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

[LtMatt]

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?

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.

 

[LtMatt]

Right, well that makes sense! I'll have another play and make another cuppa.

That's it, get straight back in the saddle!

I'll crack open another beer then.

 

[LtMatt]

Going well, up to 1175

Off to make another brew!

Looking good mate, what did i tell you. Listen to old matt and you'll get there in the end.

 

[LtMatt]

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

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.

 

[LtMatt]

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.

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.

 

[LtMatt]

Going for 1200+ now.....

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

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.

 

[LtMatt]

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.

 

[LtMatt]

Thanks Matt for this! made overclocking so much easier, only on 1050/1350 stock volts though, happy with the peformance so won't go any further untill needed.

Glad it helped mate.

 

[LtMatt]

I have a question for you matt if i could please?
If i did get Accelero for my card, would this allow me to overclock more due to the better cooling? even though i can't adjust the volts?
Max i can get so far is about 1210-1215/1680 depending on benchmark.

Depends if you're being held back by high temps or lack of volts. Which card do you have? Have you tried the modded version of trixxx? I've known that to give voltage control to cards that seemed to be voltage locked before.

 

[LtMatt]

It's the Gigabyte 7970 Ghz edition,
Not tried the modded trixx no, worth a go i suppose, my temps never go over 61c so far so i don't think they are a problem, think the volts on these are 1.256 stock.
Where can i find the modded trixx?
thanks matt.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ginfyzbap9y616r/Sapphire TRIXX v4.4.0b MOD.exe

You might be able to unlock voltage control by flashing an old bios with your card.Heard about someone else here doing it. Start a thread and maybe that person will see it and respond.

 

[LtMatt]

Hmm, Just ran it, it'll let me put my voltage down but not up, it's maxed out at 1.256.
Should have got an msi card

Yeah looking that way mate. All you can do is try the bios flash.

 

[LtMatt]

Thats above average voltage anyway you could probably go high on that alone.

Yep he posted above that he can get to around 1210 which is good.

 

[LtMatt]

You ready to get this finished Mr Miagi?

Actually scrap that, got to do the shopping I'll be back in an hour or so.

As and when mate. Overclocking the memory is pretty easy. Start at 1500 (which is what all 7970 reference memory is rated for) and work your way up from there. Use 3dmark 2011 and bump the memory up in 25-50mhz increases as your see fit. When your score get considerably worse, black scree, pc freeze, stripey lines freeze, restart and bump the voltage a notch.

For 24/7 i would leave the memory voltage at stock (1.6v or close to it 1.625v etc) but for a benching overclock feel free to bump the memory voltage as you see fit.

 

[LtMatt]

Quick question, what score am I going by?

P score
graphics score
combined score?

3dmark 2011 score.

 

[LtMatt]

So the main Highlighted score (in orange) I take it.

The graphics score of this benchmark - http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18428457

 

[LtMatt]

Thank you

Thank you come again.

 

[LtMatt]

Interweb providings.

Got up to 1850 on the mem clock, now do I combine, run heaven and see if it's stable?

And if not up the voltage a bump or two?

Aye just keep experimenting mate. Depending on the type of crash you get it should be fairly easy to tell which it causing it. Core or memory.

 

[LtMatt]

Nay bother mate i enjoy it more than you.

 

[LtMatt]

100% stable now, just had a couple hours on Farcry 3 settings at max with no problems.

And I'll be able to push it a bit more when I get the Accelero won't I?

Good stuff.

You might expand your headroom a bit if temp limited, yeah.

 

[LtMatt]

I actually just registered with OverClockers UK in order to say thank you to LtMatt.

I had my 7850 overclocked to 1.1GHz on the core and 5.5GHZ memory clock with stock voltages.

For most of the past year, I haven't been able to upgrade the drivers because the newer versions of Catalyst wouldn't allow me to overclock past 1050MHz. Any MSi Afterburner overclock would result in copious screen tearing.

Finally, this guide has allowed me to upgrade my Catalyst drivers to 13.1 and maintain my overclock of 1100MHz/5500MHz and the driver upgrade has netted another 10% performance in a lot of games and benchmarks.

Once again, thank you LtMatt.

Happy to help mate.