Overclocking non-reference XFX 5850

[krooton]

Can I even do it?

It's this version:

http://www.vgadownload.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/XFX-HD-585X-ZNFV-Radeon-HD-5850.jpg

I've heard horror stories of people bricking their cards by flashing reference BIOSes on to them, so would rather avoid that, but that means my voltage is stuck at stock.

Played around with Afterburner last night, and whilst I could Furmark 850/1100, Heaven would crash using anything more than 800/1050.

I'm I stuck at this level then?

 

[antran]

What voltage are you using?

 

[j.col]

i had a similar problem, but with a different card. i also didn't want to flash my card.
did you increase the voltage in msi?
move the slider about 50% (or the whole way)along and then try it again.
also rivatuner lets me incrase the speeds a lot more than msi.

so i increase the voltage in msi and then increase the speeds in rivatuner.

 

[krooton]

I can't get Afterburner to edit voltages. Slider is not active, and even when I check the boxes in the settings and restart the software, it is still stuck.

 

[d_brennen]

Have you tried the enable unofficial overclocking configuration "hack"? Not sure if non reference 5850s are able to do it though

 

[MoodyB]

Some non reference cards can, some can't. My VTX 5850 can't as the voltage chip on it can't be controlled by software ( according to TechPowerUp ), so krootons' card might be the same.

Another option is to grab your bios using Gpu-Z, then download RadeonBiosEditor 1.25 and see if you can change the default voltage for the card that way. There's a good guide for it somewhere...

And if you have 50mins to spare, try and see what Overdrive gets from Autotuning. I know this might sound odd, but the only way I could get a decent'ish clock out of my card was to let Overdrive do its stuff & drop back 10-15mhz on each value once it was finished. If I tried to set the clocks manually using Afterburner, I'd get nowhere near it. This is using Cat 10.8's & currently at 850 / 1150. The default vcore for my card is 1.088v.

 

[d_brennen]

And if you have 50mins to spare, try and see what Overdrive gets from Autotuning. I know this might sound odd, but the only way I could get a decent'ish clock out of my card was to let Overdrive do its stuff & drop back 10-15mhz on each value once it was finished. If I tried to set the clocks manually using Afterburner, I'd get nowhere near it. This is using Cat 10.8's & currently at 850 / 1150. The default vcore for my card is 1.088v.

I've always found overdrive to over do it with clocks

 

[MoodyB]

I did too with the 5770's I had previously, but it seems to suit this 5850 for whatever reason. Maybe it's the drivers It'll keep me going until the 6850 appears.

 

[krooton]

Have you tried the enable unofficial overclocking configuration "hack"? Not sure if non reference 5850s are able to do it though

I've done that, which increased the range of the sliders for core and memory, but without the voltage to back it up, the best I can manage is in the OP.

I'll look in to the BIOS edit, and give auto-tune a go first.

Thanks!

 

[d_brennen]

My 5850 does 850/1150 on stock volts but to be honest I don't feel the need to run it at that so most of the time it is at stock

 

[krooton]

My 5850 does 850/1150 on stock volts but to be honest I don't feel the need to run it at that so most of the time it is at stock

I've downgraded from Xfire 5770s, so want to squeeze as much performance out of this as possible

 

[ThomasTheTankEngine]

I've done that, which increased the range of the sliders for core and memory, but without the voltage to back it up, the best I can manage is in the OP.

I'll look in to the BIOS edit, and give auto-tune a go first.

Thanks!

You can't change the voltage on the non-reference ones, and with the xfx5850's, lots of people report freezing if they enable unofficial overclocking with MSI.

You can't flash the bios on non-reference cards either, (unless you can find a specific hacked bios for that model). Flashing them with a reference-bios will kill the card.