Noob's first time overclocking

[anthonytran7757]

I've been wanting to overclock my GPU (Sapphire HD 7790 1gb) but I don't exactly know how to go about it. So I've got some questions

 

1) how long should I stress test inbetween bumping up the core clock?

 

2) should i enable force constant voltage?

 

3) What are artifacts and what do they look like?

 

4) Why when i am using sapphires tweaking utility I have the ability to raise the clock speeds higher than if i were to use MSI afterburner?

 

[UltraNeonGaming]

I've been wanting to overclock my GPU (Sapphire HD 7790 1gb) but I don't exactly know how to go about it. So I've got some questions

 

1) how long should I stress test inbetween bumping up the core clock?

 

2) should i enable force constant voltage?

 

3) What are artifacts and what do they look like?

 

4) Why when i am using sapphires tweaking utility I have the ability to raise the clock speeds higher than if i were to use MSI afterburner?

1. 30mins-1hr, depends on how big of a bump, if it's a tiny bump you could do it for 3-5mins. I recommend playing some games as well as running furmark and unigine heaven benchmark, maybe firestrike too.

 

2. Not 100% sure what it means on AMD, if it stops the voltage from going lower and higher and changing dynamicly depending on the GPU load then don't enable it.

 

3. They look like this:

 

They are distortions and rendering errors made by the GPU, all artifacts look different but all artifacts look unnatural. 

 

4. Because sapphire has done very in depth and extensive testing with that utility on their cards to ensure that works flawlessly with them without any problems.

 

Hope that helps!

[anthonytran7757]

1. 30mins-1hr, depends on how big of a bump, if it's a tiny bump you could do it for 3-5mins. I recommend playing some games as well as running furmark and unigine heaven benchmark, maybe firestrike too.

 

2. Not 100% sure what it means on AMD, if it stops the voltage from going lower and higher and changing dynamicly depending on the GPU load then don't enable it.

 

3. They look like this:

 

They are distortions and rendering errors made by the GPU, all artifacts look different but all artifacts look unnatural. 

 

4. Because sapphire has done very in depth and extensive testing with that utility on their cards to ensure that works flawlessly with them without any problems.

 

Hope that helps!

what would you consider a big or small bump in clock speed? and thanks LOL this helped a lot

[UltraNeonGaming]

what would you consider a big or small bump in clock speed? and thanks LOL this helped a lot

No problem!

I would say a small bump is under 50Mhz, the higher above that I would validate for longer than 3-5mins, I would also increase your clock speed in 25-50MHz (At max) increments so you know the sweet spot.

[alfaomega]

I prefer to leave unigen valley running at extreme when overclocking my gpu. That one puts almost all the stress on the gpu so if your cpu shouldn't be bottlenecking or working harder than it needs to. Also, it is truly convenient if you have dual monitors to leave a windowed valley on the first and looks at temps/clock on the second one. Don't forget about the memory too; it gave me an extra 3 frames on valley.

[anthonytran7757]

No problem!

I would say a small bump is under 50Mhz, the higher above that I would validate for longer than 3-5mins, I would also increase your clock speed in 25-50MHz (At max) increments so you know the sweet spot.

I see alright ill see how it goes

 

I prefer to leave unigen valley running at extreme when overclocking my gpu. That one puts almost all the stress on the gpu so if your cpu shouldn't be bottlenecking or working harder than it needs to. Also, it is truly convenient if you have dual monitors to leave a windowed valley on the first and looks at temps/clock on the second one. Don't forget about the memory too; it gave me an extra 3 frames on valley.

Ahhh thats a good idea lucky i've got two monitors so i can actually do that  

[anthonytran7757]

is it bad that my GPU usage drops to 20% for a split second during my stress tests?

[alfaomega]

That's normal. It's usually when changing scenes which usually means it's accessing the memory or requesting from the cpu. Either way, you'll see a drop then it goes right back to 99%.

[anthonytran7757]

That's normal. It's usually when changing scenes which usually means it's accessing the memory or requesting from the cpu. Either way, you'll see a drop then it goes right back to 99%.

ahhhh okay. so where i'm at right now is

1270 mhz (original 1075 mhz)

memory clock 1600 (original 1600 mhz)

voltage 1235 mv (original 1195 mv)

load temp - 67 °C

 

is my voltages too high? or are they okay? and can I continue pushing ?

[alfaomega]

ahhhh okay. so where i'm at right now is

1270 mhz (original 1075 mhz)

memory clock 1600 (original 1600 mhz)

voltage 1235 mv (original 1195 mv)

load temp - 67 °C

 

is my voltages too high? or are they okay? and can I continue pushing ?

I would push it until it starts hitting 70 degrees or it starts artifacting/crashing. However, try to this without increasing the voltage and only increase it if you see more stability when increased. I would keep the voltage at no more than +100. From what i've read from other is that it can shorten the lifespan of the card. However, on my current rig I could not even increase the voltage as it is only powered from the pci slot and all running on a 220watt psu. I'm actually thank I could actually overclock the thing as well as I did. 

Also, see if you can increase the memory clock, since it helps out once you a wall on your gpu.

[anthonytran7757]

I would push it until it starts hitting 70 degrees or it starts artifacting/crashing. However, try to this without increasing the voltage and only increase it if you see more stability when increased. I would keep the voltage at no more than +100. From what i've read from other is that it can shorten the lifespan of the card. However, on my current rig I could not even increase the voltage as it is only powered from the pci slot and all running on a 220watt psu. I'm actually thank I could actually overclock the thing as well as I did. 

Also, see if you can increase the memory clock, since it helps out once you a wall on your gpu.

alright cool ill try it out and see where I get with it