Vapor-x 7950 not overclocking what so ever...

[raiku]

A few months ago I bought a 7950 (Sapphire Vapor-x boost edition)
So a week ago I tried to overclock it and I have been failing miserably with doing so...

I followed a guide from pcworld.com, where they said I should put the power consumption to +20%.
After that I should run it in 3dmark to see if my card is working as it was with the stock(oc) clocks 950core/1250mem.
I ran it, everything was running fine. So after that I started to raise the core clock from 950 to 960 to 970, on and on until I hit 1100.(I ran 3dmark after every clock changing the clock with 10 increments)
On the 1100 run the amd driver crashed, after finding the so called 'limit' of my core clock, they said I should go test my memory clock and I did the same thing with that 1250 to 1260 to 1270, until I hit 1480, then the driver crashed. After finding both of the limits I started out with 1080core/1470mem. I ran it with 3dmark it did fine.
After that I was like, meh it's so easy... Alright then time to play games with my beastly OC'd card. Went into BF3, 2 minutes in my PC crashed, I was like WTF?

So I was like okay, let's lower it. 1050/1450. Tried it again, and what do you know it crashed again. So I tried to change the voltage from .950v to 1.2v, and it still crashed.
I don't see any artifacts or anything like that.. it just crashes.(The crash screen is with some grey vertical lines)

What should I do, every forum where I go. I see that the 7950 is a beast of an overclocker yet not mine
PS. the card shouldn't be bottle necking.

CPU:intel i5 2500k @ 4.5ghz
Motherboard:ASUS P8Z68-V/gen3
Ram: Corsair Vengeance (2x4GB) @ 1866/9-10-9-27
HDD: Seagate 1tb, Samsung 300 gb
PSU: Corsair GS 800w
Case: CM 690 II ADVANCED
CPU Cooler: Corsair H80
Sound card: ASUS Xonar DG 5.1

 

[wagex]

you get what you pay for you cant expect it to be able to overclock just hope it does. and the grey lines on the crash screen are artifacts.

 

[WaTaGuMp]

I had a Gigabyte that wouldn't OC at all either, luck of the draw.

 

[Johan45]

Try dropping the memory back to1360 ish and see if that will help any. Just because they will OC seperately doesn't mean they will together. There's only so much power available to share between the two and one part of your card seems a bit thirsty. It's worth a shot not saying it'll work.
And there's a huge difference between running a bench and playing a game.

 

[EarthDog]

RAM sips on power, so it shouldnt be a power thing (he can verify by looking at GPU power use with MSI AB). I agree with the remainder of that sentiment, however. It can limit the high end of the core clocks. Lower the memory and see whats up.

 

[raiku]

What about the voltage? Should I try it with the stock voltage or should I turn it up, if so how much should I give to the card?

 

[Johan45]

Turn it right up. You're trying to find your cieling right? Keep your core speed up and if it'll work with the ram at 1360 then turn the ram up some more till it stops.

 

[EarthDog]

Note the voltage is only for the core (unless that card can adjust memory voltage of course).

 

[raiku]

I think it can adjust the memory, well I can change it in msi afterburner.