7950 Overclocking

[torlen11cc]

Hi there!
I would like to know what kind of max frequencies shall I designate to my 7950 while doing an Overclock. I don't want to burden my Seasonic 430W's power supply. It's really important for me that the'll be a hiatus between the energy consumption and the power's output AND in the same time attain the best performance from the Overclock.
My CPU is i5 2500.
Thanks.

 

[KaRLiToS]

Don't expect huge overclocks with a 430w PSU.

I say max 975mhz - 1050mhz on the core and maybe 1350 memory ???

I would just try to OC and run benchmarks by increasing the overclock by 10mhz increment between every tests...

 

[Sohaltang]

CPU overclocked? Might want to measure power consumption with a killawatt before you start over clocking the 7950.

 

[monkeydelmagico]

Use afterburner utility to set gpu speed. Leave the power sliders alone. You should be able to get 1050 or so on stock voltages. As Karlitos suggested, just do 10mhz at a time then test with a quick valley run or firestrike

 

[Greenlepricon]

My system is running at around 275 or so most of the time at 1050 core and 1400 some on the memory. This is with a platinum psu though, so if yours is not 80+ rated, or even bronze, then you should expect power draw to be a bit higher. The best trick imo really is keeping voltages in check. Mine is running at just over 1V, but as soon as I increase that I can raise the power requirements at the same clocks dramatically. As suggested, buy a kill-a-watt if you can and see what happens. My guess is you should be able to get up to ~1100 if you have efficient parts and only a slight cpu overclock, with mild to no overvolting on either.

 

[Leyawiin]

I feel like I got cheated by the silicon lottery sometimes when I see the results of others. My IceQ HD 7950 isn't stable beyond 940 Mhz on stock voltage. Well, OCCT says its stable, but certain games don't. I just leave it on 925/1400 since I don't want to increase the voltage.

 

[jacktesterson]

I feel like I got cheated by the silicon lottery sometimes when I see the results of others. My IceQ HD 7950 isn't stable beyond 940 Mhz on stock voltage. Well, OCCT says its stable, but certain games don't. I just leave it on 925/1400 since I don't want to increase the voltage.

I had a IceQ 7870 at one point that sucked badly at O/Cing compared to other 7870's as well. Like really bad.

 

[monkeydelmagico]

I just leave it on 925/1400 since I don't want to increase the voltage.

Well there's your problem..... the best cheaters use lots of tricks.

 

[Sohaltang]

Well there's your problem..... the best cheaters use lots of tricks.

Right on. He is likely comparing with GHZ editions that came with a stock voltage bump. Obviously those will hit 1100 pretty easy @ 10%OC without tweaks. Running at 925 is about 10% from the stock 850. About what you can expect without more power. These cards are pretty are pretty robust and even if you fry it they are 120$ on ebay. Hit it with some voltage and bump it up to 1100+ for a nice increase if your PSU can handle it. If you are brave flash the BIOS and see how high you can push it. There is so much thermal regulation on modern cards that you almost never hurt one. I do a ton of GPU benchmarks and at least half of them result in a crash. Reboot and try again.

 

[jacktesterson]

Meow

 

[Leyawiin]

Mine is the original non-boost 800/1250 model (think its 1.09v).

 

[monkeydelmagico]

Mine is the original non-boost 800/1250 model (think its 1.09v).

Yeah, my MSI 7950 boost runs at .95v when idleing at 300 mhz and 1.21v @ 1000. It takes 1.35v to reach 1200. When I get home I'll dial the voltage back to 1.1v and see what kind of max clock it will run at. I'm guessing it will be fairly close to the 900ish numbers you are getting.

Bottom line is if your 7950 can cool well extra voltage and clocks are fairly easy to obtain. The OP with a 430w PSU shouldn't go over 1.25v with his 7950 OC though.

 

[Face2Face]

My 7950's were wattage sucking monsters... I guess a combination of High ASIC and being on a 7970 reference PCB.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2341040

 

[Greenlepricon]

My 7950's were wattage sucking monsters... I guess a combination of High ASIC and being on a 7970 reference PCB.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2341040

Holy cow those are getting close to my system wattage each. My 7950 is also on a 7970 PCB (MSI twin frozrIII), but it's relatively good on power usage. Granted you had your clocks and voltages much higher, but still impressive

 

[monkeydelmagico]

Mine is the original non-boost 800/1250 model (think its 1.09v).

FWIW my MSI 7950 boost requires 1.175v to do 940ghz. If yours will do it on 1.09v then you have a better chip than mine.

 

[schmuckley]

I run 1020/1500 daily
torlen11cc ..You need a bigger PSU if you want to run a videocard.
I use Trixx when i'm overclocking it.
You may have to try a few different versions before it works right.
This card's not bad..1184/17-something max-ish stable on water.
1.27v because adding voltage doesn't help.

 

[Zorander]

I run my Gigabyte 7950 at 1100/1500 (1125mV core voltage) using MSI AB.

It could probably run faster but I'm content with the performance (and fan noise) gain.

Edit: I use a 620W PSU. Using a 430W might be pushing things though.