Am I undervolting?

[Fisher]

Hi guys, this is my first post on this forum, so forgive my nativity. I was recommended by some of my friends to come here if I had a question.

I have an MSI ATI Radeon HD 6950 OC Twin FrozR III Power Edition 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express and I've been overclocking it.

(unofficial overclocking enabled - highest I could go to was 900 on core clock and 1325 on memory)

I found this is the highest I could go without crashing to desktop. I'm pretty new to overclocking, so I was wondering whether I was undervolting, because I heard somewhere that a higher voltage will help it work better. I'd also preferably like to go higher if that's possible.

Should I be increase the voltage at all?

Also, here's my specs just in case:

Processor: AMD Phenom II X6 1075T Processor 3.6 GHz
RAM: 8GB
System type: Windows 7 64 bit
PSU: 750w
GPU: MSI ATI Radeon HD 6950 OC Twin FrozR III Power Edition 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express
Motherboard: ASRock M3A770DE AM3

 

[shawsy109]

In my experience with my 2 6950s they will both go to 980/1400 with 1.3v but i wouldnt try it, try upping volts a little, id say anywhere up to 1.25v is fine, with 1.175v i managed 940/1375 and it was solid.
Just up it to 1.175 and run benches. Maybe even up core clock, upping memory doesnt really give massive gains with the 6950 so i normally stay at 1325 or 1350. Dont go crazy on the memory or it might pop.

Edit

Up power slider to +20 and leave it at that.

Also get Heaven 3.0 gpu benchmark. I use that to test when im overclocking my cards.

 

[Fisher]

In my experience with my 2 6950s they will both go to 980/1400 with 1.3v but i wouldnt try it, try upping volts a little, id say anywhere up to 1.25v is fine, with 1.175v i managed 940/1375 and it was solid.
Just up it to 1.175 and run benches. Maybe even up core clock, upping memory doesnt really give massive gains with the 6950 so i normally stay at 1325 or 1350. Dont go crazy on the memory or it might pop.

Edit

Up power slider to +20 and leave it at that.

Also get Heaven 3.0 gpu benchmark. I use that to test when im overclocking my cards.

Thanks for the quick reply.

I'll up the voltage to 1.175v and run some benches...try to up the core clock a bit.

Also, I thought you were only meant to up the power slider when doing benches? (I have it on 20 when doing them)

 

[shawsy109]

Thanks for the quick reply.

I'll up the voltage to 1.175v and run some benches...try to up the core clock a bit.

Also, I thought you were only meant to up the power slider when doing benches? (I have it on 20 when doing them)

I always have +20, it only draws the extra power if needed. Hasnt done me any harm.

1.175 is fine, and id maybe just leave it at that if your new to overclocking. 920/1375 or 940/1375 is what id aim for.

 

[Fisher]

I always have +20, it only draws the extra power if needed. Hasnt done me any harm.

1.175 is fine, and id maybe just leave it at that if your new to overclocking. 920/1375 or 940/1375 is what id aim for.

Ok, thanks

 

[Fisher]

I always have +20, it only draws the extra power if needed. Hasnt done me any harm.

1.175 is fine, and id maybe just leave it at that if your new to overclocking. 920/1375 or 940/1375 is what id aim for.

I can't seem to be able to change the voltage.

Kombuster is telling me it's at 1.15, GPUz says it's at 1.2, when in afterburner, I have set it to 1.175.

I know it isn't changing, because I still got a crash to desktop when upping the core clock to 930. Do you know how to get it to recognize I've changed it?

Could it be to do with the mode I have set afterburner to?

UnofficialOverclockingEULA = I confirm that I am aware of unofficial overclocking limitations and fully understand that MSI will not provide me any support on it
UnofficialOverclockingMode = 2

 

[shawsy109]

In the interface for MSI AB there is an option to unlock voltage control, did you do that? As far as im aware it should work if you have changed the cfg file to the above EULA confirmation and ticked unlock voltage control.

 

[Fisher]

In the interface for MSI AB there is an option to unlock voltage control, did you do that? As far as im aware it should work if you have changed the cfg file to the above EULA confirmation and ticked unlock voltage control.

Yep, I've ticked it.

I don't know why, but it's as though it's giving the wrong reading. I locked it to stock settings again (1.11) but GPUz still said it was at 1.200 and kombuster said it was at 1.15. No matter what I change it to, they stay the same.

Not sure if this is related, but it also sometimes it decides to automatically move the slider 0.001 below what I put it at. For example, at 1.175 it moves it to 1.174.

 

[tommybhoy]

Welcome to the forum.

Could it be to do with the mode I have set afterburner to?

UnofficialOverclockingEULA = I confirm that I am aware of unofficial overclocking limitations and fully understand that MSI will not provide me any support on it
UnofficialOverclockingMode = 2

Should be:

[ATIADLHAL]
EnableUnofficialOverclocking = 1
UnofficialOverclockingEULA = I confirm that I am aware of unofficial overclocking limitations and fully understand that MSI will not provide me any support on it
UnofficialOverclockingMode = 1
AccessibilityCheckingPeriod = 0
UnifiedMemoryUsageMonitoring = 1


As stated above, watch your memory clocks, I really wouldn't go above 1350MHz, and if you leave it at say 1300MHz, the core will probably go higher.

First, manually set your fan to 70% and keep an eye on the temps, then try 1.175v(stock 6970 voltage), start upping the core, leaving the vram at stock, once you start hitting a wall(which will probably be ~[email protected], unless you have a cracker) turn it down about 20Mhz, then start upping the vram in small steps.

But I can't stress enough that going overboard on the vram clocks is not good for your card and the returns on vram clocking are next to nothing on the 69 series as it starts auto downclocking when it hits it's limits and causes negative performance.

As soon as you see artifacts, back off, don't just start throwing more and more volts at it, as it can be game dependant on whether actual games are stable at higher clocks, BF3 being a great game to **** out when your on a kill streak using over ambitious clocks.

Once you find the cards comfortable clocks, then work out what temps require 'X'% fan settings as you want to keep it as cool and/or quiet(or not) as possible.

Don't tank the gpu, keep your eye on the temps, once extra voltage is added past 1.175v the temps do get higher, personally I like to keep mine below 80c so that they last:

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?p=19041495&posted=1#post19041495

Last point from myself is don't touch Kombustor or Furmark to stress the cards clocks, Heaven, the original Crysis benchmark or AvP benchmarks are good enough to see if your clocks are sweet!

Hope that helps you out, if it did you could leave a comment on my thread above(just to give it a sneaky bump).

 

[Fisher]

Welcome to the forum.



Should be:

[ATIADLHAL]
EnableUnofficialOverclocking = 1
UnofficialOverclockingEULA = I confirm that I am aware of unofficial overclocking limitations and fully understand that MSI will not provide me any support on it
UnofficialOverclockingMode = 1
AccessibilityCheckingPeriod = 0
UnifiedMemoryUsageMonitoring = 1


As stated above, watch your memory clocks, I really wouldn't go above 1350MHz, and if you leave it at say 1300MHz, the core will probably go higher.

First, manually set your fan to 70% and keep an eye on the temps, then try 1.175v(stock 6970 voltage), start upping the core, leaving the vram at stock, once you start hitting a wall(which will probably be ~[email protected], unless you have a cracker) turn it down about 20Mhz, then start upping the vram in small steps.

But I can't stress enough that going overboard on the vram clocks is not good for your card and the returns on vram clocking are next to nothing on the 69 series as it starts auto downclocking when it hits it's limits and causes negative performance.

As soon as you see artifacts, back off, don't just start throwing more and more volts at it, as it can be game dependant on whether actual games are stable at higher clocks, BF3 being a great game to **** out when your on a kill streak using over ambitious clocks.

Once you find the cards comfortable clocks, then work out what temps require 'X'% fan settings as you want to keep it as cool and/or quiet(or not) as possible.

Don't tank the gpu, keep your eye on the temps, once extra voltage is added past 1.175v the temps do get higher, personally I like to keep mine below 80c so that they last:

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?p=19041495&posted=1#post19041495

Last point from myself is don't touch Kombustor or Furmark to stress the cards clocks, Heaven, the original Crysis benchmark or AvP benchmarks are good enough to see if your clocks are sweet!

Hope that helps you out, if it did you could leave a comment on my thread above(just to give it a sneaky bump).

Hi. I've pasted that into the config.

I already knew how to overclock, although now I know to pretty much leave the memory alone. Also thanks for the benchmark suggestion. I'll leave a comment in a little while.

However, my problem now is that MSI afterburner is not actually changing my voltages when I move and apply the slider (according to GPUz). Could you please take a look at the previous comments please (they state the problem in detail)?

 

[Fisher]

anyone?

 

[shawsy109]

I really dont know mate, I wonder if the volts are locked? Never heard of your problem before. My volts work fine through AB once i unlocked voltage tweaking in the AB interface.