8 replies to this topic

[Burned_Follower]

Below is a print screen of this MSI afterburner program I've installed.


I only crank the fan speeds all the way up like what you see in this print screen when I'm running a high graphics program like MWO or my GPU overheats and my FPS sucks as a result. As long as I keep the fan speeds up I'm fine.

...But the reason I created this post is that I got these questions about MSI Afterburner:

1. What am I supposed to do with the other settings? I'm afraid to mess with them until I do some research about it first. I don't want my GPU to explode or anything, lol.

2. Can someone explain to me what those other settings mean?(those above the fan speeds).

Edited by Burned_Follower, 29 September 2013 - 09:18 AM.

[Catamount]

MSI Afterburner is impressively featured software, but it's my experience that Sapphire Trixx produces more stable overclocks, and ultimately can do anything you need to, especially if combined with GPUZ.

[Tarl Cabot]

With card, if you really are having to crank it up to 100% RPM, I would question location of system. Is it in an enclosed location or such where the vented heat is being recycled back into the system?

As for the other settings, increasing the settings will only gain you a few FPS. In the Settings at the bottom right there, there is a Fan profile you can setup that will crank the RPMs up based on the temperate. That may help the noise level, some

[p8ragon]

Burned_Follower, on 29 September 2013 - 09:15 AM, said:

Below is a print screen of this MSI afterburner program I've installed.


I only crank the fan speeds all the way up like what you see in this print screen when I'm running a high graphics program like MWO or my GPU overheats and my FPS sucks as a result. As long as I keep the fan speeds up I'm fine.

...But the reason I created this post is that I got these questions about MSI Afterburner:

1. What am I supposed to do with the other settings? I'm afraid to mess with them until I do some research about it first. I don't want my GPU to explode or anything, lol.

2. Can someone explain to me what those other settings mean?(those above the fan speeds).

1.) The other settings affect the speed at which your video card will perform. You can safely crank your video card speed to higher than factory settings with MSI afterburner. However, I suggest that you only crank up the dials in increments, as pushing the card too far will cause it to crash (again, this does not damage the card). However, when your card crashes, your game will most likely freeze and you will have to manually reset your pc, which is a bother. What kind of a 7900 series card do you have? If I had to guess, I would say 7950, since those don't look like 7970 stock clocks to me. You should be able to push the core clock to atleast 1000, and the memory clock to ~1350 on that card with your fan profile...as for 2, the core clock is basically how fast everything runs, the memory clock affects how fast you can load textures (don't quote me on that though not completely sure), and the power %, to my understanding, lets you pump more voltage into your card. I would set the power % to a maximum of +2 (20% extra voltage), as more voltage results in more heat, which can reduce the LONG TERM life span of your card (don't worry about damaging your card...unless you are planning on keeping it for 5+years). Sorry if I haven't fully answered your post. I'm on a tablet and it's a ***** to type and scroll on.

[Goose]

Clean your blooming card

[Captain Stiffy]

I have an HD 7970 with plenty of cooling (room air). What memory/GPU clock settings would you recommend?

[Durant Carlyle]

Captain Stiffy, on 06 October 2013 - 03:19 PM, said:

I have an HD 7970 with plenty of cooling (room air). What memory/GPU clock settings would you recommend?

There's a problem -- every single graphics card (or any other component, really) overclocks differently. We cannot say that your card will overclock to a certain speed because it may not.

The Core Clock is the speed of the graphics processor on your graphics card. It's akin to the horsepower of your car's engine -- the higher the better. I personally recommend checking out the online reviews of the graphics card in question (especially those that use retail versions of the graphics card) and using their results as a top speed target. I've been overclocking for many years, and I have never reached the speeds that the reviews do with any graphics card I have ever owned. For a newbie overclocker, I recommend increasing the core clock in 5MHz increments and then testing with the games you most commonly play. If you get crashes or flashing textures or other funny graphics stuff, then you've gone too high.

To the OP, I recommend not overclocking at all. Why? Because you're already needing to increase the fan speed to 100% to keep it cool at stock speeds. That means your fan won't keep it cool when you try to overclock. Heat is the enemy, and overclocking will increase the heat by a lot. Get the fan situation fixed, and then try to overclock.

[Catamount]

Yep, no one knows how far any GPU will go.

With that said, Stiffy:

A 7970GHZ Edition will typically hit at least 1100 core without playing with the voltage, and a non-GE will overclock just about the same, although it may require some voltage increase. Safe voltage for the 7970 is basically 1.2-1.3v (meaning it won't fry tomorrow; it will still die sooner with an OC/OV), if your card supports changing voltage at all. If you're willing to play with that, the 7970 will typically push 1150-1300mhz core. RAM usually goes up to 1600-1800mhz, but be very careful there. I've never fried a GPU from overclocking, but I've fried RAM from overheating during overclocks on GPUs before. If you run a non-reference cooler, make sure it cools the RAM chips; if it doesn't, leave the RAM alone. Most non-reference coolers don't, but some like Sapphire's coolers are good to go there.

To reiterate about OCing software, though, it's my experience and that of others I've talked to that MSI Afterburner is not the best software for a stable OC. Trixx beats it by a mile, despite not having the featureset (naturally we can't have both in one piece of software). Afterburner also didn't treat my GPU voltage correctly when I tried to adjust it, which might be the entire stability problem. Just be aware when you're doing this, if you plan to use Afterburner.

Edited by Catamount, 07 October 2013 - 07:39 AM.

[v4skunk]

Set a custom fan profile.
Something like 35% 30c-40c. 45% 40c-55c, 55%+ 55c+