MSI GTX 970 and overclocking

[Wesleydn]

Big noob on GPU overclocking!!!

 

I Bought the MSi GTX 970 Gaming edition works great! But this is the first time im overclocking.

Intel Core i5 4670 3.4GHz, 2x8GB DDR3 Corsair LP, 120 GB Samsung Evo SSD for os and BF4

I use a Samsung 1080p 60Mhz monitor

 

So i changed the res from 1920x1080 to 2715x1527( is this the right resolution upscale?) with the new DRS and kept all settings on ultra (BF4).

My aim is to at least get 60FPS  at the above settings.

 

I used the following "guide" to overclock my GPU and it worked for 1 day then today i got "DirectX Error BF4"

So i reset all the clock speeds and that and it worked.

 

Iv taken it back up to

Core Vol: +50Mv

power limit: 110%

Core clock: +100

memory clock: +0

Fan speed: Auto

Bench mark

Unigine Heaven Benchmark 4.0 FPS:

49.7

Score:

1253

Min FPS:

26.6

Max FPS:

107.4

System Platform:

Windows NT 6.2 (build 9200) 64bit

CPU model:

Intel® Core i5-4670 CPU @ 3.40GHz (3501MHz) x4

GPU model:

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 9.18.13.4416 (4095MB) x1

Settings Render:

Direct3D11

Mode:

2560x1440 4xAA fullscreen

Preset

Custom

Quality

High

Tessellation: Disabled

 

It seems to be working now, what can i do to make sure im getting the most out of my graphics card without getting the error?

Dont know what i should push up more since the only things i know are fan speed and core clock. what above OC settings should i change and how to test the OC settings are stable.

 

Lastly, Ive set My MSI after burner to start up on windows and to apply overclocking at system start up. Is this bad or fine? should i only run the OC settings when playing games?

 

Any other advise or trustworthy Videos, Guides and links would be appreciated!

[Cheddle]

Big noob on GPU overclocking!!!

 

I Bought the MSi GTX 970 Gaming edition works great! But this is the first time im overclocking.

Intel Core i5 4670 3.4GHz, 2x8GB DDR3 Corsair LP, 120 GB Samsung Evo SSD for os and BF4

I use a Samsung 1080p 60Mhz monitor

 

So i changed the res from 1920x1080 to 2715x1527( is this the right resolution upscale?) with the new DRS and kept all settings on ultra (BF4).

My aim is to at least get 60FPS  at the above settings.

 

I used the following "guide" to overclock my GPU and it worked for 1 day then today i got "DirectX Error BF4"

So i reset all the clock speeds and that and it worked.

 

Iv taken it back up to

Core Vol: +50Mv

power limit: 110%

Core clock: +100

memory clock: +0

Fan speed: Auto

Bench mark

Unigine Heaven Benchmark 4.0 FPS:

49.7

Score:

1253

Min FPS:

26.6

Max FPS:

107.4

System Platform:

Windows NT 6.2 (build 9200) 64bit

CPU model:

Intel® Core i5-4670 CPU @ 3.40GHz (3501MHz) x4

GPU model:

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 9.18.13.4416 (4095MB) x1

Settings Render:

Direct3D11

Mode:

2560x1440 4xAA fullscreen

Preset

Custom

Quality

High

Tessellation: Disabled

 

It seems to be working now, what can i do to make sure im getting the most out of my graphics card without getting the error?

Dont know what i should push up more since the only things i know are fan speed and core clock. what above OC settings should i change and how to test the OC settings are stable.

 

Lastly, Ive set My MSI after burner to start up on windows and to apply overclocking at system start up. Is this bad or fine? should i only run the OC settings when playing games?

 

Any other advise or trustworthy Videos, Guides and links would be appreciated!

 

your on the right track - there are plenty of guides about how to best overclock a card

 

my one tip to you is not to enable apply overclock on windows start up until you are 100% sure your overclock is stable and the one you are going to go with - never apply on start up if you are attempting to push a card or it might crash as soon as the clocks are applied and this will loop over until you run safemode and uninstall / change the settings/config on your overclocking software (loosing your settings in the process)

 

Once you have a stable clock - then set it to apply on startup.

 

further:

 

What I do to overclock is run a looping stress test (a game in windowed mode) that applies 100% load to your GPU, once the GPU temp stabilises I then use afterburner to increase memory speed by 25mhz every 60 seconds time until I either crash or starts to show visible artefacts (flickering sprites, white sparking on textures, black boxes in the depth of field), I then reduce the memory speed by 25mhz run a range of different benchmarks, valley, hevan, firestrike, metro last light, tomb raider, grid autosport  - to ensure its stable in a variety of engines

 

I then increase the power limit and core voltage to their maximum setting within afterburner (stock limits) and watch the temps (if they throttle - start to reduce core speed to save heat (likely on a blower/reference cooler) then decrease the core voltage until it stabilises) then increase the core speed by 100 MHz, provided its stable I then increase it by 10mhz every 60 seconds until I crash or see artifacts, I then reduce it by 10 MHz, run for a further few minuets to ensure temps are stable and not throttling down the core speed.  I then run the same gauntlet of stress tests to ensure stability

 

if at any stage there is a crash during the stress test I deload by 10mhz core or 25mhz ram.

 

once I can run all benches stable I begin a looping windowed stress test and decrease the core voltage by 5mv per 30 seconds until I crash or see artefacts - I then increase it by 10mv once crashes and run the stress tests again to confirm stability.

 

Finally once I have my known good voltage/core/memory settings I note these down on paper, set all my settings back to stock, run a heap of benchmarks, then reclock the card to the good settings, run the tests again and smile at the gains achieved :-)

[Wesleydn]

your on the right track - there are plenty of guides about how to best overclock a card

 

my one tip to you is not to enable apply overclock on windows start up until you are 100% sure your overclock is stable and the one you are going to go with - never apply on start up if you are attempting to push a card or it might crash as soon as the clocks are applied and this will loop over until you run safemode and uninstall / change the settings/config on your overclocking software (loosing your settings in the process)

 

Once you have a stable clock - then set it to apply on startup.

 

further:

 

What I do to overclock is run a looping stress test (a game in windowed mode) that applies 100% load to your GPU, once the GPU temp stabilises I then use afterburner to increase memory speed by 25mhz every 60 seconds time until I either crash or starts to show visible artefacts (flickering sprites, white sparking on textures, black boxes in the depth of field), I then reduce the memory speed by 25mhz run a range of different benchmarks, valley, hevan, firestrike, metro last light, tomb raider, grid autosport  - to ensure its stable in a variety of engines

 

I then increase the power limit and core voltage to their maximum setting within afterburner (stock limits) and watch the temps (if they throttle - start to reduce core speed to save heat (likely on a blower/reference cooler) then decrease the core voltage until it stabilises) then increase the core speed by 100 MHz, provided its stable I then increase it by 10mhz every 60 seconds until I crash or see artifacts, I then reduce it by 10 MHz, run for a further few minuets to ensure temps are stable and not throttling down the core speed.  I then run the same gauntlet of stress tests to ensure stability

 

if at any stage there is a crash during the stress test I deload by 10mhz core or 25mhz ram.

 

once I can run all benches stable I begin a looping windowed stress test and decrease the core voltage by 5mv per 30 seconds until I crash or see artefacts - I then increase it by 10mv once crashes and run the stress tests again to confirm stability.

 

Finally once I have my known good voltage/core/memory settings I note these down on paper, set all my settings back to stock, run a heap of benchmarks, then reclock the card to the good settings, run the tests again and smile at the gains achieved :-)

So i managed to get stable oc for Heaven which has the following settings

API: DX11

quality: high

Tesselation: disabled

Stereo 3d: disabled

Multi-monitor: disabled

Anti aliasing: x4

Full screen: yes

Resolution: 2560x1440

 

After testing i got the below settings on afterburner

Core voltage: default

Power limit: 110%

Core clock: 175

Mem clock: 400

Fan: Auto

 

Ran heaven for 10min then tested benchmark, following readings are from the above MSI settings

Graphics: 1630Mhz

Memory: 3905

Temp: 78

FPS: 53.5

score: 1346

min: 27.7

max 113.3

 

I then went to play BF4 and it ran fine for about 30min then came up with the DX error.

 

So i downscaled the MSi settings to the below and BF4 seems to run stable for now.

Core voltage: default

Power limit: 110%

Core clock: 125

Mem clock: 300

Fan: Auto

 

Should i change anything to try get more FPS?

[BirdyTheMighty]

you can try to increase the mem clock a bit more, this is what i got for my card(galaxy reference 970) just for reference

power limit 120

gpu tem target 86

core clock +150

mem clock +500

 

PS: bf4 does not like using msi afterburner when i'm  using a nvidia card for some reason i asume its because it does not like RIvaTuner which msi used for nvidia cards i could be wrong,  so i'm using Evga precision

[Wesleydn]

you can try to increase the mem clock a bit more, this is what i got for my card(galaxy reference 970) just for reference

power limit 120

gpu tem target 86

core clock +150

mem clock +500

 

PS: bf4 does not like using msi afterburner when i'm  using a nvidia card for some reason i asume its because it does not like RIvaTuner which msi used for nvidia cards i could be wrong,  so i'm using Evga precision

 

Iv upped it a bit more and will leave it on this for today and see if it remains stable while i play BF4

also change my game res to 2715x1527 in Geforce experience with everything on ultra. Getting average of 60 FPS 

Core voltage: default

Power limit: 110%

Core clock: 150

Mem clock: 400

Fan: Auto