First time [Asus 6850]

Loxa · 26 Apr 2012 at 16:00

Hey all,

im looking to overclock my 6850 and im scared to doit so im here to get some advice from the pros. What is best to do it with CCC or another program? And do i need anything else hardware wise just to overclock my GPU like needing to overclock something else

Adam123 · 26 Apr 2012 at 17:36

When i had my 4850 in ccc there was an auto overclock, is that still there?
Could be a good starting point.

Loxa · 26 Apr 2012 at 18:00

Adam123 said:
When i had my 4850 in ccc there was an auto overclock, is that still there?
Could be a good starting point.

No i dont see it

valkynaz · 26 Apr 2012 at 18:16

The auto-clock feature was removed with the newer CCC, I don't know why because I found it an awesome and easy feature to use.

The best application to use IMO would be MSI Afterburner.

SMed · 26 Apr 2012 at 18:42

I tried loads for my Asus 6850 but for some reason they couldn't individually change GPU clock and GPU voltage - they always put them together, and it was never right.

For me, the Asus GPU Tweak Tool works perfectly. You can set about 6 profiles. I just use 2, one for gaming one for everyday usage/power saver.

Power saver:
GPU Clock: 740MHz
GPU Voltage: 1157mV
Memory Clock: 4000MHz

Gaming:
GPU Clock: 950MHz
GPU Voltage: 1233mV
Memory Clock: 4700MHz

Runs fine like that. I haven't tried going higher than 950MHz. Temps stay at about 70 degrees with the fan speed about 35% which is almost inaudible for me over my case fans with the case under the desk.

The only problem I've had is sometimes Batman: AC will crash at startup, but then just restarting the game immediately it's absolutely fine. I have no idea if that's GPU related though, everything else works fine so maybe not.

Loxa · 26 Apr 2012 at 20:17

SMed said:
I tried loads for my Asus 6850 but for some reason they couldn't individually change GPU clock and GPU voltage - they always put them together, and it was never right.

For me, the Asus GPU Tweak Tool works perfectly. You can set about 6 profiles. I just use 2, one for gaming one for everyday usage/power saver.

Power saver:
GPU Clock: 740MHz
GPU Voltage: 1157mV
Memory Clock: 4000MHz

Gaming:
GPU Clock: 950MHz
GPU Voltage: 1233mV
Memory Clock: 4700MHz

Runs fine like that. I haven't tried going higher than 950MHz. Temps stay at about 70 degrees with the fan speed about 35% which is almost inaudible for me over my case fans with the case under the desk.

The only problem I've had is sometimes Batman: AC will crash at startup, but then just restarting the game immediately it's absolutely fine. I have no idea if that's GPU related though, everything else works fine so maybe not.

Ahh ok thanks, how do i know what is safe todo and what not to go past? Im really unsure

SMed · 26 Apr 2012 at 20:23

Thrust4Money said:
Ahh ok thanks, how do i know what is safe todo and what not to go past? Im really unsure

First thing I did was google around for this particular GPU to see what others were doing. Then just played around with that. I then used MSI Kombuster to test stability and it went through fine. I think if it's not stable, your display just crashes. There are other stability testing programs too. Keep an eye on the GPU temps too, the ASUS GPU Tweak tool has a monitoring bit as well that keeps an eye on temperature, clock speed, fan speed/percentage etc. I think GPU's can run higher than CPUs. I don't think mine got to 80 degrees when testing, and stays under 70 usually when gaming.

j.col · 26 Apr 2012 at 20:31

First of all, have you got a proper PSU? (power supply unit) as doing this on a generic cheapo psu is not advisable.

Personally i use Msi Afterburner. http://event.msi.com/vga/afterburner/download.htm

then download furmark or Ungine Heaven DX11 http://unigine.com/products/heaven/download/.

Now open MSI and raise the core clock slider by 50 mhz.
Run Furmark or Heaven and see if there are any artifacts or it crashes.
if it passes, raise it again and retest.
if it fails, (if you can) raise the gpu voltage a little and retest.
onve you get the core clock, sorted, then start raising the memory clock slider.

But i would go by Smed's settings, as he has the same card, so you should be able to reach similar speeds

Loxa · 26 Apr 2012 at 20:35

j.col said:
First of all, have you got a proper PSU? (power supply unit) as doing this on a generic cheapo psu is not advisable.

Personally i use Msi Afterburner. http://event.msi.com/vga/afterburner/download.htm

then download furmark or Ungine Heaven DX11 http://unigine.com/products/heaven/download/.

Now open MSI and raise the core clock slider by 50 mhz.
Run Furmark or Heaven and see if there are any artifacts or it crashes.
if it passes, raise it again and retest.
if it fails, (if you can) raise the gpu voltage a little and retest.
onve you get the core clock, sorted, then start raising the memory clock slider.

But i would go by Smed's settings, as he has the same card, so you should be able to reach similar speeds

I have a OCZ 700w, and thanks

j.col · 26 Apr 2012 at 20:50

Thrust4Money said:
I have a OCZ 700w, and thanks

Good, had to make sure.
Just follow SMed's settings and you will be fine

SMed · 26 Apr 2012 at 21:07

To make matters more amusing, I'm just using a Corsair 430W PSU. And my 2500k is overclocked to 4.3GHz.

Loxa · 26 Apr 2012 at 23:57

If i overclock to

Gaming:
GPU Clock: 950MHz
GPU Voltage: 1233mV
Memory Clock: 4700MHz

Would this be on all the time? And if so would it be bad for my GPU

Basicly im asking if i need another idle profile like Smed

Loxa · 30 Apr 2012 at 17:28

Thrust4Money said:
If i overclock to

Gaming:
GPU Clock: 950MHz
GPU Voltage: 1233mV
Memory Clock: 4700MHz

Would this be on all the time? And if so would it be bad for my GPU

Basicly im asking if i need another idle profile like Smed

Bump

Should i try a OC without uping the Voltage first or?

*Also overclocking the GPU is fine on its own? I dont need to OC in the bios or my memory as all i want todo is the GPU

SMed · 30 Apr 2012 at 18:23

Thrust4Money said:
Bump

Should i try a OC without uping the Voltage first or?

*Also overclocking the GPU is fine on its own? I dont need to OC in the bios or my memory as all i want todo is the GPU

Is there any reason you can't do what I've suggested?

For the GPU, it overclocks in real time in Windows, you don't need to go into bios or reboot or anything. As I said, you'd be better off having a powersaver profile and a gaming profile, for obvious reasons.

Loxa · 30 Apr 2012 at 18:26

SMed said:
Is there any reason you can't do what I've suggested?

For the GPU, it overclocks in real time in Windows, you don't need to go into bios or reboot or anything. As I said, you'd be better off having a powersaver profile and a gaming profile, for obvious reasons.

Im just checking every option as this is my first time and i dont want to hurt my GPU, im just a little scared basicly

*I assume when im about to game i flick to the Gaming Profile

SMed · 30 Apr 2012 at 18:31

Thrust4Money said:
Im just checking every option as this is my first time and i dont want to hurt my GPU, im just a little scared basicly

*I assume when im about to game i flick to the Gaming Profile

Yeah, Asus GPU Tweak tool can run in the background, but I just fire it up before a game, put it on my gaming setting and leave it running whilst gaming. When finished, put it back to powersave then close Tweak Tool.

Loxa · 30 Apr 2012 at 18:36

SMed said:
Yeah, Asus GPU Tweak tool can run in the background, but I just fire it up before a game, put it on my gaming setting and leave it running whilst gaming. When finished, put it back to powersave then close Tweak Tool.

Whats the difference between a Profile OC and a 24/7 OC

SMed · 30 Apr 2012 at 18:44

Thrust4Money said:
Whats the difference between a Profile OC and a 24/7 OC

Not sure what you mean. Do you mean what's the difference between running your GPU overclocked 24/7 and only running it overclocked when gaming? Running OC only when gaming will keep temperature and power consumption down, possibly prolonging the life of the GPU and maybe saving a few pennies of electricity I guess.

Loxa · 30 Apr 2012 at 18:56

SMed said:
Not sure what you mean. Do you mean what's the difference between running your GPU overclocked 24/7 and only running it overclocked when gaming? Running OC only when gaming will keep temperature and power consumption down, possibly prolonging the life of the GPU and maybe saving a few pennies of electricity I guess.

Yeah thats what i ment, i changed the setting but when i saved it to say Profile 2 as soon as i click that is it active? Because in GPU-z still sees it at stock

SMed · 30 Apr 2012 at 19:06

Yeah, make sure after you've changed the settings/sliders, you press 'apply' then save to whatever number/button. Once it's saved properly, you just click it and that's it. Should work.

My powersaver button is S, and gaming is 4. As soon as I click the 4, the GPU clock slider changes from 740 to 950 and GPU voltage from 1157 to 1233. If you're talking about the GPU Clock shown in the graph in the monitor window, that will only go up when gaming/required.