Help overclocking reference 7970

[LtMatt]

Plus both of you guys have low Asic cards so that means yours needs more voltage to be stable than my higher Asic card.

That means you will need to throw more voltage at it to get stable clocks, so you can indeed whack it up to 1.3 volts if needed. Max i can go up to is around 1.231 volts.

 

[faginrs500]

Plus both of you guys have low Asic cards so that means yours needs more voltage to be stable than my higher Asic card.

That means you will need to throw more voltage at it to get stable clocks, so you can indeed whack it up to 1.3 volts if needed. Max i can go up to is around 1.231 volts.

Agreed.

 

[kissenger]

Thanks for the advice.

So my best bet is to try 1.3v and 1170 on the core, and if I can get through heaven then start reducing voltage until I get problems?

 

[LtMatt]

Thanks for the advice.

So my best bet is to try 1.3v and 1170 on the core, and if I can get through heaven then start reducing voltage until I get problems?

NO!

You just have to keep adding small amounts of voltage each time all the way up to 1.3. Run a loud and aggressive fan profile as well until you find that stability.

Like tommy mentioned if VRM temps get out of control it crashes the card.

I only just discovered this recently myself and its helped me understand the card and its limits much better. Previously i thought it was the core temps that were causing crashing and artifacts but it turns out the memory plays a role as well, if not a more important one.

Use http://www.hwinfo.com/beta/hw64_407_1775.zip - to add VRM temps to the afterburner overlay.

Start it up, tick sensors only, run, configure, then copy my settings. The default name is GPU VRM TEMP 1 or something but i changed it so it doesnt take up too much space on the afterburner overlay.

From what i can see VRM temp 2 is not important, its always low anyway so you can leave that.

 

[kissenger]

Okay I've configured AB to show VRM temps and just did another pass of Heaven at the following:

1237mV
1170 core
1375 memory
Power limiter at +20

The first pass I got through mostly unscathed. Few slight artifacts at the draon statue, but on the second pass they became worse, so I suppose that means I'll need more volts.

Btw, VRM temps never passed 75C and core temps never passes 65C.

Also on a related topic, I was playing BF3 last night and everything was mostly fine, but at one point I noticed a big drop in frame rates and looked at my AB settings and the card had downclocked itself to stock settings. Is that something to worry about? Never had it happen before on any card.

 

[LtMatt]

Okay I've configured AB to show VRM temps and just did another pass of Heaven at the following:

1237mV
1170 core
1375 memory
Power limiter at +20

The first pass I got through mostly unscathed. Few slight artifacts at the draon statue, but on the second pass they became worse, so I suppose that means I'll need more volts.

Btw, VRM temps never passed 75C and core temps never passes 65C.

Also on a related topic, I was playing BF3 last night and everything was mostly fine, but at one point I noticed a big drop in frame rates and looked at my AB settings and the card had downclocked itself to stock settings. Is that something to worry about? Never had it happen before on any card.

Core temps should always be higher, or at least even with VRM temps. On my card the core is normally hotter, unless im using a slack fan profile.

It seems to strange to me that your VRM temps are 10c hotter than the core.

The core on my card is typically 1-5+c hotter than my vrms.

What fan profile are you using?

Check the default voltage for the memory is at 1.6 in afterburner.

 

[kissenger]

I just did a Heaven run with fans at constant 80%. VRMs got upt to 74C, core got up to 64C. Memory voltage in AB is 1600mV.

At 1250mV/1170 I got through the benchmark pretty much unscathed. Saw like 1 or 2 mild texture flickers the whole way through.

 

[chief barker]

Okay I've configured AB to show VRM temps and just did another pass of Heaven at the following:

1237mV
1170 core
1375 memory
Power limiter at +20

The first pass I got through mostly unscathed. Few slight artifacts at the draon statue, but on the second pass they became worse, so I suppose that means I'll need more volts.

Also on a related topic, I was playing BF3 last night and everything was mostly fine, but at one point I noticed a big drop in frame rates and looked at my AB settings and the card had downclocked itself to stock settings. Is that something to worry about? Never had it happen before on any card.

Yes it's something to worry about. if it's downclocking then you are pushing it too far. Artifacts as well aren't good either.

One run of heaven is not enough....run it for about 20 minutes.

I run both my cards at 1100/1500 without touching the volts, do you really need any higher?

 

[LtMatt]

I just did a Heaven run with fans at constant 80%. VRMs got upt to 74C, core got up to 64C. Memory voltage in AB is 1600mV.

At 1250mV/1170 I got through the benchmark pretty much unscathed. Saw like 1 or 2 mild texture flickers the whole way through.

I forgot to say, ignore any artifacts or flicking around the dragon on unigine, its a bug. It will do it even at stock settings.

I just managed to get another 25mhz+ out of the core at stock settings. Just survived a 20 minute run of sleeping dogs extreme at stock volts 1.112 and a core of 1156. Needs a bit more testing , kept VRM temps below 80c. Thanks tommy.

 

[Pabl0]

I played with my 7970 and got it to a pretty much stable 1200/1600 but I didn't notice any performance gains, BF3 runs at 60.1 constantly anyways so just left it at stock 1050/1500.. I will overclock when I feel it needs a boost, maybe for far cry 3.

 

[kissenger]

Well I think my core maxed out at 1170 because nothing up to 1.3v can get it stable at 1180. Heaven is stable at 1170/1600, 1125mV. Temps at 65/75C. I think I could probably get a stable overclock at 1170/1675, which is pretty decent imo. Might also be able to get core voltage down a bit. I'll have a go later when I've got a bit more time.

 

[kissenger]

I'm still looking into ways of seeing if I could increase this overclock safely. One weird thing I did notice just now as I was messing about with some stuff is that if I open up AB and load my max OC profile (which is at 1.2V) and open GPU-z at the same time, GPU-z shows that my card is only drawing around 1.14V even at 100% load.

Is that just a bit of weirdness to do with GPU-z or is there something going wrong here? The strange thing is that the voltage readings for the memory and all other setting correlate perfectly in GPU-z and AB.

It does seem a bit weird to me that I can get a fairly high OC on stock, but then virtually nothing after that no matter what I do to the volts. Maybe AB isn't upping the volts as it should and that's why I'm getting instability at pretty much anything above my max stock OC?

 

[fluidz]

Hi Kissenger, are you using Windows 8?

 

[tommybhoy]

It's looking like the voltage isn't applying in AB.

Try Trixx or His Turbo.

If you want to use AB for monitoring at the same time, make sure you reset to stock in AB>exit>run Trixx/His and set the voltage/clocks, then open AB but don't change anything, it should display the settings set by Trixx/His.

 

[kissenger]

Hmm... this is very strange. I tried Trixx and I got the same result, except this time I used HWINFO64 to monitor voltages and it also shows that the voltage isn't going above 1.174v even at 100% load. This is the case even if I bump voltage to 1.3v in Trixx. I downloaded HIS Turbo but there's no option to change voltage control.

If voltage isn't changing I'm kind of pleased, because if I can fix the problem I should be able to get a better OC

Don't know why I can't adjust voltage though.

 

[tommybhoy]

You can get a semi fix on the voltage if you flash the GHz bios, it sets stock voltage to 1.25v.

You need to flash it in dos with a usb stick though as it won't flash within windows.

You can get it here:

http://www.overclock.net/t/1281425/...s-upgrade-for-reference-hd-7970#post_17695632

Make sure you use pioneerisloud's bios in that post.

Flashing guide here:

http://www.techpowerup.com/printarticle.php?id=34

The usb tools in the guide wouldn't work for me, so I used Bootable USB Drive Creator Tool 1.0 from here:

http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Boot-Manager-Disk/Bootable-USB-Drive-Creator-Tool.shtml



AMD's dual bios switch is a godsend.

Note that you won't be able to increase the voltage though on the GHz bios, it won't go further than the stock 1.25v.

Let me know how you get on pal.

 

[kissenger]

Thanks Tommy! You're very helpful

I'll try that out probably tomorrow. I should be able to tell one way or the other what is going on then. If I can get above 1160 core on the GHz BIOS then something must be wrong with Afterburner.

 

[tommybhoy]

Thanks Tommy! You're very helpful

No problem, makes a change from us shouting at each other last year, looking back, when I read it again, it's soo funny how two guys can get so heated!

Did you follow matts guide to the letter?

My voltage adjustment works for me using matts guide, either that or there may be some other conflict in your rig stopping it.

What's annoying though is we're both using MSI OC7970's with MSI's AB and it should just WORK instead of having to muck about.

It's not AMD to blame, it's MSI though as they advertise the card with voltage adjustment through their AB OC software, the least they can do is make it work.

 

[kissenger]

No problem, makes a change from us shouting at each other last year, looking back, when I read it again, it's soo funny how two guys can get so heated!

Hahah! And over the issue of vram! Not our finest hour

And yeah, pretty sure I followed it to the tee, but the thing is I have done a Windows reinstall for a year and I've had several GPUs in my system in that time (incl. another 7970 which was volt locked) and countless installs and reinstalls of programs like AB, Trixx, GPU-z, etc, etc, so there could easily be a conflict there somewhere.

Btw Tommy, does your GPU-z register the exact same voltage as what AB shows when you're running an overclock? I'm wondering if it might be just a general inaccuracy issue to do with GPU-z.

 

[tommybhoy]

Hahah! And over the issue of vram! Not our finest hour

Yes it was, we were probably both right in a sense, we probably wanted to wring each others necks lol , looking at it now, it doesn't matter a jot really.

And yeah, pretty sure I followed it to the tee, but the thing is I have done a Windows reinstall for a year and I've had several GPUs in my system in that time (incl. another 7970 which was volt locked) and countless installs and reinstalls of programs like AB, Trixx, GPU-z, etc, etc, so there could easily be a conflict there somewhere.

I have had various AMD/Nvidia gpu's installed without reinstalling W7, it won't be doing it as W7 can have both drivers installed at the same time, but yes, there must be a conflict.

Btw Tommy, does your GPU-z register the exact same voltage as what AB shows when you're running an overclock? I'm wondering if it might be just a general inaccuracy issue to do with GPU-z.

No, gpu-z is always correct-in my system anyway.

When AB doesn't unlock properly, it will show the added voltage in the osd, but gpu-z always shows the correct voltage.