Gainward 7900GT 512MB Golden Sample

[Vito]

I have one of these cards on the way, and am wondering, which vmods will work on these cards, do they use the same pcb as a 7900GT or GTX??

any help would be appreciated?

[nn_step]

they have Cherry picked cores and ram, so you might want to benchmark it before you voltmod it...

[Drunner611]

Yes, please bench for us. What was the price you paid, just curious if it can perform with a 1900xt when its vmodded even though its cheaper, I think.

[Vito]

Will have it Tuesday, payed $600 Australian,

have a zalman vf900 coming too, so will get it clocking and get some pics up

[EnJoY]

That is one expensive 7900GT you got there.

[Vito]

yeah hope 512mb and 1.2ns mem is worth it, that is inc postage as well

[graham_h]

That is one expensive 7900GT you got there.

I think its one damn cheap GTX .......!!!

Performance will be near identical. Mine arrives on Monday

[graham_h]

ok some Hi-Res pics

http://www.tigerdirect.com.au/images...eftsidepcb.jpg

http://www.tigerdirect.com.au/images...llcardback.jpg

so where to start on the GPU V mod ?

[topfuel]

Originally Posted by Vito

yeah hope 512mb and 1.2ns mem is worth it, that is inc postage as well

any confirmation that it is 1.2ns and not 1.4ns??

[graham_h]

it is 1.2ns ram. I haven't touched it yet for o/c just trying to find max core

Running very well at 640mhz with the stock 1.2v

[alpha0ne]

Hmmm even at default clocks of 550/700 my Gainward shows artifacts during 3D Mark '05

Anything over 720 on the ram and the whole system reboots

[Andy-Goodwin]

Graham_h:

I know it's not overclock related, but is there any chance you could measure the card and let me know how long it is? I have been trying for weeks now to find out as I want to stick one of them in a very SFF rig I am building at the moment but space is at a premium.

Sorry for the off topic post.



Andy

[alpha0ne]

Originally Posted by Andy-Goodwin

Graham_h:

I know it's not overclock related, but is there any chance you could measure the card and let me know how long it is? I have been trying for weeks now to find out as I want to stick one of them in a very SFF rig I am building at the moment but space is at a premium.

Sorry for the off topic post.Andy

Its 218mm long

[Andy-Goodwin]

Originally Posted by alpha0ne

Its 218mm long

That's longer than a 7900 GTX! Buggeration! I only have 200mm to play with

Thanks for the quick reply

[graham_h]

Thanks Alpha

[resonatorman]

Anything new on the voltmod?

[humeyboy]

My Gainward 7800GS+ 512MB AGP (7900GT core) is nearly same layout as that and its also got Samsung 1.2ns ram.

I had the Gainward 7800GS non+512MB AGP (7800GT core) with Infin 1.4ns ram but returned after few days then this new one was announced.

I too eagerly await mod info.

[alpha0ne]

The PCB and power reg components and layout is identical to the 7800GS 512MB version

Maybe that would explain why there is problems with ram OC'ing and why my card was so bad (totally dead now )

[graham_h]

back on topic....... progress here > http://forums.vr-zone.com/showthread...54#post1731954

[Kin Hell]

Originally Posted by alpha0ne

Hmmm even at default clocks of 550/700 my Gainward shows artifacts during 3D Mark '05

Anything over 720 on the ram and the whole system reboots

Your Shiny New Gainward 7900GT Golden sample will be calling 110W, my SLI needs 220W (BFG 7900GT's), my Opteron 175 CPU 110W, 3 x Hard drives @ 30W, 2 x DVD ROMS @ 15W, floppy 10-15W, DFI Expert Mobo giving 4+V on DDR, couple of case lights @ 20W;
...Phew, so far I make 480W draw upto the case lights, not counting the Mobo requirement & this 530W Tagan I'm using,...
It's holding up real well, but it's not enough when I overclock the PC. Sure, 310fsb is okay, but OC the cards & I get Error reports with the graphics driver. Set the PC on std fsb & voltages, the cards O/C without issues, the cards go to 586/1640, no mods, ...from 475/1360.
Heck, I forgot to mention SB Audigy 2 Platinum Pro,...jepers...forgot the fans.....Then you over clock it & the System becomes unstable......
Do check your system over, these new GPU's, CPU's are smaller & faster, but the power demands are going through the roof. We now see Quad SLI PSU's at 900W & 1.1KW, & the "Rolls Royce" of all PSU's:#
http://www.extremeprometeia.com/acat..._Supplies.html
Do check your PSU is upto it. If you're using a Molex to 6 pin converter to power the card, & u have lots of Hardware hanging off the PSU, you might just be not getting the right voltages to the Card. It really is worth checking out bud.
I'd love a PSU as above, but can't justify £300 for the 850W, the 520W isn't going to be enough. However, the beauty of thos PSU's are that when under FULL load, none of the Rails Budge...No Deflection, just rock solid. They also use Single Rail rather than Dual rail, so the whole PSU gives an even spread over its entire Amperage. The Dual Rail PSU's are not very well balanced, they're safer, but if you run much more than 3 hard drives, your PSU is going to die faster than "chocolate Fire Guard".
It'd be nice to see you diagnose why u cant over-clock...those cards go to nearly 680/1650+, no mods, & I cant say who it is for advertising reasons, but they are in the trade!
Good luck!
*Edit When you try to Over-clock the GPU, it's power draw will be going into the 7900GTX realms, in-so-far as, ......to make the GPU Work faster, it needs more Wattage for the demand in speed*
*2nd Edit - 2 x 512Mb Gainward 7900GT's will be here tommorow with a 700W PSU.....I'll drop some results as soon as possible.

[Kin Hell]

Okay, the Gainwards are in & so is the 700W FSP Sparkle. Not happy with the PSU as the 5v is undervolting at 4.87v, so the hard drives won't be getting quite as much as they should on their 5v demands. The made in China Sticker on the PSU's case really narked me.
Ended up having an issue with my whole rig, was at 310fsb under a VapoChill XEII until I swapped to the Sparkle. Cutting a long story short, my Vapo nF4 Expert decided to turn itself into a swimming pool.
The usual bs with these Vapos, obviously a short on the Core Temp sensor so the heater elements never turned on & the whole area around the clam Shell looked like a Heavy Morning Dew...ffs! Stripped it all down & gave it 12 hours in front of a de-humidifier, chucked it all back in the Lian Li case on Air @ 275fsb. Just thank f'k the board never fired up with all that water on it!
The cards, hmm...not as OC-able as the 256Mb BFG's , but there would appear to be an issue with OC-ing the Ram on these Gainward 512Mb GT cards. Running Detect Optimal frequencies took the cores to 582 & the ram to 782. As soon as I ran anything 3D, corrupt screen & forced to reset. Cards reset themselves to 550/700, so I tried playing Fear, feeliing somewhat peeved to say the least. OMG at the 512Mb Ram over 256, quite Impressive & very very playable at 1600 x 1200 with EVERYTHING to the MAX. I couldn't do this Res on the 2 SLI'd 256 BFG's. Just to mention here, the BFG's are RMA'd cos one of the Caps near the PCI connector is only connecting by 1 of its legs. Apparantly a packaging fault & having had 3 others swapped out on a friends rig, I wasn't going to risk the same bs again; Hence the Gainwards.
After an hour of Fear, I went back to OC the cards, but did it manually & tested the changes. The Cores MAX, with no increase on the Ram yeilded 658 without an error report on the Frequencies.
The Rams MAX, with no increase on the Cores yeilded 756 without a Frequency error for testing it.
The final combined result without any Frequency Errors was 656/754 and also no Corrupt screens when running anything 3D.
Not so sure everything is as good as it could be & the PSU undervolting on it's 5V rail just might mean it gets its Ass RMA'd.
Fear At 1280 x 960 with Everything on to the Max is very good. Minimum FPS is 49, Average 97 & the in game Bench has all its Average FPS in the Top slot only. Despite the Over Clocking via Coolbits "Detect Optimal Frequencies" being questionable & the doubts about this PSU, these cards really do perform much better overall than the 256Mb cards. Gunno go see if I can see all the areas of 3DMark 06 with AA & Aniso whacked on! The 256Mb cards refused to display all areas of the Demo for this.
*edit* Black screen on 03....had to back the cards right off from off 656/754 just to get 3DMark 03 to run, and cant find a stable speed atm. Now thinking about hoofing the Faulty BFG's back in just for taking this Made in China PSU outta the equation once & for all.
*edit 2* Hmm, Despite a fresh Install, these Gainwards find their Optimal OC Speeds & then refuse to run anything 3D without locking up. If I OC them & then lock up, the whole PC eventually resets itself. If I dont overclock the cards, hitting Ctrl-Alt-Del Several times, sprinkled with a couple of firm hits on the Esc key and the odd Alt-Tab gets it back to desktop from the Locked up 3D prog. Delving deeper, Postal kicks to desktop with an error & HL2 based games lock up the whole Rig. I also notice the balsted FSP Sparkle Isn't lighting up the 120mm Fan....JFHC @ this abomination.
Oh yeah, despite the 2 BFG's both having half-knocked off Capacitors, they both run & overclock somewhat without buggering the Whole PC. This is definately RMA time!

[Kin Hell]

Okay, as an update to above, we have now got a single Gainward 7900GT GS 512 running @ 635/760 without any mods & artifact free on ATI Tool. I have a Tagan 480W PSU running this card, but the RMA'd 700W FSP Sparkle wouldnt allow this card to run these speeds. Amazing eh!

I've done the right thing at last and bought 1 of these today!:

The Mother of ALL PSU's

Should be here this Friday, along with my replacement Second 7900 GT GS.
Very impressed at a 2 day Delivery from USA to UK via UPS...Awesome!

[Kin Hell]

These cards just get too hot in my Lian Li PC75 Server case & Airflow isn't really an Issue. But One card just cooks the other & it isn't down to Core Temps either. The XFX XXX 7900GX2 clocks to 785/820 & doesn't ever slow up with my side panel off. I have seen the Core Htting 74 Deg C on this GX2 card, whereas the Gainwards when installed in SLI would only ever show 58 Deg C tops, but Freeze cause BSOD's. My supplier suggested it was probably my DFI nF4 SLI Expert casuing the issues, yet if the Gainwards were Downlclocked, I never had ANY issues what-so-ever!?!?!?

Summat was getting vey hot & wasn't liking it in the slightest!