question about overclocking

[youdsy]

hia so ive currently got my MSI 580 lightning extreme 3GB OC @ 970 core 1940 shader and 2150 memory clock., with 100+mV on core V.

she runs like a dream.

however to try and minimize noise i locked fan speed @ 50 % and in my playtime of BF3 the temp didn't exceed 80 degrees. however when doing this the card resets to default clocks at some point in game, and im prompted with display driver has crashed and been restored etc.

could this be down to a air flow/temp issue due to the fact the card isn't getting enough airflow.

GPU temp doesn't exceed 80 but could it be a memory temp issue and the card is throttling back?

thanks

 

[Menty]

Why not just increase your maximum fan speed level (disregarding sound level at this point), monitor temps and see if it makes any difference?

With my first 7950 I was getting the same type of message 'display driver crashed etc' but believe it was possibly not enough core volts.

 

[youdsy]

Why not just increase your maximum fan speed level (disregarding sound level at this point), monitor temps and see if it makes any difference?

With my first 7950 I was getting the same type of message 'display driver crashed etc' but believe it was possibly not enough core volts.

ye with the fan speed up it doesn't crash.

only temp i can monitor is core though which doesn't exceed 80. quite happy with that temp as reference cards at much lower speeds exceed 80 easy.

any other monitor software i can use to monitor memory temps etc??

cheers for response BTW mate.

 

[shankly1985]

Driver stopped responding is the first sign of not enough voltage. Even if you not Overclocked the card yourself, some cards come pre-overclocked so just load up msi afterburner or trixx and give the voltage a tiny boost +6 should be enough.

 

[Jakus]

As temps go up stability goes down, so if you add voltage, guess what ? temps go even higher and the process loops !

You want quiet, turn down the overclock/overvolt and find the sweet spot which is just gains all the way and leave the overclocks for benchmarks.

 

[youdsy]

80C isnt hot enough to cause instability is it?

 

[Marine-RX179]

80C isnt hot enough to cause instability is it?

At lower clock speed it might not, but when you are pushing the overclock so high (970MHz is VERY high for a GTX580), you most likely would need lower temp to stabilize the OC, and it's not the simple generalization it is fine so long as it is under 80C".

Higher clock or lower temp and noise...you can't have both. Without upgrading cooling, either put up with the noise of the high rpm of the cooler, or lower the OC.

Another thing you can look into though which might help with lowering the temp is that...VGA coolers like the MSI ones which dump heat into case, the heat will build up at the lower half of the case over time, thus the dumped out heat get recycled back into the VGA cooler, if the top/rear exhaust fans are not pulling the heat away from the lower half of the case efficient enough. If your case has a fan-mount on the side-panel next to the graphic card, I would suggest adding a fan as exhaust (if you don't already have one) to help with removing heat from the lower half of the case at a faster rate (rather than relying on the far away exhaust fans at top/top-rear), which will reduce the amount of heat being recycled back into the VGA cooler, thus lower the graphic card's/GPU temp.