MSi 6870 "Hawk"

[Rik1254]

Getting a GPU sometime in the next few weeks and Ive been looking at this card...mainly down to looks

Does anyone have one thats been overclocked?
My friend has a MSI 6850 cyclone thats OC'd to 6870 speeds, so theres little point getting this if it doesnt OC and the 6850 will almost match it for £30 less.

Im not exactly up to stratch on GPU's, so are there any within the £150 budget that will OC higher?
GTX 560 for example?

 

[robbieshanks]

I have the 6870 Hawk and have OC'd it to 975 MHz Core and 1150 MHz memory on stock voltage. To be honest I think it would go up to 1GHz core and 1250MHz memory if I tweak voltages - it's very overclock friendly. I haven't needed to as it gives me everything I need at stock speeds!

 

[ScottiB]

every example that I've seen will top 1000Mhz GPU using MSI Afterburner

 

[logi-cat]

that's what the msi hawk's are designed for, extreme overclocking.

 

[weyland yutani]

^ Really?

I have one of these but Im clueless about overclocking, seems silly not to make the most of it's capabilites. What sort of performance gains would you likely see, just afew more fps?

How safe is it to overclock these without frying them? I have Afterburner installed but Im afraid to touch it to be honest.

 

[arc@css]

Try making small, incremental changes, e.g. 10 or 20mhz at a time. Then check temps, try running a few games and see if any artifacts appear.

 

[Walkerie]

Hi mate, i bought mine, went to 980 core 1180 mem, no volt changes and its been fine ever since. Just using msi afterburner, very nice and very cool card.

 

[weyland yutani]

So in Afterburner its just a case of moving the sliders? When I've opened AB before I'm wary of touching the sliders, seems very easy to move them and potentialy fry the card lol Is the potential performance beenfit worth it? Mine is currently stock, 930 and 1050 I think)

 

[logi-cat]

Just do small increments and run a benchmark (e.g. Furmark). If that runs fine without any artifacts showing, slowly increase it again. You will know when you hit the voltage limit when you see artifacts appearing. You could increase the voltage limit if you want to gain a higher overclock, depends if your confident enough to do so. google it, i'm sure other people have tried it. Good Luck!