"Overclocking" my Radeon HD 6770

Before anyone says anything, yes, I'm a newbie when it comes to "overclocking." I've been on Desktop Review and Notebook Review for about a year and a half and have seen many references to this site. It was only now that I had any use in making an account. Now, on to the questions:

I play Battlefield 3. I have an AMD Radeon HD 6770 1GB (which, I just recently found out, is simply a rehash of a previous GPU, the Radeon HD 5770 - beautiful marketing scheme).

I was messing around with the video settings since I familiarized myself with in-game monitoring software (HWiNFO64 and MSI Afterburner). I'm able to get roughly 25-35fps during demanding parts of the game with mainly High along with some "Ultra" settings thrown in. Ideally, I would like a little more (nothing like 60+ seeing as how I have a 60Hz monitor, but something within reason). I was curious if overclocking my GPU a tad would result in a slightly increased frame rate.

My priority here is being able to safely push my graphics card to a level where it increases performance, but doesn't sacrifice stability.

For those "too long, didn't read," I'll sum it up:

If I kept my current video settings, but overclocked my GPU a tad, would I see an increase in FPS in-game? Is overclocking even possible or recommended with my current GPU?


I'll post whatever extra information you need. Just say the word. Thank you.

- An increase of 5fps would be beautiful, but I have no issues with turning the video settings down, as well (I'll still overclock the GPU if the CPU isn't the bottleneck). I'm just looking for my 6770 to push a little harder (safely and stably, that is). I understand the performance boost will be minimal, but a boost is a boost.

- Overclocking my GPU would be moronically stupid if my CPU tops out before my GPU does (I believe this is the gist of "bottlenecking" - similar to the limiting reactant, for all of you fellow nerds). I believe I have a way of checking this (Battlefield 3 has in-game hardware monitoring).

- Default core clock speed = 850MHz / Default memory clock speed = 1200MHz

- From what I've seen online: Achievable core clock speeds: 900MHz (should be no problem), 1000MHz (from damric's charts), and 1006MHz (pushing it?) / Achievable memory clock speeds: 1240MHz, 1300MHz (unverified), and 1350MHz (from damric's charts - pushing it?)

- "For beginner level, don't change the memory clock."



- Any problem with just having my GPU's fan run at 70-80% whenever my computer is on? My CPU's fan is always at 100%, anyway.

- At what core/memory clock ranges do I need to start worrying about altering the voltages?

- MSI Afterburner or AMD Vision Engine Control Center/AMD OverDrive to control the GPU settings? Also, I don't think I'll need Catalyst Control Center. It appears everything can be done with AMD OverDrive (even gives max settings: core clock max = 960MHz, memory clock max = 1445MHz, + fan speed option)

- History lesson (I've been curious about this - please correct any misinformation): AMD makes GPUs. AMD bought up a rival(?) company, ATI. AMD and Nvidia are competitors in the GPU market. Other companies buy their GPUs and futz with them (for example, I have a Sapphire Radeon HD 6770, but I've seen ASUS, XFX, and HIS, as well). Do these companies mess with the GPU at all? I've seen 6770s with different core clock speeds and this has confused me a bit.


I've had BF3 since it came out and I've been fine. How do you figure my GPU is inadequate? I may have been wrong about what FPS I reach (looking away from heavy combat I believe I can easily reach 45-50fps), but "inadequate?" She's been nothing but faithful to my budget build
Edited by Metallica93 - 7/13/12 at 12:35am

"Bump."