What do I have to do to Furmark to use full OC clock speed?

BonzaiDuck

Lifer
Jun 30, 2004
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So I've been following the flap about the "4GB fiasco" per my recently-acquired GTX 970 (MSI). I've determined that I don't much care, and I explained why in my post contributions to one or more threads here.

Never been "much" of a gfx over-clocker; dabbled with it for my old GTS 8800. Now I'm playing with Afterburner, and I see how "easy" it can be. Further impressed somewhat with the MSI "Gaming App."

So far, I've run up my effective core clock to 1500 Mhz, Memory to 8000 MHz. I see this in the Afterburner monitoring window with a game. But the game is not the "stress-test." Furmark only pushes the clock speed to 1350 as shown in AB-monitor.

What is it that I have to do with Furmark to change this? Or can I? If not, is there a better stress-test option for the graphics card (which is free without any limitations versus some pay-for "Pro" version)?
 

96Firebird

Diamond Member
Nov 8, 2010
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You can't, Furmark will always throttle down. It isn't the best way to test an overclock either.

Usually I stick to actual gaming to test out an overclock. I have some of the big-name games that can really stress a card (Crysis 3, FC3/4, etc...) and usually give them a run-through to see how the card acts and look for artifacts and such. You can also try Heaven Benchmark, that can stress the card as well.
 

garagisti

Senior member
Aug 7, 2007
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Why do you care for what is but a thinly disguised thermal virus?
edit: I think i read elsewhere that Nvidia software automatically detects such programs, and on newer cards, the load doesn't just do tmax, as it did on Fermi etc. If you just want to stress test, then i can't think you'd benefit much with this.

You want to test your graphics then as recommended, Crysis 3 (or some other half-decent newer games) with everything maxed will make it beg for mercy alright.
 

BonzaiDuck

Lifer
Jun 30, 2004
16,632
2,027
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Thanks for all the advice.

Haven't installed Crysis yet; I have a license for FC4 which I'm going to install soon -- a complimentary "Egg" gift. Currently, on this particular machine with the GTX 970, only GRID2 is installed.

I discovered Kombustor (bundled with MSI AfterBurner and "Gaming App"). That seems to "do the job for now." But I"ll heed remarks about limp vs extreme tests.

The GTX 970 will clock to 1,500 and 8000-memory without voltage bumps or even unlocking the voltage. At that point, the limitation of 110% for power consumption caps it. Sooner or later, somebody will hack the 110% limit. For now, this is as good as it gets.

All around -- despite the gurrr-eat 4GB "cheated-of-500MB" scandal -- it's a great card. knock-down, stand-up great card for the money.

UPDATE: EVEN KOMBUSTER clocks it down a tad from the right setting. But HEAVEN BENCHMARK got it right.
 
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