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

Which BIOS would you guys recommend for a reference XFX Radeon 7970 "Core Edition"?

I've tried this "official" GHz BIOS from AMD, but it turns out it's voltage locked at 1.13v (vdroop to sub-1V and I couldn't clock it higher than 1175 MHz on core) and idle voltage was also a bit higher at 0.85 V as opposed to 0.800 V on the stock card. Another thing is this was showing up as the MSI R7970 Lightning BE in MSI Afterburner.

I'm thinking about either sticking to the stock BIOS or trying out the XFX "Black Edition" BIOS.
 
LtMatt said:
I don't recall having problems with idle clocks myself yesterday when i tried these. Currently reinstalling windows but will double check shortly.
Click to expand...

Basically the idle clocks went up from 300/150 MHz to 500/1375 MHz and voltage from 0.800 V to 0.950 V.

I have a reference XFX HD 7970 if that matters at all.
 
Mr Krugga said:
Basically the idle clocks went up from 300/150 MHz to 500/1375 MHz and voltage from 0.800 V to 0.950 V.

I have a reference XFX HD 7970 if that matters at all.
Click to expand...

Working fine here.

6w9.png


Are you using more than one monitor or a 144 hz screen?
 
LtMatt said:
What connection are you using to the monitor? Dual link DVI here.
Click to expand...

Same here. Back to Catalyst 13.4 and no idle clock issue.

EDIT: confirmed to be a problem related to higher refresh rate. Backing down to 72 Hz solved the issue. It's interesting too, since I could run at over 82 Hz on my Nvidia card without any issues, here 90 Hz and above won't even register and 82-84 Hz throws up this idle clock/voltage issue.
 
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Mr Krugga said:
Same here. Back to Catalyst 13.4 and no idle clock issue.

EDIT: confirmed to be a problem related to higher refresh rate. Backing down to 72 Hz solved the issue. It's interesting too, since I could run at over 82 Hz on my Nvidia card without any issues, here 90 Hz and above won't even register and 82-84 Hz throws up this idle clock/voltage issue.
Click to expand...

Its probably an issue with the driver thinking you're using a 144hz screen or something. Make sure you post about it and notify Thracks in the AMD drivers thread so it can get fixed. I have my monitor at stock currently so don't have that problem.

NoustieChris said:
Total Noob question, but Afterburner only works with MSI cards? Or would it work with my Gigabyte 6770 as well?
Click to expand...

It works with my gigabyte HD7770 OC but not with my HIS 7950. Your mileage may vary.
 
So after what I thought was a stable O/C on my CF 7970 it turns out it might not be. I'm using 1150/1700 @ 1.250v (showing 1.236 in afterburner...is this correct?).
I can run all 3DMark tests with no problems, along with Valley and Heaven4 on extreme settings.
However last night after playing metro for a while the game crashed. Could this mean a unstable overclock or is my PSU running to close to its limits (Corsair TX750) with O/C'd GPUS and a 3770k @ 4.8. I’ve noticed my PSU making a lot of noise and takes a while to settle down after the game is closed down.
I did a bit of homework before getting the cards and I found this PSU should be fine for my setup.
I dropped the O/C to 1125/1600 and it crashed again.
BF3 seemed fine for the 20mins I tested it in, also I was playing GRID2 for an hour and no crashes with my max O/C settings.

After I played past the crashing area I then played for a further 30mins on Metro and no more crashes.

Any ideas?
 
Stick with 1125/1600 if more voltage isn't adding increased stability. Either you've reached the max one or both of your cards can do in crossfire or one of them is just a worse clocker than the other. High temps could cause issues so if both cards are below 70c on the core and 85c on the vrms then you should be ok.
 
So not a PSU failure then?
My 7970's are VTX GHZ cards, I would think they should go higher than 1125, and yet they are stable when benching time and time again.

Saying that Ive noticed the cards can hit 80c in afterburner while benchmarking in valley (not sure if this is core or VRMS buts its the first temp from what I recall).
 
@ #816

With 750w PSU you are on the edge using 2x7970s for power. It will take some overclock, but you will not push to the outer limits as you will get power limited. You will need to pay close attention to detail to reduce power consumption in all parts of the PC to get the absolute max out of a dual 7970 with that PSU.

Put it in perspective though, still blindingly fast rofl and you will not be gaming-disadvantaged with online gaming response times, just don't expect The World with 2x7970s and a 750w PSU.

Worth reading (cover to cover) Guru3d review on the 7970. If you have not come across Guru3d before, put him on you mega-friend list ..... very very good guy, knows his stuff.

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/radeon_hd_7970_ghz_edition_review,8.html
 
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Cheers for that, it does appear I'm on the edge where power is concerned, how would I know if a stress crash it due to lack or power or unstable overclock.
Although saying that after reading a lot of forums they do say a 700W is fine or O/Cing on my setup....
Is there anyway of monitoring how close to the edge my PSU is running?
 
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Lt

Been away a couple days doing boring things like living rofl.

PC has settled after the session a couple of days ago - thanks for that :)

To move on .... I am aware there are many other things I can "tweek" to get the best out of the beast, tried most over the decades, however need to do it in a steady fashion, as you overclock guide rightly emphasises. Two start points....

1. Clean reboot, no tweeks and all at stock, then apply the overclock you took me through.

2. No other settings changed in any way. Runs at:
Core Volts 1213
Power Limit +20
Core Clock 1225
Memory Clock 1675
Fan Speed: auto
Memory & Aux voltage still at Stock (1600 & zero)
Valley Benchmark with those settings is 4070

Any other parts you recommend I tweek/go through ? (need to do the Card Memory and Aux voltage - hand holding appreciated). The beast is set to boot up at 3.9GHz/2133mhz memory. Main Specs:

Core i7-3960X Extreme @ 3.9GHz 2133mhz memory
2 x ATI/AMD Radeon HD 7970 (TAHITI XT) - timing at comment 2, above
16Gb RAM (G.Skill F3-17000CL9Q-16GBZH )
Memory timing 10066Mhz @ 9-11-10-28 (G.Skill recommended memory settings)
PCIe v3.0 x16 (8.0 Gb/s) @ x16 (2.5 Gb/s)
1500w Platimax PSU
ASUS RAMPAGE IV EXTREME (Full ROG setup, so have access to any part of the BIOS/Hardware/Motherboard setting)

Consider all at "stock" apart from the tweeks we have done so far on the GPU, and the Mainboard ROG CPU setting of 3.9Ghz/2133Mhz
 
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