CCC Overclocking

paradisiac · 24 Jan 2011 at 08:06

how safe is it to OC just using CCC settings? do they set the max settings to something well within the saftey limits of the cards?

kristmace · 24 Jan 2011 at 08:19

CCC only does a very gentle overclock, plus it self tests the stability so it's a long way from the maximum settings. You're not going to see a huge benefit, but if you're worried about OC yourself then it's not a bad way to go.

hdpcgamer · 24 Jan 2011 at 08:28

paradisiac said:
how safe is it to OC just using CCC settings? do they set the max settings to something well within the saftey limits of the cards?

Its pretty safe to OC using CCC but as with overclocking in general, make sure you start with small increments of 5 or 10mhz each time and use a program like MSI Kombustor to test the stability of the overclock before increasing the GPU further.

You should be able to overclock the 6850 to around 875mhz giving you a decent 100mhz above the stock GPU clock of 775mhz and I've seen some as high as 920mhz but its all down to the individual card and how well it overclocks.

paradisiac · 24 Jan 2011 at 08:59

is there a ratio for gpu:memory clocks or do you just get the gpu to just before it fails stability, then adjust memory until just before it fails stability?

hdpcgamer · 24 Jan 2011 at 09:09

paradisiac said:
is there a ratio for gpu:memory clocks or do you just get the gpu to just before it fails stability, then adjust memory until just before it fails stability?

Increasing the GPU clock will give the the biggest gain in performance so I'd start with that and once your've found you maximum stable OC, move onto the memory.

As kristmace has pointed out, the CCC will only give you a little to moderate OC. If you wish to go beyond the GPU clock parameters in the CCC you may have to use a 3rd software like MSI afterburner, RivaTuner or ATI Tool.

paradisiac · 24 Jan 2011 at 09:47

hdpcgamer said:
Increasing the GPU clock will give the the biggest gain in performance so I'd start with that and once your've found you maximum stable OC, move onto the memory.

As kristmace has pointed out, the CCC will only give you a little to moderate OC. If you wish to go beyond the GPU clock parameters in the CCC you may have to use a 3rd software like MSI afterburner, RivaTuner or ATI Tool.

thing is, i dont want to kill my new gfx card, so was just going to see how much, if any, gains i would get from using CCC, if it was safe. if that went well and the gains were noticable, then maybe i would consider a high OC, but if i wont actually notice the gains in anything other than benchmarking, then there is no point in risking killing my card.

hdpcgamer · 24 Jan 2011 at 09:58

paradisiac said:
thing is, i dont want to kill my new gfx card, so was just going to see how much, if any, gains i would get from using CCC, if it was safe. if that went well and the gains were noticable, then maybe i would consider a high OC, but if i wont actually notice the gains in anything other than benchmarking, then there is no point in risking killing my card.

Lol you won't kill your GPU unless it was running at over 100 degree Celcuis or if you increased the GPU from 775mhz straight 1000mhz and even then, you'd probably get the BSOD or the system would just reboot.

If you overclock safely, then you'll fine - make sure you monitor the temps of your GPU.

I don't think your AMD Athlon II X2 250 @ 3ghz will bottleneck your 6850 so hopefully any increase you make to the GPU clock will increase your performance in games.

Let us know how you get on.

paradisiac · 24 Jan 2011 at 10:02

hdpcgamer said:
Lol you won't kill your GPU unless it was running at over 100 degree Celcuis or if you increased the GPU from 775mhz straight 1000mhz and even then, you'd probably get the BSOD or the system would just reboot.

If you overclock safely, then you'll fine - make sure you monitor the temps of your GPU.

I don't think your AMD Athlon II X2 250 @ 3ghz will bottleneck your 6850 so hopefully any increase you make to the GPU clock will increase your performance in games.

Let us know how you get on.

if you look at my 3dmark results in one of my other posts, the cpu does seem to be holding it back a tad, the difference between my old 9800GTX on my old i7 system.

paradisiac · 24 Jan 2011 at 10:31

just remembered i have DiRt2 on my steam account (thanks to purchasing my HD5770s in my old pc) it struggled abit in DX11 mode with the 5770s, should the 6850 be better?

hdpcgamer · 24 Jan 2011 at 17:22

paradisiac said:
if you look at my 3dmark results in one of my other posts, the cpu does seem to be holding it back a tad, the difference between my old 9800GTX on my old i7 system.

I would have thought 3ghz was enough for the 6850. One way to find out is to OC the CPU to maybe 3.5ghz and if you don't see an improvement in framerates then your CPU isn't bottlenecking your GPU.

Try using a benchmark software like Vantage or a built-in benchmark on one of your games like Dirt 2 or Resident Evil 5 etc.

hdpcgamer · 24 Jan 2011 at 17:26

paradisiac said:
just remembered i have DiRt2 on my steam account (thanks to purchasing my HD5770s in my old pc) it struggled abit in DX11 mode with the 5770s, should the 6850 be better?

The 6850 should give you a nice improvement over the 5770 in Dirt 2, something like an extra 20fps depending on what resolution you game at.

Overclocking the 6850 to around 860mhz would give you an additional 6-7fps.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/HD_6850_Cyclone_Power_Edition/13.html

paradisiac · 24 Jan 2011 at 17:35

has been benchmarked and was not that impressed with the score, barely beat my 9800GTX and HD5770 (albeit they were in an i7 machine)

hdpcgamer · 24 Jan 2011 at 18:11

paradisiac said:
has been benchmarked and was not that impressed with the score, barely beat my 9800GTX and HD5770 (albeit they were in an i7 machine)

The i7 is faster clock for clock compared to Phenom CPUs so that would most likely explain why the 9800GTX and HD5770 are both able to achieve decent framerates but the 6850 should still be higher. :confused:

However, the 9800GTX is only a DX10 card so will mostly run in either DX9 or DX10, which will give you higher framerates than running in DX11.

Are you comparing like for like i.e. the setting in the game are the same?

What framerates are you getting from your 6850 compared to the 9800GTX and HD5770?

Try running Dirt 2 in DX10 as that should give you a nice boost in FPS.

paradisiac · 24 Jan 2011 at 18:36

hdpcgamer said:
The i7 is faster clock for clock compared to Phenom CPUs so that would most likely explain why the 9800GTX and HD5770 are both able to achieve decent framerates but the 6850 should still be higher.

However, the 9800GTX is only a DX10 card so will mostly run in either DX9 or DX10, which will give you higher framerates than running in DX11.

Are you comparing like for like i.e. the setting in the game are the same?

What framerates are you getting from your 6850 compared to the 9800GTX and HD5770?

Try running Dirt 2 in DX10 as that should give you a nice boost in FPS.

im not sure, as it was last summer when i had my i7 build, so cant remember what the settings were.

hdpcgamer · 24 Jan 2011 at 23:07

paradisiac said:
im not sure, as it was last summer when i had my i7 build, so cant remember what the settings were.

The thing that you have to remember is that if you maxed out the video settings on Dirt 2 when you owned those previous cards, then the graphics would be pretty much identical between the three cards. The only improvement you'll notice in an increase in fps.

paradisiac · 25 Jan 2011 at 08:49

hdpcgamer said:
The thing that you have to remember is that if you maxed out the video settings on Dirt 2 when you owned those previous cards, then the graphics would be pretty much identical between the three cards. The only improvement you'll notice in an increase in fps.

i couldnt run dirt2 with everything maxed as it got proper jumpy, i struggled to find any game that would max the settings, but i was playing at 1920x1080. even fifa10, which i dont think is that gfx intense didnt like that sort of res with settings on high.

hdpcgamer · 26 Jan 2011 at 02:42

paradisiac said:
i couldnt run dirt2 with everything maxed as it got proper jumpy, i struggled to find any game that would max the settings, but i was playing at 1920x1080. even fifa10, which i dont think is that gfx intense didnt like that sort of res with settings on high.

Hmm, something doesn't quite add up if you are not able to max 90% of the games out at the moment.

On my bedroom gaming rig, my ATI 4850 along with an Intel dual-core E6300 @3.2ghz, can max out 90% of the games that I play @1080p (no AA though) and on Dirt 2 maxed out, I get around 35 - 40fps with no judder, stutters or jumpy gameplay at all and I'm using Catalyst 10.9 if that helps.

Both your CPU & GPU are noticably more powerful than my bedroom rig so you should be getting at least 50fps, which shouldn't cause any jumpy gameplay at all.

I would seriously look at overclocking your CPU a bit and see if that makes a difference because theres a good chance that it is holding back your 6850, especially if you are overclocking it.

Btw, what FPS are you getting for Dirt 2?

J.D · 26 Jan 2011 at 15:50

hdpcgamer said:
Hmm, something doesn't quite add up if you are not able to max 90% of the games out at the moment.

On my bedroom gaming rig, my ATI 4850 along with an Intel dual-core E6300 @3.2ghz, can max out 90% of the games that I play @1080p (no AA though) and on Dirt 2 maxed out, I get around 35 - 40fps with no judder, stutters or jumpy gameplay at all and I'm using Catalyst 10.9 if that helps.

Both your CPU & GPU are noticably more powerful than my bedroom rig so you should be getting at least 50fps, which shouldn't cause any jumpy gameplay at all.

I would seriously look at overclocking your CPU a bit and see if that makes a difference because theres a good chance that it is holding back your 6850, especially if you are overclocking it.

Btw, what FPS are you getting for Dirt 2?

DX10 for you and DX11 for the OP. Not comparable.

paradisiac · 26 Jan 2011 at 16:05

hdpcgamer said:
Hmm, something doesn't quite add up if you are not able to max 90% of the games out at the moment.

On my bedroom gaming rig, my ATI 4850 along with an Intel dual-core E6300 @3.2ghz, can max out 90% of the games that I play @1080p (no AA though) and on Dirt 2 maxed out, I get around 35 - 40fps with no judder, stutters or jumpy gameplay at all and I'm using Catalyst 10.9 if that helps.

Both your CPU & GPU are noticably more powerful than my bedroom rig so you should be getting at least 50fps, which shouldn't cause any jumpy gameplay at all.

I would seriously look at overclocking your CPU a bit and see if that makes a difference because theres a good chance that it is holding back your 6850, especially if you are overclocking it.

Btw, what FPS are you getting for Dirt 2?

i have not played any games yet on my new machine, i was saying my old i7 with the HD5770 struggled.

hdpcgamer · 26 Jan 2011 at 16:31

J.D said:
DX10 for you and DX11 for the OP. Not comparable.

I did suggest to the OP that by runing his 6850 in DX10 should give him a boost in fps over DX11.

The point I was trying to make was that his 6850 should perform much better than my 4850s and there shouldn't be any jumpy gameplay in Dirt 2.