5970 Overclock Issues - Artifacts

[SB420]

Hey all

Ive got a XFX 5970 Black Edition and am using the Overvolt tool to oc the card.

XFX support told me that the best stable oc they had was at 900/1200 (up from the standard 725/1000) however whenever i try these settings i instantly upon gaming get massive grey tears up the screen in big vertical lines. May have been other colours, not sure as i left the game very rapidly.

Just wondering if anyone else has had this problem?

 

[OneMoar]

not all cards are created equal you may not be-able to get the same clks
try 800/1150 and go from there you shouldn't need to overvolt the card untill 850+
also make sure you have the latest drivers installed

 

[SB420]

850/1200 caused the card to freeze within 5mins and locked the pc up.

Problem was then getting the pc to work at all as everytime it booted up it would crash before i had chance to redo the voltages.

I know not everycard is the same but the way the card was advertised before it came out i would have thought the clocks i tried would have been fine. £600 and i get the same as any of the standard 5970's, i.e. there was no point paying the extra for a card that is advertised as overclockable when mine just crashes.

 

[OneMoar]

what are the exact settings are you trying to use also temps / voltages bios rev ?
something is not right a 5970 should clk well over 900mhz thye vram is rated to 1300+ [ hell I run my 5750 at 1337Mhz ] if all else fails RMA that card and see if the replacement is better sometimes you get a bad clking batch

 

[SB420]

I was thinking of RMA'ing the card (not something ive done before so dont even know the process)

When i emailed XFX support they told me to RMA it, yet how can i RMA something on the basis it wont overclock?

Im using the new BIOS from XFX which solved the fan issue (enabled manual fan control)

Im using the xfx voltage tool

Engine voltage @ 1.1625
Memory voltage @ 1.15

Then i tried

900/1200 which results in massive artifacts straight away so exited

850/1200 which causes the card to lock up

I know not every card is the same but i at least wanted 5870 clocks

Temps are 45 idle and high 70's load (only way i can check load is to leave CCC open, exit a game after playing... and quickly have a look)

 

[OneMoar]

after some checking I have found that the 5970 just does not like being overclocked ( most people are hitting at wall at 850-900Mhz and some where unable to break the 1200Mem/clk
the issue seems to be 2 fold
first of all it seems the 5970 lacks sufficient cooling for the VDCC/MOFFSET's (vddc temps can exceed 110c causing the card to auto throttle the voltage)
second the card can draw almost 600wats at the voltages your running ( make double triple dog sure your psu can Handel that ) and don't forget amperage is a huge factor your is rated at 80amp that "should be ok" but there a possibility that it might not be enough
kick it down to 800/1100 and then go up 10Mhz at a time > run a fur mark bench loop and keep the voltage as low as you can sometimes increasing voltages can make a OC less stable ( Especially in the case of the 5970 and its under cooled VDCC array )

 

[SB420]

Thanks for the reply, was worried i was the only one

Do have an identical system in the next room that i built so will do some tests on that to see if its any different.

Playing assassins creed 2 it feels like its throttling on standard clocks but wouldnt know how to check?

If i cant get 5870 clocks isnt it just worth me sending it back and getting 2 5870's? Id wait for the 4gb version but like this card it would just be a waiting game again (waited ages for this to come out)

Does RMA mean replacement only or refund? Just not happy for the sake of £600 atm

PSU wise i should be ok as ive got a Corsair HX1000

 

[OneMoar]

not sure how xfx does there RMA but in most cases its replacement only ( unless you got it though newegg then you can request a refund "if its within 30 days of the purchase date )
also AC2 a bad port I doubt its throttling many users are reporting sucky fps

 

[SB420]

Ok maybe AC2 is a one off but it still gets either massive artifacts or locks up completly when overclocked which is rather annoying.

Thought the only reason it was clocked down from the factory was to do with the 300w limit, the fact the card cant run 5870 clocks seems a bit misleading to me.

BTW 800/1100 just seems pointless to me. It would prob be ok but i wouldnt be happy with those clocks.

 

[SB420]

Just done a furmark bench on standard clocks/voltages etc to show you the results.

1920x1080
8x MSAA
Bench test - 60000 ms

Score - 1535
MAX GPU Temp - 72c
FPS Min=20 - Max 30 - Avg 25

Not sure if thats good, bad, or average

 

[OneMoar]

clks don't really matter anyway remember the 5970 have 2 gpus on one pcb the demands on the pcbs VDCC are HUGE even st stock settings and for the record x2 5870's will beat a 5890 in "Most games benchmarks)
and in my opinion dual Gpu cards have to many issues. btw your furmark scores and extremely bad something is most definitely not right ( you should be over 12000 least with your setup)

 

[SB420]

Well i just tested my flatmates as i built 2 identical setups.

Same scores.

You sure it should be over 12000? in furmark? 1500 to 12000 is a massive difference! Im sure i didnt miss a digit *goes to check*

3d vantage gave me 20,000 but that was a trial edition and couldnt run at 1920x1080

 

[Hockster]

A number of people hit decent clocks with stock cooling. The 5xxx cards have awesome memory bandwidth, OCing the memory doesn't offer much benefit at all.
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=235693

I can run 950/1100 easily with stock cooling and no issues at all.

 

[SB420]

Hmm i only tested in AC2 as it was the first game i loaded when overclocked and it instantly went mad. Might try again and just do the test with furmark to see if it crashes or not. Maybe AC2 being buggy dont help?

Hockster, whats your furmark score as standard? If you happen to know