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Best card for volt mods and overclocking on water?

Jimbo Mahoney

Jimbo Mahoney

Jimbo Mahoney

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
6,672
I've been out of the PC hardware scene for a couple of years. I'm still running a 5830 with a hard volt mod and water and I'd like to replicate something similar on a modern graphics card.

I don't want to be power-limited and have a ridiculous amount of heat-removal available (radiator is 30cm x 40cm and can be fitted with four 140mm fans).

Gaming will be done @ 2560 x 1440.

I'd be happy to spend up to the GTX 670 / Radeon 7950 level (i.e. max £300), but would much prefer to spend less if it means I get a card that can easily have more voltage put through it and hence give more bang for buck.

e.g. I would rather spend £200 and get a 50% overclock than £300 and get a 25% overclock even if the latter was faster overall.

I gather that most cards have software voltage adjustment - which ones have the most headroom there or can be BIOS / software unlocked to unlimited voltage?

I also gather that the ASUS GTX 680 has a PCB with solder points already built-in to allow easy hard mods! :D It's a shame I don't want to spend that much money though.

Thanks for any advice!
 
Is that the rest of your rig in your signature? If so you'll be looking at a large CPU bottleneck. I had a CPU bottleneck with an E8500 @ 4 Ghz and a 6870 so you'll be looking at an even larger one with a 7950/670.

The 670 doesn't allow software over voltage but no idea if you can hard mod it.
 
Rusty0611 said:
Is that the rest of your rig in your signature? If so you'll be looking at a large CPU bottleneck. I had a CPU bottleneck with an E8500 @ 4 Ghz and a 6870 so you'll be looking at an even larger one with a 7950/670.
Click to expand...

Yeh, I plan to upgrade the CPU too ;) The usual suspect for an overclocker - i5 3570K.

What res were you CPU-limited? I expect it to be less of a problem @ 2560.

psychodil said:
Probably a 7950. Can over clock around 50% on the core with increased voltage and cooling.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I was leaning that way too having read some reviews.

I'd be interested to know about cheaper cards too.
 
Jimbo Mahoney said:
Yeh, I plan to upgrade the CPU too ;) The usual suspect for an overclocker - i5 3570K.

What res were you CPU-limited? I expect it to be less of a problem @ 2560.
Click to expand...

1080. I think the bottleneck would still be extremely limiting even on 2560 although not speaking from experience there.

With the i5 3570k you will have no such issues though. :)
 
The chips are very good on them aswell.

1.030v does 1125mhz on mine ;)

Other pros

Beefy vrms
Speedy vram
Dual bios

Cons (for me)
Dvi-d sometimes failed.. Mine is dead but i use displayport so no issue and dp tio dvid avtive bizlink adappters are only 35 quid.
Some are software locked volt locked... So kinda need new bios or hardmod to up voltages
 
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