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Advisable to Overclock HD 6970

Buchanan0204

Buchanan0204

Buchanan0204

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I have an HD 6970 (real one, not 6950 flashed) Sapphire edition.

I am looking to get a bit more juice out of it, I have never overclocked a card before, only messed around with the clock settings in CCC.

I have heard MSI afterburner is a good place to start. I was just looking for advice on what clock speeds is achievable on the 6970? I am using stock cooling on the card. Is it recommended to u the voltages or leave them at stock etc.

Basically any advice or tips is most welcomed.

Cheers :)
 
I'd leave the voltages alone if you've never overclocked a card before.

Just open Catalyst Control Centre, select the "ATI Overdrive" menu option and click on the padlock to enable overclocking (this won't do anything to the card - it's just allowing you to change things later on).

On this screen you will see that your clock speed are 880 core and 1375 memory. From there all you basically need to do is adjust the sliders upwards and then try out your favourite games/benchmarks - if you see visual artifacts on the screen, or your PC crashes, move the slider back down a bit until you reach a point where your system is stable.

You probably won't notice any real difference from a very small change in these sliders so my personal preference is to crank both of the sliders up a lot (e.g. 25-50Mhz+) between each test, or even push it right up to 950/1450 (which is the limit you'll see too) and see what happens.

I'd suggest trying 900/1400 to start with, then 925/1425, etc.

edit: Just re-read and you say "I have never overclocked a card before, only messed around with the clock settings in CCC". That is overclocking? :)
 
Durzel said:
I'd leave the voltages alone if you've never overclocked a card before.

Just open Catalyst Control Centre, select the "ATI Overdrive" menu option and click on the padlock to enable overclocking (this won't do anything to the card - it's just allowing you to change things later on).

On this screen you will see that your clock speed are 880 core and 1375 memory. From there all you basically need to do is adjust the sliders upwards and then try out your favourite games/benchmarks - if you see visual artifacts on the screen, or your PC crashes, move the slider back down a bit until you reach a point where your system is stable.

You probably won't notice any real difference from a very small change in these sliders so my personal preference is to crank both of the sliders up a lot (e.g. 25-50Mhz+) between each test, or even push it right up to 950/1450 (which is the limit you'll see too) and see what happens.

I'd suggest trying 900/1400 to start with, then 925/1425, etc.

edit: Just re-read and you say "I have never overclocked a card before, only messed around with the clock settings in CCC". That is overclocking? :)
Click to expand...

I realise I contradicted myself a little. However, I thought this was a very novice way of doing things. I was thinking there was something a little better and a more professional way of doing things. Hitting the turbo button on Acer software isn't quite the same as going into the bios and upping the FSB to overclock a CPU, if you can see my understanding.

I will stick to the ATI Overdrive then. Thank's a lot :)
 
You can use MSI Afterburner to push the clocks further than CCC will allow you to do, which may be something you end up wanting to do if you find your card is still stable at the clocks CCC will let you set.

Additionally MSI will let you change voltages (and therefore potentially make unstable overclocks stable), and set a fan profile so that your fan speed changes automatically according to temperature, etc. CCC can't do that.

I've always found the inbuilt fan speed vs. temperature to be rather conservative on these sorts of cards, favouring low noise over temperatures so personally I've always ended up installing Afterburner to set my own fan profile.
 
Buchanan0204 said:
I realise I contradicted myself a little. However, I thought this was a very novice way of doing things. I was thinking there was something a little better and a more professional way of doing things. Hitting the turbo button on Acer software isn't quite the same as going into the bios and upping the FSB to overclock a CPU, if you can see my understanding.

I will stick to the ATI Overdrive then. Thank's a lot :)
Click to expand...

Yup. Pretty much all gpu overclocking just involves fiddling with sliders in a program. It's not exactly rocket science.

Download MSI afterburner, as this offers a couple of extra features ATI overdrive doesn't have: Namely voltage control and fan profiles.

Increasing the voltage shouldn't be a problem: Just look online as see what other's have sucessfully set theirs to.
 
download sapphire trixx, its pretty simple to use, i ended up with the max 950/1450 and adjusted the custom fan profile with a max 50%, i dont think you will see any real difference in temps untill more voltage is added
 
chaotic_uk said:
what temps is everybody getting ?
Click to expand...

Using MSI Afterburner I managed 950/1450 topping out at 81c with 50% fan.
This is with stock volts as the current (non beta) version of afterburner does not allow voltage control yet

Not sure there will be a lot of headroom for anymore volts/temp increase as with the fan any louder it sounds like a jumbo landing in my room. Perhaps with an aftermarket cooler as airflow in my case is already pretty good.
 
ive noticed some people claim to have higher idle temps, ive just noticed my 6970 when idle the voltage drops to 0.900, i guess this is normal just wonderd if the ones that idle at higher temps are staying at 1.175, i apologize in advance if im talking utter rubbish
 
old gamer said:
ive noticed some people claim to have higher idle temps, ive just noticed my 6970 when idle the voltage drops to 0.900, i guess this is normal just wonderd if the ones that idle at higher temps are staying at 1.175, i apologize in advance if im talking utter rubbish
Click to expand...

The high idle temps are due to the card running higher idle clocks when running more than 1 screen, things like smooth scrolling in IE8 kicking in full 3D clocks etc. These cards do run hot on auto fan setup but a custom fan profile keeps things under control no problem.
 
i wish i had waited for the pcs+ version which would have allowed me to overclock in my current setup , but with the high temps i get i might need a new case cause if i up the fan speed it sounds like a jet engine next to me when sitting at my desk lol
 
chaotic_uk said:
i was asking what temps they are getting when overclocked so is on topic , anyways are you a mod/admin ? :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

overclocks are in other threads to, and no im no way connected to ocuk other then trying to be helpfull member, rather then some people who still dont understnd how to work a search button so the rest of have to read the same drivvle time and time again :rolleyes:

@ gamer yes mate i found the using 1 monitor resulted in 39c idle @250mhz while using my 2nd monitor it idles @ 500mhz and 56c. To be fair i just played 3 hours using the 500mhz clock and it resulted in no visual performnce loss at all but stay under 70c on auto fan :eek:
 
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