6950 TFIII safe OC voltage?

[Dan2kx]

So to tide me over until the next wave of 7970 come out (with the lovely coolers) im going to Overclock the nuts off my 6950,

what is considered a safe voltage for this card?

i had it at 965/1475 at 1.250v, goin to try and lower that now though, card is still cool with the heaven bench, but is the V to high?

 

[Dan2kx]

Seems i had been a bit hasty, it wasnt completely stable at those speeds/volts, it crashed half way through the bench (i was only checking the first few bits)

so its stable at 950/1450 with 1.25v temps at 60oC

 

[ViRuS2k]

Got my ref Asus card 6950@6970 shader unlock + 950/1400 @1.225v fully stable.
that seems to be the norm for clocking at 950. tryed 1.280v @1000/1400 though it would not crash there was slight artifacts that poped up every so often though that was on alan wake @99% GPU constantly all maxed

though with games that dont use that much GPU it was stable. i would say 1.3v for 1000+ core speeds. should not hurt the card as long as you keep the temps under control say 65c and under.

 

[insejn]

Seems i had been a bit hasty, it wasnt completely stable at those speeds/volts, it crashed half way through the bench (i was only checking the first few bits)

so its stable at 950/1450 with 1.25v temps at 60oC

This is what I get to as well with 1.25V, but it's not stable in the games I play. Heaven runs fine, minor artifacting under certain scenarios.

Temps under 100% load go up to 70 degrees C after about 5 min tho, so keeping it lower as everything still runs max settings. (Except BF3 or Witcher2 on Ultra because it makes no difference visually on High or Ultra except your PC wants to suicide.)

 

[Dan2kx]

Is it safe to run at these volts all the time then? (using the custom fan profile in afterburner BTW)

 

[insejn]

I've always wondered the same, if anyone has any real electrician knowhow, do tell.

If you count with the +20% which is in the CCC overclocking features, stock 1.149V would end up at 1.38V with pushing that slider all the way. Would it be prudent then to assume that the cards can take 1.38V "safely" if they stay in less-than-egg-cooking-temps?

 

[lollyhayes]

Not sure I agree with 1.3v and plus 1000mhz speeds. I was running 1.3 with +1000 speeds (can't remember exactly, look at heaven benchark thread posted it there), and I started getting artifacting etc... It was on a water loop all temps <75.
I'm at stock now with 920 1330 +20%.

 

[lollyhayes]

don't need the extra 100mhz for everyday gaming. If you're doing it for a few minutes and then benching then ramping it down it should be fine though.

 

[Dan2kx]

Although heaven and 3dmark11 passed, Tried BF3 and it worked for a while but then crashed, so did COD:MW3. So I got furmark, and worked upto 950 from 900 (in 10s), stable all the way up to 950, but it failed, then 940 failed (coming back down), so I've settled for 925 for gaming, although I haven't re-tested games yet (bedtime). Memory set at 1450 (1475 doesn't work)

Question now is... Volts in afterburner are 1.2, but in all the sensor program's (furmark, HWMonitor, etc) it's reported as 1.15, is the card limited to 1.15? Or is afterburner lying or the sensors? Or...?

Edit:

Shaders unlocked with the msi 6950 unlocked bios (since my OP)

 

[[WU-TANG]GZA]

I'm kinda interested in this too with my 6970.

My temps are always low. 58c after an hour of BF3.

but I keep my voltage at 1300mV all the time and have a set overclock profile with MSI Afterburner to 975/1400. Can it still shorten the life of the card having it at 1.3v all the time even with low temps?

Would love to know.

Thanks

 

[insejn]

Edit:

Shaders unlocked with the msi 6950 unlocked bios (since my OP)

Shaders unlocked? on a 6950 TF3? You sure about that?
All it's done for all the upgrades I've heard of 6950TF3 owners is unlock the OC limits. There was even a thread with a gazillion pages about that.

 

[tommybhoy]

Can it still shorten the life of the card having it at 1.3v all the time even with low temps?

Yes, you are increasing stress on the gpu's components even if it's kept cool.

Shaders unlocked? on a 6950 TF3? You sure about that?

Some(not many though) have had a successful shader unlock.

 

[Mr Krugga]

Since stock voltage on this cards is higher than normal already (1.15v vs 1.1v on reference cards), I would advise not to go over 10-15% overvoltage on air-cooled cards, which is around 1.200-1.250v. For watercooled ones with low temps, 1.300v would be my limit.

Remember though, MSI will always tell you that they use reference GPUs, they are not hand picked to withstand higher voltages or tailored for these cards - these are exactly the same units as you can get in other models so be mindful when overvolting.

Disabling PowerPlay (or forcing constant voltage) will shorten the lifespan of the GPU. By how much is anyone's guess.

Shaders unlock will warrant a 2-4% performance increase depending on the work scenario.

Make sure to set the Graphics Processor Type to 1.150v in Afterburner for proper voltage control.

Don't rely on Heaven/Furmark for stress testing, I found them unreliable to test OC properly. Games that give up on higher clocks are usually very GPU intensive, like Crysis or BFBC2, funnily enough I can get higher clocks in BF3.

PowerTune does NOT alter voltages on the card, it simply allows for higher power draw (over TDP of the card) to ensure stability at high loads.

 

[lollyhayes]

As before it's your card, I witnessed changes in the stability of the overclock at 1.3v and +1000 clocks.
Take it as you will, i interpreted it as degredation....

 

[Dan2kx]

Shaders unlocked? on a 6950 TF3? You sure about that?
All it's done for all the upgrades I've heard of 6950TF3 owners is unlock the OC limits. There was even a thread with a gazillion pages about that.

Pretty sure? Gpu-z reports 1536 now
Followed this guide from the sticky (last page at top of this forum)

 

[insejn]

Pretty sure? Gpu-z reports 1536 now
Followed this guide from the sticky (last page at top of this forum)

Lucky man That's cool, you should need less OC then