7970 max oc artifacts

[moocow0463]

i cant max my sliders on the 7970 it will start artifacting in games and will randomly drop performance stable clock is quite a bit less 1055/1450, is it effecting my performance by much not being able to reach max oc? i wouldnt think so just want some other opinions

[DarkOCean]

Every card overclocks differently so Oc its just free performance so take as that.

[EiSFX]

You have to find the max OC your card can do as DarkOCean already said all video cards and CPU's overclock differently even if the card is the exact same model/version they all overclock differently you have to find your own max OC on your card by I personally start with the Core and raise it by 5 or 10 MHz and then test it in a game that will push your video card till what you think is a good amount of time and then quit out of the game and keep doing that till you see artifacts or crashes then lower the core clock 10 MHz then move on to your memory clocks by doing the exact same thing raise your memory clock by 5 or 10 MHz then test it in the same games you tested with your core and keep going till it artifacts or crashes and then lower your memory MHz by 10 and you have found your MAX OC for your video card.

I have been doing my video card overclocks this way since i had my ATI Radeon 9800 Pro and has been solid and worked perfectly with every card i have owned since then

[AsRock]

Is your card with the XFX cooler ?. If so it might not be cooling the card enough for the overclock.

What you could do is get a 3rd party cooler for it or even take their fans off as well as that part that covers the heat sink and zip tie some better fans to it just to see if it allows better overclocking.

If you do decide to get a 3rd party cooler ask XFX first as it's not allowed in all country's but last time i looked it was ok in the US as long as you asked them 1st.

[Frag Maniac]

My Sapphire 7970 OC doesn't OC so well either, so I just leave it at 1000 core, 1450 memory.

[james888]

What are your temps?

[moocow0463]

thanks ill look into the temps, and ill report back

[Kaynar]

Originally Posted by AsRock

Is your card with the XFX cooler ?. If so it might not be cooling the card enough for the overclock.

What you could do is get a 3rd party cooler for it or even take their fans off as well as that part that covers the heat sink and zip tie some better fans to it just to see if it allows better overclocking.

If you do decide to get a 3rd party cooler ask XFX first as it's not allowed in all country's but last time i looked it was ok in the US as long as you asked them 1st.

Thats slightly irrelevant since my xfx 7970 with the DD cooler runs 1125/1450 below 65c.
Cant go higher than 1450 on the memory though :/ I randomly get artifacts here and there...

I would advise the OP to use MSI Afterburner to manage his overclock mostly because the +20% powerslide doesnt reset all the time there and also because it is very important (i believe) to set a more aggressive fan profile (e.g. the fan should not wait for the card to go at 80c to ramp up its speed).

[drdeathx]

What brand do you have. I have 2 x 7970 Sapphires and get well over 1200/1600 on the overclocks but I have them watercooled..... 2 of them. the 3rd still gets over 1200 on core. Maybe you need more voltage?

[erocker]

From what I've been reading, these particular cards (XFX core ed.) aren't the best clockers. It may just need more voltage, but then again it's XFX, they could of just cheaped out on some components.

[drdeathx]

Originally Posted by erocker

From what I've been reading, these particular cards (XFX core ed.) aren't the best clockers. It may just need more voltage, but then again it's XFX, they could of just cheaped out on some components.

Ahh XFX. didn't see

[AsRock]

Originally Posted by Kaynar

Thats slightly irrelevant since my xfx 7970 with the DD cooler runs 1125/1450 below 65c.
Cant go higher than 1450 on the memory though :/ I randomly get artifacts here and there...

I would advise the OP to use MSI Afterburner to manage his overclock mostly because the +20% powerslide doesnt reset all the time there and also because it is very important (i believe) to set a more aggressive fan profile (e.g. the fan should not wait for the card to go at 80c to ramp up its speed).

Well if you haven't use GPU-Z as they will show you more temps of what the gpu is at normally.. it could be bad contact and a part of the gpu is overheating or VRMS and even the memory chips. Because the GPU is hitting 65c don't mean other parts of the card cannot be over heating.

And is normally a few censers on a GPU.

Originally Posted by erocker

From what I've been reading, these particular cards (XFX core ed.) aren't the best clockers. It may just need more voltage, but then again it's XFX, they could of just cheaped out on some components.

Yeah would not be the 1st time they did it although i thought they only did it on the slowest end of their cards.

[moocow0463]

ive been using msi to make a custom fan profile and seems i havent had any temp issues or artifacting so i believe the 2 went hand and hand...for now the card is stable at max OC ill test it with some benchmarks when i get time to be sure