Never Watercool XFX HD7970 -> problem..

K

krthush

New member
So... finally I managed to fit a waterblock onto the XFX piece of crap card (soz for being so annoyed at them, but they literally wasted £400 of mine, when I should just gotta an asus reference card)...

For those who have no clue about what I'm talk about, let me give you a quick summary: few months ago the XFX HD7970 Black Edition Double Dissipation, used to use a reference PCB from AMD -> i.e. you would have been able to water-cool them. So I thought since they were being sold quite cheap, to get one of them and then overclock it to basically a GHz edition standard. Guess what?! XFX being they dicks they are, decided to change the PCB without warning anyone... even EKB's configurator was wrong.. So my waterblock would not fit on. After modding the waterblock and adding some passive ramsinks, I somehow managed to pull it all together!! LUCKY ME...

You would now wonder what my problem is... Well! I tried to overclock the card, and it seems like it wouldn't budge over its stock clocks, it would just immediately get artifacts and die. Now you may say I would have fitted the water block on badly.. but my temps barely go over 40 degrees, after like many hours of usage and even after raising the clocks. First problem: Any idea on how to actually overclock this card?

(on a side note, I suspect the reason XFX did the PCB switch, was so that they can lock the voltages/clocks, and purposely stop people from overclocking the card -> so we would get more expensive cards with higher clocks, but that's just me thinking XFX are dicks...)

But now an even more annoying and worrying problem is occurring.. AT STOCK CLOCKS, I've seen some very quick flashes of artifacts in-game, though small and barely noticeable, I have noticed them and it angers me. Any ideas on why this card is being such a nuisance? ;(

(Sorry for the hate on XFX, but so far my experience is that they aren't a very good company for the overclockers and watercoolers of the pcb world -> the warranty is broken even if you open the card up >.> )
 
XFX used to be a decent company.
The recent cards though have been awful.

The coolers perform worse, and also louder even than the reference ones!

I'm not sure if they changed the PCB to lock clocks down, or to save the cost to AMD... But whatever they did, the cards overclock terribly. I'd put it more down to the power delivery or something on the XFX PCB than it being locked down - hence why the card isn't stable at stock clocks.

I wouldn't really be calling them 'dicks' for changing the PCB though... They don't have you honour you watercooling their cards, and they openly say they don't by you losing the warranty when you take it off. It's fair enough if they want to change their PCB in order to save costs. They aren't obligated to notify EK if they change it, you've just been unlucky.

But, it definitely isn't right that they've done a terrible on their own PCB. But having said that, overclocking is always a bonus...and with or without overclocks, under £200 for a 7950 is a great deal.
 
Ye, sorry about being so rude to XFX, but as you said I got unlucky and I am very angry about it. I'll now have to wait ages and save up for probs a 8970 or the next gen after that, till my PC actually is beastly XDD
 
Specifics such as dates and part numbers could help many of us understand your issue. Noticed Swiftech for example, indicates certain XFX 7970 (2 of 4) models are NOT compatible with their water blocks.

James... What does "awful" or "coolers perform worse and also louder even than the reference ones" mean in "geek" or "enthusiast" terms??
 
Ok.. guys! I'll try and rescue you from getting into a problem like me.. DO NOT get any of the XFX Black Edition Double Disappation cards (i.e. look at this, the part no. is on there, http://www.ekwb.com/news/233/19/New-revision-od-XFX-7970-cards-brings-compatibility-issues/). JUST DON'T RISK IT FOR A BISCUIT, these XFX cards will screw you over if you plan to fit ANY full card water-block. Get a reference HD 7970 from another company like Sapphire, even if its more expensive...
 
In Regards to this,
Alphacool make waterblocks compatitble with ALL xfx 7970 cards,
you just need to research before you slag a company off.
ill even help you out with the compatibility list
r2Bb37n.png
 
OcSurfer said:
In Regards to this,
Alphacool make waterblocks compatitble with ALL xfx 7970 cards,
you just need to research before you slag a company off.
ill even help you out with the compatibility list
r2Bb37n.png
Click to expand...

SOOOOOOO..... EASY to say now, after about 3-5months since the problem became noticed?! Remember I bought this card around October?! I.E. the "research" you get now IS DIFFERENT to the "research" then... When I was poking around back then NOTHING came up. So can you please stop telling me to research? As I did do my fair share of research back then and since this problem wasn't that popular, it didn't come up so unless you expected me to go through every single page on the XFX card just stop blaming me :P
 
i just bought 2 XFX black edition single fan 7950's am i going to suffer the same issues then?:eek:
 
Last edited:
yarp :( Sry for you man ^^ Whats your waterblock?? I managed to take mine apart, and do it, but had to use some separate heat sinks.
 
The single editions are reference according to cooling configurator, but it doesn't have the AMD branding so it could just be reference design but manufactured by XFX.
 
krthush said:
LOL. http://www.aquatuning.co.uk/product...TI-7970-50-series-V2---polished---copper.html

This waterblock you just SAID was compatible, IS NOT AT ALL. PLEASE ANYONE WHO SAW THE POST, DON'T BUY IT. I know from personal experience that this waterblock WON'T fit. OcSurfer don't mislead people...
Click to expand...

Unfortunatly for you, i have 2 xfx black editions with waterblocks, so shoot me down all you like, using sarcasm and generally being rude its a brilliant way to get a reputation
 
The thing is the configurator is probs wrong and UNRELIABLE, I'm pretty sure my personal experience of actually doing is better proof than the visual check the the config does :S

Anyone know the key steps in BIOS flashing? I want to BIOS flash the graphics card to a reference card (e.g. reference asus hd7970) so that I can get access to the voltage controls. Would be nice if some one could talk me through the key steps :D?
 
krthush said:
LOL. http://www.aquatuning.co.uk/product_info.php/info/p13592_Alphacool-NexXxoS-ATXP-ATI-7970-50-series-V2---polished---copper.html

This waterblock you just SAID was compatible, IS NOT AT ALL. PLEASE ANYONE WHO SAW THE POST, DON'T BUY IT. I know from personal experience that this waterblock WON'T fit. OcSurfer don't mislead people...
Click to expand...

ALSO, that is a V2 cooler, if you look at the list, the one you will need is a V1, so please, get it right before you slag me off?
also, if you would post the serial it would help us out,
for example mine is FX-797A-TDBC[FONT=Calibri,Bold][FONT=Calibri,Bold]

[/FONT][/FONT]
 
Should I even bother replying... First of all.. the "part no." you listed is irrelevant (I.E. I have the same part no. as you :P). It DEPENDS on the date you got the card, the part no. of the card is still the same....

Second...THIS...http://www.aquatuning.de/product_in...-50-Serie---Edelstahl-geb-rstet---Silber.html

Is even worse, since the Inductors for the current PCB protrude and so the full cover on this waterblock will render it unable to fit onto the card. I'd bet the XFX cards you have are the previous version ones, before the PCB switch.

Finally... PLEASE stop telling people to use these certain water blocks, just because it worked for you a few months ago, IT DOESN'T WORK NOW. Your misleading people, and I'm trying to prevent you from doing that, not get reputation.
 
Still a few months ago, but without knowing much about this competition, I'm going to suggest that most competitions use previous models (which were maybe displayed/used as a demonstration/used for a review). So you may have been lucky and ended up with a reference PCB. Why am I even trying to prove whether or not they've changed the PCB XDD. It has definitely happened, proved by many people, just go back a few posts, there's a link by some guy to EK's website saying it happened.
 
im not saying the PCB hasnt been changed, Mine is a newer card, but the alphacool block definatly fits it, just because EK blocks do not fit does not mean others will not
 
My block wasn't an EK one... I am sure the block you have will not fit for the newer models, since its almost exactly the same as mine XD. TBH its even worse than mine in terms of tolerating for the increased size in the inductors with the newer PCBs.
Best way to check if your card is actually one of the newer models or not, is to check how many dvi ports there are? how many are there?
 
theres 2 which is why i said its a newer card......
i emails alphacool to make sure before i bought the block and they confirmed that, hey presto, it fits.
 
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