AMD - How To Overclock The Official Way Using Afterburner + Step By Step Overclocking Guide + Comple

[LtMatt]

Yeah, this clock obviously isn't stable. Just crashed to desktop during a benchmark. Don't understand because it was fine yesterday.

1175/1225. Which should I reduce first?

EDIT - In the Guru3d review for my card, the reviewer states this card can run at 1050/1425 on stock voltage. Is it a good idea just to set the levels at that and leave it be?

EDIT2 - Getting so frustrated now. Tried 1050/1425 as per the review on stock voltage but I got a BSOD after the 2nd run through.

Cheers

Go back to your last stable clocks/voltage and back the core down to 1150 and try again.

Cheers LT, must have installed new beta drivers with AB on at startup applying an Oc.

Best to untick apply overclock at profile and unstikc start up afterburner before you uninstall+reinstall new drivers.

 

[LtMatt]

I had no idea over clocking took this much tweaking.

Seems fine being benched a couple of times at 1150/1200. Should I try and step the memory up now?

Up to you Tom. Just remember to go safely and slowly so you can diagnose easier what's causing the problems. Just use small clock changes followed by a nice long stability test.

 

[LtMatt]

What's the best thing for stability testing then? Just let Unigine run over and over for a while?

Games! Farcry 3 is great for finding instability on the core. Its my gpu core testing game of choice.

 

[LtMatt]

1150/1225 seems to be ok benchmark wise. The score is actually the same as 1175/1225 so I'm really hoping all is fully stable now and I won't have to continue to tweak further.

Thanks for the suggestions guys, need to get Far Cry 3! Need to download PS2.

EDIT - Also, GPU usage seems to be about 70% max when playing Sleeping Dogs. Should it be higher?

If the gpu usage is that low its either a cpu bottleneck or unstable gpu. Seeing as you only have a dual core cpu im going with cpu bottleneck.

Is it over clocked?

Just keep testing that gpu over clock tom. We'll get there in the end.

 

[LtMatt]

Can only overclock the i3 by 200Mhz so it's a bit pointless really. It could be just a game issue aswell right? GPU Usage maxes out in benchmark and I know sleeping dogs is a bit temperamental.

I doubt its a game issue. Sleeping dogs is incredibly well optimized for AMD hardware. What res are you playing at?

 

[LtMatt]

1920x1080

What in game settings are you using? What is SSAA set to ?

 

[LtMatt]

What's the best application to use to actually see GPU Usage INGAME? Because when I alt and tab and look at Afterburner, GPU usage drops anyway as it's back to desktop so may not be getting an accurate reading?

EDIT - Found out how to read GPU Usage. Doesn't like to use more than 60% of the GPU it seems.

Cheers

Have you enabled hyper threading on your cpu?

 

[LtMatt]

It's enabled auto isn't it? How do I find out?

I'm not sure but i find it strange that sleeping dogs is not getting 99% gpu usage. Try using the extreme preset in options and then turning SSAA down to High or normal.

Speedstep and hyperthreading are both enabled.

Well we can rule a bottleneck out then.

 

[LtMatt]

snip

GPU Usage was pretty much always over 90% with these settings, however it wasn't as smooth on the benchmark... What do I do?

Extreme AA will be pushing it on a 7850. Use extreme settings but go into advanced settings and change SSAA to high. Run the test again with those settings and report back.

Enable the afterburner osd overlay so that you can monitor gpu usage, fps etc whilst running the benchmark. You can enable gpu usage, see screenshot below.

 

[LtMatt]

Cheers mate.

Ok, so I turned AA down to High. GPU Usage was 50%-60% until the last part of the benchmark (inside the house) where it went up to between 80-90%.

snip

Try running your gpu at stock clocks + volts and report back on the gpu usage + score plox.

 

[LtMatt]

Ok, this is totally stock.

It was roughly the same, although it was between 60%-70% this time and again climbing up to 90% on the last part of the benchmark.

Lol, silly me. I just realised you had vsync on. I guess AMD performance has risen a fair bit in this game as i used to get 99% gpu usage constant when i played this with vsync on. Try running the benchmark at stock + overclocked with vsync disabled.

I'm going to re-download the game myself so i can test it tomorrow.

 

[LtMatt]

Overclocked -



It did go up to 90% GPU Usage but not very often, It appeared to be the higher end of 70% though but also in the 60's. Again, it went in to 90% at the end of the benchmark.

Stock -



Mainly in the 80-90% region. Very often in the 90's.

CPU bottleneck?

Some input from other ocuk'ers would be great. I can't figure out why you aren't maxing gpu usage.

What drivers are you using?

 

[LtMatt]

Catalyst 13.1.

So I should be 99% GPU Usage all the time?

You should be with vsync off unless you have a cpu bottleneck. Sleeping dogs is a gpu limited game.

 

[LtMatt]

In unigine it is constantly 99%. Is that an irrelevant comparison though?

Cheers

Not really as Unigine is about as demanding on the cpu as windows task manager.

Hopefully someone else can offer their 2cents.

If you keep the settings the same but put the res down to 1680x1050 how does that affect gpu usage?

 

[LtMatt]

GPU Usage appears to go even lower with a lower res.

Running AA on Extreme maxes out at 90-99% though. Obviously performance is lower - Could that still indicate a bottleneck?

I'm not 100% sure Tom. I'm hoping someone with more knowledge will contribute something. However i think you might have a slight bottleneck. Try running Extreme, vsync off, SSAA high with gpu overclocked, try your cpu at stock then overclocked as far as you can push it. If you see higher gpu usage when cpu is overclocked then i guess you have a bottleneck. As far as i understand it anyway.

 

[LtMatt]

I don't even have this CPU OC'd though as for only 200MHz I really don't want the hassle of it all. i3 3220 literally won't clock higher than 200Mhz.

Not sure what to do now... Just want everything to be running ok. :/

Well it might be worth trying to squeeze what you can from it.

As long as the game runs ok though does it matter? All it means is that your cpu is holding the gpu back a little.

 

[LtMatt]

Yeah I guess so. It's just weird because I'm playing as normal now in a more dense area and my GPU is at 90%. Maybe it's just normal...

In theory i can't see it providing a bottleneck (ivybridge i3 with hyper threading) but the lack of 99% gpu usage with vsync off is strange.

 

[LtMatt]

SSAO was on Normal instead of High. With it on High, GPU usage pretty much always locks out at 99% with VSYNC off in benchmark.

I have enough grey hairs without you giving me more Tom.

Normal service is resumed.

 

[LtMatt]

Just another little observation from actually playing. Whilst GPU usage is now a lot higher it's still not a constant 99% but it's not far between. It can go to the deep 80's sometimes and then varies up to 99%.

Well maybe a slight bottle neck is apparent. It should be hitting 99% constant with vsync off tbh. But its not as bad as originally thought.

 

[LtMatt]

So basically I need a better CPU?

It might be holding the gpu back slightly, that's all. Maybe better asking in the cpu section about this.