Overclocking Video Cards - Monitoring Temps and Stability

rrplay:

or share what ya got  with what you work with

Yeah, I wish I would have found out about those Sapphire Toxic Radeon HD6950 2GB cards sooner than I did. I would like to have had two of them for crossfire and run them unlocked too.

There isn't a whole lot of headroom built into the XFX Radeon HD6870 Black that I have and it's going to be shipped to my daughter later today anyway. (she made a convincing case as to why she should have it)

So I'm stuck with the GTX570's for now,  but that's not very ~stuck~ is it?

As for overclocking video cards at all, I rarely do it. The ones I buy are already running fast with factory OC's in them, and there's not a lot of room for improvement in them anyway.

realneil:

There isn't a whole lot of headroom built into the XFX Radeon HD6870 Black that I have and it's going to be shipped to my daughter later today anyway. (she made a convincing cases as to why she should have it)

Actually more interested in  the compelling argument your daughter made than the headroom built into the card  

***I don't think any one would consider being stuck with 2 GTX 570's

Since I currently have a PowerColor HD5770 and expecting to get a Sapphire 6850 from an AMD prize on FB or Twitter I still want to see how those 2 guys compare and post the screen shots re: clock & temps cause both of those have quite a bit of  headroom that's noticeable.& just 'cuz  

rrplay:

Actually more interested in  the compelling argument your daughter made than the headroom built into the card  

Well it's simple,...considering that she just bought me an iPad.

~She said that she needed another video card~  because hers was toast, and asked me what to buy. Her husband just bought a EVGA GTX590 and she didn't want to spend that kind of money on herself. So, being Dad, I gave her a choice between the XFX card and a EVGA GTX285 2GB card that I have here. I pointed out that the GTX285 (dual GPU on one PCB) was probably a little faster, but it only does DX10 and not DX11 like the Radeon card does.

She opted for the XFX card. She's a smart girl. (and the GTX285 is back on the shelf)

realneil:

 

Well it's simple,...considering that she just bought me an iPad....

I just luv stories like this .....

I dunno let me see an iPad >>> Facebook  { bet she was surprised to see you on Facebook !] >>>what next ?

rrplay:

what next ?

We'll see after this contest is over,......

The iPad  was a nice gift. I'm still getting used to it and I like it for what it is, but it will never replace my desktop PC's. No Way.

The screen is pretty nice in that it shows colors correctly and has a nice quality to it. I think that it will probably end up as a way to show our pictures to people when we travel around.

It's got a GPS function too and that works good. It connects to the Verizon Network (3G style) and does a good job of not losing the signal all of the time. GPS accuracy is within a 100ft. radius most of the time unless you're traveling at highway speeds. Then, I'd say it's about 300ft..

realneil:

I pointed out that the GTX285 (dual GPU on one PCB) was probably a little faster, but it only does DX10 and not DX11 like the Radeon card does.

More screwing around?  It's more on par with a stock 6850.

eunoia:

More screwing around?

No, in real world use, in the same PC, it's a little faster than the other one was. Snappier if you will. I didn't use benchmarks to compare them,......but the GTX card has dual GPU's and 2GB of RAM instead of 1GB. Too bad there is no way to upgrade it to do DX11.

realneil:

eunoia:

More screwing around?

No, in real world use, in the same PC, it's a little faster than the other one was. Snappier if you will. I didn't use benchmarks to compare them,......but the GTX card has dual GPU's and 2GB of RAM instead of 1GB. Too bad there is no way to upgrade it to do DX11.

Now I'm curious.  What GTX 285 did EVGA make with dual GPUs and 2GB of RAM?  Could you please give me the model #?

I was wrong about the card having dual GPU's on it. But it does have 2GB of RAM.

Sorry about posting incorrect info.

THIS IS THE CARD

realneil:

I was wrong about the card having dual GPU's on it. But it does have 2GB of RAM.

Sorry about posting incorrect info.

THIS IS THE CARD

OK cool, thanks, just needed to know.  Sorry for the thread hijack, I realize my questions have little to do with overclocking, but a lot of people are asking me about graphics upgrades (BF3 Beta-effect perhaps?) so it's on my mind a lot.

BF3's on a lot of people's minds lately.

It's hard to pin down what you ~really need to have~ as opposed to what you hear from retailers as to what's needed to play.

One site that I go to has a general consensus going that it will take at least GTX580's to play (high settings) properly.

This can't be true, and if it is, then I think that the game makers are shooting themselves in the foot right from the start.

When I'm giving parts advice to people, I HATE to tell them, "gimme it all!,...gimme more,...more!"

realneil:

This can't be true, and if it is, then I think that the game makers are shooting themselves in the foot right from the start.

It isn't. I have a 6950 and I'm playing the beta on at least high settings with 40FPS... And from a tweet from DICE that I read, it takes like two GTX 580's for it to be playable in ultra but I'd doubt it when I have two of my 6950's in Crossfire playing the game with as respectable framerates as the SLI 580 setup.

Here  is a simple way to clock,notice temps and find a fan profile that's suitable .along with adequate cooling performance ..Some fans sound slightly a bit noisier at some rpms under full load and when things heat up a bit.

Here is  bit of OC and fan profile tweaking with Furmark [toggled -doughnut] GPU-Z, [note 2 screens info - sensors pages]& TriXX Utility

This is card info SAPPHIRE HD 6850 1GB GDDR5 PCIE

http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/product/?leg=&psn=0001&pid=497&lid=1

Would likely  have better overall temps in a different chassis other than the SilverStone SG-07 ..Just took a few minutes to post and share this since there was a brief discussion elsewhere in another tread  i.e. >> some one may have mentioned earlier about setting up and tweaking a cards fan profile

Edit :

got this card last  week from a Rockin Austin City Limits promotion last month sponsored by AMD and Sapphire

@AMDatACL had a promotion last month and Sapphire was one of the generous sponsors and a Very Happy Camper here .
Thank you AMD and Sapphire ! as well as Jon Peters over at AMD in working out the details for sending me my card.

ooops  !! Forgot to check the Full screen check box when setting up the 'timed screen- shot to show the toggle

Similar stress demos and benches Lost Planet etc and others can also be shared.

Cool, rrplay is still rocking the furmark. I haven't done any overclocking as of late but I will say that I am rocking an at-the-moment 910MHz GPU, 1135MHz Memory, 1.105V overclock on my 6950.

If possible, I will run various benchmark programs and post the results here.

Not really rocking anything, just took a few minutes to help someone out by  tweaking a fan profile  & OC from another thread.  Looks to me there is a bit more performance my card at this time just matching an OC from a previous review that's all.But  mostly  to acknowledge the Sapphire folks with some of the potential this HD 6850 card has. The screen-shot gives  a total view at a glance  takes a few extra minutes do to showing all the pertinent info of cores, clocks & , temps,, there are some other screens in this thread showing the CPU under a very very full LinPack along with the GPU Under a heavy Furmark Burn ...sort.of a do it yourself OCCT ..

..by the way Taylor don't forget to check out some of the PSU tests in OCCT may recall those graphs in OCCT would likely have indicated  a slightly 'wonky' PSU which you were dealing with a while back.

benchmarks may be one thing , solid and stable clocks with adequate temps are another.

still a good idea to leave a bit of 'headroom'  with any OC for summer or <whatever> !!

 have Fun

*** Here is another interesting tool to measure GPU performance and thought to add it here and have a bit of fun with it.

http://www.geeks3d.com/20101210/gpu-tool-demoscene-shadertoymark-0-2-0-opengl-pixel-shader-benchmark-sli-crossfire/

[GPU Tool] ShaderToyMark 0.2.0 Demomakers’ Benchmark Available with Better SLI and CrossFire Support

*** Take a look at some of the notes on this page as well.

http://www.geeks3d.com/20100903/gpu-tool-shadertoymark-extreme-pixel-shader-benchmark/

Even though the native resolution may appear to be low,, the pixel shaders used simultaneously can  easily stress some of today's fastest cards.

Takes about 60 seconds to run.

Have Fun ! and compare you cards performance.

One of the main reasons I check-out the Shader Toy Mark test was because I have a Sapphire HD6859 at this time .With the 960 Shaders

*** Radeon HD 6850 with 960 and 1120 Shaders: TessMark and ShaderToyMark Comparisons

http://www.geeks3d.com/20101025/radeon-hd-6850-with-960-and-1120-shaders-tessmark-and-shadertoymark-comparisons/

Here are some results:

Stock Clock

Modest OC as previous:

*** Noticed the my scores were  bit better than some of  the ones seen on the ShaderToy page and other reviews of this particular card. It is most likely due to better drivers that are available these days .[Catalyst v. 11.9] 

It would be most interesting to see what some results that others have to share and post with any of the GPU tests previously mentioned .Including GPU-Z make it very easy to see all the info too.

*** Here are my Tessmark Scores with the Sapphire HD 6850 w/ 960 Shaders.

Most Games :
moderate = tessellation factor of 8
normal = tessellation factor of 16  

HD 6850 Stock Moderate

HD 6850 Stock Normal

HD 6850 OC Moderate

HD 6850 OC Normal

*** It should also be mentioned that the 6850's OC 850/1100 appears to run a bit cooler temps and that is because the all of the previous 'stock- clock'  runs were done with the default automatic fan profile.

Yep the Sapphire TriXX utility can do the trick with an OC and fan profile 'tweak'.Tessmark can also be used instead of Furmark to stress a GPU and tweak a fan profile while monitoring temps with the stability setting instead of benchmark..you will most likely be able to hear that fan 'ramp' up with Tessmark.

Nice card Sapphire  ! & Thanks

I want a new card....

So is this any good then? i7-870, 16GB DDR1600MHz. with a GTX-570

_____________________________

And then there's the AMD APU A8-3850 8GB DDR3-1600 with Internal Graphics here:

___________________________________

And then there is the i7-2600K with 16GB DDR3-2133MHz. and a GTX570 ASUS card.

All in all, the CPU and system RAM don't mean a lot to the results of this test,...it's all based on the graphics card's capabilities.

Both my i7-870 and i7-2600K scored the same because they have GTX570's in them. The AMD APU didn't score well at all,...but it plays games just fine.

Go figure,...

i7-920@2.8, 6gb DDR3-1600 (triple channel), Diamond HD5870

Nice  to see you guy playing with some Shader Toy. how about adding some GPU-Z & or CPU-Z in the screen shots  lot more info at a glance.

Especially  the unified shader info for this one ! As well as the info of the system being used at a glance.

& hide some of the desktop clutter too lol :)

So ran the above OC version with the load fan profile plus the gpu / cpu info :

*** Will def take one those EVGA 560Ti cards out of the new rig sometime time and see what the single card will do too.

>>> Edit: DerMeister !   what ya mean you want a new card ! the 5870 is very nice ! ...BTW  I did see  that you have rather have gotten a  Sapphire in the other thread. <oooopps!>

>>>@Neil my i7 870 is just my day to clock profile and the CPU speed does not affect these results with ShaderToy that much if at all...Heaven Benchmark  is a different matter me thinkx.

**** Pooched the grammar on DerMeisters remark and fixed it

He has a Diamond card, says he should have got the Sapphire instead.

realneil:

He has a Diamond card, says he should have got the Sapphire instead.

yep I got it I  saw he has the Diamond in the other thread and worded the remark wrong  I 'll fix it pronto

OK Done !