance that can be 'felt' more than heard on the stairs that lead up to my room (yes, I live in the attic).
 
Soldato
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Idle at 45 degrees isnt so bad at 1.5 volts, ive settled for 1.4 volts and a core of 630, suits me sir.. however i do notice with the room temps edging up, the temps are creeping up behind, which is to be expected. Vf900 seems to be able to cool mine well even at the lowest revs. I ran into serious problems when going over a 650 core , so ive settled for 630, and there it`ll stay untill the DX10 cards.
 
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Cool but what software can i use to determine how high i can boost my card?
I am presnetly using all stock volts since i am not that confident i cna to the volt mod :(
I guess i will start with stock volt overclocking but which software is the best to test?
Thanks
 
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Coolbits is the easiest, but ATI tool will let you get over 1600 on the memory. I tend to use a combination of both.

There is also powerstrip and rivatuner, but i've not used either one that extensively.
 
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