Overclocking 5850 Crossfire

elrasho · 6 Oct 2011 at 20:22

zoomee said:
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?

I got an extra 15fps average on Battlefied 3 beta by overclcoking to 880/1200. I say if your struggling to play games at a resolution/settings/fps you want then overclock. Personally I like a mixture f Ultra/High settings and FPS to be 60 minimum. I was getting 50fps on BF3 Beta then OCed and now get average 65fps .

Yes use MSI Afterburner 2.2 Beta to overclock past 775 but keep an eye on your temps!

bigjimmyauk · 6 Oct 2011 at 20:25

elrasho said:
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.

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

I have never seen that screen in CCC where did u get that, i see nothing to test custom clocks auto tune or those swanky looking green dials :mad:

elrasho · 6 Oct 2011 at 20:27

bigjimmyauk said:
I have never seen that screen in CCC where did u get that, i see nothing to test custom clocks auto tune or those swanky looking green dials

Have you got the full catalyst suite 11.10 preview? This is the one I have: http://downloads.guru3d.com/Catalyst-11.10-Preview-Win-Vista-7-32-and-64-bit-download-2795.html

elrasho · 6 Oct 2011 at 20:36

zoomee said:
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?

I got an extra 15fps average on Battlefied 3 beta by overclcoking to 880/1200. I say if your struggling to play games at a resolution/settings/fps you want then overclock. Personally I like a mixture f Ultra/High settings and FPS to be 60 minimum. I was getting 50fps on BF3 Beta then OCed and now get average 65fps .

Yes use MSI Afterburner 2.2 Beta to overclock past 775 but keep an eye on your temps!

zoomee · 6 Oct 2011 at 20:40

elrasho said:
I got an extra 15fps average on Battlefied 3 beta by overclcoking to 880/1200. I say if your struggling to play games at a resolution/settings/fps you want then overclock. Personally I like a mixture f Ultra/High settings and FPS to be 60 minimum. I was getting 50fps on BF3 Beta then OCed and now get average 65fps .

Yes use MSI Afterburner 2.2 Beta to overclock past 775 but keep an eye on your temps!

thanks bro - DOn't think I need to really - as I was getting 70-120fps outside and 80-150fps inside. That was all settings Ultra/High but without anti-aliasing - as soon as AA gets switched on it hits 30fps - so the extra 10fps won't be worth it . Think I'll just stick with not using AA for now

thanks anyhoo

zoomee · 6 Oct 2011 at 20:41

PS - steer clear of the 11.10 drivers - they are poopookaka - use 11.9 with the caps

bigjimmyauk · 6 Oct 2011 at 20:43

elrasho said:
Have you got the full catalyst suite 11.10 preview? This is the one I have: http://downloads.guru3d.com/Catalyst-11.10-Preview-Win-Vista-7-32-and-64-bit-download-2795.html

Ah so it's a new thing for 11.10

elrasho · 6 Oct 2011 at 21:12

zoomee said:
thanks bro - DOn't think I need to really - as I was getting 70-120fps outside and 80-150fps inside. That was all settings Ultra/High but without anti-aliasing - as soon as AA gets switched on it hits 30fps - so the extra 10fps won't be worth it . Think I'll just stick with not using AA for now thanks anyhoo

Thats strange Im getting those FPS with AA on High and AF 2X? I don't see why your fps drops to 30fps with it on? Here are my settings:

zoomee said:
PS - steer clear of the 11.10 drivers - they are poopookaka - use 11.9 with the caps

Why are they rubbish? I've not had any problems with them

elrasho · 6 Oct 2011 at 21:50

Had a look at my VDDC temps:

are these too high?

d_brennen · 6 Oct 2011 at 22:00

Idle temps?

Here's my top 5850 on idle

elrasho · 6 Oct 2011 at 22:04

d_brennen said:
Idle temps?

Here's my top 5850 on idle

No those were under load, on idle I get around 35C. Could these under load temps be causing the flickering issue?

d_brennen · 6 Oct 2011 at 22:17

No idea, never even checked mine before. Doubt it though I either get flickering or not in BF3 regardless of play time. Noticed it is much worse on 11.8 and 11.9 than on 11.10 so I reckon driver/game issue. It is a beta (heh

) and a month + old build of the game

Edit: jumping on BFBC2 will monitor VDDC temps

elrasho · 6 Oct 2011 at 22:19

Hmmm the flickering happens even if I leave the memory at 1000 and increase the core to 735 (thats just 10Mhz). Hopefully my new Sapphire 5850 will arrive tomorrow and I'll replace the Powercolor reference 5850 card with it. Maybe the flickering is happening because the two cards aren't identical? Or maybe the Powercolor 5850 is borked?

The weird thing is the flickering only happens in Windows 7 and not in any games so it can't be a driver issue.

d_brennen · 6 Oct 2011 at 23:04

After a few rounds of BFBC2

elrasho · 6 Oct 2011 at 23:05

d_brennen said:
After a few rounds of BFBC2

Nothings changed?

d_brennen · 6 Oct 2011 at 23:13

elrasho said:
Nothings changed?

Uploaded same capture again

fixed now

elrasho · 6 Oct 2011 at 23:15

OK so its not the VDDC overheating as your temps are much higher. What PSU have you got? I've got a Corsair HX620, maybe its not providing enough power?

d_brennen · 6 Oct 2011 at 23:37

OCZ 700w Modextream, one of the 6 pin PCIe cables and one 2x molex> PCIe 6 pin on each card

I remember a similar problem for a while on my 4890, idle memory clocks ramping up and down was the cause (flicker in Windows and browsers etc) but that was fixed in drivers ages ago

Edit: I've got one of those wall plug wattage meters and I've never seen my PC use more than 460w full song. Thats an overclocked 1055t, 4GB RAM, 2 x 5850, 2 x 500GB Spinpoint F3s, 2 x 2TB WD Greens and a 320GB 2.5" WD Blue

thecremeegg · 7 Oct 2011 at 11:18

The flickering in windows is a common problem with overclocking xfire cards, do you have two monitors by any chance?

elrasho · 7 Oct 2011 at 12:58

d_brennen said:
OCZ 700w Modextream, one of the 6 pin PCIe cables and one 2x molex> PCIe 6 pin on each card

I remember a similar problem for a while on my 4890, idle memory clocks ramping up and down was the cause (flicker in Windows and browsers etc) but that was fixed in drivers ages ago

Edit: I've got one of those wall plug wattage meters and I've never seen my PC use more than 460w full song. Thats an overclocked 1055t, 4GB RAM, 2 x 5850, 2 x 500GB Spinpoint F3s, 2 x 2TB WD Greens and a 320GB 2.5" WD Blue

My setup with nothing overclocked uses 350Watt so I should be OK with power when Im overclocking.

thecremeegg said:
The flickering in windows is a common problem with overclocking xfire cards, do you have two monitors by any chance?

Only one card is connected to my Dell monitor via DVI and that same card is connected via HDMI to my AV Receiver to send sound. Surely the flickering can't be casued by me having DVI AND HDMI connected as HDMI is only being used for sound? The other Saphire card is not connected to anything.