GTX 260 overclock question

[Denithor]

Got my PNY GTX 260 ($168 on eBay after cashback) installed tonight. Loaded 178.24 drivers. Overclocked (rivatuner) to 675 core/1200 memory & fan to 75%.

Ran furmark: 1920x1200 8xAA min - 35 ave - 40 max - 54

After 6 minutes of furmark temp was up to 88C but there was no artifacting. How long do I need to run furmark to ensure OC is stable? If that temp continues to climb what is the safety point where I want to stop the benchmark?

Running F@H this card runs 70C so for general use I think it will be fine.

What kind of overclocks have you guys gotten with your GTX 260s?

 

[Triton67]

There was a huge temp differance, running my GTX260/Furmark @ 1680x1050 and 2xAA vs 4xAA: 2xAA showed much more fps and heated card much much more. LOL, few days ago I tested WALL-E demo..it heated my GTX260 more than Crysis/Warhead...(showed insane fps )

88C sounds too hot FOR ME, but I'd run Furmark atleast 30mins. And, I've stopped trusting arty tools, gaming 2hr+ w/o crashes is the best way to check stability. But 90-95C shouldn't be no problems, especially if you only get it in Furmark, and 80-85C gaming.

Also got fan at 75%, 60C is my common gaming temp, won't reach 63C.

756/1512/1215 are my stable 24/7 clocks, and raising any of the clocks will result in BSODs/crashes.

 

[Denithor]

Originally posted by: Triton67
756/1512/1215 are my stable 24/7 clocks, and raising any of the clocks will result in BSODs/crashes.

:shocked:

Holy crap...I had no idea these cards could go that high. When you say BSOD/crashes do you mean immediately after nudging up the core/mem or when you start a game with the clocks set higher?

Thanks for the answers!

Anyone else with experiences to share?

 

[Triton67]

1566MHz shader clock or 1242MHz mem clock won't work more than half minute in games etc. If I stress card for longer: game crash or BSOD. Not much warning signs (artifacts or 'driver stopped responding').

My tip for higher OC is unlinking shader/core clocks. If you get stable 1458MHz shader clock, max core clock would be half the shader clock, 729Mhz..otherwise in linked mode core would be <700MHz maybe.

 

[Denithor]

So I'm best off finding the max for the core and shaders separately. Unlink them, max core and then max shaders I suppose. I think I'll just leave my memory at 1200.

My card runs 70C while crunching away on the F@H GPU client.

I think I'll play with this some tonight, see how far I can push the core & shaders.

You suggest gaming for two hours to check for stability. How big of steps do you take in pushing up your speeds between testing cycles?

 

[Triton67]

You should find max shader clock first, above 1458MHz is great To rule out core and mem, set them 670 and 1150Mhz or so. If, say, 1512 shader WAS stable Crysis 2hr, set core 50% of shader clock and test again (mem still "low" 1150)...lastly, raise mem till you BSOD , then back some
Also important: you MUST set settings pretty high in games when testing, or the card will play just fine...later on, with high settings, it'll bsod. Crysis and CoD4 are great testers, 5 year old Ravenshield might not be, coz of lack of effects...

Shader clock increases ALWAYS with 54Mhz intervals, you need RivaTuner and view it's hardware monitor for *actual* clocks. I'm pretty sure most cards do 1458MHz shader clocks, next real increase is to 1512MHz, and after that 1566MHz. Unlinked, core clock always can be set to max 50% of (ACTUAL) shader clock.

Mem freq: It also increases in (odd) intervals..1188-1215-1224-1242MHz, again you need to monitor RivaTuner's hardware monitor for actual clocks. core clock increases about the same as mem, not always 27MHz (half of 54MHz), but smaller changes also...


when you set 1200MHz mem, it may end up 1188 or 1215MHz..you need to check out real clocks.

FORGET GPU-Z, it only shows "user selected clocks", not the actual ones

BTW...729/1458/1215 was previoulsly my max stable clocks, any higher was unstable...but I fiddled in mobo BIOS and found stability for 756/1512/1215: PCI-e = 102MHz and PCI-e volts +0,1v....

 

[brencat]

Excellent work Triton. I too had no idea you could clock these > 700mhz core. This card may be on my Xmas list, hehe. Great information.

Btw, what version of Rivatuner are you using?

 

[FalseChristian]

I believe the latest version of RivaTuner is 2.11.

 

[masteryoda34]

I've got my vanilla EVGA GTX 260 at 729/1458/1224 stable with the stock cooler. Doesn't go over 80C on load.