tips for beginner overclocker

[bip_]

a couple weeks ago I picked an MSI R9 270, which I have heard is great for overclocking. Since this is my first PC and all, I am bit nervous. I was just wondering if anyone has like a "do's and don'ts" for overclocking. Thanks for the help! 

[spartaman64]

get msi afterburner. bump up clock speed by a set amount i like to do 50 mhz for gpu. after each clock speed bump run something like the valley benchmark. repeat until gpu is too hot or system is unstable

[bip_]

get msi afterburner. bump up clock speed by a set amount i like to do 50 mhz for gpu. after each clock speed bump run something like the valley benchmark. repeat until gpu is too hot or system is unstable

 

I will try this. Thanks for the help. 

[SkilledRebuilds]

Make sure your OC program does not apply the OC at startup.

If you make it unstable with high clocks, windows boot may not work at those clocks either.

 

I will try this. Thanks for the help. 

Up and Up 25-50Mhz at a time (smaller as you go higher) until unstable,...when unstable, back off 25Mhz, test again for double the length of the test (or do it twice/looped)
If it passes that synthetic test, play some actual games, not just using synthetics, if it becomes unstable again, go back another 25Mhz and redo your tests.

If not, push for more or call it a day.

 

Coreclock boosts yield WAY more gain than Memclock boosts.

Start on one (Core) find the max (however many tests it takes)

Return Core to stock clock

Start on (Mem) find the max (however many tests it takes)

Return Mem to stock clock

 

Set Coreclock to your newfound maximum clock.

Set Memclock 50-100Mhz under your maximum clock as sometimes they both cannot hit their max together, and as Core is more important, you can leave memory alone at any time.

Test to see if stable and fine tune until your happy, and until it's 100% stable in games you have,..... (minus the games bugs already present that cause issues)

 

Usually symptoms of bad OC's are artifacted images (lines/skewed images/dots/flickering textures/shadows)

Even some full system hardlock/freezing can take place, sometimes filling your screen with mishmashed colors and such...

 

Relax,...and force a Restart/Shutdown by holding the Physical Power button on your case for a few seconds...(4s or more)

 

Food for thought,.. it's electrical gear, not voodoo magic, it's got a tolerance to a certain point, don't push too far.

Read, Read, Read, Watch, Watch, Watch,.. guides, articles, videos... lots of info out there...

[Guest]

Well I think that those guys over me explained pretty good how to OC your GPU. Please don't take me wrong or like the bad guy but before doing this keep in mind taht if you do this you are going to loose some ayers of use.

 

Why am I saying this? Beacuse if you are a guy who can't afford buying a gpu because you don't have a job and you pay it with what you save or whatever, you are going to buy another in less time than if you don't OC it.

 

I hope that you don't get me wrong bro and I wish you luck with that sexy and good gpu you have there.

[sgloux3470]

Focus on Coreclock over memory clock.

 

Memory is typically harder to overclock and results in smaller performance improvements and more easily leads to performance degradation when overclocked too far, requiring more tuning.  The core clock on the other hand gets the most performance boost and is pretty straight forward.

 

 

I found this to be the case with my 980 where people were saying they got such high memory overclocks, but when I test in 3dmark I see performance degradation increasing my clock speeds any higher which makes me suspect that people are likely not crashing on the higher settings, but not gaining as much performance as they could because they're not testing with something sensitive like 3dmark to make sure they're actually still gaining performance linearly with clockspeeds.

[bip_]

Make sure your OC program does not apply the OC at startup.

If you make it unstable with high clocks, windows boot may not work at those clocks either.

 

Up and Up 25-50Mhz at a time (smaller as you go higher) until unstable,...when unstable, back off 25Mhz, test again for double the length of the test (or do it twice/looped)

If it passes that synthetic test, play some actual games, not just using synthetics, if it becomes unstable again, go back another 25Mhz and redo your tests.

If not, push for more or call it a day.

 

Coreclock boosts yield WAY more gain than Memclock boosts.

Start on one (Core) find the max (however many tests it takes)

Return Core to stock clock

Start on (Mem) find the max (however many tests it takes)

Return Mem to stock clock

 

Set Coreclock to your newfound maximum clock.

Set Memclock 50-100Mhz under your maximum clock as sometimes they both cannot hit their max together, and as Core is more important, you can leave memory alone at any time.

Test to see if stable and fine tune until your happy, and until it's 100% stable in games you have,..... (minus the games bugs already present that cause issues)

 

Usually symptoms of bad OC's are artifacted images (lines/skewed images/dots/flickering textures/shadows)

Even some full system hardlock/freezing can take place, sometimes filling your screen with mishmashed colors and such...

 

Relax,...and force a Restart/Shutdown by holding the Physical Power button on your case for a few seconds...(4s or more)

 

Food for thought,.. it's electrical gear, not voodoo magic, it's got a tolerance to a certain point, don't push too far.

Read, Read, Read, Watch, Watch, Watch,.. guides, articles, videos... lots of info out there...

 

 

Well I think that those guys over me explained pretty good how to OC your GPU. Please don't take me wrong or like the bad guy but before doing this keep in mind taht if you do this you are going to loose some ayers of use.

 

Why am I saying this? Beacuse if you are a guy who can't afford buying a gpu because you don't have a job and you pay it with what you save or whatever, you are going to buy another in less time than if you don't OC it.

 

I hope that you don't get me wrong bro and I wish you luck with that sexy and good gpu you have there.

 

 

Focus on Coreclock over memory clock.

 

Memory is typically harder to overclock and results in smaller performance improvements and more easily leads to performance degradation when overclocked too far, requiring more tuning.  The core clock on the other hand gets the most performance boost and is pretty straight forward.

 

 

I found this to be the case with my 980 where people were saying they got such high memory overclocks, but when I test in 3dmark I see performance degradation increasing my clock speeds any higher which makes me suspect that people are likely not crashing on the higher settings, but not gaining as much performance as they could because they're not testing with something sensitive like 3dmark to make sure they're actually still gaining performance linearly with clockspeeds.

Thank you guys for all help. Cleared up every question I had, like no joke, and gave me some tips as well. Cheers guys.