Never got overclocking my GPU figured out

[BackwoodsBob]

I know there are guides, but either I don't understand them or they don't apply somehow. Maybe I am forgetting something.
I have an msi radeon r9 270x. Have had it for years. Finally ready to O.C. it just a little, FPS is a little low.
So I read the guides. Download Afterburner. Unlock overclock limits. Increase voltage by +25. Up the power limit by +25 or all the way.
Core clock is at 1080. Memory clock is at 1400. Guide I read says 5% is not too crazy, so I try that. Crank up the core clock to 1130 and the mem clock to 1470 and I get lines and the screen starts jumping around, real bad. If I even crank them up to 1081 or 1401 independently, I get the same result.
So seriously, WTH? I gotta be doing something wrong.
Anyone that could walk me through this step by step would be my hero.
Please don't be a bunch of elitist jerkbags here. I am leaving a much loved but very elitist leaning site because I couldn't take the douch-baggery anymore.
TIA!

 

[NoJuan999]

Please go into your Profile and fill in your PC Specifications so we know what exact components you have.
Also you need to post screen shots from GPUz so we can see your base and boost clocks.
And screen shots of MSI Afterburner would be very helpful.

 

[Mussels]

dont do GPU and memory OCing at the same time. test the GPU first, then do memory later.

GHve something like unigine heaven running in a window in the background, and raise the GPU by 5MHz, walk away for 10 minutes and then raise another 5Mhz... and so on. Once you have the GPU clock sorted out, then add memory on top - some graphics cards really dont OC the memory at all, some go ahead by hundreds of MHz

 

[BackwoodsBob]

Please go into your Profile and fill in your PC Specifications so we know what exact components you have.
Also you need to post screen shots from GPUz so we can see your base and boost clocks.
And screen shots of MSI Afterburner would be very helpful.

BAM! I don't have the GPU overclocked right now, if I even try to adjust either the mem clock or the core clock by even 1 I get lines and jumping screen. Not happy to walk away while it is actively malfunctioning...

 

[BackwoodsBob]

Bump.
Happy Turkey day!

 

[Mussels]

maybe your GPU just wont OC, not all can.

 

[BackwoodsBob]

but....but....but....
it's a 270 o.c. it's made to o.c. ....

 

[Mussels]

the OC says its *already* overclocked

 

[BackwoodsBob]

well....
That would explain a lot
so, there's no reason to crank up the voltage at all then, is there?
I'm getting 48 ish FPS on Borderlands2. It's ok, but just.
I want to repaste the heat sink on my GPU but have never taken one apart.

 

[looniam]

Bump.
Happy Turkey day!

HTD to you too.
a few thoughts; i read most here. in hindsight yeah, do mussel's suggestion of gpu first. the voltage adjustment is the gpu chip only the the power is the whole card. and to add to that - its a common first time thing to try to replicate some's settings. but taking the slow dance to get there seems to work better even with the exact same thing.

maybe some "busy work" until you get it sorted; you try uninstalling/reinstalling the driver? (have had things flaking after crashing benchmarking but different scenario) temps look good at idle but is it good under load? got whea errors? (yeah thats when the goose chase starts . . )

sorry can't be better help, wish ya luck and good stuffing.

 

[Mussels]

you shouldnt be messing with volts and power limits etc to start with, like i said try 5MHz at a time on the GPU and see what happens


if you're f*cking about with a bunch of settings and sliders, you don't know which one is causing your problem do you?

 

[BackwoodsBob]

HTD to you too.
a few thoughts; i read most here. in hindsight yeah, do mussel's suggestion of gpu first. the voltage adjustment is the gpu chip only the the power is the whole card. and to add to that - its a common first time thing to try to replicate some's settings. but taking the slow dance to get there seems to work better even with the exact same thing.

maybe some "busy work" until you get it sorted; you try uninstalling the driver? temps look good at idle but is it good under load? got whea errors? (yeah thats when the goose chase starts . . )

sorry can't be better help, wish ya luck and good stuffing.

Slow yo' roll homie.
Let's back up a step...
Whats a 'whea errors'?
Drivers are a fresh install, my RAID array decided to crash for apparently no good reason.
Tell me the steps to the slow dance, therein lies my issue.
Create load on GPU and test temps. Crank up the voltage a little and test temps. Crank up one clock a little and test until it pixelates or runs out of thermal headroom. Then do the other clock. That dance?
yeah, aint workin'...

you shouldnt be messing with volts and power limits etc to start with, like i said try 5MHz at a time on the GPU and see what happens


if you're f*cking about with a bunch of settings and sliders, you don't know which one is causing your problem do you?

Very fine point. Didn't realize screwing with voltage limits would do that. Which is why I am here.
Got 1090 out of it. I will crank it up again in 5 minutes, or after I wake up again, which ever comes 1st..

 

[looniam]

Slow yo' roll homie.
Let's back up a step...
Whats a 'whea errors'?
Drivers are a fresh install, my RAID array decided to crash for apparently no good reason.
Tell me the steps to the slow dance, therein lies my issue.
Create load on GPU and test temps. Crank up the voltage a little and test temps. Crank up one clock a little and test until it pixelates or runs out of thermal headroom. Then do the other clock. That dance?
yeah, aint workin'...

sorry my post wasn't all that intelligible . .

forget the whea error; that's OCing your cpu and it might pass prime/whatever but still needs a touch more voltage (going for uberstable). however, you can find them here:
well i don't have any but it will say WHEAerror in the source column

Spoiler: my what big teeth you have gramma!

(right click [your] computer icon on desktop- manage)

i mentioned uninstalling/reinstalling the drivers because i believe that through my benchmarking escapades (kiddie league on HWBOT) that after a few crashes things would get flaky. i found that using DDU (common enough software) and reinstalling fresh gave some voodoo magic that fixed it.

besides mentioning temps and totally agreeing with mussels - that 5Mhz at a time he mentioned is the slow dance and go for unigine heaven or valley - my post was guesses and shots in the dark.

but hey - i am totally into giving suggestions to waste you time- i'm here for ya man!

 

[BackwoodsBob]

sorry my post wasn't all that intelligible . .

forget the whea error; that's OCing your cpu and it might pass prime/whatever but still needs a touch more voltage (going for uberstable). however, you can find them here:
well i don't have any but it will say WHEAerror in the source column

Spoiler: my what big teeth you have gramma!

View attachment 177034

(right click [your] computer icon on desktop- manage)

i mentioned uninstalling/reinstalling the drivers because i believe that through my benchmarking escapades (kiddie league on HWBOT) that after a few crashes things would get flaky. i found that using DDU (common enough software) and reinstalling fresh gave some voodoo magic that fixed it.

besides mentioning temps and totally agreeing with mussels - that 5Mhz at a time he mentioned is the slow dance and go for unigine heaven or valley - my post was guesses and shots in the dark.

but hey - i am totally into giving suggestions to waste you time- i'm here for ya man!

you gotta dumb it down a little further.
DDU?

 

[DR4G00N]

MSI Afterburner doesn't work well with newer AMD drivers, it'll do just as your experiencing. You should use AMD's software to oc the card, it's the easiest way. Some other applications might work (like an older version of Sapphire Trixx) but it's all trial and error.

On my 290X Afterburner was only good for setting the voltage because you can trick it to increase the voltage offset far beyond +100mV. I think I used Trixx 6.8.0 or 6.3.0 for setting clocks.

 

[BackwoodsBob]

you shouldnt be messing with volts and power limits etc to start with, like i said try 5MHz at a time on the GPU and see what happens


if you're f*cking about with a bunch of settings and sliders, you don't know which one is causing your problem do you?

So I am doing what you said.
I have been increasing the core clock so far to 1180 from 1080 with no artifacts.
But my max temp keeps dropping, which kinda scares me.
I am running unigine valley for 5 minutes and increasing my core clock 5 mhz at a time.
Is GPU temps dropping normal and/or something to worry about?

I was able to get to 1190 on the core clock at stock voltage. Tried upping the memory clock and can't get anything out of it without having it crash. Tried upping the voltage +5 and the power limit +5 with the same results. Valley crashes at anything more than 1400 Mhz. Is that the best I can get?
What happens if I up the voltage +5 and go back to raising the core clock?
Haven't tried running any games yet. Still have lots of thermal headroom.

 

[Mussels]

Check the fan RPM - the temps could be dropping because a GPU fan or case fan has spun up faster, or because ambient temps are dropping due to your environment

 

[BackwoodsBob]

Check the fan RPM - the temps could be dropping because a GPU fan or case fan has spun up faster, or because ambient temps are dropping due to your environment

Just a couple more quick questions.
As long as I have the thermal headroom, what else can I screw up by overclocking the GPU? It appears that I can come within to about 10C of thermal max (95C) during testing. I am comfortable running my GPU that hot knowing that it probably isn't going to get that hot during a couple hours of gaming.
It seems turning up the memory isn't going to be possible, but it also appears I have lots to go on the core clock. So If I end up cranking up my GPU Core clock by a couple hundred Mhz, what do I risk killing?
Want to know before I brick it.
Last, how hard is it to re apply thermal paste to a GPU? I have had mine for several years and I am wondering if I should re paste it before I get too happy trying to o.c. it.
TIA!

 

[WhiteNoise]

Why not just upgrade to something a bit more powerful?

 

[Mussels]

Just a couple more quick questions.
As long as I have the thermal headroom, what else can I screw up by overclocking the GPU? It appears that I can come within to about 10C of thermal max (95C) during testing. I am comfortable running my GPU that hot knowing that it probably isn't going to get that hot during a couple hours of gaming.
It seems turning up the memory isn't going to be possible, but it also appears I have lots to go on the core clock. So If I end up cranking up my GPU Core clock by a couple hundred Mhz, what do I risk killing?
Want to know before I brick it.
Last, how hard is it to re apply thermal paste to a GPU? I have had mine for several years and I am wondering if I should re paste it before I get too happy trying to o.c. it.
TIA!

when overclocking goes bad, your PC crashes. you reboot, and try a lower overclock. Voltages are how you can damage hardware, GPU's are locked down against high voltages so you cant really do anything dangerous to them via software.
Just remember that a crash after a few hours of gaming is still a crash, make sure whatever you set is long term stable or you'll end up blaming the wrong things.

Just find an OC that works stable for long term (zero crashes) and then make it run as cool as possible (new thermal paste, case fans, whatever works in your situation) - and remember that a once good OC can become unstable over time as components age, or run hotter (summer)

 

[nguyen]

For such an old card, the capacitors on it probably gave out, you are lucky if the card runs at stock clock/voltage stable.

I would advise leaving the power limit and memory clocks at default and only increase the core clocks by steps of 15mhz.