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Overclocking limit, hard limit or can I try again?

iamtheone

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I recently overclocked my unlocked HD6950 to 880mhz core and 1350mhz memory. It crashed in Haven benchmark where the camera rotates around the red dragon.

Is it worth it to try again several times at that limit? Cos I'd really like a stock HD6970 to come out of my unlocked HD6950. Or is it hopeless and may even damage my card?
 

joeyck

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unlocking it alone could damage your card (from some posts and reviews I have seen) ---- not always guaranteed lol
 

iamtheone

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unlocking it alone could damage your card (from some posts and reviews I have seen) ---- not always guaranteed lol

I did not flash to HD6970 bios. I used a modified HD6950 with unlocked shaders.

I'm going to maybe try again because I'm not sure if Powerdrive was set at 20%. Using both MSI afterburner and CCC seems to screw things up.
 

iamtheone

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I tried again, and Haven crashed at 880mhz and 1350mhz.

at 860mhz and 1340mhz Haven will run without crashing.
 

searingmage

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I tried again, and Haven crashed at 880mhz and 1350mhz.

at 860mhz and 1340mhz Haven will run without crashing.

Err.. DON'T overclock your memory.. 6950 is tested for 1250 only.
Anyways, it's not worth oc-ing memory. The performance increase doesn't justify the risk.
Try 880mhz but stock 6950 memory.
 

Wijkert

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Searingmage is right. Overclocking the mem is useloss. For me my 3dmark 11 score went up by only 35 points after a 175 mhz overclock on the mem. So overclock only the core, since that will give you the best boost in performance and is saver as well.
 

iamtheone

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Well doesnt one bottleneck the other if too high? I mean 880/1350mhz is default for the hd6970 for a reason right?
 

searingmage

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Well doesnt one bottleneck the other if too high? I mean 880/1350mhz is default for the hd6970 for a reason right?

Nope, it won't. So don't worry. The reason 6970 has a higher default is simply because they are tested for a max of 1500mhz. Since it can go higher, why not leave it at higher? While 6950 is only tested at 1250mhz. The same reason I would say, performance ram compared to normal ram, the difference isn't significant at all. You won't get bottleneck by not using performance ram. In the same way, you won't get bottlenecked by not OC-ing your memory. OC your core to 900 if you want, as core gives less problem. But memory oc-ing always gives problem.
 

iamtheone

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Nope, it won't. So don't worry. The reason 6970 has a higher default is simply because they are tested for a max of 1500mhz. Since it can go higher, why not leave it at higher? While 6950 is only tested at 1250mhz. The same reason I would say, performance ram compared to normal ram, the difference isn't significant at all. You won't get bottleneck by not using performance ram. In the same way, you won't get bottlenecked by not OC-ing your memory. OC your core to 900 if you want, as core gives less problem. But memory oc-ing always gives problem.

The bottleneck is definitely the core when oc-ing.:(

I'm quite unlucky in that my hd6950 can't run as a full hd6970. Pinnochio will never become a real boy, it is very sad.
 
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I did not flash to HD6970 bios. I used a modified HD6950 with unlocked shaders.

I'm going to maybe try again because I'm not sure if Powerdrive was set at 20%. Using both MSI afterburner and CCC seems to screw things up.

I would've just flash it to a 6970. 6950s are just undercloked 6970s with lesser clock speeds and shaders.

Anyways, you need to run some benchmarks and burning test's. I recommend monitoring your GPU/CPU temps using HWMONITOR and Afterburner. Use MSI Kombuster to stress out your GPU(s) and make sure they are running correctly.
 

iamtheone

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I would've just flash it to a 6970. 6950s are just undercloked 6970s with lesser clock speeds and shaders.

Anyways, you need to run some benchmarks and burning test's. I recommend monitoring your GPU/CPU temps using HWMONITOR and Afterburner. Use MSI Kombuster to stress out your GPU(s) and make sure they are running correctly.

Kombuster does not work on my computer, something with a dll error.

In anycase, my GPU and CPU are roughtly 60c and 50c under load, temperature is not an issue.

In anycase, I read about people breaking their cards because they flashed their hd6950 to hd6970 because of voltage changes, memory timing changes etc?

Thats why i chose to use a modified hd6950 bios.
 
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