All Sapphire 7950s (11196-19-20G) are not suitable for mining?

hulk

sr. member

Activity: 392

Merit: 250

Quote from: lapja on April 23, 2014, 11:06:10 AM

I explained to the store that these cards were all burning even though held at optimum conditions. They apparently tested them and they sent me today 3 replacements but with Sapphire R9 280 instead of HD 7950. (Not the 280X version!). i think it is essentially the same card but just a different series.

I still have another 3 burned 7950 cards to send back, but they said that it would be ok to replace those too with R9 280.

The fact is that the HD 7950s fire up at a whopping 300 W against 220 W for the R9 280, while having a slightly higher hashrate. So I'm happy to exchange them.

But the problem is R9 280 cost cheaper then R9 280x. So they should do like partial refund or some free accessories..

Handofmidas

member

Activity: 61

Merit: 10

Update: In my previous post all my cards were working. Now all three A1351 cards are dead.

SpeedDemon13

hero member

Activity: 518

Merit: 500

A lot of people forget to have good core components, ie. PSU, MB, etc. A PSU can ruin the whole system, ie. burnt gpu cards. Don't go cheap on the PSU especially.

SaRmY

full member

Activity: 645

Merit: 100

Quote from: lapja on April 23, 2014, 11:06:10 AM

I explained to the store that these cards were all burning even though held at optimum conditions. They apparently tested them and they sent me today 3 replacements but with Sapphire R9 280 instead of HD 7950. (Not the 280X version!). i think it is essentially the same card but just a different series.

I still have another 3 burned 7950 cards to send back, but they said that it would be ok to replace those too with R9 280.

The fact is that the HD 7950s fire up at a whopping 300 W against 220 W for the R9 280, while having a slightly higher hashrate. So I'm happy to exchange them.

Yeah, you had luck with the change because the R9 280 has a bit more hashrate than the 7950 and I'm sure that has more quality.

lapja

newbie

Activity: 6

Merit: 0

I explained to the store that these cards were all burning even though held at optimum conditions. They apparently tested them and they sent me today 3 replacements but with Sapphire R9 280 instead of HD 7950. (Not the 280X version!). i think it is essentially the same card but just a different series.

I still have another 3 burned 7950 cards to send back, but they said that it would be ok to replace those too with R9 280.

The fact is that the HD 7950s fire up at a whopping 300 W against 220 W for the R9 280, while having a slightly higher hashrate. So I'm happy to exchange them.

SaRmY

full member

Activity: 645

Merit: 100

I have recently news about the subject...
The online store returned me the money that I paid for three fried gpus because Sapphire failed to repair these cards since more than 6 weeks working in it Shocked

so the problem it's more gravely than I suspected.

lapja

newbie

Activity: 6

Merit: 0

I had bought 7 actually from this famous 11196-19-20G serie, SN A13510xxxxxxxx

Thay ran fine 24/7 for a few days... then one after the other 6 out of 7 were out. Three of them in the spectacular purple smoke fashion described above.

In the begining I was suspecting power variations and I ran out and bought a power stabiliser. But that did not prevent another 7950 to burn right before my eyes.

Power supplies (by the way two of them do not work any longer following the purple somke episodes) were 80 plus gold or platinum. I did not overclock my cards while mining and tried to keep them as cool as possible with latteral fans blowing on both sides. Temperatures stayed always below 68° C.

I checked out in the internet and apparently there are several similar stories with these cards.

I had also several 270x from Sapphire in the same rigs that the faulty 7950 and they seem to run fine despite the sparks and smoke that burnt the 7950.

I also have other cards and not a single one of my other cards have had a glitch. I am not an expert but clearly the 7950 (or at least the 11196-19-20G serie) are unreliable compared to other models.

induktor

hero member

Activity: 710

Merit: 502

Quote from: SaRmY on March 28, 2014, 10:55:56 AM

The problem with Sapphire is only with the model 11196-19-20G and only with specific Serial numbers. Vapor editions have more quality components except with the fans that i think are holy crap in most Sapphire cards.

Huh!, didn't knew that, none of my cards are 19-20G, and yes, I agree vaporX fans are CRAP.
I only have 3 vaporx cards, that I bought them months ago for testing, crap!, the fan died, and have to replaced with server quality fans.

That didn't happened with OC Boost, and Flex models which fans are better, still they require to disassemble them and oil the bearings every other month, but other than that, they are almost....good.
The real shitty fans are the MSI's R9 ones, geez!, I bought 10 cards to test them out, all of the fans died within 30 days!, unbelievable!.

SaRmY

full member

Activity: 645

Merit: 100

Quote from: induktor on March 27, 2014, 07:02:10 PM

Hello
just want to make a small comment.
I have a couple of farms with sapphire 7950s, but mines are 16-20G not 19, I have close to 100 cards, and never ever burned one. (I do however, have to repair fans every week).

-First maintain the card's VRM below 80 Degrees it is a must!, keep them BUG FREE (I mean real bugs, you know biological ones, I often have some ant or small spider get in there and fried, and that hangs the card, as soon as I clean the bug's remains, the card works again).

-Second never EVER OC over 950 Mhz.

I can see a LOT of people here overclocking at 1050Mhz, that's NUTS, man these cards are designed to 860Mhz, push them to 950 is already too much, but 1050 is absolutely insane!.

I operate my cards at 950 MHz except in the summer where I lower them to standard default clock of 860Mhz, yes, I make less money, yes I babysit my cards, but the cards are still there... all of them, after more than 7 months working 24/7

think about it, besides the difference in profitablity doesn't worth burning a single card.

The problem with Sapphire is only with the model 11196-19-20G and only with specific Serial numbers. Vapor editions have more quality components except with the fans that i think are holy crap in most Sapphire cards.

induktor

hero member

Activity: 710

Merit: 502

Hello
just want to make a small comment.
I have a couple of farms with sapphire 7950s, but mines are 16-20G not 19, I have close to 100 cards, and never ever burned one. (I do however, have to repair fans every week).

-First maintain the card's VRM below 80 Degrees it is a must!, keep them BUG FREE (I mean real bugs, you know biological ones, I often have some ant or small spider get in there and fried, and that hangs the card, as soon as I clean the bug's remains, the card works again).

-Second never EVER OC over 950 Mhz.

I can see a LOT of people here overclocking at 1050Mhz, that's NUTS, man these cards are designed to 860Mhz, push them to 950 is already too much, but 1050 is absolutely insane!.

I operate my cards at 950 MHz except in the summer where I lower them to standard default clock of 860Mhz, yes, I make less money, yes I babysit my cards, but the cards are still there... all of them, after more than 7 months working 24/7

think about it, besides the difference in profitablity doesn't worth burning a single card.

SaRmY

full member

Activity: 645

Merit: 100

Quote from: Cryptomuncher on March 26, 2014, 10:22:26 PM

I have 10 of these cards and have been running for 4 months now. Only one so far Lips sealed

has had a fan die on it. They run around 75C and haven't shown any signs of dying. I do need to dust them off though. Wink

Have you gpus with SN such as A13510002XXXX or A135000034XXX? These cards with these SN, no working in my case more than 3 months 24/7.

RMA with Sapphire is very slow, more than 3 weeks and two of my dead gpus haven't been repaired yet (they said me that the problem isn't identified yet)

Cryptomuncher

newbie

Activity: 17

Merit: 0

I have 10 of these cards and have been running for 4 months now. Only one so far Lips sealed

has had a fan die on it. They run around 75C and haven't shown any signs of dying. I do need to dust them off though. Wink

Crindon

sr. member

Activity: 434

Merit: 250

I was using them, seemed perfectly fine to me. I kept the temps around 68°C to 73°C.

Burgertm

newbie

Activity: 9

Merit: 0

I've been running 3 of them in a rig 24/7 for about 3 months now. No problems whatsoever.

talkingnonstop

newbie

Activity: 33

Merit: 0

Sapphire 7950s (11196-19-20G) ?
OK, am just planning to buy , now i change my mind, thank you.

noegzit

member

Activity: 104

Merit: 10

I bought 10 of them from 3 different vendors around January.

I got 4 from the same vendor with serial numbers A135000034xxx : 2 of them didn't last more than a month. (The 2 remaining gpus from this batch are still mining).

6 are from 2 other vendors and have different SN A135200017xxx, A140400054xxx and different bios, I have a mix of Hynix and Elpida RAM and till now I had no problem with them.

Handofmidas

member

Activity: 61

Merit: 10

Just found this thread, it is shocking to read about all these issues. I have 8 of these cards and after reading all the posts here I immediately checked my S/Ns. So I have 3x 1350 and 3x 1351 in my collection and I am a bit worried now. I haven't experienced any problems with them yet, they are running 24/7 for about 1.5 months now. I run them at stock clocks (925/1250) and undervolt to 1006-1056. Temps are 60-73 Celsius.

So do we have any facts about the source of issues? Or only assumptions? Has Sapphire made a statement anywhere? The manufacturer should know best of all of us. Are all cards from the 1350/1351 batch affected or only a portion within these serial numbers? Questions which needs answering, rather sooner than later. Summer is comming soon and we don't want more fried gpus.

I can confirm that the fans are crap. Had already RMAd two cards in the past as they had issues. Hope the others will do better.

Has anyone already experience with the Sapphire R9 280 (non-x) cards? 11230-00-20G do they have better fans? Or are they bad as well?

sgggassfg

newbie

Activity: 7

Merit: 0

Just had a reply from RMA today for a card I sent in a couple of weeks back. Apparently they are low on stock. This could mean Sapphire is working on a revision? Or it could mean nothing at all and the shop is just short on cards.

Any other guys having to wait long for their latest RMA's? They said they expect new cards around the 2nd of April...

andydabeast

member

Activity: 98

Merit: 10

just now starting the RMA process for my sapphire 7950. A fan started buzzing on it, wobbling, led to load tems at 100C, and only 250kh/sec (scrypt)...

sgggassfg

newbie

Activity: 7

Merit: 0

I have 2 new fried cards here (took about 3 weeks to fry each of them, they broke down about 3 weeks apart). Again, no overclocking, no firmware modifications.

These cards are absolute crap. I don't understand how any shop still sells them.

I'm going to RMA them one last time and dump them on the second hand market as soon as I get them back. This'll be the 7th time I send a card back within 4 months.

SKU (both cards): 11196-19
And both cards are: A135100030xxx

Topic: All Sapphire 7950s (11196-19-20G) are not suitable for mining? (Read 16785 times)