First big GPU OC failure. Should I try again?

[Xuvial]

I hope to run my PSU till the day it dies, and theoretically that day should be quite far off
GPU's and CPU's seem to be getting more and more efficient and I don't see the need for more wattage if I stick to single-GPU builds (which I will).

@OP the PSU is solid and the GPU should overclock just fine, I think you just got some bad eggs...don't let it deter you from OC'ing, 7950 is a beast OC'er. Glad to hear your RMA processes went without issues, now you've got a brand new PSU and card

edit: I can't spell

[vesseblah]

Power: +20%
NO VOLTAGE TWEAKS.

Haven't looked into AMD's CCC lately, but what's the "power" setting if not overvoltage?

im in a bad mood

your overclocking from windows program "afterburner" ???

Yeah, graphics cards are always overclocked from Windows program. You can't really access it in any other way.

[Deleted]

Haven't looked into AMD's CCC lately, but what's the "power" setting if not overvoltage?

amd-overdrive-power-control-settings

[Deleted]

im in a bad mood

your overclocking from windows program "afterburner" ???

It's the only way, you can't access GPU settings from within the BIOS...

Except if you mean precisionX (which is basically the same as afterburner, both are based on rivatuner.)

[WarJames]

It's the only way, you can't access GPU settings from within the BIOS...

Except if you mean precisionX (which is basically the same as afterburner, both are based on rivatuner.)

yeah i remember rivatuner, like speedfan cpuz and si soft sandra

[Milkshake86]

At, what point did you think +20% power is not a form or related to voltage? In general you raised the TDP, and allowed the card to bake itself.

---------- Post added 2012-06-25 at 12:27 PM ----------

yeah i remember rivatuner, like speedfan cpuz and si soft sandra

Wasnt aware speedfan and cpuz were used for GPU tuning.

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

The overpower feature means that instead of saying "eff this, I'm getting too hot and drawing too much power, I'm throttling/shutting down" the graphics card will continue to run. When using it you really need to watch your temperatures like a hawk. Put another way, it allows the card to draw extra power, so a card that is specced to take 250W would, with 20% over-power, take 300W before shutting down.

[Olgierd]

Well, I bit the bullet and decided to play with the Afterburner a bit (in for a penny, in for a pound and all that).

I *think* I achieved a stable 61.1 FPS in Heaven, with temps hitting briefly 81 at most with full load. Too much or am I still safe?

Will do another stress test with OCCP tonight...

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

Which clock speeds did you reach?

[Olgierd]

Which clock speeds did you reach?

Core 1025MHz, Memory 1350MHz, core voltage 1175.

I used the user-defined auto fan control to kick the fans up to 50% at 50 degrees, steadily increase RPM to 80% until 65 degrees is hit, and then go to 100% when 70 degrees is reached. Noisy...

EDIT: Also, I forgot to say how much I appreciate all the helpful and patient responses. I know this is all a very noobish affair on my part.

[Deleted]

Maybe you are working the system too hard? If its not even managing 60 fps then the card will be working flat out and cooking the inside of the pc, You have enough fans on the case to stop all teh hot air going straight thru the psu?.

Angry Birds killed my psu with its 1500 fps on a standard clocked HD 5850.. Since putting a new psu in and using v-sync the fans never even rise above idle speeds now and no tearing either. Get 60 fps constant in almost all games with 8xaa/16xaf @ 1080p..

Also the card shouldnt struggle with any games atm even with 8xAA so overclocking will only cause more probs than its worth, Especially if u only have a 60hz screen. No point redlining the card to do 50% load work.

[Olgierd]

Well... Theory vs. Practice yielded somewhat disappointing results.

After finding my "happy place" with the Heaven run, I decided to play Witcher 2, sans ubersampling. Needless to say it ran not just smooth, but super-smooth, which isn't much of a surprise; OCing to run Witcher 2 without ubersampling is like gilding a lily... but it was nice, regardless. The fans went to 100% after about 10-15 minutes of gameplay. After an hour-long session, I checked Afterburner's temp monitors and found that I hit 82 degrees at one point.

That was rather upsetting. So I guess I do need some kind of aftermarket cooling solution. But as far as I understand, better fans or liquid cooling means pulling apart the video card...

[Deleted]

Witcher2 is really rough on any GPU really. Also 82 degrees isn't crazy, still within safety limits.