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Can't OC even 1mhz?

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striker85

Member
Joined
Mar 7, 2006
Location
Connecticut
I have my new computer in my sig and am trying to OC it a little. The processor is amazing and has a stable 4th core that so far, has gotten up to 3.4Ghz.

However, the GPU is a little different. For the money I spent on it I am very impressed. It is reasonably quiet and ran BF3 no problem (not on ultra, but at an acceptable level to me). So I try messing around with overdrive to see if I can get a few extra mhz out of it. It doesn't matter if I do it manually, use auto-tune and I even tried MSI afterburner...no go. The isntant I apply even the smallest increment of OC the driver crashes and has to recover.

Is it due to the fact that the card gets its power from the PCI bus and has no external connector? What steps can I take to maybe get it to OC just a bit?
 
I wouldn't think its a power issue - a single mhz isn't enough to impact power draw. I haven't ever used overdrive for GPU overclocking, but I usually use Afterburner without issue.

Have you updated to the latest driver and tried again? I would change drivers, even if its an older driver, and see what results you get.
 
I'm running catalyst 11.10, the beta driver. But I tried, and got the same results, with 11.9 as well.
 
I have no direct answer, just an experience in the past... I could not overclock one bit with my X1950Pro (AGP). There was something with the board/VRM's that wouldnt allow a clockspeed change.

I also doubt its a power issue directly, but maybe because its only attached to the PCIe slot (75W max) that it wont ALLOW overclocking?
 
Thanks for the info striker.

I also doubt its a power issue directly, but maybe because its only attached to the PCIe slot (75W max) that it wont ALLOW overclocking?

I've got an old crappy voltmodded gpu from bobnova that only connects to PCIe, and it allows overclocking - nothing saying you need external power to OC a GPU. Just another personal reference FWIW.

Not sure on the technical specifics, but I have a feeling you are on the right track with your comments about it possibly being something specific to the make/model of the card not allowing frequency changes.

What happens if you try to downclock it?
 
Just tried to downlock and get the same results. It does appear as it there is some sort of control on manipulating clock speeds. That's kinda disappointing. I suppose I'm just stuck with that, huh?
 
That is the same experience I had with the X1950Pro AGP, which as a note, was not PCIe/AGP only powered). I couldnt go either way with it.

Unless someone else can come in and shed some light on this, you may be stuck...for now.
 
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Does MSI Afterburner allow you to alter the cards voltages? The card could be bios 'locked' to a certain speed, to fulfill a price point. Differentiate between standard and OC models for instance.
 
I tried to unlock the voltage control in MSI afterburner with a no go. Seems the card can't do software voltage control.
 
If its a bios issue, it sounds like you need to determine if the card is reference design or not, and if it is a reference design you may be able to flash a different bios to the card to open things up. Otherwise, you may be SOL.
 


Ok, interesting development. I went back to 11.9 catalyst just for the hell of it and try overclocking again. This time, however, I look to see if the clocks actually hold. So this is what I get.

Right now, after having a driver crash/recover, the card is running my favorite stress program at 850/1025, and that's just to start.

Should I be worried about the driver crash? To me, it seems that the driver is just buggy when moving clock speeds because according to MSI Afterburner, the clocks took and the card is running at the requested speeds without problems. Hmmmmm
 
They work to the extent that the clocks stick. But I still get a driver crash every time I tweak them. Should that be a concern? Not sure what else I can do. It seems to be a purely driver related issue.
 
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