Wierd OC issues in afterburner!

[borley]

Hi got my 7970 WF overclocks a lot higher than the previous card i got last week!
Anyway OC'ing in afterburner and when i got to a 1190mhz core clock, just by applying i got flashing lines apearing in the middle of the screen in windows, i thought wierd because i overclocked higher and was fine, so reset aftburner flickering went, i tried applying 1190 again, flickering, tried 1200 fine!
anyone explain this is it a voltage issue? afterburner etc.
thanks

 

[borley]

what is also wierd is that i get a lower score in HEaven with 1190 than i do with 1180!
I can go up to 1180mhz on stock voltage of 1174mv then 1190 crashed so i then add 20% power limit but get a lower score so have to up the voltage to 1200mv
Don't know weather it has anything to do do with unlocking afterburner to get higher overclocks as i reach the limit of 1200mhz pretty easy.
Thanks
Update tried OC at 1190mhz again and the scores are now higher than they were at 1180mhz like i expected very strange.

 

[Ciff1]

Hi borley, so you Dsr'd then. Could it be CCC conflicting with afterburner have read other posts with people having issues. Could try just driver with afterburner. What version of drivers and afterburner you using. l got flicker in heaven with powertune on, turned +20% off and it went.

 

[borley]

Hi borley, so you Dsr'd then. Could it be CCC conflicting with afterburner have read other posts with people having issues. Could try just driver with afterburner. What version of drivers and afterburner you using. l got flicker in heaven with powertune on, turned +20% off and it went.

Hi Cliff yeah I returned and this does seem to overclock at lower voltage a lot better, to give an example, the other card I could get to 1140mhz before it crashed this one 1190mhz on stock voltage of 1174mv.
Lots of benchmarking to do but I found 1190 mv unstable when I unlocked afterburner for higher overclocks even though it was at the same setting.
I mean at stock in afterburner on these cards its 1299mv/1200mhzcore/1650mhzmem.
And I was just over locking the core as that has most effect on performance but I can get that without touching the volts by just using stock and +20% power limit.
But when I out afterburner back to normal ie I reinstalled so clocks are basically the same as CCC I can go to 1190mhz with the same settings as with the unlocked version and I don't get problems
Anyway unlocked I got up to about 1250/1500 at 1250mv the most I would like to go benchmarking.
I have found at lower clocks, what I want to use for gaming about 1150mhz core that memory has no effect on scores in 3d mark 11
Seems to on heaven benchmark may be drivers.
Anyway to your questions I'm not using CCC just the 8.980.0.0 driver and afterburner the newest version 2.2.2.
Regards

 

[borley]

Is it also normal even when memory does have an improvement on an overclock that its realy slight, i mean a 50mhz increment seems to increase my Heaven benchmark by about 10-15 points.
Regards

 

[Ciff1]

Maybe where i'm going wrong then using CCC 12.3 & Afterburner 2.2.2 did think of trying RC 11.2 release drivers for 7970. Not sure if i've found my cards core limit yet get the odd little flashing block in heaven at 1130-1140 on stock but no driver crashes or lockups. Only going to go to 1.2 volts i think.

 

[borley]

Maybe where i'm going wrong then using CCC 12.3 & Afterburner 2.2.2 did think of trying RC 11.2 release drivers for 7970. Not sure if i've found my cards core limit yet get the odd little flashing block in heaven at 1130-1140 on stock but no driver crashes or lockups. Only going to go to 1.2 volts i think.

Yeah for gameing i wanna nice balanced 1150 core, memory not overly fussed, i know the stock voltage you could downclock it as the overclocks are high, i heavnt heard anyone not being able to oc on 1174mv.
regards

 

[Ciff1]

From what i've read memory has only a little effect compared to core. They say to keep upping memory until heaven score does not improve anymore. Don't forget memory on these cards has built in error correction so finding max can be alittle difficult.

 

[borley]

Back again after a lot of overclocking
Right here's the differences I have noticed between 2 gigabyte windforce 7970

As cliff mentioned I got a gigabyte wf7970 card from OC last week but I wasn't to happy with the overclock , I mean I got to 1140mhz before I had to touch the voltage, I know plenty of people would be happy with that

But to get it to 1200mah took a lot of voltage, basically full voltage in afterburner 1299mv with 100% fan

Now most reviews I have read people got to 1200mhz at a lot less.
So I did a dsr got this one and it's so much better I can get 1200mhz at stock volt 1174mhz but with + 20% power!

I got good overclocks in heaven benchmark to get into about number 5 in the benchmark thread, Once I post my result.
Anyway I have noticed with the 1st card I would get artefacts in heaven warning me not to go any higher, usually flashing whit spots etc
This card I have now never gets artefacts it just freezes when I cant overclock anymore which is 1 thing someone with knowledge might be able to explain.

Also the other thing as previously mentioned sometimes I hit a clock in afterburner and when I press apply I get a quick flicker of the screen like a voltage surge,someone turning a light on,thunderstorm etc it usuly a split second then I run heaven and it's usually fine.

But sometimes when I apply I get that but the screen shakes as well , this is still in windows on the desktop, and the only way to stop it is to select reset in afterburner and it's gone. The weird thing is though once this has happened any overclock I try without rebooting when I apply, even stock settings it goes to the shaky screen again.
So I reboot and the symptoms have gone, but what is also strange is that the overclock that cause dye problem can now be applied and heaven benchmark will run!
So far every time I get this symptom if I reboot the overclock will work.

Do you think it's safe or is it a voltage problem like I mentioned before I know some people go 1275mv I'm about 1250mv and temps fine running 100% at the moment.
I know it's a lot to read but I am still overclocking and heaven seems to run fine I am just concerned is this flickering in windows a bad omen?
Also when I applied once in the settings of after burner my gpu fans slowed down for a split second then resumed soon as I pressed applied.
Regards

 

[Gregster]

You have to understand that the scores on Heaven are only for e-peen reasons and not a thing you should worry yourself over. The top score cards are under water and the guys know what they are doing.

Please be carefull else you will be returning another card

 

[borley]

You have to understand that the scores on Heaven are only for e-peen reasons and not a thing you should worry yourself over. The top score cards are under water and the guys know what they are doing.

Please be carefull else you will be returning another card

Thanks for the advice gregster,what would you say the max voltage would be safe?
I mean the windforce do keep my temps under 70c even at 50%
Thanks

 

[Gregster]

Thanks for the advice gregster,what would you say the max voltage would be safe?
I mean the windforce do keep my temps under 70c even at 50%
Thanks

I am not familiar with the voltages of these cards but having seen many posts, I would say max volts on air I would be using would be 1.2 for every day use but hopefully somebody like Locky or Besty can advise better.

 

[psychodil]

Im happy with 1.25 on my 7950 twin frozr. It depends on your tolerance for noise really, if you can run at 1.25v and keep the temps at 70ish without it being too noisy for you then I would go with that.

 

[borley]

Im happy with 1.25 on my 7950 twin frozr. It depends on your tolerance for noise really, if you can run at 1.25v and keep the temps at 70ish without it being too noisy for you then I would go with that.

Yeah thanks for the reply , the windforce is very low noise at 50% fan it has 3 fans but keeps good temps.