Help overclocking my 6970

[Thornton]

i have verry good air flow in my case, the only problem, i dont know what a sefe, core clock, memore clock, and gpu voltage are. im using TriXX and have the current default settings of 880 core, 1375 memory, and 1175 gpu voltage. what is the absolute MAX i could get away with, what is the absolute MAX i could SAFELY get away with, what is the most recomended, and what should i start off with as a beginner to graphics cards overclocking

 

[Thornton]

i have verry good air flow in my case, the only problem, i dont know what a sefe, core clock, memore clock, and gpu voltage are. im using TriXX and have the current default settings of 880 core, 1375 memory, and 1175 gpu voltage. what is the absolute MAX i could get away with, what is the absolute MAX i could SAFELY get away with, what is the most recomended, and what should i start off with as a beginner to graphics cards overclocking

oh ya, forgot to mention, it is all air cooled! no water cooling

 

[peaceful]

well, there's no actually absolute figures in getting away in Ocing, but an absolute safe should come on priority unless you lose a lifespam of stuff as it should be. In general speaking ocing, one amongst, is a matter of voltage which then affects directly to heat. So oc gpu is just like we do for CPU, only the resistance towards heat make them different.

From what i've read, the gpu could stand heat more than that of cpu. 60C gpu temp is catagorized warm while cpu is a bit hot, below 85C of gpu is still normal / safe zone, >85C to 100C hot and >100C very hot .

First to do is up the clock by 25 mhz and keep the voltage default, stress it with i,e furmark in a certain period. if ok, then up more 2nd 25 mhz and so on till you find it unstable. and if you want to push more clock, up the voltage per one increament till you find it stable. Always remember the temp which you can read while gpu's being stressed.

Have a good OC

 

[smarteyeball]

i dont know what a sefe, core clock, memore clock,

Whatever is stable and for longevities sake of the card, try to keep it under 85c.

and gpu voltage are.

1.3v is the BIOS limit for these cards.

On air (stock cooling), 1.2v-1.25v (temps permitting) is about the max you'd want to go.

And follow peaceful's method of slow increments during stability testing.

 

[Thornton]

well, there's no actually absolute figures in getting away in Ocing, but an absolute safe should come on priority unless you lose a lifespam of stuff as it should be. In general speaking ocing, one amongst, is a matter of voltage which then affects directly to heat. So oc gpu is just like we do for CPU, only the resistance towards heat make them different.

From what i've read, the gpu could stand heat more than that of cpu. 60C gpu temp is catagorized warm while cpu is a bit hot, below 85C of gpu is still normal / safe zone, >85C to 100C hot and >100C very hot .

First to do is up the clock by 25 mhz and keep the voltage default, stress it with i,e furmark in a certain period. if ok, then up more 2nd 25 mhz and so on till you find it unstable. and if you want to push more clock, up the voltage per one increament till you find it stable. Always remember the temp which you can read while gpu's being stressed.

Have a good OC

thank you very much. thanks to trixx, whether or not its the best program to use, i dont know, but they provide me with them and fan controll, when i play bf3 i never let it go above 70 degrees and thats with my case fans down and gpu fan t 43%. i know for most thats still a bit cold, but i like consistancy to tell me if somthing is wrong.
Seeing as how i am new to this, what are the ratios? of core/memory/Voltage.

thats another thing, i didnt really see you post anything about the memory clock from what i see, just the core clock. if you could help ansewer my questions as best you can, id greatly appreciate it

 

[M1GU31]

Use CCC, the safest overclocker imo and its by amd you can have it test the clocks before setting them to see if they are safe and if you don't want to set clocks, CCC can automatically test your system and give you settings the program thinks are most stable for you card

 

[Thornton]

Use CCC, the safest overclocker imo and its by amd you can have it test the clocks before setting them to see if they are safe and if you don't want to set clocks, CCC can automatically test your system and give you settings the program thinks are most stable for you card

my CCC does not have overdrive built in, i had to download it 3d party, but i dont trust it with my gpu, i have used it with my cpu before though. meany people say that it gives them the wrong performance settings at an unsafe level, id rather take some advice on how i can do it myself and see what the safe levels are my self or from people more experienced. arguably, amd is more experienced, but if its killed other peoples cards i dont exactly trust it myself iether

 

[badger906]

erm.. might i ask why you want to? up until a few weeks ago your card was one of the fastest single Gpu's around, only beaten by the 580gtx and the new 7970 (or what varients out now).

It would be a pointless achievement at best, you wont see improvements in game play as your already getting more than enough frames to spare. just my 2 cents well pence.. being a brit lol

 

[smarteyeball]

my CCC does not have overdrive built in,

It should. It's called AMD overdrive - you have to 'unlock' it.

i had to download it 3d party, but i dont trust it with my gpu,

If you're going to use 3rd party, use MSI Afterburner

As for clock speeds - each card is different. That's why you raise the core/mem clocks in increments.

Keep raising the core and mem speeds on stock volts until it fails, then you can up the volts. It's trial and error.

It would be a pointless achievement at best, you wont see improvements in game play as your already getting more than enough frames to spare.

BS :sarc:

By that 'reckoning' I wouldn't need to OC my 580, nor would I notice any difference by doing so - but I do OC it and I do notice a difference.

 

[iTRiP]

...

 

[M1GU31]

CCC should be built in and i trust it because it's made by AMD who else knows there amd cards better then amd does. Ye kind of agree with the others you won't notice any performance gains since it's so high end kind of pointless to OC unless your doing it for benchmarks and bragging rights i guess. I would just leave it but it's your card so do w/e you want to it

 

[peaceful]

well, there's no actually absolute figures in getting away in Ocing, but an absolute safe should come on priority unless you lose a lifespam of stuff as it should be. In general speaking ocing, one amongst, is a matter of voltage which then affects directly to heat. So oc gpu is just like we do for CPU, only the resistance towards heat make them different.

From what i've read, the gpu could stand heat more than that of cpu. 60C gpu temp is catagorized warm while cpu is a bit hot, below 85C of gpu is still normal / safe zone, >85C to 100C hot and >100C very hot .

First to do is up the clock by 25 mhz and keep the voltage default, stress it with i,e furmark in a certain period. if ok, then up more 2nd 25 mhz and so on till you find it unstable. and if you want to push more clock, up the voltage per one increament till you find it stable. Always remember the temp which you can read while gpu's being stressed.

Have a good OC

thank you very much. thanks to trixx, whether or not its the best program to use, i dont know, but they provide me with them and fan controll, when i play bf3 i never let it go above 70 degrees and thats with my case fans down and gpu fan t 43%. i know for most thats still a bit cold, but i like consistancy to tell me if somthing is wrong.
Seeing as how i am new to this, what are the ratios? of core/memory/Voltage.

thats another thing, i didnt really see you post anything about the memory clock from what i see, just the core clock. if you could help ansewer my questions as best you can, id greatly appreciate it

hai... Thorton may i ask you this :
what do u mean by "my CCC does not have overdrive built in"?
is it that "overdrive built in" which unlocks/bypasses CCC limit? if so, then you have to do some bios mod ( as i did with my hd5850 TF II - ccc overdrive limits to 775 core and 1125 mem - default 725/1000 ).

as with memory oc, do it just you oc the corelock. AFAIK there's no absolute ratios of core/memory and voltage. Besides memory increase has no significant affects to fps bump as that of core.

 

[smarteyeball]

Ye kind of agree with the others you won't notice any performance gains since it's so high end kind of pointless to OC unless your doing it for benchmarks and bragging rights i guess.

Once again - no.

Depending on the game and overclock, it can be the difference between a smooth and solid 60FPS with no framerate dips, or a higher min framerate when it does drop.

There's no denying that some do it just for benches/e-peen but stating there are no noticeable performance gains is simply erroneous as there are some games that do benefit from a GPU overclock, 'high end card' or not.

 

[Thornton]

well, there's no actually absolute figures in getting away in Ocing, but an absolute safe should come on priority unless you lose a lifespam of stuff as it should be. In general speaking ocing, one amongst, is a matter of voltage which then affects directly to heat. So oc gpu is just like we do for CPU, only the resistance towards heat make them different.

From what i've read, the gpu could stand heat more than that of cpu. 60C gpu temp is catagorized warm while cpu is a bit hot, below 85C of gpu is still normal / safe zone, >85C to 100C hot and >100C very hot .

First to do is up the clock by 25 mhz and keep the voltage default, stress it with i,e furmark in a certain period. if ok, then up more 2nd 25 mhz and so on till you find it unstable. and if you want to push more clock, up the voltage per one increament till you find it stable. Always remember the temp which you can read while gpu's being stressed.

Have a good OC

thank you very much. thanks to trixx, whether or not its the best program to use, i dont know, but they provide me with them and fan controll, when i play bf3 i never let it go above 70 degrees and thats with my case fans down and gpu fan t 43%. i know for most thats still a bit cold, but i like consistancy to tell me if somthing is wrong.
Seeing as how i am new to this, what are the ratios? of core/memory/Voltage.

thats another thing, i didnt really see you post anything about the memory clock from what i see, just the core clock. if you could help ansewer my questions as best you can, id greatly appreciate it

hai... Thorton may i ask you this :
what do u mean by "my CCC does not have overdrive built in"?
is it that "overdrive built in" which unlocks/bypasses CCC limit? if so, then you have to do some bios mod ( as i did with my hd5850 TF II - ccc overdrive limits to 775 core and 1125 mem - default 725/1000 ).

as with memory oc, do it just you oc the corelock. AFAIK there's no absolute ratios of core/memory and voltage. Besides memory increase has no significant affects to fps bump as that of core.

no VCC has amd overdrive, but does not give me ANY options to wotk with my gpu, only my cpu, same with the application amd overdrive, only my cpu. i certainly do trust amd because they built it, but people who have done this claim otherwise. as for it not being much of a performance benifit, i run at around 50-55 fps when playing bf3, if i scale the window down to half size it runs at over 60 fps. and yes, it is VERRY noticeable. also, i am a 3d developer, and my card takes BEYOND allot of abuse from the open cl/open gl drivers. to be honest for the 3d stuff im probably gunna see more benifit in OCd ram, but of course the gpu is still rather important. anyways, if that gives you some better information to go on, thank you for helping me

 

[Thornton]

erm.. might i ask why you want to? up until a few weeks ago your card was one of the fastest single Gpu's around, only beaten by the 580gtx and the new 7970 (or what varients out now).

It would be a pointless achievement at best, you wont see improvements in game play as your already getting more than enough frames to spare. just my 2 cents well pence.. being a brit lol

1 word "BF3" it K.I.L.Ls my frame rate, sweet 60-65 down to 47-55

 

[Thornton]

my CCC does not have overdrive built in,

It should. It's called AMD overdrive - you have to 'unlock' it.

i had to download it 3d party, but i dont trust it with my gpu,

If you're going to use 3rd party, use MSI Afterburner

As for clock speeds - each card is different. That's why you raise the core/mem clocks in increments.

Keep raising the core and mem speeds on stock volts until it fails, then you can up the volts. It's trial and error.

It would be a pointless achievement at best, you wont see improvements in game play as your already getting more than enough frames to spare.

BS :sarc:

By that 'reckoning' I wouldn't need to OC my 580, nor would I notice any difference by doing so - but I do OC it and I do notice a difference.

if i may ask... what does msi afterburner that trixx doesnt have, not to say i dont agree or that youre wrong... but this application too requires me to download the version for my card, so it really is individualized like your stating with afterburner. just curious, i am going to download it and try it out to see for my self, but from experience you may be able to tell me more than i can visually see right off the bat

 

[peaceful]

thank you very much. thanks to trixx, whether or not its the best program to use, i dont know, but they provide me with them and fan controll, when i play bf3 i never let it go above 70 degrees and thats with my case fans down and gpu fan t 43%. i know for most thats still a bit cold, but i like consistancy to tell me if somthing is wrong.
Seeing as how i am new to this, what are the ratios? of core/memory/Voltage.

thats another thing, i didnt really see you post anything about the memory clock from what i see, just the core clock. if you could help ansewer my questions as best you can, id greatly appreciate it

hai... Thorton may i ask you this :
what do u mean by "my CCC does not have overdrive built in"?
is it that "overdrive built in" which unlocks/bypasses CCC limit? if so, then you have to do some bios mod ( as i did with my hd5850 TF II - ccc overdrive limits to 775 core and 1125 mem - default 725/1000 ).

as with memory oc, do it just you oc the corelock. AFAIK there's no absolute ratios of core/memory and voltage. Besides memory increase has no significant affects to fps bump as that of core.

no VCC has amd overdrive, but does not give me ANY options to wotk with my gpu, only my cpu, same with the application amd overdrive, only my cpu. i certainly do trust amd because they built it, but people who have done this claim otherwise. as for it not being much of a performance benifit, i run at around 50-55 fps when playing bf3, if i scale the window down to half size it runs at over 60 fps. and yes, it is VERRY noticeable. also, i am a 3d developer, and my card takes BEYOND allot of abuse from the open cl/open gl drivers. to be honest for the 3d stuff im probably gunna see more benifit in OCd ram, but of course the gpu is still rather important. anyways, if that gives you some better information to go on, thank you for helping me

btw, what 3rd party gpu tweak you have in? reading from your system specs that u play bf3 with that high res, so i just guess that fps more than enogh. it might be helpful to bump your cpu clock to 4 to 4,2 ghz for at least 5 fps more than you got it now.

edit: sorry "TriXX" Sapphire

 

[Thornton]

hai... Thorton may i ask you this :
what do u mean by "my CCC does not have overdrive built in"?
is it that "overdrive built in" which unlocks/bypasses CCC limit? if so, then you have to do some bios mod ( as i did with my hd5850 TF II - ccc overdrive limits to 775 core and 1125 mem - default 725/1000 ).

as with memory oc, do it just you oc the corelock. AFAIK there's no absolute ratios of core/memory and voltage. Besides memory increase has no significant affects to fps bump as that of core.

no VCC has amd overdrive, but does not give me ANY options to wotk with my gpu, only my cpu, same with the application amd overdrive, only my cpu. i certainly do trust amd because they built it, but people who have done this claim otherwise. as for it not being much of a performance benifit, i run at around 50-55 fps when playing bf3, if i scale the window down to half size it runs at over 60 fps. and yes, it is VERRY noticeable. also, i am a 3d developer, and my card takes BEYOND allot of abuse from the open cl/open gl drivers. to be honest for the 3d stuff im probably gunna see more benifit in OCd ram, but of course the gpu is still rather important. anyways, if that gives you some better information to go on, thank you for helping me

btw, what 3rd party gpu tweak you have in? reading from your system specs that u play bf3 with that high res, so i just guess that fps more than enogh. it might be helpful to bump your cpu clock to 4 to 4,2 ghz for at least 5 fps more than you got it now.

i mean a 3d party application, im actually using amd overdrive, not an add on to VCC, and im only playing bf3 at 1920x1080, at full screen it only runs around 30 fps and the bf3 gui cant handle it but i only use overdrive for cpu

 

[peaceful]

no VCC has amd overdrive, but does not give me ANY options to wotk with my gpu, only my cpu, same with the application amd overdrive, only my cpu. i certainly do trust amd because they built it, but people who have done this claim otherwise. as for it not being much of a performance benifit, i run at around 50-55 fps when playing bf3, if i scale the window down to half size it runs at over 60 fps. and yes, it is VERRY noticeable. also, i am a 3d developer, and my card takes BEYOND allot of abuse from the open cl/open gl drivers. to be honest for the 3d stuff im probably gunna see more benifit in OCd ram, but of course the gpu is still rather important. anyways, if that gives you some better information to go on, thank you for helping me

btw, what 3rd party gpu tweak you have in? reading from your system specs that u play bf3 with that high res, so i just guess that fps more than enogh. it might be helpful to bump your cpu clock to 4 to 4,2 ghz for at least 5 fps more than you got it now.

i mean a 3d party application, im actually using amd overdrive, not an add on to VCC, and im only playing bf3 at 1920x1080, at full screen it only runs around 30 fps and the bf3 gui cant handle it

a noob question, now what coreclock & memclock your gpu in now? what's the max core & mem that amd overdriver provide for OC?

 

[Thornton]

btw, what 3rd party gpu tweak you have in? reading from your system specs that u play bf3 with that high res, so i just guess that fps more than enogh. it might be helpful to bump your cpu clock to 4 to 4,2 ghz for at least 5 fps more than you got it now.

i mean a 3d party application, im actually using amd overdrive, not an add on to VCC, and im only playing bf3 at 1920x1080, at full screen it only runs around 30 fps and the bf3 gui cant handle it

a noob question, now what coreclock & memclock your gpu in now? what's the max core & mem that amd overdriver provide for OC?

well ill say again, i use overdrive for cpu and trixx for gpu, but the defaults are, cor 880, memory 1375, and voltage 1175