Should I Overclock AMD Vega 64 ASUS Strix? Or just install and run

[eric727]

Hi,

 

Got a good deal from Black Friday sales for Asus Strix AMD Vega 64. Wonder should I overclock it? Or just installed and run. 

 

Is that card been factory overclocked?

 

Thank you. 

 

[GoldenLag]

undervolt and overclock.

[Humbug]

Vega normally does well with undervolting and overclocking to lower power consumption and increase performance.

 

On day one you can just run it stock out of the box, it will be fine. But when you feel like it it's worth getting into...

[pstarlord]

Why not? haha. It's not to hard.  If you're not very comfortable with it, using something like MSI Afterburner is a very quick and simple way to get some added performance out of it.  The AMD Wattman software that'll come with it as well works pretty nicely.  You can get a little more in depth with Wattman.  I've got a Vega 56, there are a few tricks to it.  If you'd like any help feel free to ask, I can give you a run down on it, or point in the right direction of videos and articles on how to overclock/undervolt Vega. 

 

If you don't feel comfortable doing it, no problem, that card will still give you a great gaming experience.  

[Humbug]

I've heard some people say not to use afterburner with AMD GPUs that it causes a performance hit, not sure if true.

[zassou]

gamersnexus has some great pieces concerning vega undervolting, i recommend you take a look. also do you have a beefy power supply? vega cards are quite ineffecient.

[eric727]

22 hours ago, GoldenLag said:

undervolt and overclock.

Thank you 

[eric727]

22 hours ago, Humbug said:

Vega normally does well with undervolting and overclocking to lower power consumption and increase performance.

 

On day one you can just run it stock out of the box, it will be fine. But when you feel like it it's worth getting into...

Thank you. 

[eric727]

22 hours ago, pstarlord said:

Why not? haha. It's not to hard.  If you're not very comfortable with it, using something like MSI Afterburner is a very quick and simple way to get some added performance out of it.  The AMD Wattman software that'll come with it as well works pretty nicely.  You can get a little more in depth with Wattman.  I've got a Vega 56, there are a few tricks to it.  If you'd like any help feel free to ask, I can give you a run down on it, or point in the right direction of videos and articles on how to overclock/undervolt Vega. 

 

If you don't feel comfortable doing it, no problem, that card will still give you a great gaming experience.  

Hi pstarlord,

 

Would appreciate if you willing to share some overclock info with me. 

 

Thank you so much!

[eric727]

21 hours ago, Humbug said:

I've heard some people say not to use afterburner with AMD GPUs that it causes a performance hit, not sure if true.

Thank you, I will do more research. 

[eric727]

19 hours ago, zassou said:

gamersnexus has some great pieces concerning vega undervolting, i recommend you take a look. also do you have a beefy power supply? vega cards are quite ineffecient.

Thank you for the info.

 

I have a 750W PSU should be enough to run Vega 64. 

 

Do you mind to share the Gamersnexus link to me?

 

Thank you. 

 

[zassou]

53 minutes ago, eric727 said:

Thank you for the info.

 

I have a 750W PSU should be enough to run Vega 64. 

 

Do you mind to share the Gamersnexus link to me?

 

Thank you. 

 

https://www.gamersnexus.net/guides/2990-vega-frontier-edition-undervolt-benchmarks-improve-performance

 

vega fe basically is vega 64

[eric727]

1 hour ago, zassou said:

https://www.gamersnexus.net/guides/2990-vega-frontier-edition-undervolt-benchmarks-improve-performance

 

vega fe basically is vega 64

Thank you so much!

[pstarlord]

4 hours ago, eric727 said:

Hi pstarlord,

 

Would appreciate if you willing to share some overclock info with me. 

 

Thank you so much!

For sure.  Actually a lot of the knowledge I know I learned from Gamers Nexus.  

For me, using the provided Watt Man for overclocking seems to be the most reliable and stable.  There is also Watt Tool.  I've used it a few times, but it doesn't seem to hold the overclocks very well, and it's got a bunch of bugs in it.  MSI Afterburner is a great one just to get started, and is also good for monitoring the system very easily. 

 

Here's the basic steps for using WattMan. 

 

-First, you'll want to download some sort of benchmarking tool, I use Unigine Valley, but there are plenty out there.  Basically, you'll run this in the background while you're adjusting your Wattman settings to make sure they are stable.

 

-Access Wattman: When you install the drivers and whatnot for an AMD graphics card it will install a program called Radeon Settings.  A part of this app is called WattMan.  You access it under the "gaming" tab in Radeon Settings.  Then click on "Global Settings" and in the Global Settings you will find "WattMan Settings" 

 

-Time to push those limits!:  (make sure Valley is running) Once you locate Wattman settings, you will see a little slider with Power Save, Balanced, Turbo and Custom as options.  Slide that all the way over to Custom.  

 

-Scroll all the way to the bottom of the Wattman window and you'll find "Power Limit (%)" next to a slider.  Put that slider all the way to the right, and click "apply."  You'll need to click Apply for any changes you make to take effect.  I'd suggest doing it after every adjustment just to make sure. This will give you an immediate boost in clock speed and frame rate.  If you wanted, this would technically get you a great gaming experience by only doing this.  The problem is that your GPU will be consuming a ton of power so your electricity bill might go up. (just kindding...kinda)

 

-While you're down at the bottom, you'll also notice a basic fan curve and you can set you target and max temps.  Little note here, I've noticed that every now and then the fans on my Vega won't really turn on unless I move the fan sliders a bit then hit apply.  Not sure why, but that's a pretty consistent thing with all the overclocking software I've used for Vega.  It's not a big deal, just kind of annoying sometimes.  Once you get your profile set, it seems pretty reliable after that. I set my Target temp to 60 and my Max at 75.  The lower target temp you set, the earlier your fans should kick on.

 

-Scroll back up the top of the Wattman and you'll see a handy little monitor.  After you've cranked the power offset you should notice that at one point there was a dramatic rise in GPU Speed, you may also see that your FPS in Valley probably jumped up a bit as well.  (write down the new GPU speed)

 

-Undervolting Time!  Scroll down a bit to the GPU section.  This is where you can push the Core Speed of the GPU and where you will undervolt it to help balance out the big power offeset.  You've got two portions here "Frequency (%)" with "0" under it, and "Voltage Controls (mV) with "Automatic" written under it.  First thing, need to find out how low you can drop the Voltage.  Click on the voltage tabe to change to "manual."  This will turn State 6 and State 7 from "Auto" to whatever the stock settings are.  On mine, they are 1500 and 1200. Start by turning them both 50 lower than the lowest one.  So with my card, I started at 1150.  (Don't forge to click "Apply" after every adjustment)  After you do that, you may notice that your GPU speed probably slowed down a little bit, that's normal.  Keep nudging it down 50 at a time until your system becomes unstable, and/or crashes.  Don't worry, it won't hurt any thing and when you reboot your computer Wattman will load up on default settings, so it's a good idea to write your settings down just so you don't forget.  (remember you'll have to start over every time, since it's at default even the power offset will go back to stock.  Once you find out how low it goes before it becomes unstable, put your settings back to the last stable setting.

 

-Overclocking!! in the "Frequency" portion under GPU you can choose to adjust it by percentages (default setting) or you can input your specific frequencies you want to try.  (Dynamic Setting)  In my experiences, Dynamic can get a bit more exact, but using it in the default mode and adjusting by percentage actually gave me a much more stable overclock and I ended up with faster clock speeds overall.  Try whatever one you want.  

 

-If you choose Dynamic for your overclock, State 6 and State 7 will change from "auto" and will now have whatever the stock speed settings are for your card.  With mine it was 1537 and 1592.  Start off by setting them both to the same just a touch faster than the default State 7.  So in my case, I put them to 1600.  You will notice that there is a good chance that the speed Wattman displays as your GPU's active speed is a bit lower than what it's set at.  This is normal with Vega, and from what I can tell, it's a false readout and your clock speeds are actually closer to what you've set.  On mine, it's typically reading about 50 slower than the settings.  Anyway, once you nudge it up a little bit click "apply."  Our first goal here is to get the GPU speed back up to where it was before you turned the Voltage down.  So, keep pushing it 20 to 50 at a time until it becomes unstable and crashes.  (remember to write you settings down)  Once it crashes, try that frequency again, but this time turn the Voltage up a little at at time, until the new frequency is stable.  Push frequency, raise voltage.  Once you find a spot that feels good, you're all set.  What your max settings will be will depends on your system, your cooling, and the luck of the draw with your card.  But again, the goal is to get up to the boosted frequency attained by the original voltage offset. 

 

-Dynamic is fun and all, but like I said, doesn't seem to be as stable as just using the percentage.  The process will be the same, except instead of manually inputting the frequency, you'll nudge it up .5 at a time.  Pushing until it's unstable, then pushing the voltage up. 

 

-Odds are, your Vega was advertised as having 8G of RAM.  And odds are, you'll want to use those 8 Gigs.  Scroll down past the GPU portion, to the Memory portion.  Very similar to the GPU portion.  All you NEED to do here is just adjust the "Frequency" to 800 and call it a day.  If you want, you can try pushing the RAM speed higher, and it'll most likely work, but at a certain point I noticed a dramatic dip in GPU frequency performance when pushing the Memory too far.  I got mine up to about 1000MHz, but it made my GPU clock drop to about 1450...lower than stock settings.  So, I found that 900 was a good sweet spot on my card. 

 

And there ya go.  You're Vega is overclocked and ready to party!  Make sure to save your profile, because if your system crashes for any reason, the Wattman settings will revert to default, and instead of redoing your Overclock every time, you can just recall your preset.  Also, I'm not sure if this is a coincidence or not, but I've found that games tend to run better when you launch the game from the Radeon Settings app, and turn the "Histogram" on for the game as well.  Not sure why, or if it's just me having confirmation bias, but the only times I've had a game crash was when I opened a game from Steam and didn't have the Histogram on.  

[eric727]

2 hours ago, pstarlord said:

For sure.  Actually a lot of the knowledge I know I learned from Gamers Nexus.  

For me, using the provided Watt Man for overclocking seems to be the most reliable and stable.  There is also Watt Tool.  I've used it a few times, but it doesn't seem to hold the overclocks very well, and it's got a bunch of bugs in it.  MSI Afterburner is a great one just to get started, and is also good for monitoring the system very easily. 

 

Here's the basic steps for using WattMan. 

 

-First, you'll want to download some sort of benchmarking tool, I use Unigine Valley, but there are plenty out there.  Basically, you'll run this in the background while you're adjusting your Wattman settings to make sure they are stable.

 

-Access Wattman: When you install the drivers and whatnot for an AMD graphics card it will install a program called Radeon Settings.  A part of this app is called WattMan.  You access it under the "gaming" tab in Radeon Settings.  Then click on "Global Settings" and in the Global Settings you will find "WattMan Settings" 

 

-Time to push those limits!:  (make sure Valley is running) Once you locate Wattman settings, you will see a little slider with Power Save, Balanced, Turbo and Custom as options.  Slide that all the way over to Custom.  

 

-Scroll all the way to the bottom of the Wattman window and you'll find "Power Limit (%)" next to a slider.  Put that slider all the way to the right, and click "apply."  You'll need to click Apply for any changes you make to take effect.  I'd suggest doing it after every adjustment just to make sure. This will give you an immediate boost in clock speed and frame rate.  If you wanted, this would technically get you a great gaming experience by only doing this.  The problem is that your GPU will be consuming a ton of power so your electricity bill might go up. (just kindding...kinda)

 

-While you're down at the bottom, you'll also notice a basic fan curve and you can set you target and max temps.  Little note here, I've noticed that every now and then the fans on my Vega won't really turn on unless I move the fan sliders a bit then hit apply.  Not sure why, but that's a pretty consistent thing with all the overclocking software I've used for Vega.  It's not a big deal, just kind of annoying sometimes.  Once you get your profile set, it seems pretty reliable after that. I set my Target temp to 60 and my Max at 75.  The lower target temp you set, the earlier your fans should kick on.

 

-Scroll back up the top of the Wattman and you'll see a handy little monitor.  After you've cranked the power offset you should notice that at one point there was a dramatic rise in GPU Speed, you may also see that your FPS in Valley probably jumped up a bit as well.  (write down the new GPU speed)

 

-Undervolting Time!  Scroll down a bit to the GPU section.  This is where you can push the Core Speed of the GPU and where you will undervolt it to help balance out the big power offeset.  You've got two portions here "Frequency (%)" with "0" under it, and "Voltage Controls (mV) with "Automatic" written under it.  First thing, need to find out how low you can drop the Voltage.  Click on the voltage tabe to change to "manual."  This will turn State 6 and State 7 from "Auto" to whatever the stock settings are.  On mine, they are 1500 and 1200. Start by turning them both 50 lower than the lowest one.  So with my card, I started at 1150.  (Don't forge to click "Apply" after every adjustment)  After you do that, you may notice that your GPU speed probably slowed down a little bit, that's normal.  Keep nudging it down 50 at a time until your system becomes unstable, and/or crashes.  Don't worry, it won't hurt any thing and when you reboot your computer Wattman will load up on default settings, so it's a good idea to write your settings down just so you don't forget.  (remember you'll have to start over every time, since it's at default even the power offset will go back to stock.  Once you find out how low it goes before it becomes unstable, put your settings back to the last stable setting.

 

-Overclocking!! in the "Frequency" portion under GPU you can choose to adjust it by percentages (default setting) or you can input your specific frequencies you want to try.  (Dynamic Setting)  In my experiences, Dynamic can get a bit more exact, but using it in the default mode and adjusting by percentage actually gave me a much more stable overclock and I ended up with faster clock speeds overall.  Try whatever one you want.  

 

-If you choose Dynamic for your overclock, State 6 and State 7 will change from "auto" and will now have whatever the stock speed settings are for your card.  With mine it was 1537 and 1592.  Start off by setting them both to the same just a touch faster than the default State 7.  So in my case, I put them to 1600.  You will notice that there is a good chance that the speed Wattman displays as your GPU's active speed is a bit lower than what it's set at.  This is normal with Vega, and from what I can tell, it's a false readout and your clock speeds are actually closer to what you've set.  On mine, it's typically reading about 50 slower than the settings.  Anyway, once you nudge it up a little bit click "apply."  Our first goal here is to get the GPU speed back up to where it was before you turned the Voltage down.  So, keep pushing it 20 to 50 at a time until it becomes unstable and crashes.  (remember to write you settings down)  Once it crashes, try that frequency again, but this time turn the Voltage up a little at at time, until the new frequency is stable.  Push frequency, raise voltage.  Once you find a spot that feels good, you're all set.  What your max settings will be will depends on your system, your cooling, and the luck of the draw with your card.  But again, the goal is to get up to the boosted frequency attained by the original voltage offset. 

 

-Dynamic is fun and all, but like I said, doesn't seem to be as stable as just using the percentage.  The process will be the same, except instead of manually inputting the frequency, you'll nudge it up .5 at a time.  Pushing until it's unstable, then pushing the voltage up. 

 

-Odds are, your Vega was advertised as having 8G of RAM.  And odds are, you'll want to use those 8 Gigs.  Scroll down past the GPU portion, to the Memory portion.  Very similar to the GPU portion.  All you NEED to do here is just adjust the "Frequency" to 800 and call it a day.  If you want, you can try pushing the RAM speed higher, and it'll most likely work, but at a certain point I noticed a dramatic dip in GPU frequency performance when pushing the Memory too far.  I got mine up to about 1000MHz, but it made my GPU clock drop to about 1450...lower than stock settings.  So, I found that 900 was a good sweet spot on my card. 

 

And there ya go.  You're Vega is overclocked and ready to party!  Make sure to save your profile, because if your system crashes for any reason, the Wattman settings will revert to default, and instead of redoing your Overclock every time, you can just recall your preset.  Also, I'm not sure if this is a coincidence or not, but I've found that games tend to run better when you launch the game from the Radeon Settings app, and turn the "Histogram" on for the game as well.  Not sure why, or if it's just me having confirmation bias, but the only times I've had a game crash was when I opened a game from Steam and didn't have the Histogram on.  

Million thanks to you pstarlock.

 

let me try it next few days, will come to you if any problem and the results.

[pstarlord]

7 hours ago, eric727 said:

Million thanks to you pstarlock.

 

let me try it next few days, will come to you if any problem and the results.

Very welcome! 

[eric727]

On 11/30/2018 at 4:51 AM, pstarlord said:

Very welcome! 

I finally installed my new Vega 64 in my PC setup, and here is the out of the box benchmark. not sure how much can improve from here. will try it next couple of week to overclock it. thanks again.

[Efilnikufesin]

Skip Wattman, use Overdriventool.

[pstarlord]

55 minutes ago, eric727 said:

I finally installed my new Vega 64 in my PC setup, and here is the out of the box benchmark. not sure how much can improve from here. will try it next couple of week to overclock it. thanks again.

 

Looks good.  It's fun to push benchmarks and see how high you can get your score, to me it's become a game in itself. haha. But remember, what REALLY matters is the in game experience, so make sure to test your settings in actual games.  You may find that certain games work better with different types of settings.  

 

A few days ago, I was experiencing some random crashes in my system.  I wanted to eliminate the GPU and CPU as being the culprits, so I removed both of their overclocks and played Shadow of the Tome Raider a bit, and as it turns out, I got the same...if not a little better FPS on Tomb Raider with the GPU at stock settings.  So that particular game doesn't necessarily NEED the overclock that I had set.  The crashing wasn't caused by my GPU or CPU, it was actually an unstable RAM settings (just so you know it wasn't my Vega card.