Playing with my 'ol GTX 470s Overclocking results

Well. My ancient system needed a boost. So I;m looking for reasonable overclocks on my SLI (under water) EVGA 470s.

Here is where I'm at now, using latest Fur and Vally benchmark. Temps are fine, not a worry.

I'm using the latest EVGA Precision software, seems to be working fine.

GPU at 740 Mhz
Mem at 1700
Voltage at 1.087.

Got a GPU-Z uploaded. Folks talk about shader clocks but I don't have that adjustment. Is that mem adjustment?

Anyhoo, my latest Valley mark.

FPS:41.4
Score:1731
Min FPS:18.9
Max FPS:72.7


The min FPS seemed to drop once I raisied Mem a few ties ago, but max FPS keeps climbing. Not much min FPS drop though.

Anyhoo, no worries, gonna get back to work with it.

I was able to get every one of my 4XX series cards to do 875Mhz or better core speed under water. Im sure you have quite a bit left in the tank there that you haven't tapped into yet.

My min FPS keeps dropping but getting great gains on the max FPS. Mem needs more or is it my low total mem on these GPUS?

My orginal scores at stock SLI 470's


Unigine Valley Benchmark 1.0
GPU 607
Voltage Stock
1674 Mem

FPS:35.5
Score:1486
Min FPS:9.8
Max FPS:62.7

Platform:Windows 7 (build 7601, Service Pack 1) 64bit
CPU model:Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 965 @ 3.20GHz (3192MHz) x4
GPU model:NVIDIA GeForce GTX 470 9.18.13.697 (1279MB) x2

Settings

Render 3D11
Mode:1920x1080 8xAA fullscreen
PresetExtreme HD

Final Scores and settings.

GPU 870
Voltage max using EVGA Precision. 1087 Mv It's good enuff for me.
1725 Mem

FPS:46.6
Score:1950
Min FPS:24.0
Max FPS:84.7


I had a drop off in Min FPS in my mid overclocking efforts, but think that was a HD write or something, it seemed to not be an issue every time. I go much higher I have got the 'sparkle' effect, I hear that is bad.

Anyhoo, my CPU is stock. Running the latest Furmark burn in benchmark, my 1500 VA UPS was down to 1 min run time. And on the last run it shut down, LOL. Not a worry under normal use. I do have a 1000 PSU, good brand. Not 90% though.

Comments? Input? I'm not looking for massive, but the PC is getting old and I need to bump the numbers. CPU is next.

Looks good to me. You could get more out of them with a BIOS mod easily enough. I cant see not running at least 1.15V which is the stock soft limit on some cards.

You could OC the CPU but I doubt its going to make a lot of difference in most modern games or benchmarks as they are notably GPU limited more than anything.

Wow, your so fast! Thanks ssjwizard. So I got a decent OC outta these old beasts then. I can live with that. I'll bump the CPU a bit if I need to.

Gonna get Bio Infinite. makin sure I can do the graphics well enuff. This ol system is long in the legs. Got my 3570K/670 air cooled rig in the wings waiting for some work.

Ya I know the feeling. I went from 460SLI up to the 670. It was definitely a worthwhile upgrade. Id love to get my hands on a second 670 but I cant see the need for it at this point anyways.

I Imagine with 1.15V or 1.2V you should be able to hit 900Mhz if your looking for even more. I could help you with the mod if you need.

870 is pretty solid I guess, I'll live with that till I move to another rig. I'll do more later possibly.

Max clocks depend from temps. At ~1.2V+, GTX470 can already overheat and won't be stable at higher clocks. I was able to make ~900MHz on air and ~950MHz on freezed water using the same voltage on my old card. Also without soldering you will hit OVP/OCP what depends from card but usually it's at about 1.2V+.

Here is my short guide to BIOS mod and OCP.

About memory clock, it depends from used memory. On my card were better chips and it was overclocking 100-150MHz higher than most standard cards but usually it's about 1850-2050MHz without any mods.

Thanks for the input. Looks like my clocks ain't bad so I'll leave them be for now.