Can't overclocking the Radeon 4770 much - help needed

[scsi stud]

I am having difficulty getting my 4770 to overclock at all without crashing. I've used both the Catalyst Control Center and Rivatuner as well.

My main issue is that when I use the CCC to overclock the card to the max (830Mhz GPU clock and 850Mhz memory clock), I run Trine in 1920x1200 and it locks up after about 2 minutes. The fan speed is on the default setting, I haven't touch that setting.

Just to confirm, I ran FurMark, and it runs fine when I set my card to 790Mhz w/850Mhz Memory clock, but when I bump that up to 830Mhz, it locks up my system.

*EDIT* I also just tested with the fan speed, set it to 100%, and o/c'd to 830Mhz, and FurMark locked up again.

From what I've seen and heard, the 4770 should easily work on 830Mhz GPU/850Mhz Memory. What am I doing wrong?

My specs:

AMD Phenom II X3 720 o/c'd to 3.4 Ghz
6GB OCZ DDR3 RAM
Gigabyte Socket AM3 Mobo
Sapphire Radeon 4770 card
Windows 7 64-bit

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[OCGuy]

Overclocking is never a guarantee. Each card is different.

 

[scsi stud]

Thanks for the reply. Is this true though? Is anyone else experiencing the same underachieving overclock as I am?

 

[Nathelion]

Most likely, you just happened to get a bummer of a card. OC is all about luck of the draw.

 

[scsi stud]

I see. Now, I've unlocked the 4th core on my Phenom II X3 720 and have overclocked it to 3.4 Ghz, would that have any effect on the o/c performance of the 4770?

 

[Schmide]

Doubt it.

Are you even watching your temps? Overclocking is more than I set it high and it goes.

 

[scsi stud]

Well, as far as CPU temps are concerned, because I unlocked the 4th core, AMD Overdrive doesn't display the temps properly. How else could I measure the CPU temp?

For the Radeon 4770, when I overclocked it, the highest it goes is around 72 degrees on 100% load (running FurMark).

 

[yh125d]

Download gpu-z and run it while doing the furmark test. check out the VDDC and memory temps. If your GPU core is getting to 72c I'd bet the memory and/or VRMs are much hotter, since I don't think any reference 4770s come with cooling on either

 

[scsi stud]

As I type this, I am running FurMark and GPU-Z. The readings are:

GPU Core Clock: 795 Mhz
GPU Memory Clock: 850 Mhz
GPU Temperature: 69 deg. C
Fan Speed: 38%
GPU Load: 99%
Fan Speed: 1 RPM
GPU Temp (DISPIO): 69 deg. C
GPU Temp (MEMIO): 78 deg. C
GPU Temp (SHADERCORE): 77 deg. C

Are these out of the ordinary?

Many thanks for the continued help.

 

[mindless1]

When in doubt, always overclock only one thing at a time. Put the CPU back at stock speed, then see if video card o'c is effected. Probably not, as others wrote every card is a little bit different but that's easy enough to check in case a high load on your PSU is making the output a bit dirty.

Some of the difference can come from the fact that they use low tolerance resistors to set the GPU and memory voltage on several models (not sure about 4770 in particular), so some cards end up with slightly higher or lower than average voltage.

Some don't have the thermal compound or TIM on quite evenly either, a GPU can read a certain temp right at the thermal sensor on the chip but another portion of the chip can be hotter or cooler.

The real question is, why are you sweating over 40MHz GPU difference? You will never notice that except in select few benchmarks. Even if it were the only system bottleneck possible which it isn't, that's only 5%.

 

[scsi stud]

I'm not really sweating over it, its just that I've always had good success overclocking stuff that were supposed to overclock well (back to the Celeron 300A o/c'd to 450Mhz days).. but it's no big deal.

 

[SkYScRaPeR FaN]

Hey I have sapphire 4770 too,

The memory is DDR5 which is rated normally to run @ 1 GHz, so push it & dont worry, & you will find very nice boost in performance,

About the GPU core clock, I think it needs a bit more voltage,

Mine I have it running @ 900 MHz with no lock-ups, But I have flashed it with Asus top bios of 4770, by ATIFLASH program in dos mode, & I installed Smart Doctor tool in order to increase the voltage of the GPU via the software instead of 0.9 default Volt,

mine now is operating @ 1.02 Volt , & temps is ranging from 64 - 68 @ heavy LOAD

After the overclocking From 750/800 To 900/1100 , My GPU score increased in 3Dmark Vantage
from GPU score oF 6000 pts To GPU 8300 pts which is in par with 4870, HEHE ...

May GOD helps You,
Ameen
;-)

 

[OCCHAMP]

I have the Sapphire 4770 running at:

Core: 900MHz
Memory : 1035MHz

Awesome boost in performance, and on stock voltage.

Max temp under heavy load is 72 degrees.

It sounds like you received a dud my friend. Unfortunate really because this card has the potential to be amazing. Even without a third party cooler.

As stated before, the memory is rated at 1000MHz so you can bring that up without any issue or worry. (on nearly all cards I believe)

As for the core you should be able to have it running at 880MHz+- without any voltage changes.