MSI R7770 PMD1GD5 OC'ing

[p_monks33]

I bought the MSI R7770 for use in my M-itx system and paired it with an I3 2125 and 8gb of DDR3 1600mhz ram. I am very pleased with it so far, but when I went to look into putting a slight overclock on it I quickly became discouraged by the fact that the voltage is locked out. I wouldn't care so much but it says right on the box "Msi GPU Overvoltage, Better OC Capacity"

Any ideas to unlock the voltage on this card? I did the Afterburner EULA and tried Asus GPU Tweak, and Sapphire Trixx. None of them allow any voltage control whatsoever.

 

[zaydq]

Haven't heard of it being unlocked on the 7770. I don't think it has a controller that is software accessible. I highly doubt you can do it through the motherboard either. I think that MSI's over voltage marketing is misleading. Not all MSI cards will over volt, and, in your case, you're simply locked out. MSI's meaning behind the over voltage is that they use quality components that won't fail when you over volt the card, not "You can overvolt the shit out of this no problem".

Hope this helps.

 

[p_monks33]

Im still happy with the card. It does 1125 core and 1225 memory on stock volts and runs 90% of the games I play at 1080p with some eyecandy above 40 FPS. Just seems that they would take the overvoltage comments off the box if the card is locked out. I have heard of some 7770's being able to adjust voltages I think. Maybe im wrong. This card doesn't break 60c in a small case, so I would think with voltage adjustment that you could hit 1250-1300 core and maybe 1400 memory making this a potent card at the 100 dollar price point.

 

[zaydq]

I haven't familiarized myself with the HD 7770 enough to know. I recall a similar question asked about a month ago regarded the HD 7770(or 7750) and it's inability to adjust voltages. It could be possible that some AIBs changed the design to incorporate voltage unlocking.

 

[p_monks33]

I dunno if the card is locked physically or if it is a bios feature. I read about one guy changing the bios trying to unlock voltage and it bricked his card, so I won't be trying that anytime soon.

 

[zaydq]

I wouldn't attempt anything with the bios. Upping the voltage on the pci-e slot also ups the voltage on many other things. You could brick the mobo among other things.

 

[3DVagabond]

For voltage control the card uses the ST L6788A chip, which is the same as on many HD 5770 models. While it does offer software voltage control it severely lacks in the overclockers department. For example, it is not possible for software to read the current voltage, unless the chip is running on manual voltage mode (which is not the case when the card is at stock, with stock drivers).

According to TechPowerUp the card does offer voltage control but the chip doesn't have software monitoring. Flying blind a bit, but you might just try setting the voltage higher and see if the O/C'ing improves.

 

[p_monks33]

I can't even move a voltage slider anywhere. I don't know how I could adjust it other than bios.

 

[jacktesterson]

MSI sells 3 7770's

You needed one of the other 2 to get voltage control as far as I'm aware.

I can confirm with you I've overclocked this model with voltage control:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814127664

 

[p_monks33]

Thanks for that info Adam. That sucks the card I got is as long as I could fit into my case with the h60 mounted. I can go with a msi 7850 Tf3 I guess. Its only a tenth of an inch longer than the 7770 I have. Theother 7770s are about 9 inches according to newegg.

 

[jacktesterson]

Thanks for that info Adam. That sucks the card I got is as long as I could fit into my case with the h60 mounted. I can go with a msi 7850 Tf3 I guess. Its only a tenth of an inch longer than the 7770 I have. Theother 7770s are about 9 inches according to newegg.

The GTX 650 Ti are super short and are about 15% faster than 7770's stock.

Another option. Use even less power too. Generally priced a little higher though, and most do not overclock as well as 7770's.

 

[frozentundra123456]

The GTX 650 Ti are super short and are about 15% faster than 7770's stock.

Another option. Use even less power too. Generally priced a little higher though, and most do not overclock as well as 7770's.

True, but they are way overpriced now, although some do come with a game I believe. I just got a HD7770 for 89.99 after rebate. I actually bought the HD7770 just before the 650 Ti was released. If the 650 Ti were in the 100.00 range it would be a great deal, but now it is too close to the HD7850 in price IMO. I am impressed with the low power usage of the 650 and 660 cards though, they may be even better performance/watt than the AMD 7x series.

 

[Kodongo]

The reason for this is because MSi removed a .dll file from versions 2.2.2 onwards.

This .dll file was supposed to be distributed by AMD in its Catalyst drivers but there was a period where a combination of certain Afterburner software and certain Catalyst software would result in rejected overclocks/overvolts.

The resolution is to download MSi Afterburner 2.2.1, install it and store the following file:

atipdlxx.dll

It's probably best to keep a copy of it somewhere out of the 'Program Files' in case a future update deletes it.

Now you can just download and install the latest version of Afterburner and drop the above .dll into the install folder. A restart will be neccesary.

I managed to get my MSi 7850 Power Edition to 1100MHz on the core and 5500MHz memory clock at stock voltage (1075mV) using Afterburner. My voltage slider goes all the way upto 1300mV now.

Good luck!

 

[p_monks33]

I will give it a shot. I'm still at work and will report back with results. A 1250-1300mhz 7770 would be somewhere between a 6850-6870. Mine at 1150/1475 is faster than my stock clocked GTX 560.
.

 

[p_monks33]

Didn't work for me. I know that used to work in 2.2.2 when I couldn't oc my 7970's though.

 

[blastingcap]

I am now facing the same problem as OP... does anyone know of a workaround for this?

 

[p_monks33]

No workaround that I know of. I was given a diffent 7770 bios by msi and it didn't work either

 

[blastingcap]

Ok thanks.

 

[PhoenixSS]

MSI sells 3 7770's

You needed one of the other 2 to get voltage control as far as I'm aware.

I can confirm with you I've overclocked this model with voltage control:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814127664

That is the same model I have. So far I've successfully oc'd the core clock and core memory to 1100/1200 respectively without changing the voltage.

I used Afterburner to get those calculations and ran Kombuster full tilt just fine for about 10 minutes with a temp not exceeding 60c.

If you recall, what were you able to get it to perform too?

 

[PhoenixSS]

Hmm... well no response. I guess if anyone has oc'ed this card and likes where they are at, I'd be pleased to know what your performance stats are.

 

[blastingcap]

I actually wanted to undervolt so I have no idea what this card can oc to... not interested in that.

MSI emailed me back and told me the same thing--no voltage control. Ugh.

 

[p_monks33]

That's funny they said no voltage lol, they told me you could and sent me that bios. I then told them it didn't work, and never received any response. I gave up and called it good at the stock clocks. I overranthe vram so I sold it and bought a MSI 7850 which low and behold was a pain to unlock voltage. Msi really shouldn't market the voltage thing on the cards they sell that you can't adjust with afterburner.

 

[p_monks33]

Phoenix, I managed 1125 core/ 1400 memory on stock volts. 4210 Graphics score 3dmark11 Performance setting.

 

[PhoenixSS]

Phoenix, I managed 1125 core/ 1400 memory on stock volts. 4210 Graphics score 3dmark11 Performance setting.

Thanks! Stock for this version of the card is 1020/1125. Afterburner doesn't seem to allow a higher overclock setting than 1200/1250. I had it running at 1103/1203 for a while but in Mechwarrior Online, (a game I frequently play), I began to have moments of freezing and crashing, so had to revert back to stock.

I also have an old, old CPU which I'm sure doesn't help much, (Dual Core E2220 @2.4Ghz.)

 

[Rvenger]

Phoenix, I managed 1125 core/ 1400 memory on stock volts. 4210 Graphics score 3dmark11 Performance setting.

I just bought the same one. What is your ASIC score?