crossfire OC

[Paladone]

Hey guys. The two graphics cards that i have - an xfx radeon hd7970 and an Asus Platinum ROG Matrix HD7970. http://www.ple.com.au/ViewItem.aspx?InventoryItemID=611193&CategoryID=259 http://www.ple.com.au/ViewItem.aspx?InventoryItemID=608655&CategoryID=259

I've heard that you can use GPU tweak with Asus cards, but i'm not sure about XFX cards. Do you think i should even bother overclocking? is it worth it?

 

[TommyT]

yes, i think its a shot athat must be done, you must do it, first try to look and the top oc of the xfx card and then oc them both.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

depends if you really think you need the extra OC, Ive had 4870s, 5850s & 6970's in crossfire, the way i went about OC'ing the graphic cards was to OC each card one at a time to find out its limits then back down and settle both cards at clocks they can both handle either by using MSI afterburner or editing the bios so i dont need to fudge about with OC programs all the time which sometimes causes my system to hang.

Can you please fill in your system specs and tell us what size of monitor & resolution you play on?

 

[Paladone]

i7 3770k @4.3ghz
32GB DDR3 RAM @2400mhz
Asus maximus Formula V eAtx Motherboard
Nzxt switch 810 tower case with 6 fans + a corsair h100i closed loop cooling system
128GB samsung 840 pro SSD
1TB caviar black wester digital 7200rpm HDD
Corsair gold 80plus 1050w PSU
And then of course the two graphics cards.
Edit: and my monitor is a samsung S23A950D 23" 1080p 120hz monitor

So i've never actually overclocked before doing my CPU. Do i just increase the ratio and voltage? And what program do i use to test it's stability?
Edit: And Will it cause problems if i OC one more than the other? Do they have to be the same?

 

[FreedomEclipse]

If youve never OC'd before, I highly insist you read these guides before making any changes.

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20251

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=140238

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30480

These guides are rather dated, but the important thing is all the basics to overclocking you need are in those guides - such as what to do and what not to do.

Heres a more relivant article for sandy/Ivy Bridge OC

http://www.overclock.net/t/1198504/...-guide-sandy-bridge-ivy-bridge-asrock-edition



For GPU overclocking - read this guide here http://wolframpc.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/graphics-card-overclocking.html

 

[Paladone]

How do you i swap graphics cards on msi afterburner so that i am able to OC the second gpu, because atm i can't work out how to.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

there should be an option in the settings to 'link clocks' or something of that nature. I havent used afterburner since battlefield bad company 2 was released so someone else here might need to fill in the gaps for you where my memory falls short.

If youre running two 7970s on a single 23" monitor, id say it was a waste of time. youre more likely to get more frames if you OC your CPU harder (like mine for instance) but I know of the heat issues with ivy bridge.


:EDIT:

do you run games at 120hz on the monitor or 60hz?

 

[Paladone]

Aah right, i might try to push my CPU a little bit harder then. clocked at 4.3Ghz, at 100% load it sits at around 65 degrees. And I run my games at 120hz.

 

[Jack1n]

You click the little settings tab at the bottom right and under general you can pick the graphics card you want to OC and also there as option called:synchronize settings for familiar graphics processors,enable it if you want the OC to apply for both cards.

EDIT: a 3770k should do atleast 4.5 with an H100i,do you have hyperthreading enabled? what core voltage are you running?what PPL voltage?

 

[Paladone]

You click the little settings tab at the bottom right and under general you can pick the graphics card you want to OC and also there as option called:synchronize settings for familiar graphics processors,enable it if you want the OC to apply for both cards.

EDIT: a 3770k should do atleast 4.5 with an H100i,do you have hyperthreading enabled? what core voltage are you running?what PPL voltage?

i couldn't tell you right now because i'm on my laptop and my PC is in the living room where my mate is sleeping, but i'll let you know in the morning. I thought hyperthreading was automatically enabled? Do i want it enabled with an OC cpu?

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

How do you i swap graphics cards on msi afterburner so that i am able to OC the second gpu, because atm i can't work out how to.

Ive found xfire to work better by forcing them to the same clocks .ive had issues with aburner and recomend saphire trixx for ocing amd cards .its neater easier and works better imho

 

[Jack1n]

i couldn't tell you right now because i'm on my laptop and my PC is in the living room where my mate is sleeping, but i'll let you know in the morning. I thought hyperthreading was automatically enabled? Do i want it enabled with an OC cpu?

Hyper threading should be enabled by default,but if your not running any multi threaded apps you can disable it to help with your OC.

 

[Paladone]

Ive found xfire to work better by forcing them to the same clocks .ive had issues with aburner and recomend saphire trixx for ocing amd cards .its neater easier and works better imho

So you think i should OC the xfx 7970 to the same speed as the Asus 7970 Matrix. Just core speed or memory as well? And should i OC bit by bit until the xfx 7970eaches the same speed as the asus 7970 or just do it in one go?

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

So you think i should OC the xfx 7970 to the same speed as the Asus 7970 Matrix. Just core speed or memory as well? And should i OC bit by bit until the xfx 7970eaches the same speed as the asus 7970 or just do it in one go?

Gpu and mem at the same clocks .
What clocks are you starting with?

 

[drdeathx]

If your not overclocking both cards and just trying to match the speeds of the 2 cards, just leave it be. There will not be any substantial gains....

 

[Paladone]

Gpu and mem at the same clocks .
What clocks are you starting with?

Asus Radeon HD7970 ROG Matrix Platinum 1050M/5500M 3GB/2xDVI/4xDP


ASUS MATRIX-HD7970-P-3GD5 graphics card - Radeon HD 7970 - 3 GB

Bus Type -PCI Express 3.0 x16

Graphics Engine -AMD Radeon HD 7970Memory -3 GB - GDDR5

Core Clock - 1100 MHz

Stream Processors - 2048

Effective Memory Clock - 6.6 GHz

RAMDAC - 400 MHz

Memory Interface - 384-bit

Max Resolution Details - DVI: 2560 x 1600 / VGA: 2048 x 1536

Max Monitors Supported - 6

Interfaces - 4 x DisplayPort ¦ HDMI - with adapter ¦ DVI-I (Single-Link) ¦ DVI-D (dual link)

API Supported - OpenGL 4.2, DirectX 11.1

Dimensions (WxDxH) - 5.33 cm x 27.9 cm x 13 cm

Microsoft Certification - Compatible with Windows 7


XFX Radeon HD7970 Dual Fan 925M/5500M 3GB/DVI/HDMI/m-DP:


XFX Radeon HD 7970 - graphics card - Radeon HD 7970 - 3 GB

Bus Type - PCI Express 3.0 x16

Graphics Engine - AMD Radeon HD 7970

Memory - 3 GB - GDDR5

Core Clock - 925 MHz

Effective Memory Clock - 5.7 GHz

Memory Interface - 384-bit

Max Resolution - 4096 x 2160

Max Resolution Details - DVI: 2560 x 1600 / DisplayPort: 2560 x 1600 / HDMI: 2560 x 1600 / VGA: 2048 x 1536

Max Monitors Supported - 3

Interfaces - DVI-I (dual link) ¦ HDMI ¦ 2 x Mini DisplayPort

API Supported - DirectX 11, DirectCompute 11, OpenGL 4.2, OpenCL 1.2

Dimensions (WxDxH) - 27.5 cm x 11.1 cm x 3.8 cm

 

[Paladone]

If your not overclocking both cards and just trying to match the speeds of the 2 cards, just leave it be. There will not be any substantial gains....

So do you think i should just leave the two, not overclock either and maybe push my CPU further?

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

Asus Radeon HD7970 ROG Matrix Platinum 1050M/5500M 3GB/2xDVI/4xDP


ASUS MATRIX-HD7970-P-3GD5 graphics card - Radeon HD 7970 - 3 GB

Bus Type -PCI Express 3.0 x16

Graphics Engine -AMD Radeon HD 7970Memory -3 GB - GDDR5

Core Clock - 1100 MHz

Stream Processors - 2048

Effective Memory Clock - 6.6 GHz

RAMDAC - 400 MHz

Memory Interface - 384-bit

Max Resolution Details - DVI: 2560 x 1600 / VGA: 2048 x 1536

Max Monitors Supported - 6

Interfaces - 4 x DisplayPort ¦ HDMI - with adapter ¦ DVI-I (Single-Link) ¦ DVI-D (dual link)
R
API Supported - OpenGL 4.2, DirectX 11.1

Dimensions (WxDxH) - 5.33 cm x 27.9 cm x 13 cm

Microsoft Certification - Compatible with Windows 7


XFX Radeon HD7970 Dual Fan 925M/5500M 3GB/DVI/HDMI/m-DP:


XFX Radeon HD 7970 - graphics card - Radeon HD 7970 - 3 GB

Bus Type - PCI Express 3.0 x16

Graphics Engine - AMD Radeon HD 7970

Memory - 3 GB - GDDR5

Core Clock - 925 MHz

Effective Memory Clock - 5.7 GHz

Memory Interface - 384-bit

Max Resolution - 4096 x 2160

Max Resolution Details - DVI: 2560 x 1600 / DisplayPort: 2560 x 1600 / HDMI: 2560 x 1600 / VGA: 2048 x 1536

Max Monitors Supported - 3

Interfaces - DVI-I (dual link) ¦ HDMI ¦ 2 x Mini DisplayPort

API Supported - DirectX 11, DirectCompute 11, OpenGL 4.2, OpenCL 1.2

Dimensions (WxDxH) - 27.5 cm x 11.1 cm x 3.8 cm

Id personally up the xfx card to the higher 1100 and mem speed in 25hz steps upping volts marginally if required and test.
Id use kombuster from msi and it can be used without Ab must be full scrn test for xfire

 

[Paladone]

I'm currently trying to overclock the XFX card. I have pushed it as high as 1000Mhz up from 925 and i see literally 0 FPS difference in MSI, is this normal?

 

[Paladone]

Id personally up the xfx card to the higher 1100 and mem speed in 25hz steps upping volts marginally if required and test.
Id use kombuster from msi and it can be used without Ab must be full scrn test for xfire

Aaah, so do you mean just jump to 1100Mhz? Also, when i adjust the voltage on the XfX card, it seems to also be applying to the Asus card but is not letting me change it unless i also change the XfX card.

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

Aaah, so do you mean just jump to 1100Mhz? Also, when i adjust the voltage on the XfX card, it seems to also be applying to the Asus card but is not letting me change it unless i also change the XfX card.

If your using saphire trix you can switch off the sync settings and oc just one

 

[Paladone]

I have a h100i cpu cooler and i noticed that i could set the fan speed up tp 2600 RPM. Is it going to decrease the life or be dangerous if i keep it around 2500?

 

[FreedomEclipse]

faster rpm is gonna decrease the life of the fan a little quicker. its all down to how loud or quiet you want your PC to be. running the I tend to run fans at medium/high so i dont sacrifice much in the way of cooling for performance.

If your temps are good then there's no need to change. my CPU never gets close to 60'c even after hours of BF3