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PowerColor Devil RX480 overclocking

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Nebulous

Dreadnought Class Senior
Joined
Oct 11, 2002
Location
The Empire State
How the hell do you overclock these cards? MSI Afterburner doesn't work and the Global Wattman in the crimson panel is confusing as heck. The days of simple gpu/mem/voltage overclocking are long gone now :-/

Can anybody help a n00b out? :rofl: I have no clue how to play with the wattman.
 
I have a similar problem on my card, sapphire trixx worked for me.

Hmm, cool I'll give Trixx a try, thx!

Here ya go....Trixx.

Good looking out Luta! :thup:

*Update*

Installed Trixx and managed to get 1370 on the core and 2100 on the mem with default voltage. I got 1375 with 10mv added and I was greeted with a video crash/black screenie :-/ I'll keep trying to see if I can get at least 1400, but not too many 480's can reach that.
 
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Nahh, powercolor doesn't have any type of ocing utility. AMD's software (Crimson's Global Wattman) is just a pain. I spent over 2 hours trying to figure it out to no avail. Hell even just trying to make the fans ramp-up was a nogo :rolleyes:

Soons I got Trixx installed, it was a cake walk ;)
 
I was wondering how to do the same with mine, the MSI software seemed to go nowhere and I thought it was a user error. Going to give the Trixx a shot and see what I can get out of 'em.
 
Maybe its a powercolor thing? lol

Glad it worked. I find it helluva lot easier than msi afterburner as well. Should be more recommended imo.
 
Welcome back bob. :)

I like trixx too, however I prefer msi ab's aesthetic and am more used to its interface and flexibility.
 
I miss MSI's AB. I got so used to it, but when I tried it on the 480, it didn't read anything and the adjustments didn't do squat.
 
Trixx is causing a lot of problems on my card but I have HIS. Usually HIS soft works great but they didn't release it yet. AMD panel has the same max values as any soft and it's actually limiting max OC.
On my card AB runs great but only the latest beta as official version has problems with drivers.

Now is one thing you have to realize. These cards are 225W TDP. PCIe slot + power connector = 225W max. Problem is with max power delivery while overclocking. When you load the card to the max then it's already passing 200W. When you raise power limit then it will OC slightly better but when you raise voltage then there is a chance it will throttle or lose stability.
Max on my card without arifacts and stability issues was ~1400MHz on core and 2250MHz on memory. Memory clock is limited by AMD driver as it could easily make 2500MHz or maybe more. At least similar chips on Nvidia cards can make it.
 
I miss MSI's AB. I got so used to it, but when I tried it on the 480, it didn't read anything and the adjustments didn't do squat.

Afterburner had (has?) an unofficial OC disclaimer that can be edited into the cfg. file with Notepad. I had to do that to get full control of the voltage on my previous AMD card. Worked on my R7 260x. :thup:

edit: Found it. http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=338906
 
That unofficial overclocking typically only raised clock and voltage limits in msi ab. I have never heard of it going from nother working to working.

Neb... we're you using the latest msi ab? 4.3.0 beta 4 I believe? Even with that one, it couldn't control it's own msi rx 480... so I'm wondering how unlocking it would make it work on another card.
 
You have to match driver with AB version to unlock voltage. At least on my card only some drivers were working and only on last 2 beta AB. For example in last official AB voltage adjustment is not working at all. In last beta is working only on last 2 drivers. On previous beta it was working only with first whql for RX480.
Anyway on this card is like I said, you bump voltage too much and card will lose stability. I can set +100mV but above ~+30-40mV are starting problems during longer runs.
On the other hand all the same settings and voltage/power limits are in AMD wattman.
 
Joe; Yeah, tried the latest 4.3.0 Beta 14 version along with the latest amd crimson's. AB didn't even recognize the 480. AMD wattman in crimson is nothing but a confusing mess. Adjusting fan speeds did nothing, and trying to adjust speeds (mem or gpu) resulted in video crash or black screenies. Only thing Wattman is good for is maybe the presets in the games you have installed, but I didn't want to try that.

Me thinks my card is already maxed on the gpu @ 1330. Nothing past that will give any gains. Could'nt even hold 1375 even with voltages maxed. Mem @ 2100 showed nothing gained. Again at voltages maxed I was greeted with black screen. Unsure if the card is maxed or I just have a dud.

Set everything back to their defaults and just set a fan curve to keep the card cooler.
 
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Are you using the "Unlocked BIOS" that Power Color released for the RX 480? https://www.techpowerup.com/225214/powercolor-outs-unlocked-bios-for-rx-480-red-devil

Good looking out. I've checked some youtube videos of reviewers stating using this particular bios will kill your RX480. Also this quote taken from the link you provided:

"PowerColor strongly recommends against using the modded card with FurMark as the company found that it will damage even non-overclocked cards with the new BIOS"

But there was also this: PowerColor, however, stated that flashing your card with the optional BIOS will not void your warranty.

So tho I know you're not intentionally sending me to flash a bios that will likely kill my card, thanks for the linky ;). Not sure if I want to risk it, but i've been known to do dumber things with hardware :D
 
Good looking out. I've checked some youtube videos of reviewers stating using this particular bios will kill your RX480. Also this quote taken from the link you provided:

"PowerColor strongly recommends against using the modded card with FurMark as the company found that it will damage even non-overclocked cards with the new BIOS"

But there was also this: PowerColor, however, stated that flashing your card with the optional BIOS will not void your warranty.

So tho I know you're not intentionally sending me to flash a bios that will likely kill my card, thanks for the linky ;). Not sure if I want to risk it, but i've been known to do dumber things with hardware :D

Yea, I am aware of the videos and Power Color's warning about not using it with Furmark. Heck Power color even says Furmark might kill a stock card! From what I've seen it seems Power Color cheaped out on the VRM for this card.
 
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