How to overclock a 7850 past 1050MHz?

[DesMahavailo]

Hi all. Found this forum/thread in the vast internet with a little help from google and promptly registered since I am trying to venture in the OC territory myself.

After all these positive reactions to the 7850 I decided to order one myself. I got the MSI 7850 1GB model (was about €30.- cheaper here than the 2GB one and should suffice for 1080p gaming according to various reviews).

I haven't found much info here on how the 1GB model fares when it comes to OC but I guess it should be fine too. The only thing I am worried is the temperature since the MSI 1GB model only has one fan and my PC is pretty hot (eg my Asus 5770 runs at 55°C idle and up to 93°C on load and my i5 2500 stock runs at about 42°C idle). I have ordered some case fans now. You think that should be enough or should I bother with a new GPU cooler for the MSI 7850 1GB.

Thank you

 

[555BUK]

Hi all. Found this forum/thread in the vast internet with a little help from google and promptly registered since I am trying to venture in the OC territory myself.

After all these positive reactions to the 7850 I decided to order one myself. I got the MSI 7850 1GB model (was about €30.- cheaper here than the 2GB one and should suffice for 1080p gaming according to various reviews).

I haven't found much info here on how the 1GB model fares when it comes to OC but I guess it should be fine too. The only thing I am worried is the temperature since the MSI 1GB model only has one fan and my PC is pretty hot (eg my Asus 5770 runs at 55°C idle and up to 93°C on load and my i5 2500 stock runs at about 42°C idle). I have ordered some case fans now. You think that should be enough or should I bother with a new GPU cooler for the MSI 7850 1GB.

Thank you

7850's tend to run very cool so give it a try before buying a third party cooler. 1GB cards should clock just as well as the 2GB versions.

 

[wazza300]

i would put the extra for the 2gb version

 

[DesMahavailo]

Thanks for the quick response. Will try the standard cooler plus I am getting case fans anyways so they should help to keep a good airflow now. Will post results once I get the card (next couple of days).

I opted for the 1GB version because €30 is a lot of money for a student - I can eat a month worth of noodles with it . Besides, it is more of a temporary solution. I will use this card for about the next 2 years and by then I should be having a steady job and enough income to upgrade my (by then) outdated rig.

Also, I don't need to play everything at max settings. I am sure the 1GB version will suffice for my needs.

 

[krabs]

1gb is enough for valve's games and some others like dead space, farcry, call of duty series

but crysis 2 3 and bf3 will exceed this even when MSAA is off

 

[DesMahavailo]

1gb is enough for valve's games and some others like dead space, farcry, call of duty series

but crysis 2 3 and bf3 will exceed this even when MSAA is off

Good thing im not that into shooters then . No but seriously, I can just turn down the resultion or graphical details if I want to play these kind of titles. Besides I manage to run BF3 (playing occasionally with a friend) on my old 5770 on 1920x1080@60Hz with everything at medium no AA with 30-60 FPS which I am more than happy with, actually. And with the 7850 I should considerably improve these settings.

Also, it would be too late to change my mind now since my card just arrived 10 minutes ago. I will try to install it this evening and see how temperature holds up and then start to OC.

Only bummer, I did not receive any code for Tomb Raider and Bioshock Infinite with the AMD Never Settle Reloaded program. But after a quick call at my retailer they assured me to send me a code. Seems they somehow forgot to add it to the package.

 

[Drake5]

What's the best way to overclock this then guys? I saw the OP but the guys post said it's better not to follow his method as his card is now not working?

Cheers

 

[ArchAndroid]

What's the best way to overclock this then guys? I saw the OP but the guys post said it's better not to follow his method as his card is now not working?

Cheers

This post outlines the best way to stably overclock your card avoiding screen tears and other abnormalities.

The reason the OPs card was killed was because he was pushing insane voltages through it. If you stay under 1.3 volts and reasonable temps, your card shouldn't suffer at all.

 

[DesMahavailo]

This post outlines the best way to stably overclock your card avoiding screen tears and other abnormalities.

The reason the OPs card was killed was because he was pushing insane voltages through it. If you stay under 1.3 volts and reasonable temps, your card shouldn't suffer at all.

So I finally come to installing my new card and I did everything as described in the link to unlock higher clocks and votage control but it does not seem to allow to change anything voltagewise. I heard that some cards can not be voltage controlled via Afterburner. Guess the MSI 7850 1GB version is one of them.

I have unlocked higher than 1050 clocks though. Up to 1170 is the highest Afterburner lets me choose for core and 1560 for memory. But how do I go higher? what about 1200 core? Maybe I did make a mistake and it did not work properly?

I can try to overclock as far as possible with stock volts now, right? But what should I do to increase voltage then? Thanks

 

[wazza300]

^^^ use trixx or gpu tweak,works for me

 

[DesMahavailo]

OK but won't that interfere with Afterburner? Or do you suggest I uninstall AB and use Trixx or gpu tweak instead?

Also, after the /xcl thing in AB I have max core at 1170 (I don't run at this clock it is just the max AB allows). Is this correct? How do I go higher than that?

 

[wazza300]

install all three just use one at a time and youll be fine

max core should be 1225mhz or 1250mhz not sure now without looking

 

[DesMahavailo]

Ok, did run some test. I guess I don't have the best card for OC. My ASIC on the MSI 7850 1GB is 68.8%. The core voltage is 0.825 V on idle and 1.210 V on load. These voltages are from GPU-Z on stock settings.

I manged to overclock the card at stock voltage to 1100 core clock and 1250 memory clock running at a temperature of about 60°C with 50% fan speed.

At 1125 MHz core and 1275 MHz memory I get crashes in Heaven during the second runthrough. Even using GPU Tweak to increase the voltage to 1.225 (max) the card crashes during Heaven at these clocks.

Am I doing something wrong? Or did I just have bad luck?

EDIT: I noticed that while overvolting to 1,225V works I cannot lower the voltage under 1,210V. When I only put 1V or even lower GPU-Z still shows the graphics card uses 1,210V under load. I thought that when I can't get more performence since I have such high stock voltage I might try to undervolt to run quiter and cooler. Seems not to work. Any suggestions?

EDIT 2: After a lot more testing and researching I managed to find that 1125MHz core clock and 1250MHz memory clock runs stable for me at stock voltage which is a very high 1,210 V for my card. Unfortunately, there is no more room for improvement due to the high stock voltage. Should I just try to return the card and get a replacement? Maybe from a different manifacture? Sapphire, Asus etc? Which brand seems to be the best at OC?

 

[moepaka]

I cant get over 1225VDDC with trixx (and all other tools) i need a Modded bios but for an 1gb Version of the 7850.
I have the XFX 7850 1gb Core Edition with Accelero Twin Turbo II Attached.

Maybe someone have a moddet bios for the 1gb version?. thanks in advance

 

[Drake5]

Before I go ahead and spend time learning to overclock a GPU, is it worth it performance wise?

 

[CyberCrow]

It all depends on what hardware you have and what your after from the Oc Tom.

 

[Drake5]

I'd be looking for slightly smoother performance in Sleeping Dogs ideally. Spec is i3 3220 + 8GB DDR3.

 

[krabs]

sleeping dogs is a bad port to PC ... your graphic card OC would not boost it much

OC is really worth it on this card ... 30% core OC gives about 20% extra performance ... makes it on par with 7870 ghz edition

looking back at the 5000 and 6000 series AMD ... 30% OC was not as common

 

[Drake5]

I want to overclock this... 20% extra performance sounds good to me! Which guide do I follow?

 

[krabs]

I want to overclock this... 20% extra performance sounds good to me! Which guide do I follow?

1) download asus gpu tweak ... familiarize yourself with the advanced mode and tuning settings
don't use MSI afterburner ... it's been 1 year since 7800 series came out and we still have users getting problem on AFB
asus gpu tweak had voltage unlocked from day1 back in their february2012 version for 7900 series

2) use a directx11 intensive singleplayer game like crysis 2 or 3 ... battlefield 3 singleplayer

3) start by using gpu-tweak to manually raise the fanspeed % ... take note which speed the noise start to get noticeable but tolerable
customise the fanspeed profile ... I have to say the staircase graph is "below average" at user friendlyness
I set the fanspeed to reach my "maximum tolerable speed" as soon it raises 10celcius above idle temperature so it will activate in all games but not video 450mhz mode in youtube

4) here comes the exciting part ...
run the intense singleplayer game and set GPU tweak to maximum voltage and aim at 1000mhz core clockspeed ...
fan profile at custom , power setting at 120% ... leave memory at stock 4800mhz

1000mhz is a fairy low target and almost everybody can pass that ...
click the monitor button on GPU-tweak ... take note the gpu usage % it should be nearly 99%
I do notice running the game without MSAA seem to more intense and therefore able to find out unstable overclock faster

after 20 minutes you can raise core clock to 1050 mhz > 1100 > 1150 > 1200
you will find a speed where you would crash in the game and need to restart the game ... this is why singleplayer is better than multiplayer
now LOWER the clock speed by 10mhz and run around in the game again for 20minutes
repeat this until you can find the final stable core clock that can survive 2+ hours of gaming without crash

5) after finding your highest game stable core overclock you can raise the memory overclock in steps of 25mhz or in GPU tweak it means 100mhz
4800 > 5000 > 5400> 5500 > 5600> 5700 > 5800

you can skip testing this step and just use 5000mhz which nearly all cards are capable of ... the gains between 5000 and 5500 is very small ... around 2% or helping you boost 50 framerate to 51

6) after getting your core and memory stable you can try to lower the core voltage from 1225 down to 1218 or 1215
it slightly boost the graphic card's score in 3dmark11 benchmark test but I am not sure if there is any real effect on gaming
It does theoretically lower the temperature , power consumption , wear&tear

this is an optional step ... it can affect your highest core overclock speed .... revert back to maximum voltage if it crash in game
having a side panel fan does help even it it is a low speed 120mm