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

LtMatt · 21 May 2013 at 16:33

Your score looks fine to me you're using lower clocks. Is your card definitely not voltage locked? Did you see the voltage change in gpu-z?

LtMatt · 21 May 2013 at 18:00

Thrust are you able to change voltage and see the changes take effect in gpu-z? Afterburner typically sets a default voltage on the first run based on your asic but all ghz cards are 1.25v stock volts anyway.

LtMatt · 21 May 2013 at 18:50

Thrust4Money said:
I used trixx a week or so ago and i could change the voltage (the change did take affect in gpu-z) in that and it showed 1250, my card is a 7950. Just wondering why whenever i use MSI AB it always shows 1125

Not sure mate. Probably best to pop over to guru3d forum afterburner section and ask Unwinder.

LtMatt · 22 May 2013 at 15:38

Thrust4Money said:
Spoke to him last night, there's know support for Gigabyte that's why it doesn't show correctly. Might as well switch back to TRIXX really since that shows all the values.

If Im wanting to swap to another OC Program do i have to re-install my GPU driver as well or can i just uninstall MSI AB and that will be enough

Good stuff that explains it then.

Just uninstall afterburner and you're good to go. Gigabyte have their own overclocking tool but last time i used it, it was absolutely terrible with extremely limited voltage control.

LtMatt · 22 May 2013 at 15:52

Thrust4Money said:
Oh i didn't know Gigabyte had there own, is there any kind of advantage of using the same make OC program as the card make?

I'd try trixx first and if you don't get on with that try theirs. I think its called OC Genie or something. It would only let me increase the voltage to 1.2v from 1.175v stock on my gigabyte hd7770 oc. Afterburner lets me go up to 1.3v on that card though.

LtMatt · 23 May 2013 at 20:28

MrMarvelous said:
What voltage should I be using on the Memory Clock? it's at 1700Mhz but i'n not sure what to bump the volts up to.

One voltage notch at a time, which is typically 6-7 clicks to the right, until you find stability at that memory clock. If you can reach 1700 on stock memory voltage that's pretty good and will be plenty fast enough for todays games.

LtMatt · 28 May 2013 at 15:46

With ULPS enabled the second card will turn off completely when it's not being used. If you disable ULPS then the second card will stay powered on. Personally id prefer to leave it enabled and make use of the power saving features of zerocore.

AMD said:
AMD ZeroCore Power Technology
AMD ZeroCore Power Technology leverages AMD's leadership in notebook power efficiency to grant our desktop GPUs the ability to power down when your monitor is off, also known as the "long idle state."3

Click to enlarge This is great for those times when you've stepped away from your PC to take a call, watch TV, or pop down to the store. Furthermore, AMD ZeroCore Power allows additional GPUs in an AMD CrossFire™ technology configuration to shut off when they're not in use-even the fan stops spinning!
An AMD-exclusive technology, AMD ZeroCore Power ensures that unused or idle GPUs are as efficient as possible.

Even the most hardcore gamer with an AMD CrossFire™ multi-gpu configuration benefits from AMD ZeroCore Power. Unused or idle GPUs are shut down until needed to conserve power.

Source - http://www.amd.com/us/products/technologies/gcn/Pages/gcn-architecture.aspx

However if you run into issues with it then just disable it. Probably best off trying both options and see which works best for you. I'm sure other xfire users can offer their 2cents on this and provide better info than me though.

LtMatt · 28 May 2013 at 16:27

No problem. Let us know how you find Zerocore i should be going xfire soon myself and i was certainly hoping to make use of zerocore.

LtMatt · 28 May 2013 at 16:58

Great feedback thanks Zydor.

LtMatt · 28 May 2013 at 18:55

Lazdaa said:
In GPU-Z my memory clocks is at 1200Mhz which is what my card is at. Shouldn't it clock down when idle?

Are you using more than one monitor or a 144hz screen? If so its perfectly normal that your gpu core will clock down but your memory won't. The memory not clocking down hardly makes any difference to the electricity used either.

Thracks said:
To avoid display corruption in all scenarios, the only one-size-fits-all fix is to run the VRAM at max clock. Luckily this represents an extremely small percentage of overall graphics card power consumption.

LtMatt · 28 May 2013 at 19:11

Lazdaa said:
Oh yea i'm running with 2 monitors and one overclocked to 114Hz

Also i sure hope you have and SSD drive with all that restarting xD
- Doing the process in th OP now.

Nice i need to do some monitor overclocking myself at some point. I do indeed have a Samsung 840 basic 250gb SSD and Windows 8 so restarting takes about 15 seconds.

Infact when i turn my pc on in the morning windows has fully loaded before my monitor even displays a picture.

LtMatt · 28 May 2013 at 19:16

Lazdaa said:
Well i just got this in yesterday: ***LINK REMOVED***

It's an awesome monitor. 27' 2560x1440 and overclockable!

The drive is also awesome, i got it in my laptop, and a 830 in my desktop.

My friend Zuma (aka snail master race - its a long story) has one of those monitors. He got 115hz out of his and i think he said he could probably get more. Looks like a good buy. How is the picture quality?

Make sure you edit your post to remove the ebay link or the mods will give you a ticking off.

LtMatt · 28 May 2013 at 19:33

Lazdaa said:
Coming from a 1680x1050 display this is ridiculously awesome! i can't believe i could ever you such low resolution The colours are also great, as a PLS panel they are much much much better than my old TN.

Also removed the link.

And just got a BSOD @ 1125Mhz, Stock voltage.

And last, i'm not sure my voltage is changing according to what i set it to in afterburner. my stock voltage is 1135 and when i enter valley i think i was at 1.210 but i'm not sure as GPU-Z isn't showing anything right now. VDDC -0.500 V...

Make sure you've got the power level at +20%. Try using the basic preset on Valley so you can have it running in the background. Then open gpu-z and look at the sensors tab. Check the VDDC voltage and try increasing and or decreasing vcore in afterburner and see if it changes the VDDC in gpu-z. Try going from stock voltage to 1.3v and see if it increases from its stock setting. Its important to do it whilst there is a 3d load applied to the card. Expect some vdroop. If it doesn't change then you must be voltage locked.

LtMatt · 28 May 2013 at 19:45

Lazdaa said:
Already had the power limit set. I don't know why GPU-Z isn't working right now, but the power monitoring feature in Afterburner is working and is configured to what i set it to.

So i guess it's working i'm not getting BSOD anymore since i bumped up the voltage.

What card have you got and are you using the latest gpu-z?

Heres the difference i see on VDDC on a HIS 7950 Boost at 1.150v in the first pic and 1.300v in the second pic.

LtMatt · 28 May 2013 at 20:02

Lazdaa said:
I got a MSI 7850 Power Edition with GPU-Z 0.7.1

And also a notch (6 clicks) doesn't seem to cut it for me at all when upping the voltage contra the core clock. I'm getting BSOD all over

That should have voltage control via msi's tool, you'd think. I'm not sure what to suggest tbh if you followed the guide and are still getting problems. Best ask the bloke who created afterburner, Unwinder.

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=378550

Failing that you could try Trixxx OC tool instead of afterburner.

https://www.sapphireselectclub.com/ssc/TriXX/

LtMatt · 28 May 2013 at 20:09

Lazdaa said:
Well i think it works it just needs more than 6 clicks compared to the 25 on the mhz. But i have it at 1170 volts and 1150Mhz and i ran a valley and it's stable. Maybe i should just stay here for now?

Anyways the thing that is kinda confusing me is this: http://gyazo.com/fdb41cdca6c1b60b694dc3cec1b5f13c.png
That is my GPU-Z.

Are you using latest version of afterburner as listed in the OP, which is beta 10? Other than that ive no idea post that picture on the guru 3d forum and ask Unwinder.

LtMatt · 28 May 2013 at 20:20

Lazdaa said:
Yea i installed everything from scratch.

I opened everything back up and GPU is looking good now: http://gyazo.com/8a12c4c680349292611088eaf6a3f56f.png

So everything should be good now

That's more like it.

LtMatt · 28 May 2013 at 20:32

Lazdaa said:
is it better/easier to just pull up the voltage to like 1.25 and then see how far i can get up in Mhz?

Rome wasn't built in a day. Take your time and move slowly for best results. Once you push the core hard it will be need to be kept cooler to stop artifacts or heat causing problems.

LtMatt · 28 May 2013 at 20:37

Lazdaa said:
Oh well.. Now it's at least stable I might tickle with it some more tomorrow, thanks for the help!

As a drunken scotsman wearing a dangerously short kilt once said, nay bother.

LtMatt · 29 May 2013 at 14:45

Mackem said:
Anyone help me out with some rough settings for my Gigabyte Windforce 3X 7950? ASIC quality is 64.9%. Trying to get my clocks to something like 1100/1500 but haven't a clue what voltage to try it at. Anyone recommend a starting point?

My card was voltage locked but I flashed some modded BIOS and I can adjust the voltage now but only using TRIXX.

Help with a fan profile would be great as well. I'd like a fan curve that has a balance between noise and temperature; I don't want the fans to be at 70%+ but then at the same time I don't want my card to hit the mid 70s.

Its all in the OP, including how to tell if your card is voltage locked and a few different fan profiles you can try.