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Overclocking 5850 Crossfire

elrasho

elrasho

elrasho

Soldato
Joined
12 Jan 2009
Posts
6,502
Having played BF3 Beta and found my FPS drops to 50 at times I want to overlcock both 5850 cards. I used Auto Tune but noticed my first "old style" reference card can only go up to 775Mhz core and 1125Mhz Memory.



Where as the newer Saphire 5850 can go all the way to 900Mhz core and 1250Mhz memory.



How can I get my reference card to overclock the same as the second Saphire card?
 
Got the same problem on my 5870 x-fire setup.

One way to do it is to flash the cards bios. I have not attempted this as I think its a bit risky.
 
You should be able to do it using afterburner, you need to look for a line about unofficial overclocking in the config file and change it to this:

EnableUnofficialOverclocking = 1

This should allow you to bypass the 775MHz clock limit.
 
5850x2 2gb
i5 750 OC 3.2Ghz
1680*1052
60
11.8

then I overclocked my 5850s to 775/1125 and got average 70fps, both cards running at 66C under load. However, there are times when I get extreme stuttering, like the game is trying to load or something. Is that because I've only got 1GB VRAM in each 5850?
 
I'm having trouble overclocking my 5850s. Tried going from stock 725 to 750 using AMD Overdrive in CCC and I get BSOD, are the 5850s poor at overclocking in crossfire?
 
Im running the auto tune from ccc and its taken 20mins and still running. Does it normally take this long?

I can overvolt the cards using afterburner 2.2 beta. I might try that if the auto tune doesnt work, its currently showing an orange striped screen with the amd logo in the bottom left and the fans are going crazy.



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i got best results overclocking my 5850 with Sapphire TriXX, stock reference card managed 900/1200 at 1.2v? last year, same as my 5850 extreme earlier this year :)
 
I download Trixxx and manged to change the voltage to 1.2 for both cards. Increased to 880/1200 and now getting 85fps outdoors and 130fps indoors average. So if I went up to 1080P at these clocks I'd, in theory, get 70fps outdoors and 100fps indoors which is what I was getting before the overclock.



My settings:



I noticed on Windows 7 I got some flickering but not in game so I returned back to stock clocks and saved it as a profile. Gonna run some benchmarks now...
 
Im getting flickering at random time, but I think its when the cards are overclocked and automatically reduces clocks speeds to save power it happens then.

If Im at stock speed and the clocks are reduced automatically it doesn't flicker? What could be causing this? Is it the sudden drop from 880/1200 to 715/1000?
 
The flickering only happens in Windows 7, so I'm gonna use Profile 1 (Stock). When gaming adjust to Profile 2 (880/1200) and launch the game quickly. My temps are fine sitting at 65C under load so I really don't know what could be causing this flickering?
 
See what I meant about the extra performance. :)

As for the flickering, sounds a bit odd. Try clocking just the core and leave the memory at stock, and vice versa, and see if it still does it.

Edit; for your reference i am running 950/1100 with 1.25v. I am water cooled though and you need to keep an eye on the VDDC temps as you push the voltage up. You can check those with gpuz. Sounds like your RAM will run faster than mine though.

Also, if you're not using RadeonPro then you should be! Brilliant application for having individual game profiles for stuff like AA and AF, and forcing xfire profiles when new games don't seem to use xfir properly. It will also allow you to activate an Afterburner overclock profile when a game launches so it runs at stock speeds when not in game. :)
 
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OK I'll leave the memory at 1000Mhz and set the clock to 775 using stock voltage and see how it goes. I'm kinda scared of upping the voltage again, that flickering scared me off as I thought I had permanently damaged by cards! I never checked my VDDC temps, didn't know I had to so maybe they are overheating causing the flickering?

I have Radeon Pro but didn't know you could activate afterburner through when gaming though, that's very useful!

btw would it be worthwhile selling the reference card and getting another Sapphire extreme so I have two identical 5850s with the same PCBs... it may help with the overclocking. They are going for £149.99 now :)
 
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Probably not when you consider how little the reference card is worth 2nd hand.

It shouldn't be a problem though, both of mine are reference cards flashed with the Asus bios to remove the clock limit and give voltage control. IIRC that should be bypassable now with Afterburner?
 
wolvers said:
Probably not when you consider how little the reference card is worth 2nd hand.

It shouldn't be a problem though, both of mine are reference cards flashed with the Asus bios to remove the clock limit and give voltage control. IIRC that should be bypassable now with Afterburner?
Click to expand...

Yes there is in Afterburner 2.2 Beta, that's what I was using. I've actually come into some money so thought this is a good time to by another 5850, I'm gonna send the reference one back to e-bier as the whirring fan is really starting to annoy me and if they give me a cash refund it'll have paid for the 5850 from OCUK :)
 
Do you get flickering in anything other than the BF3 beta? I get it sometimes but not others. No flickering/slow downs elsewhere in other games and only outside in the beta. I suspect it is an issue with CF and the game, I get more consistent performance with only 1 5850, so I don't believe it is a VRAM issue
 
d_brennen said:
Do you get flickering in anything other than the BF3 beta? I get it sometimes but not others. No flickering/slow downs elsewhere in other games and only outside in the beta. I suspect it is an issue with CF and the game, I get more consistent performance with only 1 5850, so I don't believe it is a VRAM issue
Click to expand...

The flickering only happens in Windows 7 when Im overcloked. Even if I overclock by just 10Mhz on core and memory I get the flickering, I honestly think my reference 5850 is borked. I should take it out and have the Saphire 5850 in alone, then try overclocking that to see if the flickring occurs.
Theres none in any games I play, but a bit in BF3 beta but we all know about that.

All the reviews for the Sapphire 5850 show its a great overclocker too. Im 99% down to buy one and send the Powercolor reference one back to e-bier.
 
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I caved... placed an order for another 5850 now I'll have two identical ones :) Main reason was I'm never gonna play games at a higher resolution of 1080P and I don't see the difference with higher than 4X AA/AF. The "1GB VRAM is not enough" argument is false so my endeavour to get a GTX 580 3GB is over.

The reference 5850 is going back to E-bier next week, best case scenario they give me £150 cash refund, worse case scenario they say its not faulty and send it back.
 
Good idea that, try clocking the non-reference card on it's own and see what that does. The other thing you could try is connecting the display to the other card to see if it stops.
 
How much difference does it make oc-ing the 5850's please guys?

I've got two reference XFX 5850 Black Editions under water but never overclocked them, not sure if its worth it.......

Also - If you don't mind! - Max I can set them to is 775Mhz in overdrive, guess I need to use afterburner to get past this limit yeah?
 
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