[Chris Ihao]

First of all, I'm a practical guy. I dont overclock to impress anyone, and even less to rack up scores in misc benchmarking tools. My goal is to increase my gaming experience without having to live with a wind tunnel in my room.

Ok, so I got a stable oc at 950/1900/2004 with my 570 directcu ii (3 consecutive runs in 3dmark 11 = pretty stable in my experience). However, to achieve these clocks I had to bump the voltages up to 1.125, and it actually surprised me a bit that I managed to run at 950 on these voltages. Here is why:

Yesterday I were testing out the dcuii and managed to reach 900 pretty simple. I then started slowly increasing the speeds and voltages. First I increased the core to 920 at 1.075v, which was my stable 900 voltages. It passed. Increased to 1.088v and moved on to 940. Freeze in 3dm11. Ok, jumped to 950 while raising the voltages to 1.1v. Freeze. I even tried 1.113v on 940 but no dice. Then I tried out my 920 oc at 1.075v again but it froze up, so I raised it and passed a run on 1.088, thinking that this was stable. I then called it a day.

Today, to my disappointment, I had a 920/1.088 run fail on me. This made me bloodthirsty and I crossed my personal big whoop 1.1v (read destroyed 570) again to figure out what this card actually can do. It was during this process I realized that 1.125 seems to be rock solid on 950 core, without getting too noisy although a bit hotter (I can now actually HEAR the fans at 33%, contrary to any other clocks).

My questions are:

1) Is it typical for cards to SUDDENLY work just fine at certain voltages, while all the in betweens seems to do little or nothing to improve the core speeds?

[I guess it is somewhat logical that certain components need such and such power to run properly, and hence voltage levels become like step ladders in terms of stability. I actually think I recall reading another ocn user with a directcu ii finding his safe haven at 1.125.]

2) Would you guys run a specialized card like the directcu ii at 950 24/7, or back off to 900 which means just a few less fps in practice?

[after all its NEC Proadlizer vrm's, not that I have a clue what that actually means

. I do however like to stay on the safe side in case of dust buildup or whatever, but then again the fan should just ramp up.]

3) Is the moon a cheese?

Well, thanks for any input. I live to learn, and there are quite a few knowledgeable people here so shoot away.

Cheers,

Chris

 

[appleg33k85]

1. I'm not exactly sure if i'm reading the question right but yes, the incrimental steps may not have been enough to get to that higher overclock
2. As long as the card is running cool and you aren't over volting too much and can live with the potentially shortened life span of the card, then yes it should be fine. I think there really should be a point though where you find you're comfortable with. In example, if you're already getting 60+ FPS and the game play is smooth, then why not bump down the voltage and clocks a bit to lengthen the life of the card?
3. Yes the moon is cheese

jk

Overclocking should be about making a comfortable playing level - sure I like to do it for fun just to see how far my hardware will go, but every day, there really isn't a need to run games at 150+ FPS at the expense of the life span of a card.

 

[Chris Ihao]

Quote:

Originally Posted by appleg33k85 1. I'm not exactly sure if i'm reading the question right but yes, the incrimental steps may not have been enough to get to that higher overclock 2. As long as the card is running cool and you aren't over volting too much and can live with the potentially shortened life span of the card, then yes it should be fine. I think there really should be a point though where you find you're comfortable with. In example, if you're already getting 60+ FPS and the game play is smooth, then why not bump down the voltage and clocks a bit to lengthen the life of the card? 3. Yes the moon is cheese jk Overclocking should be about making a comfortable playing level - sure I like to do it for fun just to see how far my hardware will go, but every day, there really isn't a need to run games at 150+ FPS at the expense of the life span of a card.

Thanks for the feedback man.

Actually, after playing for several hours I experienced a display related crash in Arma 2 so I really dont think its worth it. I think its more stable than most oc's posted here, and I could probably overvolt a bit more, but nah. 900 is enough. Thanks for clearing up that moon issue. Been wondering about that one for years