Sapphire 7970 Dual-X Overclocking

[Godlik3]

Hello! I got my 7970 a few days ago and I have been using the Trixx program from Sapphire to look at how hot the GPU gets compared to the fan speed. It gets around 75 degrees on Far Cry 3 at 1600x900 and high/very high settings. Anyways, I noticed in the program there is a tab where I can use the sliders to overclock and I was wondering whats the best stable setting for my GPU? I dont have any other cooling besides the fans that come with it, and they seem pretty decent. Also, would overclocking increase the heat alot? I dont know if 75 degrees is very hot, and also after a few tests thats the hottest it got out of all my games. Leave your ideas and suggestions below, thanks

 

[Nec_V20]

The first thing is to leave the 7970 in your system for a few days at normal clock speed, then just gradually overclock.

 

[tolis626]

Hello! I got my 7970 a few days ago and I have been using the Trixx program from Sapphire to look at how hot the GPU gets compared to the fan speed. It gets around 75 degrees on Far Cry 3 at 1600x900 and high/very high settings. Anyways, I noticed in the program there is a tab where I can use the sliders to overclock and I was wondering whats the best stable setting for my GPU? I dont have any other cooling besides the fans that come with it, and they seem pretty decent. Also, would overclocking increase the heat alot? I dont know if 75 degrees is very hot, and also after a few tests thats the hottest it got out of all my games. Leave your ideas and suggestions below, thanks

75C under load is quite normal for a GPU,especially a big one.Don't worry about that.I think,however,that Sapphire's cooler can do better.Are you sure the air flow in your PC's case is good enough?If not,it might be trying to cool the GPU with warm/hot air,which isn't good.75C isn't trouble,but you have to be careful about cooling when overclocking.

That said,you can overclock a 7970 more than enough.Question is,is gaming at 1600x900 worth the extra heat and power consumption?If yes,then do it.It's entirely subjective and I wouldn't listen to anyone if I really wanted to do it.

You can be sure that more heat will be produced from an overclocked GPU,so you'll have higher temperatures.Power consumption (and heat produced) increase linearly with clock and exponentially with voltage.So overclock as much as you can without overvolting and you probably won't have to worry about a thing.If you're sure your PSU can handle it,overvolt it a bit,but constantly keep an eye on temperatures.I think you'll be able to hit 1.2GHz easily.Also,don't forget to overclock the memory accordingly,or all that extra core MHz will go to waste.Do too much,though,and you'll end up with a card that performs worse than what you had at stock due to throttling or memory error correcting,while consuming more power and getting hotter.

All this considered...Good luck!

 

[Godlik3]

I mean, this is my first high-end GPU and I haven't overclocked before, can anyone point me to a beginners guide and/or explain in your own words? thanks

 

[gradoman]

http://lifehacker.com/how-to-overclock-your-video-card-and-boost-your-gaming-30799346

 

[Godlik3]

Okay, I was trying it out, and at about 1050 MHz I start seeing blue glitches in Heaven and then I get alot of artifacts in web browsers, etc. I put up the VDDC a bit but yet it still glitches. When I lower back to stock it stays glitchy until I restart and its back to normal then.

 

[raghu78]

Okay, I was trying it out, and at about 1050 MHz I start seeing blue glitches in Heaven and then I get alot of artifacts in web browsers, etc. I put up the VDDC a bit but yet it still glitches. When I lower back to stock it stays glitchy until I restart and its back to normal then.

if you are seeing artifacts or glitches it means you need to increase voltage. also try and keep core temps below 70c and VRM temps below 90c for best results with overclocking. set a fan speed or profile to achieve that.

 

[Godlik3]

How much do I need to increase? and do you know the safe voltage for the 7970? and finally how do I monitor VRM temps? I get like 70c now.