Overclocking the 7900GS: Results?

[mozirry]

Hello,

I recently aquired a 7900GS for Christmas after receiving a 22' Acer Widescreen monitor. Basically, the 6600GT i used to have couldn't cut the native resoultion so I needed some more power to play at medium graphic levels.

It's a stock 7900GS from XFX, with core/memory speed of 450/660 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814150209

At idle stock it runs 49 Deg C and under full load it runs about 64-69C, with a 3dmark 2005 score of 7307

I ran NTune and did the Find Optimal clock speed and it passed with 556/776 clock speeds.
Ran 3dmark2005 demo and received a score of 8512.
At OC speeds, it idled at 49 Deg C and under full load (few hours of oblivion) about 65-69C.


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I can't believe this! I'm sure I can push it farther, and I'm already seeing noticeable framerate increases in Oblivion. All with that stupid Stock cooler on it!


My question is, if I'm already getting these outstanding results with these low temperatures, is there even any need to updgrade to a new cooler? Also, if the temperatures are not that high even under Oblivion loads, won't the life of my video card deteriorate at about the same speed as it would under stock speeds?

Also, what OC results are any of you having?

 

[TheRyuu]

The find optimal clock speed is overrated IMO.

And I hate ntune. Rivatuner 1000x better.

Give it a try.

I always liked Rivatuner for overclocking. That or coolbits. But never ntune.

The only way your gonna find out what the max overclock is, is by trial and error. Keep increase the core speed by 5-10mhz at a time then run ATI Tool artifact checker (yes it works on a nvidia card). Run it for, 5 minutes? Maybe 10 to be sure?

After finding the max core, do the same for memory. A high core speed will probably help better but still. When testing for the max core keep the memory at stock and when testing for max memory keep the core at stock speeds. Just to get it out of the equation.

And the temps seem fine to me.

Edit:
Oh, forgot something.
Check out nHancer too. It's a great program for changing the video settings. (AA/AF, etc..)

 

[mozirry]

Cool,

Thanks

 

[SlowSpyder]

I also run a oc'd 7900GS with a 22" Acer. I got a Zalman cooler for mine and run at 570/1370. The video memory on my card refuses to go higher, but I've heard that a lot of 7900GS'es actually have 1400mhz memory that is just downclocked.