AMD HD 7950 Boost Clock BIOS Update

[W1zzard]

AMD just released a free BIOS upgrade for the Radeon HD 7950, which provides an extra speed boost by updating the company's PowerTune algorithm. We will thoroughly test this update and not only look at performance but also power consumption and heat.

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[Casecutter]

Told you!

 

[HD64G]

Nice work Wiz! Dual BIOS is a nice addition to top GPUs. Gives some power to future addons on sold products.

 

[NHKS]

Increased voltage will lead to increased stability at higher clock speeds, which is probably required to ensure that all cards can handle the increased clocks. Unfortunately this means that power consumption is increased, by around 20% during typical gaming, which seems to be a bad trade considering 5% performance improvement. I am a bit worried that AMD is cannibalizing on the hard work of their GPU development team to reduce power consumption - we've seen the same on the HD 7970 GHz Edition. As result the HD 7950 Boost has 15% worse performance per Watt compared to the original HD 7950 design.

sums it up..

 

[okidna]

"Unfortunately this means that power consumption is increased, by around 20% during typical gaming"

Great extras

 

[m1dg3t]

Thanks for the quick/thorough write up W1zz

Doesn't look like ATi is heading in the right direction with these GPUs IMO. Glad i got mine when i did, thinking about snagging another one before they are all "Boost" equipped

 

[dj-electric]

Oh well... can't say i didnt expect this from AMD
Means nothing to an overclocker anyway...

 

[W1zzard]

Means nothing to an overclocker anyway...

the bios increases voltage and CCC limits, so it might be of some use to overclockers, too.

but i agree with you, in general better to just OC yourself

 

[cadaveca]

the bios increases voltage and CCC limits, so it might be of some use to overclockers, too.

but i agree with you, in general better to just OC yourself

Those voltage boosts are rather high compared to my cards, which run 0.95 V by default @ 900 MHz. I can run 1000 MHz with 1.07 V...

I hope we see some BIOSes for non-reference cards soon! Would make overclocking a bit easier with higher stock voltage!

 

[Sah7d]

I like the effort with the AMD cards, some fanboys have been saying that the GTX660Ti will sweep with the AMD market, even with just a few (3fps - 5fps) difference.

Many people didnt seems to care when the Nvidia GTX480/70 where a real beasts consuming energy and now all of the sudden it seems to care when AMD is practicing the same effort.

I like AMD and Nvidia but I dont like when nvidia products release a new card becouse it is all an exaggeration.

 

[revin]

Another great review W1z!
Where is the comp's to the 5870?
Are the 5870's going to be dropped from all reviews?
I still follow the scaling to keep up on where my 5870XXX Ed. falls to try to follow the trend on what is going to be my best second card to add on the Z68 board.

To me, I think any 6k card is still out so I'm hoping to find where the sweet spot in the 7k cards lay

 

[Hayder_Master]

Before and After, it's remind me with artists Facelift

 

[N3M3515]

So weird, 15% increase in clocks and only 5% increase in perf.
And 7970 has like a 12% increase in clocks and like a 10% inc in perf.
Something is wrong..

But anyhow it seems that this and the 660 ti will be in a dead heat.

 

[W1zzard]

Where is the comp's to the 5870?

5870 has been dropped from the latest rebench (just like GTX 480). unfortunately the local slave market was out of people who could benchmark graphics cards

 

[tt_martin]

the bios increases voltage and CCC limits, so it might be of some use to overclockers, too.

Yeah, you should probably check whether it helps or not.

So weird, 15% increase in clocks and only 5% increase in perf.
And 7970 has like a 12% increase in clocks and like a 10% inc in perf.
Something is wrong..

The memory frequency stays unchanged.

 

[Red_or_Dead]

Those voltage boosts are rather high compared to my cards, which run 0.95 V by default @ 900 MHz. I can run 1000 MHz with 1.07 V...

MSI HD7950 TF3

 

[cadaveca]

That's Nice, but I'll never use anything MSI, since they lie to me and make false promises(and yes, I can back that claim up, or I'd not be saying this). If that was ASUS, or any other brand, I'd have said "cool, nice cards", but they are MSI, so are garbage to me.

My cards do not clock quite as well, unfortunately, but at the same time, mine are also pulling very little power. My full rig, with IVB @ 4600 MHz, pulls under 400 W when gaming, with dual 7950's.

Don't get me wrong, that's just my personal opinion, not TPU's opinion, but I have no love nor respect for MSI and their products.

 

[HumanSmoke]

Many people didnt seems to care when the Nvidia GTX480/70 where a real beasts consuming energy and now all of the sudden it seems to care when AMD is practicing the same effort.

Maybe you should acquaint yourself with the truth rather than some idealized concept regurgitated from fanboys of a different stripe

...becouse it is all an exaggeration.

I tend to think along the same lines with some of the hyperbole-riddled posts that tend to pop up in the aftermath of graphics reviews.

 

[Assimilator]

So the 7950 now draws more power than the GTX 670 but still can't beat that card. Not seeing the point of this BIOS release...

 

[Jstn7477]

Is this BIOS safe to attempt to flash on an XFX FX-795A-TDFC? I'd just like to know as I'm sick of the 500MHz UVD clock (which I have to disable ULPS to avoid) and the screen randomly twitching when going to certain webpages or even just using normal programs. I've had a ton of problems with both my XFX cards (RMA'd the first one because a fan broke literally 3 weeks after purchase). Had to increase PowerTune to 20% to even get the card at stock to run better than my 6950 did, card gets to 87c at 1000/1450 1.05v and XFX denies any problems with their cards...

 

[happita]

This means that I probably won't be getting a 7950 after all. Looks like I will just be side-grading kinda...to a 7850

The memory frequency stays unchanged.

Well, to be honest....increasing memory frequency rarely, if ever, increases gaming performance much at all. So I think it's best that they left it alone anyway, but from a marketer's standpoint it would be a sin to not make those numbers look bigger to that big dough-eyed customer out on the floor of an electronics retail store.

 

[alexsubri]

In all honesty, is this worth it? I already bricked my 2nd Bios , and my Sapphire OC Edition 7950 runs fine at 1125/1275

 

[Omar24Kobe]

That's Sounds nice ... what about the reference 7970 ???

 

[I'm your huckleberry]

The Anandtech review mentions that in most games, they noticed a continual fluctuation of the cock speed from the boost to the base state. Is this something that was noticed in your review as well?

 

[happita]

they noticed a continual fluctuation of the cock speed from the boost to the base state.

Completely unneccessary, but I just lol'd real hard