Asus HD7950-DC2T-3GD5-v.2 - any chance of getting locked one?

[Mephic]

Hi

I own a GTX 560 Ti DC II card - it clocks really well. I can go 990 MHz on core and 2200 MHz on memory without a hiccup at 1,083v so it's a really good piece staying under 70 degrees on stock air DCII cooler.

Still for last few weeks I was looking for something which will give me some nice performance boost. I decided that my choice will be Radeon 7950 - thought about 7870 XT but I decided not to buy a crippled card.

Anyway - I took the cheapest HD 7950 Gigabyte Windforce 3x. It came with FZ0 bios, voltage hardware locked (flashing - no luck), and it OC'ed to... nothing. It wasn't even stable on stock 1000MHz/core with 1,25v!!!

That card was a disaster - RMA.

I decided to choose between Sapphire DualX Boost 7950 @925 MHz and Asus HD7950-DC2T-3GD5-v.2 - finally, after lot of thinking and reading that v2 cooler is much better than v1 fail, I ordered it. It will come tommorow with Crysis 3, Bioshock Infinite and Far Cry 3 codes which is cool.

Now my question - what is the chance to get this card voltage locked? Why they are being voltage locked (not sure if they are but...) if Asus says on the webpage that it's designed for voltage raising and overclocking?

And finally - if it will be voltage locked is there any BIOS flash option to unlock it?

Thanks in advance, I'm a little beat scared cause this card was the most expensive 7950 available in my country. Still hope it will OC great.

[Mephic]

OK... I got the card.

And I must say this is the best card which I ever had!

I can do 1075 MHz Core and 5400 MHz vram on stock voltage. (1,093v)
Than also the voltages are unlocked so I had no problems with 1200 MHz on core -> 1,21v

The card has also possibility to set vram voltage and all the sensors which I need (vrm temp, vram temp, core temp) - I love it! And the cooling system is the best I've ever seen. During idle it never goes over 10% and card is under 30 degrees. During load, after OC the fans go 25% max (!!!) and the card stays below 63 degrees. It's just crazy! The card itself is huge but the fact that the cooler is metal not plastic makes me feel much more confident that it will stay alive for long time It looks and performs awesome. No problem getting past 7970 performance. This was the most expensive 7950 in my country, but now I know why.

[DJ_OXyGeNe_8]

How did you unlock?

I've ASUS Top, no chance?

[PurYca]

Hi,
i also have a 7950 DC2T-V2, and i agree entirely that the card is literally ... OMFG!
Cold like needle, great overclock capabilities and most importantly ... fans are so quiet.
I hold it for 24/7 on 1000/1500 (1.138V), fans are set to manual through MSI AB and card never reached 55 degrees. (fans are max. on 40%)
I tune voltage and clock through MSI AB. I worked on these guidelines: link

[Mephic]

Sorry to say but my card died after 48 hours. It started to artifact literally everything. Tried different drivers, tried decreasing OC to stock, tried even underclocking - probably memory down. I RMA'd it and got myself MSI 660Ti Power Edition... after 2 RMA'd 7950 cards during one week I will NEVER EVER go with ATI again. My Asus GTX 560 Ti had no problems ever, before had other Nvidia cards, and now made this stupid decision to go ATI.

Maybe it works for some - for me it didn't. I also consulted two computer/gpu services in my city - both said to take NV because last 7950/7970 series have lot of problems. They get at least 8-10 cards RMA'd/day! This is ridiculous.

And why I took MSI over Asus 660Ti? Main reason is memory and VRM cooling... still hope it won't be wrong decision.

[DJ_OXyGeNe_8]

I did it before, never worked for me.