XFX’s 7950GT AGP User Guide

[Miker]

XFX’s 7950GT AGP User Guide by Miker
"Worlds fastest AGP Graphic Card, when it works"
http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o81/mikerider123/2XFX.jpg
Picture © 2007 XFX

All owners of 7950GT AGPs are free to add to this.

-Contributors-
Miker
Mivanx77
Mroberts5
Raks
Sadasius

-The Guide-
1. Good Power
This card likes to its own 12v power rail with at least 20amp. Even just one peripheral plugged into the same rail and mess up the Graphic Card. The best solution is to use a SLI ready power supply that is rated to at least 500w with a PCI-E to 4-pin Molex Adapter* on one of the PCI-E power rails that goes directly to the Graphic Card. You can get away with just a regular name-brand 500w power supply; just make sure it has an independent power rail with at least 20amp for the Graphic Card.

2. Do not Overclock
This Graphic Card can't be over-clocked. At the stock speeds this Graphic Card is on the edge, and just the slightest over clock can make it go haywire. Some people prefer to under-clock this card to make it last longer, however this is not proven or fully tested yet. Version 1.1 of this Graphic Card seems to be able to handle a slight over clock but it is not worth the risk.

It is also worth noting that in most computers that have a AGP Slot (SingleCore, 800FSB, under 3GHz) that this card will be bottlenecked. So you won't gain anything by over clocking this card. It might even run lower FPS.

3. Good cooling
Make sure your system has good airflow and cooling. Think about using a Slot Cooler Fan** on one or both sides of the Graphic Card to carry away some of the hot air, but make sure the Slot Cooler Fan has a one slot gap to let air get to the Graphic Card’s fan. Move your other Add-on Cards as far away from the Graphic Card to get maximum airflow around the card. This Graphic Card pushes the hot air out of the end, not the back, so make sure it has room to expel the hot air. Also, good cable management never hurt.

It sounds like a good idea to put on aftermarket cooling, but it IS NOT! Many people have tried but there cards artifact on the first boot or soon after. Also, this card has a abnormal hole pattern so most coolers won’t even fit.

4. Graphic Drivers
Depending on your system specs you will find out that some drivers do not work. Keep trying different drivers till you find one that works. You will need to uninstall all old Drivers from your PC before you install this Graphic Card. Think about using a Graphic Driver Remover*** like DCPro.

-Known Problems-
Please post your problem you have had with this card so I can list them. Please give what you think the cause it, what Version Number and if you needed to RMA the Graphic Card.

1. Blue/Pink tint on a DVI port
Miker - Ver. 1.0 - Blue - Overheating
Mivanx77 - Ver. 1.0 - Pink - RMA 3 - Cooling change
Sadasius - Ver. 1.0 - Blue - RMA 1 - Out of Box
Sadasius - Ver. 1.2 - Pink - Out of Box

2. Artifacts r
Mroberts5 - Ver. 1.0 - RMA 1 - Unknown
Mroberts5 - Ver. 1.0 - RMA 2 - Dead Fan
Raks - Ver. 1.0 - RMA - Out of Box
Sadasius - Ver. 1.0 - RMA 1 - Out of Box
Sadasius - Ver. 1.0 - RMA 2 - Unknown
Sadasius - Ver. 1.0 - RMA 3 - Cooling change and/or voltage spike

3. Broken DVI Port
Mivanx77 - Ver. 1.0 - RMA 2 - Bad Power
Sadasius - Ver. 1.0 - RMA 2 - Unknown

4. Blown Fan
Mivanx77 - Ver. 1.0 - REPAIR - Unknown
Mroberts5 - Ver. 1.0 - RMA 2 - Unknown

5. Totally Dead
Mivanx77 - Ver. 1.0 - RMA 1 - Bad Power
Mivanx77 - Ver. 1.0 - RMA 2 - Bad Power

-Links-
*PCI-E to 4-pin Molex Adapter. http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=186&products_id=21141
**Slot Cooler Fan http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835106083
***Driver Cleaner http://downloads.guru3d.com/downloadget.php?id=745&file=7&evp=944289588d7e3bd7968f23a5e41348fd

[Miker]

I could use a Driver Remover utility if any one has one that is proven to work.

[Sadasius]

Good write up there Miker! Another known problem is 'artifacts', 'reboot's' and voltage spikes causing temp surges.

[Miker]

I need a name to go with it, did you have to RMA it, and what caused it if you know. I want to try to make a list and determine what problem happens the most.

[Sadasius]

Well that's the problem. XFX does not even know what is happening with the cards. I asked and they stated that they do not have the equipment to do such tests to determine what has failed and why it failed. Sucks I know but that is what we are left with.


[Don Gadbois - 11/02/2007] Thank you very much! I also want to confirm as well that the new card will be stress tested like the last one.

[BRIAN - 11/02/2007] Hi Don, we will test the card before shipping it out to you. thanks Brian.

[KEVIN - 11/02/2007] Your recent returns ref: XCR5728 has recently completed the testing process with the following status: {I8H053861 = FAULTY}. A technician will be in contact shortly to discuss completion of this returns. If you have any queries regarding this test result - please send a message to the support team. Thank You. XFX Support Team

[Don Gadbois - 11/05/2007] Would you be able to burn in on both ports? Run for 24 hours on one DVI port then again on the other? Also you would not happen to know what part on the card that keeps failing would you?

[BRIAN - 11/06/2007] Hi Don, unfortunately, we do not know what exactly failed with the card. We do not have the proper equipment to do that kind of in depth diagnostics over here. We will burn the card in both ports before shipping it out. thanks Brian.

[Don Gadbois - 11/06/2007] Thank you! I really appreciate all the help you guys have done for me.

[BRIAN - 11/06/2007] Thanks for the message, Don.

[Miker]

Good write up there Miker! Another known problem is 'artifacts', 'reboot's' and voltage spikes causing temp surges.

So you have had all of these problems? WOW, you are unlucky! :lol: Well what happened after new cooler, and so on, just guess what caused it.

[Sadasius]

Well after I changed the cooler it ran awesome actually but for only and hour and a half and then it rebooted and showed artifacts right away at boot up. This is what really has me confused. I know how to do cooler swaps really well and I have really good fingers for this not to mention I can 'mickey mouse' almost anything to work properly. I was playing Supreme Commander when it went. But I noticed even before I did the cooler swap that there was voltage spikes from time to time. Once was when playing GRAW and the temps rose to 93 degrees in a split second and I shut off the computer by the button out of panic. During the entire time I had the card working I had all the monitors, fraps, rivatuner etc running as well to keep an eye on the card. I think the main problem with the card from what I can gather from my experiences is that the capacitors sometimes do not work properly which causes the odd voltage spike and kills the memory or GPU. I would assume memory from artifacts. I am wondering if there are revision cards that have better capacitors on them and I bet you those cards run a heck of a lot better. Mind you I am just speculating from my experience.

Every card I had was revision 1.0

[A-L-E-X]

Wow-- I just looked at the box my card came in and it's Revision 1.1

Well after I changed the cooler it ran awesome actually but for only and hour and a half and then it rebooted and showed artifacts right away at boot up. This is what really has me confused. I know how to do cooler swaps really well and I have really good fingers for this not to mention I can 'mickey mouse' almost anything to work properly. I was playing Supreme Commander when it went. But I noticed even before I did the cooler swap that there was voltage spikes from time to time. Once was when playing GRAW and the temps rose to 93 degrees in a split second and I shut off the computer by the button out of panic. During the entire time I had the card working I had all the monitors, fraps, rivatuner etc running as well to keep an eye on the card. I think the main problem with the card from what I can gather from my experiences is that the capacitors sometimes do not work properly which causes the odd voltage spike and kills the memory or GPU. I would assume memory from artifacts. I am wondering if there are revision cards that have better capacitors on them and I bet you those cards run a heck of a lot better. Mind you I am just speculating from my experience.

Every card I had was revision 1.0

[Sadasius]

AHA... I knew it! Means something was changed on the card.

[Miker]

VR. 1.0 here

Still need you to list the problem on all 3...

[Sadasius]

Well the first one never worked properly right out of the box. It was artifacted on one port and the other was all blue. The second lasted a week and a half and it too suddenly artifacted and the other port which usually goes blue did not work at all. The third card is still in the mail...It was stress tested on both ports for 24 hours independently.

[Miker]

Hope I got that right and it makes sense.

Got any other ideas of things to add?

[Sadasius]

Not yet. I will post them here as they arise.

[Miker]

Funny convo with dad...
Me: "Can you call Directv and upgrade to HD?"
Him: "I will tomorrow, those night shift people you talk to are hard to deal with"
Me: "Isn't it daytime in India?"

[Sadasius]

HAHAHA, true enough!

[mroberts5]

Hey guys - I'm fairly new to the forums here but I thought I would share my 7950 agp woes.

1st card / Rev 1.0
This card worked for about fifteen minutes and then crashed my system. Artifacting like mad and I couldn't reboot. RMA'd.

2nd card / Rev 1.0
This card worked great for 3 weeks and 3 days. Last night while playing COD 4 my monitor started pincushioning. I tried rebooting and installing new drivers but no luck. I then noticed a burning smell and checked the gpu temp and it was 88c. The fan had died. I thought I might be able to use an aftermarket cooler but the now the card artifacts and won't let me boot. So I'm working a 2nd RMA.

[Sadasius]

Welcome to the Dead or Dying 7950 AGP Club! It's a pretty big club with many members...lol The benefits of our club are world renown. We are allowed to RMA as many times as we want for not 1 but 2 lifetimes! Our membership card is our own 7950GT AGP card with our pictures of aggravation glued to it. For activities we pull prank calls on Shannon telling him our cards work and we have dart competitions with the XFX logo on the board. Welcome aboard!

[Miker]

Welcome to the Dead or Dying 7950 AGP Club! It's a pretty big club with many members...lol The benefits of our club are world renown. We are allowed to RMA as many times as we want for not 1 but 2 lifetimes! Our membership card is our own 7950GT AGP card with our pictures of aggravation glued to it. For activities we pull prank calls on Shannon telling him our cards work and we have dart competitions with the XFX logo on the board. Welcome aboard!

Very well said! *Claps*

Hey, at least with how loud this card is you have a chance to catch the quiet of a broken fan!

[mivanx77]

Dead 7950GT's:
1st. Died in 1 day
2nd. DVI slot had died within 3 weeks, then it died
3rd. BIG PINK TINT, after reapplying thermal paste!

The 4th one works, but it keeps giving me BSOD's and restarts, I'm waiting for my PCI-E to Molex, so i can power it even better.

[Miker]

Do you have Ver. 1.0, or 1.1?

[mivanx77]

Everything that had died from me, was v1.0. Right now, the one im using is v1.1 .

[KainXS]

Im waiting for my RMA 7950 to get back on monday, will install ND-1 cooler to stop this from happening again:grin:

[jll544]

Right now, the one im using is v1.1 .
Other then the label, have you noticed anything visually different on the card between v1.0 and v1.1?

[Miker]

Im waiting for my RMA 7950 to get back on monday, will install ND-1 cooler to stop this from happening again:grin:

DO NOT PUT ON A NEW COOLER! This card will almost always artifact after a cooler swap.

PS. What was your problem that made you have to RMA, what Ver. number and what do you think caused it.

[raks]

Guys,

Ive just sent my card to XFX RMA cos when booting up the screen was totally messed up.

Do you reckon they will just give me a new v1.1 since its totally messed up ?

And also how do you tell which version you have ?

Lastly you said v1.1 can be oc alittle, could someone tell us what their oc are for v1.0 and v1.1

Thanks

[Miker]

It will say "Ver. 1" or "Ver. 1.1" on the sticker on the box the card came in.

No one has ever successfully over clocked a Ver. 1. On a Ver. 1.1 A-L-E-X has got to 620/765 with out any problems, but he put it back to stock just to be safe.

(Trying to make sure your 2nd card has no problems)
What PSU do you? What was the problem, artifacts, tint, mix of both?

[mivanx77]

Other then the label, have you noticed anything visually different on the card between v1.0 and v1.1?

Nothing visually different, but I do remember that my second card that they had sent me, had visual difference. The second one, looked way cooler, the black side frame (the huge black bar on the side) had a little transparent rectangle shape that said XFX and the cooling fan for the video card had led lights on the side that would illuminate the transparent XFX logo on the black bar.

[Miker]

Nothing visually different, but I do remember that my second card that they had sent me, had visual difference. The second one, looked way cooler, the black side frame (the huge black bar on the side) had a little transparent rectangle shape that said XFX and the cooling fan for the video card had led lights on the side that would illuminate the transparent XFX logo on the black bar.

Odd... They must have sent you some other card with a different part number; they have sold 2 or 3 types of 7950GT 510m AGPs.

[raks]

Thats the card i had the black one that lit up where it said XFX, basically when booting up everything was messed up characters everywhere, flashing, all jumbled up

I dont know what happened, one min working fine, next day all messed up.

My PSU is Enermax SLI/Crossfire 600watts, i also own a 7800GS+ 670 core/1520 mem for a while now, volt modded (pencil) without any problems at all its a beast of a graphics card, way better then XFX 7950GT no offense.

Basically i wanna volt mod (pencil) the 7950GT to the same clocks as the Gainward see what it could do, but depends what they send me back, i hope its v1.1 brand new, what do you all think ?

[Miker]

Even if it a Ver. 1.1 don't over clock it. You don't want to RMA again.

[raks]

This sounds really bad, i might as well just sell it for what i brought it for 70GBP, cant oc it, thats crap.

might try out a 1950pro, even though i heard the same with that they dont oc at all either.

I feel so lucky i picked up a Gainward 7800GS+ rev2 G71 512mb 24pp/8vp/24ps etc.

I know i paid alittle more for it, but at least they built a card properly, really good cooling and brilliant at OC, with this card ive seen people with volt mods 700+ core and 1800+ on the mem, now thats impressive and XFX cant match anything close where they are basically identical cards. Whats the point.

Why cant the release decent AGP cards, i know, i know its nearly dead AGP, so i think its time to save me monies and jump into PCI-E quad-core duo or maybe Quad-AMD see how it goes by then. bummer !

[Sadasius]

Got another one for you Miker....Just got my card in and it is version 1.2 The problem is on the far port away from the motherboard has a pink hue. It is like the blue on the other port that is common. First time I got pink. Anyway now I am operating on the port closest to the motherboard. The one that fails first on almost all the cards. So I have downclocked like I said I would. The 2D settings are 350 for GPU and 450 for the memory. The 3D is at 450 and 450 respectively. The performance is still good and playable. Hoping I can at least get a couple months out of it this way. Here is my RivaTuner pics to show ya's. Funny I had asked for testing on both ports for 24 hours each....Makes me wonder if they own a monitor...lol Included the 'pink dragon of DOOM'....lol

[Miker]

4 Cards... Man, just RMA it for a new Mobo or something...

Pink, eh, didn't think you were the feminine type.

[Sadasius]

Well the card is still working. Just don't know for how long on that one port. Yeah pink is not my color. My entire wardrobe is black...literally! No mix up on matching clothes...lol

[Miker]

Maybe you will be like me, only one bad port and the rest all good.

[Sadasius]

Maybe you will be like me, only one bad port and the rest all good.

Thats what I am hoping for....But the good port I have is the one that fails all the time on the other cards. So it is kind of touch and go. Plus I noticed little glitches already on bootup. It gets the odd color spasm that runs across the screen and stuff like that. But what I am hoping is that the major downclock will hold it till I need a motherboard to trade it in for or something. But what kind of irks me is that I asked specifically that the card be tested on both ports. The pink port was right off the bat at bootup on my first try. Not to mention that it came in a new box and the plastic that encased it still had the stickers that seal it from the factory. I don't think it was burned in at all. Mind you they did send me a nice little door knob 'Do not disturb I'm Gaming' thing. But I am not impressed at all, I was expecting a card that worked on all ports as it was supposed to have been burned in. I don't know if Shannon has an office where they do this because I think someone fell asleep at the wheel here. I think this will be the last XFX product I will ever buy because of this. Words cannot explain my frustration and disappointment.

***EDIT*** Left a nice message in my support ticket #118928!!!

[mivanx77]

I think... that is for me and Sadasius, is that we(at least I think) dont want to upgrade and what we want to do is just finish this AGP system before moving. That is at least what I'm doing.

[Sadasius]

Yup this is it for me and this card....Not doing this again. Shannon if your watching this can you please get me a deal on a PCI-e equivalent or that nifty SLI motherboard. Because seriously no customer should have to go through this ever and there are so many of us that have.

Already bought a Q6600 so a new motherboard or PCI-e card will help get there quicker. Talk about bad timing too. Spent a crap load of money on stock for Disturbed Wear not long ago.

[Sadasius]

Well it looks like I have been upgraded to tech level 2 on XFX Support site. I have no idea what that means but I got passed off to another department.

[A-L-E-X]

Wow... they got version 1.2 now? Sounds like its not as good as 1.1 :( As an alternative, if you want to stick with AGP... get a x1950pro, it is just as fast as the 7950GT (if not faster in shader intensive games) OR get one of the new DX10 ATI cards... the HD2600XT AGP (512MB) is only 170 dollars from newegg and will beat both the 7950GT and x1950pro in most new games and its DX10! Or wait for the new ati card, HD3850 which, its been said, is coming out for AGP and its DX10.1 compliant... which NO nvidia card is (the reason why I wont get an 8800GTS or 8800GT, even though my mobo is dual AGP/PCIE).

In short I would wait for the ATI/AMD HD3850 AGP if I was you... the 7950GT AGP might be the stongest AGP card from nVidia, but AMD/ATI have better cards out there now and much better ones in the future.

Im keeping my 7950GT AGP because it seems to be one of the rare ones that has nothing wrong with it (knock on wood and fingers crossed lol) until I get a DX10 game and then Im switching over to AMD/ATI...

Got another one for you Miker....Just got my card in and it is version 1.2 The problem is on the far port away from the motherboard has a pink hue. It is like the blue on the other port that is common. First time I got pink. Anyway now I am operating on the port closest to the motherboard. The one that fails first on almost all the cards. So I have downclocked like I said I would. The 2D settings are 350 for GPU and 450 for the memory. The 3D is at 450 and 450 respectively. The performance is still good and playable. Hoping I can at least get a couple months out of it this way. Here is my RivaTuner pics to show ya's. Funny I had asked for testing on both ports for 24 hours each....Makes me wonder if they own a monitor...lol Included the 'pink dragon of DOOM'....lol

[Miker]

Every time I up my processor the Graphics get better, I really think that a 7950GT AGP is bottlenecked at 800FSB and even a better AGP card would not work that much better.

[Sadasius]

Every time I up my processor the Graphics get better, I really think that a 7950GT AGP is bottlenecked at 800FSB and even a better AGP card would not work that much better.

I agree very much. When I overclocked I noticed a difference as well. To make the card do more work use a bigger resolution. The smaller resolutions make the CPU work harder.

[Miker]

Overclocked .6GHz or so and gained 15FPS in CSS in De-Dust2 at 1280x1024...

[Miker]

Great video on how to overclock.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-0apQM7_OE

Hum? Is my warranty still good if I "OIL COOL" my pc?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtufuXLvOok&feature=related

/Sarcasm

[mivanx77]

Stupid USPS and performance-pcs.com, my adapater was sent back while less than a half a mile away from my house was the postal office. I was like WTF? and they wouldn't tell me WHY!!

[Miker]

Maybe they sent you someones else's Extreme Core2 Duo? And had to ship it back?

[mivanx77]

Maybe they sent you someones else's Extreme Core2 Duo? And had to ship it back?

Its been 3 weeks now, and I have never recieved my package... im still pissed because my pc restarts/bsod's i need that power adapter!!!!!

[Miker]

Unlucky.

[Sadasius]

Its been 3 weeks now, and I have never recieved my package... im still pissed because my pc restarts/bsod's i need that power adapter!!!!!


Yeah they are slow. Once I had to remind them to send the stuff I paid for...lol. Other then that they are pretty good for picking up the odd thing you would not normally find in another place. If you log in to your account on their website and message them I am sure they will give you current information as to what happened with your package.

[Miker]

It is probably Sadasius's fake, rip-off, Credit Card stealing site he uses to finance his Mob/Hitman job. :grin:

[Sadasius]

It is probably Sadasius's fake, rip-off, Credit Card stealing site he uses to finance his Mob/Hitman job. :grin:

Damn it I pay you good money to keep that a secret...lol

[mivanx77]

Well i just want to let you know that I live in NJ. So the package came from FL to NJ then they couldnt deliver it, then it went back to FL and now its coming back to me. IM SO PISSED, I haven't been able to play in ages!

[Sadasius]

Well i just want to let you know that I live in NJ. So the package came from FL to NJ then they couldnt deliver it, then it went back to FL and now its coming back to me. IM SO PISSED, I haven't been able to play in ages!


Yeah that sucks when there is a shipping error and you are left waiting yet again. Hoprfully this adapter will solve many of your problems. Works great on mine and it is good to have these kind of adapters on hand for other things that may arise in the future. I have a entire drawer just in adapters for all kinds of computer equipment. I must have about 20 DVI to VGA adapters alone.

[mivanx77]

OK, so today I had called up the company and USPS, with no answer so I left a message with my 2 cents... I am gonna F****** kill some one for this adapter, its been almost 1 month, and no adapter. Uhhhggggg, and I havent been able to play any games lately due to my friggen adapter. IM SO F****** pissed!!!!

F*** USPS!
F*** PERFORMANCE-PCS!


btw, USPS told me to pay for shipping agian, I WAS LIKE WTF!!!!, i never received my package, but you want me to pay again!

[Sadasius]

Damn, I never got the run around like that before. That is freakin strange. I would be pissed too. Too bad I do not have an extra one or I would have sent it to you for free.

[mivanx77]

Damn, I never got the run around like that before. That is freakin strange. I would be pissed too. Too bad I do not have an extra one or I would have sent it to you for free.
Thanks, i know, peformance-pcs suck, the lady that picks up the phone is always so crabby.

[Miker]

Damn it I pay you good money to keep that a secret...lol

Still no money? :lol:

[A-L-E-X]

Weird, I bought that adapter from them, selected ground shipping, it shipped same day and it was here in 2 days, no problem at all! UPS leaves all packages (even large stuff like computer cases) on my porch. I always get stuff very quickly because I live in NY. (Stuff from buy.com and newegg also gets here in 2 days even when I select ground.)

Thanks, i know, peformance-pcs suck, the lady that picks up the phone is always so crabby.

[mivanx77]

Here is my review for a website review, also by reading this, you will see what they just did to me today.

This website was a Godsend from the beginning. I thought this would solve my problem, INSTEAD it crated more problems. First of all the shipping went wrong and refused to resend my package unless I paid for shipping charges again for a package I never recieved, which is ridiculous! The lady on the phone that I talked to always had the urge to get me off the phone as soon as I can, as if she doesnt want to resolve my problem. Then came the best part, I called in regards of my package, what they told me was " WE ARE REALLY BUSY RIGHT NOW, and I CANNOT HELP YOU UNTIL TOMORROW" which in fact they were supposed to call last week to resolve the problem of my item that I had never received. They had the balls to say that to me, a customer, and the best part was at the end, in which she hung up on me as soon as she said those words. I will never buy from this company again, and from this day I had never received my package.

Customer service sucks, and they suck!

[mivanx77]

Sry double posting. But i called my post office and I might be getting my adapter, finally after like 4 months of no video games I can finally play!

[Miker]

Sry double posting. But i called my post office and I might be getting my adapter, finally after like 4 months of no video games I can finally play!

Grats~!

[yhjtk]

Damn I feel sorry for you guys with the XFX 7950 agp problems, i thought it was a 7950GS agp not Gt but it's discontinued now. I got the HIS radeon x1950 pro iceq3 turbo rev2 590/770. IMO, it is right now the fastest agp offering.

[mivanx77]

WTF, the 7950gt is discontinued? What happens if my video card dies?

[Miker]

It is not discontinued. NewEgg just decided not to sell them.

[mivanx77]

It is not discontinued. NewEgg just decided not to sell them.

I was about to panic!

[innuss]

Hi Guys,
Well I thought I had avoided all of the problems that many people have had. I bought my card back in June. It was version 1.0 & the 1st couple of months its ran slightly better than the card it had replaced (7800gs superclocked). Then when Nvidia finally released official drivers my fps doubled in Madden, Oblivion, etc.
Tonight I fired up Madden & after 5 minutes it locked up. I was able to exit & I checked Nvidia Monitor & my temp was 123! I reseated the card, unplugged & plugged in the power & fired it up. Then I noticed that the fan wasn't working so I sent in a ticket & am awaiting a response. Before the fan failure my idle temp. was around 49 & my high temp was around 57.
What is the normal procedure for RMA's, turn around time, etc? Right now I'm using a old 4200 so I will be very happy to get a new card. Thanks!

[dmhnc]

Well looks like I've come to the right place for me to cry the blues, lol. I may hold the record for rma's. My fourth card failed 11-23-07 and I'm waiting for a replacement. I wish I had come to this forum sooner as it could have saved me some grief.

I have oc'ed each card but now I see that maybe I should not have. I'm not sure as to what has caused any of the failures so far and XFX has not answered my request as to what they have found with the cards. Each time they just say the card is found "faulty".

FYI this is my rig specs.
Case: Lian-Li V1200 Plus
MB: MSI 865 Neo2 Platinum Edition
Graphics Card: XFX 7950GT 512mb AGP
CPU: 3.4 Prescott oc'd to 3.7 24/7 w/Zalmon 9500
Memory: G.Skill HZ DDR500 2 gigs
HD: Seagate Barracuda 250gb sata w/Sytrin cooler
Optical Drive: ASUS sata DVD/CD lightscrib
PSU: Corsair 520HX
Sound Card: Diamond Xtream Pro
OS: XP Pro
Monitor: Samsung 22" Wide Screen
Mouse: MX-518
Pad: X-Ray Thunder 9 Mousepad
Keyboard: Saitec Eclipse
Speakers: Z-2200

I'm an active member in another forum and currently hold the top spot for an agp rig in 3DMark03 with 20,174. Link. (http://www.overclock.net/benchmarking-software-discussion/205639-top-25-ocn-agp-systems.html)
I just learned today and also read several post back that PowerColor is releasing a HD 3800 card for AGP. I'll sell my rma and get this when it's available.

Too bad 'bout this 7950 as "I really love it when it's working"!

[A-L-E-X]

Damn I feel sorry for you guys with the XFX 7950 agp problems, i thought it was a 7950GS agp not Gt but it's discontinued now. I got the HIS radeon x1950 pro iceq3 turbo rev2 590/770. IMO, it is right now the fastest agp offering.


I have my GeCube x1950pro 512MB card sitting as a "backup" in my closet, but (***knocks on wood and crosses fingers***) its been almost 2 months and no problems with my 7950GT.

[A-L-E-X]

Powercolor came out with the 3850 AGP. DX10.1 card! Too bad its not the 3870.

http://www.powercolor.com/Global/pro...ProductID=1730

Maybe more powerful agp cards coming out from ati in the future?

[Sadasius]

Holy crap....Well it would be a smart move on ATI's part. There are more AGP systems out there then PCIe I am sure. They can scoop up the low end part and clean house. Might help get them enough money to do some research in making better top end cards. Maybe even keep their research on the down low and sneak in a punch when Nvidia is not looking.

[ViSheN007]

hey Miker can you please post ur 3d marks results

[mivanx77]

Well with this video card, depending on your usage, be prepared to go through hell and back, lots of grief from my end.

[mivanx77]

Sry for DBL posting.

But would it be worth money to get a Zalman GPU cooler, to cool down the GPU, or should I just stay with stock cooling. Btw the Zalman cooler I'm talking about is the one that was discussed here:

http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=36322

the Zalman VF-700 with a modded Zalman northbridge heatsink for the HSI.

So, is their any company that sells HSI heatsinks. That way I dont have to mod the northbridge fan.

[A-L-E-X]

Yes, Im considering them for my next purchase! Whats the team thing in your sig...I looked at the graph and youre #1! Congrats, man-- looks like the 7950GT is finally showing its potential!

[Miker]

Back from "vacation". I will try to run PCmark soon. Still finishing my Windows Reinstall.

[A-L-E-X]

Hey Mike, I made an interesting discovery!

I used a combo of Rivatuner and the nvidia forceware control panel to set antialiasing to 4x, anisotropic filtering to 8x, turned on gamma antialiasing and transparent antialiasing and turned off ALL the filtering optimizations and guess what! My little 7950GT STILL got a 3DMark06 score of 5000 at stock speeds! Thats right, even with all the "eye candy" turned on, the "little card that could" only lowered its 3DMark06 score by about 500 points (only 10%)! What that proves to me is that, even with a quad Q6600 cpu, the video card isnt reaching its full potential.

BTW cooling seems to be aok (***knock on wood and crossing fingers firmly***), my card stayed at or below 67C the whole time.

[A-L-E-X]

Well, I dont know if its just me but I set AA and AS as high as I could as well as trilinear filtering and supersampling AA and the 3DMark06 score didnt budge; actually it went up 1 point! No matter what I do, I cant get it to go under 5000 at stock settings. And even when I slow down the clock settings, it wont ever go slower than a 7900GS, even at 70% of stock (ie 396/594). Also, temps dont rise over 67C. Still, Im under no illusions with this card (especially considering other peoples' bad luck); Im babying it like crazy!

[mivanx77]

LOL, you guys and your working 7950GT's... are making me jealous. So, is getting a Zalman VF-700 a good investment for my 7950GT's heat issue?

[A-L-E-X]

I would say so. Sadasius got the new cooler to work very well, and his temps dropped a great deal. It seems as though the 7950GT has a very low tolerance for heat. My card might be working, but Im still underclocking it to at least try to keep it from breaking down. BTW I just learned that you cant use 4x antialiasing with supersampling in transparency AA in Geforce series 7 cards. You could use 4x antialiasing if you set transparency AA to multisampling or you could use 2xQ antialiasing with supersampling in transparency AA. I decided to use 2xQ antialiasing so I could still use supersampling for transparency AA (multisampling doesnt show much improvement.) Either way, performance hit is only about 400 points in 3DMark06 with 2xQ antialiasing/8x anisotropic filtering/ supersampling transparency AA/ trilinear filtering forced on/ all nVidia optimizations forced off. In other words, I can maintain a score of over 5000 pts with the above settings. I hope you guys get your cards to work, because if/when it works, this card is VERY fast!

[Miker]

Any time you take a heatsink off a 7950GT AGP it seems to blow...

[mivanx77]

lol, I didnt know that Sadasius had a Zalman VF-700 gpu cooler...

[Sadasius]

lol, I didnt know that Sadasius had a Zalman VF-700 gpu cooler...

Nope I don't. I have the 'ZeroTherm GX710' running on mine. Mind you it is very similar to the Zalman VF-700, the fan design is different. This thing is great and has dramatically calmed the card down. The one card where I changed the cooler was just too glitchy. This card is a bit better and handled the swap perfectly. Been a few weeks now and no problems. In fact the temps dropped even further because the AS5 seemed to have cured and I noticed the drop by a couple degrees on both load and idle.

[mivanx77]

Nope I don't. I have the 'ZeroTherm GX710' running on mine. Mind you it is very similar to the Zalman VF-700, the fan design is different. This thing is great and has dramatically calmed the card down. The one card where I changed the cooler was just too glitchy. This card is a bit better and handled the swap perfectly. Been a few weeks now and no problems. In fact the temps dropped even further because the AS5 seemed to have cured and I noticed the drop by a couple degrees on both load and idle.

So how is your HSI chip cooled, do you have a heatsink for it?
http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/4596/10965742pz2.jpg

[Sadasius]

Yup I have a Zalman North Bridge cooler on it. Too bad the main thread I started is gone. I showed the whole procedure with pics of what I done to tame the temps on this glitchy card. Here is a couple pics for ya from my server.

Zalman North Bridge Cooler (http://www.houseofottawa.com/7950GTAGP/DSC02907.JPG)

Completed Card (http://www.houseofottawa.com/7950GTAGP/DSC02908.JPG)

[innuss]

A follow up from post #66. I got my new fan today. Thanks XFX for the very fast turnaround! I put it in & everything seems fine. It sorta smells like new plastic (that's what my wife said) or glue but I suppose that's the new heatsink & thermal paste getting accquinted? The temp. is 45, it used to be around 50 & I'll be getting an extra slot fan based on the recomendations on this board which should cool it even more. So I'll watch it & hope that everything gets back to normal. Again, I had 6 months of great performance until the fan died.

[mivanx77]

Im pretty much gonna order a new GPU fan and that heatsink for it. It will be a great investment. Thanks Sadasius!

[Sadasius]

No problem. I had to do a little 'Mickey Mousing' to get it to work with my setup. I had to use a speaker wire clamped on both sides for one of the screw holes because the bolt pattern is not universal. So I screw in one side loose, stuck the speak wire through and clamped it tight on both sides making sure it is not loose and then tightening the regular screw afterward to cause a clamping effect to ensure it seated right. The north Bridge heat sink I had to shim it with it with the rubber spacers that are on the card from the stock cooler (4 of them). If you look at the pic you will see them there because the bolt pattern is offset and the heat sink cannot seat properly without them there. It was a bit of work, ingenuity and common sense to get everything to work together nicely. But it can be done if your a handy type of person. Too bad my post is gone on how I did everything.

[mivanx77]

I was about to order the Zalman VGA cooler until I saw it has a 3 pin connector and not a 2 pin for the video card, how am I able to power the fan if it cannot have power on the video card?

[Sadasius]

I was about to order the Zalman VGA cooler until I saw it has a 3 pin connector and not a 2 pin for the video card, how am I able to power the fan if it cannot have power on the video card?

Easily...Hook it to the motherboard instead of the video card. That is what I have done and works like a charm.

[RobM]

FWIW, I purchased the xfx 7950GT AGP about 8 months ago. Had problems right from the start. Very noisy fan. Lockups, and instability. After trying a myriad of driver options, I finally gave up and returned it to the store for credit.

I stuck my Radeon x850xt back in, and everything went back to its normal stable self.

I keep popping in here, on occasion, hoping these issues would have been fixed, but I guess not.

Too bad AMD abandoned socket 939. With my x2 4800+, and a fast vid. card, the computer is still quite zippy. No reason AMD couldn't have continued the 939 line, and no reason quality AGP boards could not continue to be marketed.

Hopefully, at least, xfx will continue to generate some AGP options, and fix the problems, since I'd like a little faster graphics speed, w/o having to ditch everything to a new motherboard, and start over.

[Sadasius]

Many people out there who feel the same way.

[Miker]

See, I love my 7950GT, it runs perfectly.

[tron]

See, I love my 7950GT, it runs perfectly.

I'm happy to hear that. My 7950GT died after 6 days of use. I returned it to the store after a firm talk to the tech guy.

I swapped it for a 7600GT (with some credit back) and now thats crapping out after 6 days :S ... first time customer of XFX. Haven't started off our relationship well.

[A-L-E-X]

They do still have quality AGP boards. Check out the latest AsRock board that supports full PCIe 16x AND AGP 8x with the ULi chipset...it will even take Phenom 9600 quad cores! I have the AsRock Intel board with AGP 8x and a PCIe 4x slot (its PCIe 16x but electronically crippled to 4x because of the Via chipset) and the Intel quad core Q6600. Anyway the best AGP card now is the HD3850 AGP version; its from Powercolor and already being sold in Europe, not yet in America (but should be by next month.)

FWIW, I purchased the xfx 7950GT AGP about 8 months ago. Had problems right from the start. Very noisy fan. Lockups, and instability. After trying a myriad of driver options, I finally gave up and returned it to the store for credit.

I stuck my Radeon x850xt back in, and everything went back to its normal stable self.

I keep popping in here, on occasion, hoping these issues would have been fixed, but I guess not.

Too bad AMD abandoned socket 939. With my x2 4800+, and a fast vid. card, the computer is still quite zippy. No reason AMD couldn't have continued the 939 line, and no reason quality AGP boards could not continue to be marketed.

Hopefully, at least, xfx will continue to generate some AGP options, and fix the problems, since I'd like a little faster graphics speed, w/o having to ditch everything to a new motherboard, and start over.

[A-L-E-X]

I found a work around for the AA limitation. I set the AA to... get this!... 8xS combo multisampling and supersampling mode with Transparency AA set to supersampling as well... everything else as stated earlier. This is the highest quality setting you can get from the nVidia control panel (havent messed around with nHancer yet). I lost another 200 pts, but that still leaves me at a 3DMark06 score of about 4700 at the highest AA/AF settings at stock speeds! Thats as fast as a x1950pro at default!

I would say so. Sadasius got the new cooler to work very well, and his temps dropped a great deal. It seems as though the 7950GT has a very low tolerance for heat. My card might be working, but Im still underclocking it to at least try to keep it from breaking down. BTW I just learned that you cant use 4x antialiasing with supersampling in transparency AA in Geforce series 7 cards. You could use 4x antialiasing if you set transparency AA to multisampling or you could use 2xQ antialiasing with supersampling in transparency AA. I decided to use 2xQ antialiasing so I could still use supersampling for transparency AA (multisampling doesnt show much improvement.) Either way, performance hit is only about 400 points in 3DMark06 with 2xQ antialiasing/8x anisotropic filtering/ supersampling transparency AA/ trilinear filtering forced on/ all nVidia optimizations forced off. In other words, I can maintain a score of over 5000 pts with the above settings. I hope you guys get your cards to work, because if/when it works, this card is VERY fast!

[Miker]

If you have 2 hards go you must have something wrong, what PSU do you have?

[mivanx77]

Since im buying the Zalman fan for my GPU, i need a HSI heastink. I know the copper colored zalman would work, thanks to sadasius images.

So which one should I get for the HSI chip.

ZALMAN ZM - NBF 47 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118014)

or

ZALMAN ZM – 32K (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118002)

More images for the ZALMAN ZM - NBF 47, here:
http://www.svc.com/zm-nbf47.html

[A-L-E-X]

I have the first one. It works well but will take up an extra slot, and depending on how much space you have available you might have to trim off the top part... there are details on the nvidia forums. I think some have gotten the other one to work as well.

[Sadasius]

I think they both take up the extra slot. However the reason why I chose the 32K one was because the NBF 47 took more room and I did not want to take a chance that it would come too close or on top of the GPU cooler. But I know the 32K one is more then adequate for the job especially since I have air blowing over the entire setup.

[Manergy]

Well I like to make my first post on a new forum a good one so here it goes.

I bought an XFX 7950gt AGP last summer and it worked great for a couple of months. I downloaded the Bioshock demo and noticed that the GPU temp was extremely high after playing the demo (about 45 minutes or so.) The temp was over 100C!!! Now I know video cards and I know that this is not right at all. So I opened up my case and low and behold the GPU fan had failed. About 5 seconds later I lost video input and got a bunch of green lines and that was the end of that card. So I got an RMA and had no problems for about 3 more months.

Last week I started to recieve no input on startup. I messed around with the cables and tried another DVI port and it would work randomly. Usually I could switch to the other DVI port and get a picture on start up. The fan on the GPU was still spinning and I assumed it was a problem with the DVI ports. Then one day after trying to get it to work I noticed the card was getting no power. It had died a slow painful death I guess. I tried it in another system and it still got no power. So I RMAd it and it should be back here soon.

Now from what I have read (I read this thread and many others on dif forums extensively) there is really no easy solution to an after market cooler. So I figure I'll give it another shot. Heres my system specs in case anyone is interested.

MSI K8N Neo-2 Plat Nforce 3
AMD 64x2 3800+ skt 939 (OCed to 2.5 4HT 10x250FSB)
OCZ Platinum DDR400 PC3200 (2x1gig)
Seagate Baracuda 500gig SATA HDD
Sound Blaster x-fi xtreme music edt.
XFX 7950gt 512mb AGP (MIA)
Enermax Liberty 500W

[Manergy]

I always try to make my first post on a new forum a good one, so here I go.

I bought an XFX 7950GT AGP about 6 months ago. It worked great for 3 months, no problems at all and I was very pleased with it. So I decided to play the Bioshock demo and after about 45 min of playing I noticed my GPU temps were over NINE THOUSAND... I mean over 100C. I immediately turned off my PC and after about 30 min of letting it cool I rebooted. I noticed the fan wasn't spinning and right away I lost video input and the screen turned green and had some awkward looking checkered lines going across it. So that was the end of that card.

I got the RMA back and everything worked fine. About another 3 months went by and the DVI ports would randomly not work, switching to the other DVI port worked. A week later the whole card died, the fan doesn't work and I get no video output. Tried it in another system since I thought it might be my power supply (btw I love my power supply) and it still did not get power. So I RMA'd the card again yesterday. Hopefully I'll have better luck this time.

My system specs are as follows.
MSI K8N NEO-2 Plat
AMD 64x2 3800+
OCZ Plat. Pc3200 DDR400 2x1gig
Seagate Barracuda 500gig SATA
Sound Blaster X-Fi xtreme music
XFX 7950gt AGP
Enermax Liberty 500W PSU

[RemoWilliams]

Hi guys,

So I have been noticing that after playing for a couple of hours on certain servers (doesn't happen with any predicatability or reproducability) I can NOT see on the Titan and the buildings are just black outlines when I get on the ground.

I was wondering if this is a specific 7950GT problem or could it be something else?

Maybe I should change the settings to medium and see if that helps?

Don't know how much more air I could be giving this GPU, i just added a double sided slot card that blows cool air directly onto the GPU's fan...

And I have like over 250 cfms of air blowing through this well ventilated case.

I am not overclocking the card, based on what you guys have shown me.

Anyone? Bueller?

Thanks in advance, Remo

[Miker]

What drivers and RAM do you have?

Also, what temps does your CPU get too.

Also, try with no CPU overclock.

[PP Mguire]

I was about to order the Zalman VGA cooler until I saw it has a 3 pin connector and not a 2 pin for the video card, how am I able to power the fan if it cannot have power on the video card?Easy, take note where your red cable is when the stock fan is plugged in then when you go to plug your Zalman cooler in take the white thing off (Use some needle nose) and just plug it in. Make sure the red cable is in the same spot.

[RemoWilliams]

What drivers and RAM do you have?

Also, what temps does your CPU get too.

Also, try with no CPU overclock.

Ok right, guess I left the RAM out of the sig on accident...

I am using Mushkin Redline DDR500 PC4000 1Gb x 2. The slight overclock on the CPU is necessary to run the dimms @ DDR 500 speeds. Previously to now I've never experienced any problems. GPU-Z reports that my card never goes above 51C when gaming. The CPU reaches temps around 52-54C, of course depending on ambient temps in this (HOT) room of my house that gets Eastern exposure. Since I live in Orlando, FL, this room stays about 26-28C in the summer, even when I crank the A/C down to 74F.

Drivers are the most current on the Nvidia website, I believe I have the
6.14.11.7516 driver, so it would be the 175.16.

Remo

[Miker]

7950GT AGP is super picky on drivers, changes are 7950 AGP + that driver + BF = bad.