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

[LtMatt]

Driver fusion says" can't delete some entries would you like to upgrade to premium?
Nice another program thats free and probably useless.

Did you use the download link i provided? Replace the main exe with the one i provide.

 

[LtMatt]

Wow!! Driver Fusion needs a health warning. Spyware in the installer so you need to watch carefully so you opt out.

Yeah, you need to read the installer and untick when it says do you want to install "bla bla bla". As long as you can read, its easy.

 

[LtMatt]

Driver fusion cleaned up a huge amount of space on my C: drive which is great but how can drivers be taking up so much space when I always uninstall the old ones and remove the C:\AMD folder?

Because they leave a footprint behind as does every driver install that Driver Fusion shows on the left hand side. Intel, Nvidia, they all leave bits behind which take up space. Once you start installing loads of drivers over the months years it soon adds up.

 

[LtMatt]

was pointed to this thread by a kind soul in the graphics card subforum as I was having difficulty with my MSI 7950 getting the voltage unlocked.

Followed each step exactly as written and it worked a charm.

Nice one LtMatt !!

Although I cannot turn the overdrive facility off in CCC...

Over drive is disabled by default, you must have enabled it. You can try resetting factory defaults in ccc (with after burner closed) to disable over drive.

 

[LtMatt]

Thanks, I have CCC now disabled. MSI afterburner now works.

What would be a good place to start with a Gigabyte Windforce 7970?

Core Clock 1000mhz and Memory 1375mhz.

In CCC earlier on I had 1150mhz and Memory 1550mhz butt when running 3DMark Fire Strike I got a lower score than when it was factory settings, this was based on an unstable overclock I think.

I guess I am just trying to understand what voltage for how much of an overclock.

Use Unigine Heaven to test the core. 3dmark 2011 (not the new one) to test the memory. Do one at a time, focus on core first.

Start at stock and move up in 25mhz segments. If you crash, get a black screen, or a driver stopped responding message bump the voltage two notches, (0.012v) restart your pc then and try again. Keep doing this until you reach your maximum or until you feel happy. (1172 core is a good medium) Run a benchamrk run on heaven to test. Once completed safely run it again and increase the clocks.

Then do the same with the memory but use 3dmark 2011. Once your score gets considerably worse, or your pc freezes and you can't recover, or your screen has weird coloured lines down it you reached the limit of your memory. You can then knock it down 25mhz and leave it there or up the voltage two notches and continue. 1563 is a good medium for memory overclock.

Download Links

http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/2111/Unigine_Heaven_DX11_Benchmark_3.0.html
http://www.gamershell.com/download_83546.shtml

 

[LtMatt]

@ LtMatt

When extending the clocks for crossfire you only need to do it the once as
now it does both cards at the same time.

No more swapping cards and monitors

This may be a win8 benefit

Nice Scotty that is some good info that will help others. Win8 ain't so bad after all is it.

Cheers,

I ran heaven earlier on these settings...

Core 1150mhz and Memory 1550mhz

I got a great score on standard settings.

FPS - 144.2
Scores - 3632
MIN FPS - 64.9
MAX FPS - 255.3

All seemed very stable, however when I ran 3DMark Firestrike my scores were less than before I tried the overclock so which is likely to be right? Both without a voltage bump. Could I go from those settings again and just bump the voltage by 2-3 notches?

You need to work out whether its the core or memory overclock which is lowering your score. Normally why its best to do one at a time.

 

[LtMatt]

Righto!

Seem to be stable on this.

Stock settings =
Core Voltage - 1175
Core Clock - 1000
Memory Clock - 1375

My overclock =
Core Voltage - 1188
Core Clock - 1190
Memory Clock - 1581
Power Limit - +20

I got a score of 3736 in Heaven and 10080 in 3DMark11.

As overclocks go how is that for a 1st ever attempt?

Looks good to me. If needs be you can always go further so long as temps allow.

 

[LtMatt]

When i try to run all tests on 3DMark firestrike though it crashes. Core Voltage increase needed?

Max temps hit on this overclock was 63C

What type of crash? The application itself crashes? Probably core yes, but could be memory as well i suppose. I've not experienced the software crashing as a result of a bad overclock yet. Had a few gpu stopped responding crashes which were solved with a voltage bump.

 

[LtMatt]

Closed itself, error message but can't remember what. Anyway I have upped the core voltage to 1200 and it ran and finished fine.

However the Firestrike score is still about 600 less than what I got before I did the overclock!

So is the 3DMark11 and heaven scores which were fantastically high the ones to go off or the 3Dmark Firestrike which was lower than pre-overclock?

A little confusing really!

That's why its best to do it in small steps one clock at a time that way you can check for a performance drop more accurately and take appropriately action. Just stick the memory right back to stock and go back to your last stable clock and start again.

Oh and don't forget to make sure the power slider is at +20% you don't want your overclock getting throttled, that can causes crashes or letting you get higher overclocks than you really should.

 

[LtMatt]

I did though, I got both core clock and memory running fantastic. Doing them both separately and slowly. Both at good scores on the separate programs.

Running Firestrike gives it a performance drop, however on firestrikes results it picks up my CPU at 1600MHz when it is actually clocked to 4500MHz, could this be why?

Could be, or it could be that your stable overclock is not quite as stable as you thought on this new demanding benchmark. Trial and error, you'll get there in the end.

Oh and check my post edit above ^^.

 

[LtMatt]

Latest version: Treexy Driver Fusion 1.5.0

Yeah i noticed that, ill try to sort out an unlocked version soon. For the time being id advise on using the one i included in the op.

 

[LtMatt]

Massive thanks to LtMatt for all his help.

I am now overclocked to...

Core Volt = 1237
Core Clock = 1200
Memory Clock = 1600

From Stock Settings Of -

Core Volt = 1175
Core Clock = 1000
Memory Clock = 1375

Scores

Heaven DX11 Benchmark = 3736
3DMark11 = P10123
3DMark Firestrike = 7760

Obviously my Core volts are upped a fair bit, what is a safe setting for the 7970's? My temps hit a maximum of 67c.

Those temps look good. You might find that once you hit high 70's low 80's you get artifacts.

Soo the OP is updated and working as in feb 2013?

Yes ive updated it recently.

 

[LtMatt]

Sweet Seems to have done the trick.

Is the fan profiles only for 79xx or can they be used for 7850?

Also the Driver Fusion program said that it couldn't remove everything, because i didn't had pro. But i think it worked so w/e. Just wanted to note it.

They were designed for 7970 reference cards but should work with any radeon card.

I did include the Pro version of Driver Fusion. When you extract the setup file there should be another folder included. Check the read me file.

 

[LtMatt]

Oh, i just downloaded it from their website... Oh well, i'll remember that next time

Also what happens when you update your driver version, should this be redone or ?

You really should use the version i uploaded and read the the file.

You can just run driver sweeper, restart, then install the new drivers. No need to use the uninstall tool via add/remove program. Its not essential to use driver sweeper, but it does get rid of all traces of the drivers where as the normal uninstall method does leave a few files behind.

 

[LtMatt]

Hi @ all!

I am new here in this forum and its great!!

I got my new VTX 7850 X-Edition and tried all the day to enable the v-crontrol options, but no luck!!!

I followed all your steps LtMatt but no chance... the option is all the time grey...

Any other hint for me?

Thx and greetings from germany

Marcus

Your card might be voltage locked then, or it might just be locked in afterburner.

You can try this custom version of sapphire trixx. I've used it myself previously on a gigabyte HD7770 OC card that was voltage locked in afterburner.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/ctfo9j

 

[LtMatt]

Thx for the fast reply!

OK will try out tomorrow! Going to nightshift in a few minutes.

Are there cards that are voltage locked? I have to read a little bit about ATI
cards, my last ones have been NVIDIA cards.

I just started TRIXX and it shows 1210 VDDC, this is max in the tool! Is this correct?

It looks like VTX have voltage locked your card. I'm not familiar with the card in question is this it?

 

[LtMatt]

Well i don't know much about that card im afraid. How well does it overclock at stock voltage?

 

[LtMatt]

Just followed the guide in the first post, yet Heaven shows my clocks as 925/1250 still despite Afterburner saying otherwise. Is Heaven not reading correctly or Afterburner not changing anything?

Running an HiS IceQ Boost 7950.

I expect its just heaven displaying the wrong clocks. Ignore it.

 

[LtMatt]

I wasn't pressing "Enter" after entering the numbers into Afterburner

Tried the clock speeds in the example image in the main post, Heaven just showed a black screen whilst the music played in the background and had to reboot. I'll have a look around and see what others are using as their cloicks.

Thanks for the guide!

Yes you need to click apply in afterburner.

If i was you i would start at default clocks and default voltage. Focus on the core first then the memory. Bump the core by 25mhz and try to complete one benchmark run of unigine heaven. If you complete ok without a crash, black screen, driver reset then bump the core another 25mhz and rinse and repeat. If you get a crash or whatever restart your pc first (otherwise you lose performance) then bump the voltage a notch and run the test again. Will take a while but its a good way to find a stable overclock. Once you have it stable test it on todays current dx11 games. Farcry 3, sleeping dogs, battlefield 3 are good games to push your gpu hard. You might find you need an extra notch of voltage to be fully game stable.

 

[LtMatt]

Cheers. Is it worth throwing the power limit straight up to +20 to start with?

Yes always best to fire and forget with that. Whack it up to 20% and leave it there for life.