Question about OCing (a 6950) ...

[djxput]

Im not sure if I will do this but I wanted to ask ...

Have a 6950 unlocked with 1536 shaders that runs comfortably at 899/1300 mem.

Ive heard people talking about in the past about upping the voltage by 20% or something ... now in CCC I see there is a option to up the voltage;

#1 is this wise to do? safe? ... currently I am using trixx to OC so would probably use their software to overvolt if I wanted too. starts out at 1100

#2 or would I not see much improvement for the potential chance to damage the gpu?

 

[Surveyor]

Increasing the power option in the CCC doesn't increase the voltage.

It allows the card to draw more power but still at the same voltage.

If you're going to increase the voltage using Sapphire TriXX then you'll likely need to increase the power option to +20% in the CCC otherwise the card won't be getting enough power.

 

[djxput]

Increasing the power option in the CCC doesn't increase the voltage.

It allows the card to draw more power but still at the same voltage.

If you're going to increase the voltage using Sapphire TriXX then you'll likely need to increase the power option to +20% in the CCC otherwise the card won't be getting enough power.

oh well so whats the best safest way to oc then? ... can you get a better OC upping the CCC poweroption alone? ... or do you need to do that then do trixx? and how much should one give for a moderate/safe setting?

thanks

 

[feck199]

899/1300 mem

That sounds like my card no matter what i do too it. I've had it at 950/1250 with higher volts set via RBE(only changed the volts or the bios wouldnt boot). But its only ever stable in benchmark stuff, dies within one or two games of bf3.

Seemed to have 920 stable in bf3, then random gfx card crash. Anything under 900 seems safe for me. Its games that kill them, not benchmarks thats for sure.

Really fps isnt that much better at the higher mhz, ended up dropping back to 880 again just to make sure the card is actually stable at this.

Tbh i've been playing with this over a year now and never got it to where i wanted. As soon as it seems stable at a good oc it proves me wrong again, and its my pref to actually finsh a game of bf3 than get my score reset!

 

[Surveyor]

A decision I made quite a while ago is to spend less time messing around with my PC and more time using it.

Unless you're a benchmark freak there's no point in spending hours trying to eke out every last bit of performance.

A small time spent overclocking will get you 95% or more of the absolute maximum you could possibly achieve.

Use the time saved to actually play BF3 or do whatever else you do.

 

[djxput]

A decision I made quite a while ago is to spend less time messing around with my PC and more time using it.

Unless you're a benchmark freak there's no point in spending hours trying to eke out every last bit of performance.

A small time spent overclocking will get you 95% or more of the absolute maximum you could possibly achieve.

Use the time saved to actually play BF3 or do whatever else you do.

haha ya get that ... funny I spent so much time researching which parts to get my pc (because how fast or how much better they are) but when I finally get them - Im like err whatever just do a quick/efficent overclock or whatever and leave it be.

still a bit interested in what my gpu can do thou ... but am quite happy with my 1536 shader 1 gig 6950 at 899core.

 

[DarkHorizon472]

Im not sure if I will do this but I wanted to ask ...

Have a 6950 unlocked with 1536 shaders that runs comfortably at 899/1300 mem.

Ive heard people talking about in the past about upping the voltage by 20% or something ... now in CCC I see there is a option to up the voltage;

#1 is this wise to do? safe? ... currently I am using trixx to OC so would probably use their software to overvolt if I wanted too. starts out at 1100

#2 or would I not see much improvement for the potential chance to damage the gpu?

Since a 6970 runs at 880 core, I would leave it as it is as you get a little gain for a lot more risk by going higher. Unless you see it as a challenge

 

[vUNREALv]

I noticed a good improvenent going from 850 core to 950 on my 2gb twin frozr's they both needed 1.164 volts to be stable at 950, memory was at 1375mhz anything above didnt give me a a difference i could notice. These werent flashed to 6970's as niether would.

For me because i run 3 screens at 5760x1080 every extra bit of extra fps counted.

 

[djxput]

899/1300 mem

That sounds like my card no matter what i do too it. I've had it at 950/1250 with higher volts set via RBE(only changed the volts or the bios wouldnt boot). But its only ever stable in benchmark stuff, dies within one or two games of bf3.

Seemed to have 920 stable in bf3, then random gfx card crash. Anything under 900 seems safe for me. Its games that kill them, not benchmarks thats for sure.

Really fps isnt that much better at the higher mhz, ended up dropping back to 880 again just to make sure the card is actually stable at this.

Tbh i've been playing with this over a year now and never got it to where i wanted. As soon as it seems stable at a good oc it proves me wrong again, and its my pref to actually finsh a game of bf3 than get my score reset!

I havnt fully tested the mem yet and havnt pushed it in any taxing games ... dont have bf3. Just some minor games; used kombustor to test.

 

[insejn]

I noticed a good improvenent going from 850 core to 950 on my 2gb twin frozr's they both needed 1.164 volts to be stable at 950, memory was at 1375mhz anything above didnt give me a a difference i could notice. These werent flashed to 6970's as niether would.

For me because i run 3 screens at 5760x1080 every extra bit of extra fps counted.

wow, I need to put 1.164 to have 870/1350 stable, going even to 880 crashes everything all the time

 

[Mr Krugga]

My Twin Frozr III runs undervolted to 1.129v (stock is 1.149v) at 870/1450, can run at 910/1450 with 1.19v.

BF3, however, isn't prone to overclock instability, I could easily run it at 950 MHz with no problems whatsoever.

A few hours of Unigine Heaven or Crysis would throw up some errors inevitably, though.

 

[cjph]

My original reference XFX6950 2Gb unlocked to 6970 shaders and CCC set it to 880 core and 1375 VRAM with the 6970 bios. With a 10% power increase I can run 900 core and 1375 for hours on BF3 without a hitch. Anything over that and it is prone to the occasional freeze and restart. Not sure the gains from a volt hike would be worth a great deal so I spend the time on gaming.

Need the power for the Eyefinity setup, so another card (6970) for crossfire seems a possible route once the dust settles from Keplar and if microstutter worries go away.

cj