[bpw87]

This is my plan. I'm going to be upgrading my Gigabyte 270X for a 290 or 290X in the coming months. So my plan is to try and overclock my GPU without worrying about it burning in 6 months or a years time. Problem is I've never really played with GPU overclocking and the little I tried failed in BSOD a couple of times then I gave up.

So if people give me specs to put into my card to try that would be awesome or if you have one and want a test dummy that's cool to.

Another thing what software should I run? Maybe MSI Afterburner or something else?

My specs:
i5 4670k @ 4.2ghz with Cooler Master T4 Hyper cooler
Gigabyte R9 270X OC Windforce
Asrock Z87 Pro 4
Ripjaw X 16GB CL9 @ 2133mhz
840 EVO 250GB SSD
Thermaltake EVO Blue 2.0 750w (recently found out they can have unstable 12v rails)

The 270X default clock speeds are GPU 1100 / Memory 1400... I have it set it at 1200/1400 plus 5% power using AMD Overdrive without any failures yet but I haven't put it through much load to properly test it.

I have no idea if the voltage helps but it hasn't crashed so I'm gonna run with it unless someone tells me different

 

[bpw87]

Okay I've had 3 crashes in 10 minutes and it seems no matter how big or little I go with the GPU core clock it crashes as soon as I do anything graphic intensive.

I'm trying different setting with minus power settings to see if that helps

 

[bpw87]

Through vigorous trial and error I have found a overclock than doesn't BSOD with a generous amount of load, more testing and fine tuning will go into it but at least it's a start.

All using AMD Overdrive
GPU core clock 1150mhz(+50) with negative 10% power limit
Memory clock 1550mhz(+150)

The difference is definitely noticeable doing the bench test in Tomb Raider at a mix between high and ultra with the ultra hair setting. I gained an average of just over 10fps. These stats aren't concrete and now it's more stable I'll try and find more conclusive numbers with averages, highest and lowest.

 

[Hattifnatten]

Why on earth would you put on a negative 10 power-limit?

Download Afterburner, and use that instead. It doesen't load up the OC on start-up unless you set it to do that, which is very useful when trying out overclocks. Also, you can (probably) adjust voltage with afterburner aswell, which helps you attain higher clocks and stability. Power-limit just prevents the card from throttling due to too high power-draw.

 

[bpw87]

I just ran it negative cause on the graph it sent it towards the green and it wouldn't run any other way. I'll download afterburner in the morning.
i was just stabbing in the dark with this so with a bit of guidance im sure i will get there

 

[bpw87]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hattifnatten

Why on earth would you put on a negative 10 power-limit?

Download Afterburner, and use that instead. It doesen't load up the OC on start-up unless you set it to do that, which is very useful when trying out overclocks. Also, you can (probably) adjust voltage with afterburner aswell, which helps you attain higher clocks and stability. Power-limit just prevents the card from throttling due to too high power-draw.

I have GPU-Z and Afterburner now. I'm still running the negative 10% power limit (if set at zero it crashes without fail with little amount of load) cause it is runs stable and I'm getting 1.206v across the core while being constant and very stable. Also I can't adjust my voltages with afterburner even when selecting it in the setting menu.

 

[Hattifnatten]

Just noticed, you have a Windforce. Most of them are voltage-locked, so you can't actually adjust the voltage without flashing the bios (?). I do find it weird that -10% power helps. Maybe it's throttling so much that it never actually reaches the top clock speed, I don't know. You could enable the Afterburner OSD to see what's happening though. Also, I'd like you to try nudging back the memory, and see if you can reach a higher core clock if the memory is at stock. Core clock has a larger impact on performance than memory.

 

[bpw87]

I can undo the memory clock and increase the core clock. When it BSOD I loose all the info on what is actually causing the failure.
today i ran tomb raider on ultra for about two hours without a problem at an average of around 40fps. Just wanted to stress it more than anything else, i got temps of around 60c on a day that was 35 outside

 

[JoeChamberlain]

I just set the power limit to +20% and start increasing the core clock inch by inch with stability testing between increase. Forgive me if I am wrong, but I don't think the +20% will hurt, it will only use as much as it needs to and AMD I don't think would put it on CCC if you couldn't safely use it...

If you're worried about temps set-up a custom fan profile in Afterburner...

forgive me if I have misunderstood something here?

 

[benjamen50]

Temperature for the GPU is fine, leave it under 80°C and you'll have no issues with overheating for 24/7 use. VRM temperatures may be a worry if you do a BIOS flash and alter the GPU voltage.

 

[bpw87]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JoeChamberlain

I just set the power limit to +20% and start increasing the core clock inch by inch with stability testing between increase. Forgive me if I am wrong, but I don't think the +20% will hurt, it will only use as much as it needs to and AMD I don't think would put it on CCC if you couldn't safely use it...

If you're worried about temps set-up a custom fan profile in Afterburner...

forgive me if I have misunderstood something here?

I'm not worried at all about going 20+, I just never made it that far cause it would crash on 10+.
Give me specs and i'll try them, only thing I don't wanna do is re-flash the bios.

My case has awesome cooling and yeah I'm not worried unless it gets up over 80 unless it's under extreme loads then it will be alright for short periods.

 

[bpw87]

Quote:

Originally Posted by benjamen50

Temperature for the GPU is fine, leave it under 80°C and you'll have no issues with overheating for 24/7 use. VRM temperatures may be a worry if you do a BIOS flash and alter the GPU voltage.

I'm not keen on flashing it but I know I can play with voltages on my motherboard bios if I really need to alter them.

 

[bpw87]

Unless it is at -10 it will BSOD. I have removed the memory clock and increased the core to 1170 and it crashed tomb raider but not a bsod

 

[bpw87]

I have it fairly stable at 1160mhz at -10 power. It doesn't seem to faze it whether the memory clock is at 1625mhz the max and 700 the minimum, although I can see fluctuations in the VRAM with it dipping 1075MB down to 850MB for a second when over 1600mhz.

I will keep testing this speed for the time being unless it fails or someone can recommend something reasonable.

 

[JoeChamberlain]

Use MSI Afterburner, whack power limit to +20%, try the core clock at 10 Mhz more than your last stable. Leave the mem frequency at stock for now. In settings for AB, create a custom fan profile that looks like the below so you can be confident that the fan is going to go at 100% at extreme temps: -



Can you not unlock the voltage (if you can't get stable with the above) by using this method with AB as posted by another OCN member?

http://www.overclock.net/t/1313813/new-bios-update-for-gigabyte-hd7950/630#post_19724424

If you are going to over-volt, do it by very very small amounts...

 

[bpw87]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JoeChamberlain

Use MSI Afterburner, whack power limit to +20%, try the core clock at 10 Mhz more than your last stable. Leave the mem frequency at stock for now. In settings for AB, create a custom fan profile that looks like the below so you can be confident that the fan is going to go at 100% at extreme temps: -



Can you not unlock the voltage (if you can't get stable with the above) by using this method with AB as posted by another OCN member?

http://www.overclock.net/t/1313813/new-bios-update-for-gigabyte-hd7950/630#post_19724424

If you are going to over-volt, do it by very very small amounts...

WOW!!! that worked awesome before it would crash in seconds of running with load now it made it through the tomb raider benchmark twice and everything was super stable. Any more ideas should i keep going higher. Also the memory is back so default.

Thank you so much

 

[bpw87]

It crashed after 6 times of the benchmark then it wouldn't run stable after that.

 

[JoeChamberlain]

Thanks.

If it was me, I would just keep adding 10Mhz between tests until it becomes unstable and then drop back 10Mhz, then, if you want to try further try pushing the over-volt at very small amounts (if you were able to unlock?) on your first unstable core clock. If you are still unstable after increasing the voltage stop and go back to your stock voltage... More voltage does not always mean better stability.

Then once you are happy with your core clock, start increasing the mem clock by about 20Mhz between tests. You may only notice small increases in FPS or points on benchmark by upping the mem clock and it can even give you a lower performance result in some cases without showing signs of instability once you hit the mem clock "limit".

Anyway, I assume your core clock is now at 1170 Mhz? Which is still a respectable OC, you may not be able to push it much further and you may not notice much improvement in doing so if you are. I could be stood corrected though.

EDIT: Oh, just seen your last post. Damn. Well. As I've said above, you may have pushed the card to it's limits, and it's still a good overclock anyway. You may want to try over-volting if you are confident and do so gently. There may be someone else that comments with a better suggestion though.

 

[bpw87]

It seemed to run fine at 1170 then i bumped it up another 10 and it crashed and wouldn't go stable at 1170 but i did notice a 2 fps difference just changing that with +20 so I'll have another play in the morning. (it's midnight here)

i never was able to unlock the voltage through that link but it seemed to help even without. I'll do so research into over volting before i get into that and play around.

i can notice the difference in the card from standard. I get about 3/5 fps in ultra and about 8/10 in a custom setting so I'm happy with the gains so fair and if that's it's limit it's still a decent card and worth the price

 

[Bagmup]

I'm not sure if it's a 270 thing or not, but after reading this, i lowered my power % from 120% to 110% and was able to get a higher oc...weird because everyone says just bang it up to the highest it will go.