How to OC 6950 xfire?

[Brutality]

Imo you shouldn't use Furmark at all.

 

So CineBench OpenGL + Heaven 2.5?

 

Do I need to do something or do they both support crossfire? (unlike Furmark) - I bet Heaven supports xfire, but I just ask to be on the safe side

Edited November 3, 2011 by Brutality

[El_Capitan]

They both support Crossfire.

[Black64]

IMO the best GPU stress test for a 24/7 gaming PC is just playing a game until you see artifacts if you do then turn down the OC a little.

[El_Capitan]

IMO the best GPU stress test for a 24/7 gaming PC is just playing a game until you see artifacts if you do then turn down the OC a little.

Of course, that's a given, but only after you've benchmark overclocked to see your optimal overclock before playing games. If you crash in a game, just downclock it 10MHz Core Clock.

[Brutality]

Hmm.. I tried running the OpenGL test in Cinebench 11.5 and looked at GPU usage

It only uses GPU1 (up to 70%) while GPU2 is at 0% all the time

 

But I can confirm that Heaven supports xfire 97-99% usage on both

 

But my worry is temps... I mean, the OpenGL temps barely get temps to 50*C and Heaven 2.5 gets them up to 65*C

 

But in Crysis 2 I can easily reach temps around 70

 

If I shouldn't use Furmark (sure as hell produces max temps), what should I use then? I mean, I am afraid that I get a stable overclock, with temps fine in OGL and Heaven, but when I start gaming I will burn my GPU

Edited November 3, 2011 by Brutality

[El_Capitan]

Hmm.. I tried running the OpenGL test in Cinebench 11.5 and looked at GPU usage

It only uses GPU1 (up to 70%) while GPU2 is at 0% all the time

 

But I can confirm that Heaven supports xfire 97-99% usage on both

 

But my worry is temps... I mean, the OpenGL temps barely get temps to 50*C and Heaven 2.5 gets them up to 65*C

 

But in Crysis 2 I can easily reach temps around 70

 

If I shouldn't use Furmark (sure as hell produces max temps), what should I use then? I mean, I am afraid that I get a stable overclock, with temps fine in OGL and Heaven, but when I start gaming I will burn my GPU

Cinebench 11.5 OpenGL test is just a pre-test. If it crashes there, it will definitely crash in Unigine Heaven. It will not go to 100% GPU usage. However, I've had 100% stable benchmarks in Unigine only to have it fail with OpenGL tests, so there's something in particular the OpenGL tests stress.

 

70C is fine for temps.

[Brutality]

Cinebench 11.5 OpenGL test is just a pre-test. If it crashes there, it will definitely crash in Unigine Heaven. It will not go to 100% GPU usage. However, I've had 100% stable benchmarks in Unigine only to have it fail with OpenGL tests, so there's something in particular the OpenGL tests stress.

 

70C is fine for temps.

 

Okay

 

I know 70*C is fine for temps, but I don't know how high my GPUs could go, as illustrated...

 

So if I overclock and get stable with temps up to 70*C in Heaven.. when I go in crysis... What's going to happen lol? if temps got 90+

And what if there are games that get higher temps? Aren't there any Furmark-equivalent programs (i.e. "max-temp" finders), that aren't so bad that you would use it, El_Capitan?

Don't I need to know the max temps while overclocking?

Edited November 3, 2011 by Brutality

[imm0rt41]

For what it's worth, I didn't follow core -> mem or mem -> core on my 6970, I just cranked both sliders up until it couldn't run Heaven without artifacting on the dragon dude then dialed them back a bit.

 

Then again, my sig only shows the benching OC I use...I keep it at 960/1460 24/7. No reason not to OC your card 24/7, really. Also, I got my OC using Sapphire's Trixxx utility because it lets you go higher with voltage than afterburner, and it loads my OC at startup properly.

[dihartnell]

Okay

 

I know 70*C is fine for temps, but I don't know how high my GPUs could go, as illustrated...

 

So if I overclock and get stable with temps up to 70*C in Heaven.. when I go in crysis... What's going to happen lol? if temps got 90+

And what if there are games that get higher temps? Aren't there any Furmark-equivalent programs (i.e. "max-temp" finders), that aren't so bad that you would use it, El_Capitan?

Don't I need to know the max temps while overclocking?

 

My 6950's aren't keen on going beyond 89-90Degrees so I would stop when you get there. On the subject of core vs mem, I would start with core. You get better FPS overall from that rather than high mem.

 

MSI Kombustetr can help stress your overclock to test stability as well as Heaven 2.5. I dod those for half an hour, see how hot it gets, make sure no artefats and then play a game or two for a few hours.

[Brutality]

That means doing a regedit and going into each folder that has "EnableUlps" = 1 to = 0 (within all the folders 0000, 0001, 0002, etc.)

 

I use MSI Afterburner. Right-click the MSI Afterburner shortcut and Open File Location. Open the MSIAfterburner.config file and edit to have this:

 

[ATIADLHAL]

UnofficialOverclockingEULA = I confirm that I am aware of unofficial overclocking limitations and fully understand that MSI will not provide me any support on it

UnofficialOverclockingMode = 1

 

Then restart MSI Afterburner. Then apply these settings within it:

 

Restart MSI Afterburner again. Now you can start overclocking on it.

 

I suggest starting with Core Clock only and at default Core Voltage. Memory overclocks will differ depending on your Core Clock overclock. I do a quick pass of Cinebench 11.5 OpenGL test to make sure it's somewhat stable (only takes about a minute to run), except you have to exit out, adjust your overclock, and start it again for it to use your new overclock.

 

When you crash while running it, you know the setting before is what's stable. Then do a complete benchmark of Unigine Heaven v2.1 or v2.5 at default, but with Anisotropy 16 and Anti-Aliasing x8 at your highest resolution in fullscreen. If you crash or error out, drop your Core Clock by 10MHz and re-test and repeat until you get a full pass. Note: If you see a lot of flashing (usually Core Clock related) or grainy spots (usually Memory related), you overclocked too far.

 

After that, you can find your memory overclock. Just compare the benchmark score in Unigine Heaven. If it's higher, that's good. If you get a lower score than your higher score with lower memory overclock, that means you went too far.

 

I am starting to see the benefit of your GPU overclocking method now... but I have one question:

When you say: "Unigine Heaven v2.1 or v2.5 at default, but with Anisotropy 16 and Anti-Aliasing x8 at your highest resolution in fullscreen"

What about tessellation? leave it at normal? or put it to extreme?

To be 100% sure: Is this the correct settings for Heaven 2.5?:

API: DX 11

Stereo 3D: Disabled (I haven't got a 3d monitor anyways)

Shaders: High

Tesselation: normal (or extreme?)

Anisotropy: 16

AA: 8x

Full screen: yes

Resolution: 1920x1200 (as far as my monitor will go )

 

oh and finally: If you don't want me to use Furmark, what other max-temp-test software would you recommend me to use? I don't feel good about overclocking and only checking for stability and not temps (crysis 2 produces more heat than Cinebench 11.5 OpenGL or Heaven 2.5 - and maybe other games produce more heat?)

 

EDIT: What about a custom fan profile? Is it needed or a good idea? If so, how should it be?

EDIT2: I still don't understand how the OpenGL test can test stability (well pre-test, as you said) on both cards in xfire when the 2nd card is at 0% activity through the whole test

 

Thanks in advance mate

Edited November 4, 2011 by Brutality

[wevsspot]

Not to mention as soon as you reboot the system you loose your overclock. It is a nice tool, but it is only meant for when you need a kick and not a permanent overclocking tool.

That's a new one on me. I've been using MSI Afterburner for ever and it has the option to apply overclock settings at startup, and has worked on every card I tried. All you have to do is check the little box and make sure that Afterburner is starting with Windows.

[Speedway]

you can use MSI afterburner. It is a program that allows you to overclock the card with in windows. However it WILL void the warranty. There is no way around that. Not to mention as soon as you reboot the system you loose your overclock. It is a nice tool, but it is only meant for when you need a kick and not a permanent overclocking tool.

That's a new one on me. I've been using MSI Afterburner for ever and it has the option to apply overclock settings at startup, and has worked on every card I tried. All you have to do is check the little box and make sure that Afterburner is starting with Windows.

 

Yea, I'm with wevs, all you have to do is check the "apply at startup" button and it will auto OC your cards to those settings as soon as you open MSI Afterburner. This isn't even mentioning the fact that Afterburner also has 5 OCing Profiles that you can save into memory for later use! Also, Tjj where have you heard the Afterburner voids a warranty? This is completely false, as I have been using Afterburner for quite awhile now, and have RMA'd a few cards after doing so w/o any problems! A GPU manufacturer has no way to even tell if you have used Afterburner, so it will not have any affect on the warranty. Flashing the BIOS, now that is another story when it comes to the warranty ....whispers, flash it back to the original b4 trying to RMA it