First GPU overclock, help!

[Armakar]

Hey all, trying to overclock my MSI GTX  1070 Gaming X here. I have a MSI Gaming 5 Z170A motherboard, I7 6700K and a RM550X so I have the hardware to OC, but i've never OC'd a GPU before. I'm using MSI afterburner and the valley benchmarking at 1440p, 8x ultra graphics.

 

 

I have a test log, and so far here's what I managed.

 

Default settings:

68.6 FPS
2870 score
30.9 Minimum FPS
141.0 Maximum FPS

Test 1 - CRASH
1987 MHZ
+50 voltage
+109 power limit
+86 temp limit
+600 coreclock
+0 memory clock
auto fanspeed

Test 2 - Stable, app crashed first time but didn't crash again.
1987 MHZ
+25 voltage
MAX power limit
MAX temp limit
+250 coreclock
+0 memory clock
auto fanspeed

71.1FPS
2976 Score
Minimum FPS - 30.5
Maxmimum FPS - 150.0
 

Test 3 - PC crashed. Black screen.
+30 voltage
MAX power limit
MAX temp limit
+350 coreclock
+0 memory clock
auto fanspeed

 

Test 4 - PC crashed. Black screen.
+35 voltage
MAX power limit
MAX temp limit
+300 coreclock
+0 memory clock
auto fanspeed

 

It seems when I push it past 250 it crashes. For some reason, when I run the benchmark, even after I overclocked the first time stabally (+ 250), it still said the GPU was running at 1987, the same speed it was running at before. I did however get slightly better scores,

 

What am I doing wrong? What should I be changnig, and can this damage my GPU with all the crashes?

[Oskarix]

you should start from the base clockand add +5 or 10 mhz core clock and keep adding 5 or 10 until it crashes... then back the overclock down to the last stable clock and stress test it for +12h. if it crashes during the stress test try lowering the oc or adding +5 or 10 to the voltage

[Cereal5]

The MHz reader in valley is wrong, use the one off afterburner. Start with NO overvoltage. Power limit should be maxed out, but click that arrow next to it and make sure that temperature is the target so your card doesn't over heat (temp should be 85-90). Setting a custom fan curve (higher than stock) should yield better temps overall also. Start with something like +150MHz on the core and if it passes then slowly work your way up from there until it crashes. You can't just plug in numbers and expect something good. Don't overclock memory until you're done with messing around with the core clock. Your tests should be minimum 2 hours long btw. Expecting to get 300-600 on the core.... no. Just no lol

[Armakar]

20 minutes ago, Cereal5 said:

The MHz reader in valley is wrong, use the one off afterburner. Start with NO overvoltage. Power limit should be maxed out, but click that arrow next to it and make sure that temperature is the target so your card doesn't over heat (temp should be 85-90). Setting a custom fan curve (higher than stock) should yield better temps overall also. Start with something like +150MHz on the core and if it passes then slowly work your way up from there until it crashes. You can't just plug in numbers and expect something good. Don't overclock memory until you're done with messing around with the core clock. Your tests should be minimum 2 hours long btw. Expecting to get 300-600 on the core.... no. Just no lol

Do you mean I won't be able to take it past 600 ish?  Is there much of a point then? +300 doesn't seem like alot - I barely got better scores in my +250 test then my stock.

[Cereal5]

11 minutes ago, Armakar said:

Do you mean I won't be able to take it past 600 ish?  Is there much of a point then? +300 doesn't seem like alot - I barely got better scores in my +250 test then my stock.

Lmao I've never seen a card get more than like maybe 300. A 1070 stock clock speed is like 1700 MHz so if you get +200 that's over 10% increase. So yeah it's worth it. Just take your time. Overclocking isn't something like a set of numbers you plug in and BAM plus 20 fps. It's tuning

[Armakar]

3 minutes ago, Cereal5 said:

Lmao I've never seen a card get more than like maybe 300. A 1070 stock clock speed is like 1700 MHz so if you get +200 that's over 10% increase. So yeah it's worth it. Just take your time. Overclocking isn't something like a set of numbers you plug in and BAM plus 20 fps. It's tuning

Hmm, fair enough. If you've never seen an overclock of +300, my friend yesterday  who knows nothing about PC's went into asus gputweak2 with his 1060 turbo reference, cranked eveyything +1000 and shoved a +20 voltage in and it ran. Did his clock just not work? 

[Cereal5]

19 minutes ago, Armakar said:

Hmm, fair enough. If you've never seen an overclock of +300, my friend yesterday  who knows nothing about PC's went into asus gputweak2 with his 1060 turbo reference, cranked eveyything +1000 and shoved a +20 voltage in and it ran. Did his clock just not work? 

Yeah lol that's not possible. Maybe if you had a 980 Ti running on liquid nitrogen you could get 1000+ but I'm sure you're friend didn't have that. 

[Armakar]

2 hours ago, Cereal5 said:

Yeah lol that's not possible. Maybe if you had a 980 Ti running on liquid nitrogen you could get 1000+ but I'm sure you're friend didn't have that. 

Just  checked with him, GPU Tweak 2 capped him at 100, not 1000 haha.

 

So, if I keep pushing it do you think it's acceptable to settle for +300 so it runs at 2k? 

Does it matter that I keep bluescreening when running it past 250, will it damage it?

 

Thanks for all your  help!:)

[Cereal5]

58 minutes ago, Armakar said:

So, if I keep pushing it do you think it's acceptable to settle for +300 so it runs at 2k? 

the way GPU Boost works, you wont need +300 to get to 2000. like i said, start with something like 150 and no voltage and go up from there

 

1 hour ago, Armakar said:

Does it matter that I keep bluescreening when running it past 250, will it damage it?

if it keeps bluescreening, then stop doing it lol. do it a few times and no. do it every day then yeah maybe over the course of 3-5 years you'll see something

[Vellinious]

The first thing you need to understand about overclocking with Pascal, is that core temp is EVERYTHING.  The higher then temp, the less efficient it will run, and the more voltage will be needed to run at that specific clock target...getting exponentially worse, as temps go up.  On air, if you have ANY hope of getting a decent overclock with Pascal, you should be shooting for a core temp of 55c or less.  Anything more than that, and you're pissing into the wind.

The voltage / frequency curve is much more effective for overclocking with pascal, than is the offsets.  

G'luck

[Deli]

4 minutes ago, Vellinious said:

The first thing you need to understand about overclocking with Pascal, is that core temp is EVERYTHING.  The higher then temp, the less efficient it will run, and the more voltage will be needed to run at that specific clock target...getting exponentially worse, as temps go up.  On air, if you have ANY hope of getting a decent overclock with Pascal, you should be shooting for a core temp of 55c or less.  Anything more than that, and you're pissing into the wind.

The voltage / frequency curve is much more effective for overclocking with pascal, than is the offsets.  

G'luck

But it's hard to keep it under 55C with air cooling. Do I need watercool to get good OC?

[Vellinious]

Need to? No.  Will they run better on water?  It's possible...in most cases, even probable.

Get those fans turning, lower the ambient temp (room temp), open up the side of the case....and start using the voltage / frequency curve.  Try 2100 @ 1.050v...that is about your base level overclock.  Then try 2114, and take steps up at 1.050v until it's no longer stable...making sure to watch your core temps, and make note of the temp changes, and where things start to become unstable, so you can work to avoid them.  Then bump the voltage and retest.

I saw you're using Valley.  Don't.  Use Heaven.  Valley is too CPU dependent to be a good GPU tool.