HD5970 Overclocking Help

[TheUnk]

So I've been tinkering with overclocking this guy.. I'm using MSI Afterburner, GPU-Z, and FurMark. I'm doing the auto user-defined mode for the fan. GPU tops out at 85c currently.

So far my best OC before the VRMs get too hot and the card throttles down is 1.112v, 835/1200

Any more on the core and my VRMs will hit 120c after a few minutes of FurMark. I can actually get my core higher if I leave my ram down at 1100 or so. Which is more important?

When I game though (BFBC2 mostly) my VRMs never even seem to hit 100c, they usually max at 80c. So my question is - is it ok to go higher? Perhaps if I let them cool off and only run FurMark for a couple mins to watch for artifacts and VRM temps? I've been doing 5min tests previously and not really letting the card cool between runs. Are there any good alternatives to FurMark?

Are any games out there really going to push it as hard on the VRMs temps like FurMark does? I was hoping to at least run this at 5870 stock speeds.

 

[Kenmitch]

Any more on the core and my VRMs will hit 120c after a few minutes of FurMark. I can actually get my core higher if I leave my ram down at 1100 or so. Which is more important?

Core speed gives the biggest boost to the card....But once the core is clocked so high then it will be starved by the memory. Every FPS helps and sometimes you just gotta boost the memory to get them

Furmark is tough on video cards as far as temps go. I'm not aware of any game that would even come close as far as the temps go.

With temps like that I don't think I'd be playing Furmark at all. Why not just pretend you did and bump your clocks to the 5870 stock speeds your after then just game away. Keep an eye on your temps tho. If you notice no artifacts or get no crashes just call it stable.

Now on the other hand if you had water you could play Furmark

Highest temps I've seen with my card have been during Furmark. Well only time I've even looked at the temps have been during Furmark. Kinda figure if I can live with the temps during Furmark then I don't have to worry about them at all.