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

I had got it to 1180 when I tried the clock at 1130 but crashed literally 10 seconds before the end of the bench but still did the same thing with the voltage upped. I stopped there as I wasn't sure how high I could go safely.

How high is safe in your experience?
 
l33th3tr33 said:
I had got it to 1180 when I tried the clock at 1130 but crashed literally 10 seconds before the end of the bench but still did the same thing with the voltage upped. I stopped there as I wasn't sure how high I could go safely.

How high is safe in your experience?
Click to expand...

For you up to 1.3v is safe. Strap yourself in lad there's plenty of room left in the old girl yet. Just try and keep temps below 70-75c if you can.

You've only done one voltage bump? Don't be afraid to whack her up. Just do it one notch at a time and take your time. You do not want to be using more voltage than is necessary. Just remember if you crash or get an error restart your pc before continuing. Otherwise you might get worse performance on your next bench and won't get true results.

Remember stock ghz edition cards use a voltage of 1.25v.
 
LtMatt said:
I posted a brief explanation above. :)
Click to expand...

Yeah just seen it apologies...

ASIC quality < 75% - 1.1750 V
ASIC quality < 80% - 1.1125 V
ASIC quality < 85% - 1.0500 V
ASIC quality < 90% - 1.0250 V
ASIC quality ≤ 100% - 1.0250 V
Click to expand...

Mine is at 71.5 and core volts are at 1275. Core at 1237 and memory at 1680. Probably an average overclock really.

Basically as min is 71.5 I need a little more voltage for a stable overclock than yours at 78.9?
 
Footyslayer said:
Yeah just seen it apologies...



Mine is at 71.5 and core volts are at 1275. Core at 1237 and memory at 1680. Probably an average overclock really.

Basically as min is 71.5 I need a little more voltage for a stable overclock than yours at 78.9?
Click to expand...

Sounds like you have a good clocker. The average for 7970's is 1100-1200 core. That's the average. Anything over that is good. 1250+ is a great clock and 1300+ is gold territory.

Your card needs slightly more voltage to be stable than mine, yes.

The thing is high asic cards get hot, real hot once you add a lot of voltage because there is such little leakage. That can cause problems once you really start overclocking and temps need to be low. But at or around default clocks/voltage high asic cards run cooler because of the low voltage applied.
 
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LtMatt said:
For you up to 1.3v is safe. Strap yourself in lad there's plenty of room left in the old girl yet. Just try and keep temps below 70-75c if you can.

You've only done one voltage bump? Don't be afraid to whack her up. Just do it one notch at a time and take your time. You do not want to be using more voltage than is necessary. Just remember if you crash or get an error restart your pc before continuing. Otherwise you might get worse performance on your next bench and won't get true results.

Remember stock ghz edition cards use a voltage of 1.25v.
Click to expand...

Well there hosts a whole new realm of problems......

I haven't been restarting after every crash, but my temps haven't risen above 60c with the fan on 80%.

And by each bump, just to make things clear...... you mean 1175-1176 would be one bump?
 
l33th3tr33 said:
Well there hosts a whole new realm of problems......

I haven't been restarting after every crash, but my temps haven't risen above 60c with the fan on 80%.

And by each bump, just to make things clear...... you mean 1175-1176 would be one bump?
Click to expand...

You should always restart after a crash/black screen/driver reset to get the most accurate results. :) Once restarted increase the voltage and run the test again. Rinse and repeat.

By each bump i actually mean 1.175 to 1.181 etc. Typically you can move the voltage up in notches of 6/7/, i just call it one notch though to simplify things. If you actually only move it 1-3 notches it should default back to the previous voltage.
 
Ive had some progress to,how does this look LtMatt
1213 core voltage(is this ok for 24/7)
1160 mhz core
temps 65-70
run through the valley benchmark 3 times completed score 2938
played crysis 3 for 30mins fine
core voltage any lower=freezes
core clock any higher freezes
 
bertybenno said:
Ive had some progress to,how does this look LtMatt
1213 core voltage(is this ok for 24/7)
1160 mhz core
temps 65-70
run through the valley benchmark 3 times completed score 2938
played crysis 3 for 30mins fine
core voltage any lower=freezes
core clock any higher freezes
Click to expand...

Looks good. Keep going, if you can.

If you want to play it safe stop at 1.25v voltage.

1200+ is a good clocker. :)

Just remember guys benchmark stable is one thing. After you're finished you need to get game stable which might require more voltage.
 
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Sleeping Dogs i have found to be the best stability tester if you whack all settings to the max it will constantly keep your card at 100% usage and nothing else i have tried gets it as hot as Sleeping Dogs.
 
NightSt@lk3r said:
Sleeping Dogs i have found to be the best stability tester if you whack all settings to the max it will constantly keep your card at 100% usage and nothing else i have tried gets it as hot as Sleeping Dogs.
Click to expand...

Good advice.

Farcry 3 is also good to push the gpu hard but its a little bit easier on the vrm but slightly tougher on the core.
 
l33th3tr33 said:
Going for 1200+ now..... :D

How will I know when I've hit the wall? Just not stable under 1.3V?
Click to expand...

Pretty much. Either that or you start getting artifacts which are not caused by high temps 70-75c+. Once you get to a certain point typically 1250 core or higher (this can vary from card to card) you get artifacts when either core or vrm temps go over 70c.

If you want to monitor vrm temps you will need HW monitor in conjunction with msi afterburner overlay. I will write up a brief guide tomorrow and add it to the op as it will be handy to be able to monitor the vrm temps in real time rather than relying on gpu-z to see them. Its possible to have gpu and vrm temps show on benchmark and game overlays. You can enable/disable it easily by pressing a key. Its handy for benching.
 
I've got my earphones in playing music and my gaming headphones on top to drown out the noise, so you could say yes, I'm getting an aftermarket cooler! :p


Matt, 1225 @1263V is all she's going to give I'm afraid. Getting artifacts at 1230.

Oh, and I can monitor vrm temps on my G510. I made a custom profile in Aida64 to show me all the temps, utilization, fan speed and core speed.

On the good side, with fans at 85% i never once hit 60c :D
 
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Thanks for all the help here Matt!

For my overclock I have the fan set to auto on my "good overclock" The max temp on benchmarks and Far cry 3 is 69C.

Should I make the fan manual? Also I believe I am artifacting on anything else over 1237 core. Even with more fan speed it wouldn't give me more clocking power as it isnt artifacting down to too much heat?
 
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Yeah once you all get Accelero Xtreme's or even water cooling you should find you can overclock further. The stock cooler has its limits. Good job fellas if you can get up to or beyond 1200 on stock cooling then thats a result. For reference i could reach 1225 on my card on the stock cooler without artifacts. I could get up to 1250 but as soon as temps went past 67c i had artifacts. Now i have an accelero i can go up to 1275-1300 artifact free.
 
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