Overclocking my gtx 970

[Tom970]

Hi all,

 

Lately I've been busy overclocking my air cooled Gigabyte G1 gtx 970 Gaming 4G. I've been using Furmark (Which now I've been told is quite dangerous) to test my overclock. I've been trying some voltages and clockspeeds. Without increasing my voltage (1,025v) I couldn't get past 1430mhz on the core. This is +101mhz. Now that I've flashed a new BIOS I've been using 1.275v. At this voltage I was testing my core clock in Furmark, 1576mhz (+247mhz!!). It gave me no artifacts or glitches, and had a quite stable fps (min 54 max 64 avg 62). This was on Preset: 1080p. After that I added some Mem clock (about +500mhz, total 7800mhz) And it went straight up to a 100% stable 84 fps. Min max avg were all 84 fps. 64 degrees C being the max temp.

 

Now is my question: how can I test this overclock to be 100% stable? Any suggestions on what to do try with my overclock? If you are overclocking a gtx 970 please tell me your results!

 

Thanks already

 

Tom 

[Joshndroid]

Hi all,

 

Lately I've been busy overclocking my air cooled Gigabyte G1 gtx 970 Gaming 4G. I've been using Furmark (Which now I've been told is quite dangerous) to test my overclock. I've been trying some voltages and clockspeeds. Without increasing my voltage (1,025v) I couldn't get past 1430mhz on the core. This is +101mhz. Now that I've flashed a new BIOS I've been using 1.275v. At this speed I was testing my core clock in Furmark, 1576mhz (+247mhz!!). It gave me no artifacts or glitches, and had a quite stable fps (min 54 max 64 avg 62). This was on Preset: 1080p. After that I added some Mem clock (about +500mhz, total 7800mhz) And it went straight up to a 100% stable 84 fps. Min max avg were all 84 fps. 64 degrees C being the max temp.

 

Now is my question: how can I test this overclock to be 100% stable? Any suggestions on what to do try with my overclock? If you are overclocking a gtx 970 please tell me your results!

 

Thanks already

 

Tom 

 

what is your source for different bios files?

 

You can use 3dmark (free) to test and bench your card

You can also use msi kombustor to test rudimentary.

Your best bet though is to run game benchmarks and do a lot of in game stuff to really see the difference.

I have had plenty of times where 3dmark and other artificial testing programs run fine, but 30 minutes into gaming and i would get a crash.

As for my own overclock i am not really running anything on my 970 at the moment, awaiting a watercooling AIO bracket from corsair

[Xyrock]

If you have witcher 3. that is a good game to test it.

 

Valley and Heaven benchmark is good too.

 

EDIT:

 

i overclocked my card and i didnt see any artifacts on the benchmark and it was stable. when i went to test it ingame (Witcher 3) i saw missing textures and stuff.

[Tom970]

what is your source for different bios files?

 

You can use 3dmark (free) to test and bench your card

You can also use msi kombustor to test rudimentary.

Your best bet though is to run game benchmarks and do a lot of in game stuff to really see the difference.

I have had plenty of times where 3dmark and other artificial testing programs run fine, but 30 minutes into gaming and i would get a crash.

As for my own overclock i am not really running anything on my 970 at the moment, awaiting a watercooling AIO bracket from corsair

I got my bios from Gofspar's post, here on linustechtips.com. And thanks, I'll try that! 

[Tom970]

If you have witcher 3. that is a good game to test it.

 

Valley and Heaven benchmark is good too.

 

EDIT:

 

i overclocked my card and i didnt see any artifacts on the benchmark and it was stable. when i went to test it ingame (Witcher 3) i saw missing textures and stuff.

Yeah I've got the Witcher 3! I noticed that games won't have to run stable when Unigine benchmarks do

[Samfisher]

Hi all,

 

Lately I've been busy overclocking my air cooled Gigabyte G1 gtx 970 Gaming 4G. I've been using Furmark (Which now I've been told is quite dangerous) to test my overclock. I've been trying some voltages and clockspeeds. Without increasing my voltage (1,025v) I couldn't get past 1430mhz on the core. This is +101mhz. Now that I've flashed a new BIOS I've been using 1.275v. At this voltage I was testing my core clock in Furmark, 1576mhz (+247mhz!!). It gave me no artifacts or glitches, and had a quite stable fps (min 54 max 64 avg 62). This was on Preset: 1080p. After that I added some Mem clock (about +500mhz, total 7800mhz) And it went straight up to a 100% stable 84 fps. Min max avg were all 84 fps. 64 degrees C being the max temp.

 

Now is my question: how can I test this overclock to be 100% stable? Any suggestions on what to do try with my overclock? If you are overclocking a gtx 970 please tell me your results!

 

Thanks already

 

Tom 

 

 

Not sure how +240 gives you only 1576MHz.  Mine is at +170 and I get 1580

 

That said, 3D Mark is free and pretty reliable for OC checks.  After looping it a few times, play some games.  That's the best test you can do.

[d510r9]

I quite like using Fire Strike to benchmark http://www.3dmark.com/ as it shows how your system stacks up against similar builds. I've got the same GPU as you (G1 gaming so interested to see your results).

 

I'm not sure how you work out if it's stable. From what I've read it can depend on the bench marking test and/or game. If it's snowing the memory is too high, if you get artifacts the core clock is too high, if you get smoke the temp is too high (or Charlie is burning trash in the bar again and we get a nice smokey smell in here and let that smoke go into the sky where it turns into stars).

[Xyrock]

Yeah I've got the Witcher 3! I noticed that games won't have to run stable when Unigine benchmarks do

yeah... thats the thing. either you want a stable on benchmark or playing games you choise

 

start turning your OC down if you wanna play games stable

[Tom970]

Not sure how +240 gives you only 1576MHz.  Mine is at +170 and I get 1580

 

That said, 3D Mark is free and pretty reliable for OC checks.  After looping it a few times, play some games.  That's the best test you can do.

Well Idk, my standard clock is about 1140, and boosted is 1329. 1576-1329 really gets you 276. Not sure if I added that, you can be right that it's like 170. 3Dmark isn't dangerous like furmark or is it?

[Xyrock]

Well Idk, my standard clock is about 1140, and boosted is 1329. 1576-1329 really gets you 276. Not sure if I added that, you can be right that it's like 170. 3Dmark isn't dangerous like furmark or is it?

dont know about dangerous. but i have been told that furmark isnt that good for overclocking, it just adds alot of temp

[Tom970]

I quite like using Fire Strike to benchmark http://www.3dmark.com/ as it shows how your system stacks up against similar builds. I've got the same GPU as you (G1 gaming so interested to see your results).

 

I'm not sure how you work out if it's stable. From what I've read it can depend on the bench marking test and/or game. If it's snowing the memory is too high, if you get artifacts the core clock is too high, if you get smoke the temp is too high (or Charlie is burning trash in the bar again and we get a nice smokey smell in here and let that smoke go into the sky where it turns into stars).

Haha Well I've tried Witcher twice, the first time with an unstable OC it crashed after spamming the left mouse button. This time, no artifacts snow or whatsoever. Did you increase the voltage? What clocks did you get? The furmark score I got was higher than a stock titan x o.0

[Tom970]

yeah... thats the thing. either you want a stable on benchmark or playing games you choise

 

start turning your OC down if you wanna play games stable

Maybe this one is stable! I've got to try yet, not at home right now. Really hope so

[Samfisher]

Well Idk, my standard clock is about 1140, and boosted is 1329. 1576-1329 really gets you 276. Not sure if I added that, you can be right that it's like 170. 3Dmark isn't dangerous like furmark or is it?

 

Nah, 3D Mark uses proper engines to do the testing, and isn't a heat test like Furmark is.  Also, unigen benchmarks are notorious for displaying the wrong clock speeds and VRAM, so just rely on something like MSI AB to check your highest boost/temps etc.

 

Also it's easier to state the OC lvl in terms of how much you have to add in MS AB.  All OC starts at 0, and +180 for example would be the same for almost all G1 970's.  Would be an easier way to gauge OC as other cards start and stop at different boost levels

[Tom970]

Nah, 3D Mark uses proper engines to do the testing, and isn't a heat test like Furmark is.  Also, unigen benchmarks are notorious for displaying the wrong clock speeds and VRAM, so just rely on something like MSI AB to check your highest boost/temps etc.

 

Also it's easier to state the OC lvl in terms of how much you have to add in MS AB.  All OC starts at 0, and +180 for example would be the same for almost all G1 970's.  Would be an easier way to gauge OC as other cards start and stop at different boost levels

Alright! If I add nothing, GPU-Z says 1329, while EVGA Precision x says 1404. So that would make it +172. Close enough. I found it strange that my card was capped at 1.025v and I couldn't raise the voltage.

[d510r9]

Haha Well I've tried Witcher twice, the first time with an unstable OC it crashed after spamming the left mouse button. This time, no artifacts snow or whatsoever. Did you increase the voltage? What clocks did you get? The furmark score I got was higher than a stock titan x o.0

 

 

No. I'm not entirely sure what increasing the voltage means as far as frying the card (I've no idea what I'm doing still).

 

I was brave enough to flash the bios using MaxwellBiosTweaker and nvFlash. I created a 0dB fan profile if the GPU temp is say sub 40C (I can't hear anything with <15% fan speed), and a new fan profile curve. Really like having the option of a silent machine when just just reading or using excel etc. Only the Strix and MSi cards I think ship with this enabled. I can't see what the danger is to have no/low fan running while the temp is low.

 

My first quick O/C I set the following in MSi Afterburner. Will play around with this a bit now, but not bothered about trying to get crazy high results:

• Power limit: 112%
• Core Clock: +161 (1,490MHz)
• Memory Clock: +800 (4,307MHz)

[Tom970]

 

No. I'm not entirely sure what increasing the voltage means as far as frying the card (I've no idea what I'm doing still).

 

I was brave enough to flash the bios using MaxwellBiosTweaker and nvFlash. I created a 0dB fan profile if the GPU temp is say sub 40C (I can't hear anything with <15% fan speed), and a new fan profile curve. Really like having the option of a silent machine when just just reading or using excel etc. Only the Strix and MSi cards I think ship with this enabled. I can't see what the danger is to have no/low fan running while the temp is low.

 

My first quick O/C I set the following in MSi Afterburner. Will play around with this a bit now, but not bothered about trying to get crazy high results:

• Power limit: 112%
• Core Clock: +161 (1,490MHz)
• Memory Clock: +800 (4,307MHz)

 

That's nice. I was always scared for using the voltage button. Then I watched a video showing a NVIDIA employee overclocking gpu's (in that case 3 SLI Titan's, but the process is the same). I haven't had any troubles related to increasing the voltage, the only thing I achieved were more results. But I'm a performance geek. If you're okay with what you have, you don't have to use the voltage, the results are nice but not +20fps or 980ti like. In my experience! Try running unigine heaven benchmark at 1920x1080p extreme HD (everything at max) fullscreen and post the result (avg fps nd stuff). I will do that too and then you can see if it's worth your while (if my OC seems to be stable )

[d510r9]

That's nice. I was always scared for using the voltage button. Then I watched a video showing a NVIDIA employee overclocking gpu's (in that case 3 SLI Titan's, but the process is the same). I haven't had any troubles related to increasing the voltage, the only thing I achieved were more results. But I'm a performance geek. If you're okay with what you have, you don't have to use the voltage, the results are nice but not +20fps or 980ti like. In my experience! Try running unigine heaven benchmark at 1920x1080p extreme HD (everything at max) fullscreen and post the result (avg fps nd stuff). I will do that too and then you can see if it's worth your while (if my OC seems to be stable )

 

My first quick test, scored 1,620

Core clock: +171

Memory clock: +500

 

 

[Tom970]

My first quick test, scored 1,620

Core clock: +171

Memory clock: +500

 

 

Capture.PNG

Well done! Do you know what the core and mem speeds were? So what you got when you added 171 to core.

[d510r9]

Well done! Do you know what the core and mem speeds were? So what you got when you added 171 to core.

 

The number looked wrong in Heaven (1,690MHz???) but on GPU-Z it shows:

• Default clock: 1,178MHz
• GPU clock:     1,349MHz
• Default boost:  1,329
• Boost:              1,500MHz

[Tom970]

The number looked wrong in Heaven (1,690MHz???) but on GPU-Z it shows:

• Default clock: 1,178MHz
• GPU clock:     1,349MHz
• Default boost:  1,329
• Boost:              1,500MHz

1618 heaven.jpg

Mine ends in 58 fps, don't know why it's lower. 1500 mhz core now and 7500 mem. Got the same card, I had it clocked higher and it performs lower. Nice...