R9 270X Overclocking (advanced... I guess)

[Thimblewad]

Okay, so, here's the deal. I've owned an XFX R9 270X Double Dissipation Edition for some time now. Pretty much as soon as I installed it, I oveclocked it from: 1050/1400 to 1200/1500.

I was able to achieve that with increasing the power limit for 20%(max) and nothing else. The card after 4-5 hours of 100% load did never exceed 63-65 °C. Everything more than that made the driver crash or too many artifacts were on-screen. After a while I decided to use the ATIWINFLASH utility.

I overvolted the card from 1.206 V to 1.300 V, giving me temperatures of about 68-69 °C and I have also increased the power limit from 20% to a maximum of 30% (which I'm also currently using).

I have tested the GPU with 1250/1550 clocks and it seems to work pretty well. So, TPU forum, what's next?

(image of OC attached)

P.S.: GPU-Z shows VDDC voltage of 1.256 max, even though the BIOS is set to be at 1.300, is that okay?

 

[basco]

before flash was 1200 the max or could it be the volts you applied trough biosflash did not change?
what voltcontroller ya have?
can ya see volts in msi afterburner?
max power limit is 50%-right?

or am i silly and you just want to know whats next to get moar overclock?

 

[Thimblewad]

before flash was 1200 the max or could it be the volts you applied trough biosflash did not change?
what voltcontroller ya have?
can ya see volts in msi afterburner?
max power limit is 50%-right?

or am i silly and you just want to know whats next to get moar overclock?

Before the flash the voltage was 1.206 V and I don't have software voltage control with anything (XFX R9 270X Double Dissipation Edition). The default max power limit was 20%, so I increased it in the new BIOS to 30%. I can't see voltage in MSI Afterburner, only in GPU-Z and AIDA64(voltage for GPU core is OK, picture included). Well, yes, I'd like to overclock at least 50 MHz on both core and memory. More voltage, or increase power limit? The temperature is not a problem (yet).

EDIT: Picture of GPU-Z while stress test also included.

 

[basco]

with which tool did you alter volts or power target?
this:
https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/vbe7-vbios-editor-for-radeon-hd-7000-series-cards.189089/
it should tell you which vrm ya have.

you seem to know what you are doing so just up voltage until you are not comfortable with temps of card. power target i would set highest possible.
watch out for vrm temps-they shoot up pretty quick with moar volts. i think 1,30 to 1,35 volt should be max for 24\7

 

[Thimblewad]

Yes, I use the VBE7 BIOS editor. The VRMs are CHL822x. I have included pictures of the original and modified BIOS (you can see from the file name). The VRMs heat up to about 55 °C which seems okay, but I don't know a lot about them. I am currently on 1.3 V, should I try and further increase the power limit to maybe 40 % and test, or increase voltage to 1.35 V and then test?

NOTE: The clocks in the BIOS are the same as original, I change them in the Radeon settings later while in OS (sort of a failsafe). If I change the Boot clock and voltage it also changes the max clock and voltage so don't worry about that.

Thanks!

 

[basco]

with the chil822 voltcontroller you should be able to monitor and change volts in software like msi ab.
http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=399542

or maybe try sapphire trixx:
http://www.sapphiretech.com/catapage_tech.asp?cataid=291&lang=eng

but if your comfortable with flashing then yes i would up both volt+power target
if your card looks like this then they are good for 125°+ but i would not like them running over 80° to 90°
http://ht4u.net/reviews/2012/xfx_radeon_hd_7870_black_edition_test/index6.php

 

[Thimblewad]

Well, I used to use the MSI AB for OC but now I actually preffer the Radeon settings, I also changed the fan curve in the BIOS, awesome stuff. I'm comfortable with flashing, it's very simple anyways. I'm changing both and I will report after a short gaming session, haha.

THIS is what my card looks like. It's not a Black Edition but I believe the only difference is a slightly higher clock on the Black Edition card.

 

[basco]

ah sorry the review is in german: it states:
vrm worst case temp 150° \\ datasheet says typical working temp 125°

it could happen that you trigger the ovp or ocp with to much volts

 

[EdInk]

Okay, so, here's the deal. I've owned an XFX R9 270X Double Dissipation Edition for some time now. Pretty much as soon as I installed it, I oveclocked it from: 1050/1400 to 1200/1500.

I was able to achieve that with increasing the power limit for 20%(max) and nothing else. The card after 4-5 hours of 100% load did never exceed 63-65 °C. Everything more than that made the driver crash or too many artifacts were on-screen. After a while I decided to use the ATIWINFLASH utility.

I overvolted the card from 1.206 V to 1.300 V, giving me temperatures of about 68-69 °C and I have also increased the power limit from 20% to a maximum of 30% (which I'm also currently using).

I have tested the GPU with 1250/1550 clocks and it seems to work pretty well. So, TPU forum, what's next?

(image of OC attached)

P.S.: GPU-Z shows VDDC voltage of 1.256 max, even though the BIOS is set to be at 1.300, is that okay?

What kind of power draw do you get. my 290X saw an 85% increase total system from 384W to 712W

 

[RejZoR]

I still remember overclocking my backup GeForce 8400GS Passive by slamming a fan on the heatsink and turning it up to 11. I could play Half-Life 2 and Painkiller with it It overclocked like crazy. Probably because it's a rather simple chip. Usually basic models overclock like mad.

 

[Thimblewad]

ah sorry the review is in german: it states:
vrm worst case temp 150° \\ datasheet says typical working temp 125°
it could happen that you trigger the ovp or ocp with to much volts

My GPU works fine with these setting, no artifacts, VRMs go to 65 °C BUT: while playing GTA V I get up to 81-82 °C and I am not quite sure if that's okay. I am also wondering, will lowering TDP limit to 30% make a difference with the temperature(I believe yes)?

What kind of power draw do you get. my 290X saw an 85% increase total system from 384W to 712W

I have a Thermaltake Hamburg 530W 80 Bronze power supply and it hasn't crashed while gaming yet, not even full CPU & GPU stress so power draw out-of-socket must be lower than about 600 W.

EDIT: After some trial and error I have concluded that sitting at 1.3 V and 1250/1550 is the most I'm getting out of this card. The temperatures get too high if I increase voltage further, but if I try to increase any of the clocks at 1.3 V the drivers crash or the screen goes wild (VRAM). Thank you for your help!

 

[Thimblewad]

I still remember overclocking my backup GeForce 8400GS Passive by slamming a fan on the heatsink and turning it up to 11. I could play Half-Life 2 and Painkiller with it It overclocked like crazy. Probably because it's a rather simple chip. Usually basic models overclock like mad.

I did that to my old 9500 GT, which was also a passive model, almost 150% performance increase, hahaha.

 

[basco]

80 to 100° should not be a problem.
thats a very nice overclock with air cooler.
and i think 1,30volt or 1350volt should be the limit for chil822 before protection kicks in.

lowering power limit while driving 1,3 volts is contraproduktiv-i think you will get throttling with too low power limit.
in msi ab you should see the real volts of your card during load because you said you just see 1,256 in gpu-z

 

[Thimblewad]

80 to 100° should not be a problem.
thats a very nice overclock with air cooler.
and i think 1,30volt or 1350volt should be the limit for chil822 before protection kicks in.

lowering power limit while driving 1,3 volts is contraproduktiv-i think you will get throttling with too low power limit.
in msi ab you should see the real volts of your card during load because you said you just see 1,256 in gpu-z

Power limit testing (frequency 1250/1550):
+30% → artefacts after 5 minutes
+35% → artefacts after 20-25 minutes
+40% → nothing after 2+ hours

AIDA64 shows the voltage to be exactly 1.3 V so that is okay. Hmmm, earlier I tried The Forest on 1.35 V, card went all the way up to 89 °C and everything started looking a little weird, so I went down to be on the safe side.
Well, overclock is 1050 → 1250 core and 1400 → 1550 memory, overvoltage is +100 mV. The performance difference is quite big.

EDIT: Funny thing is +0.05 V difference = 10 °C more, what the f*ck

 

[Thimblewad]

This is what I get with my current OC settings. And please don't laugh at the 1680x1050 res., I have no money to buy a new display and this one still works just fine, hah.

 

[Thimblewad]

And here you go, Heaven 4.0 with "normal" tesselation.

EDIT: Will also post AOTS (DX12) but probably tomorrow.

 

[Thimblewad]

Okay, here's AOTS, one on "Standard":

and one on "Crazy":

If you want anything else, give me a shout and I'll try to post it

 

[basco]

nobody will lough at your resolution ! not everyone wants or can afford the newest hardware.
and what ya said about just 0,05volt more but 1,35 volt is a lot- every hardware has its limits like my cpu likes up to 1,40volt but after that i only get 20mhz for 0,05volt moar but temps raise brutally=not worth it

 

[Thimblewad]

Well I... I fixed it