DirectX Error Overclocking Asus EAH6950

[sebzag]

I've got my shaders unlocked and am trying to overclock my card but no matter how much I tweak the voltage or powertune limit it will eventually crash even though my temps don't go over 70c really. I recently cleaned the VRM heatsink and re-applied TIM to the gpu, and made sure the cooling system is securely fastened to the board. Right now it runs for a decent while, 10-15 minutes, at 920/1375 @ 1.175v and +20% powertune. Believe me, I've tried many high as well as low combinations to find this ever elusive sweet spot I need. Could there be something causing the voltage to drop enough to cause instability? Again, the temperatures are low for being under full load so heat should not be a factor.

 

 

Edited August 28, 2013 by sebzag

[Waco]

Sounds like your card is crashing because the extra shaders really are defective.

[sebzag]

Sounds like your card is crashing because the extra shaders really are defective.

 

The card runs fine with unlocked shaders without overclocking.

[sebzag]

[deleted]

Edited September 4, 2013 by sebzag

[sebzag]

I'm using Sapphire Trixx Utility for the overclocking and it appears I only have to input the offset value to what I want to adjust the stock voltage to (e.g. an input of 200 mV for VDDC Offset results in the VDDC Offset in GPU-Z to go from 1.1v stock to 1.3v). But when run HWiNFO64 in the background on sensor mode, it's show a fixed voltage of 1.1v still. Although there is also another sensor in the program that is detected after running a game, named VRM Voltage, which shows minor voltage fluctuations from 0 to 0.3-ish.

 

Does the gpu vddc offset on this card, or this series of cards, really work as it appears to work? Does the card generally work at 1.1v and dynamically ramp up the voltage temporarily when it needs, to a voltage limit determined by VDDC Offset.

[Black64]

If you got the shaders unlocked, it might be best to be happy with that. Skip the OC.

[sebzag]

I discovered that it's always the same file initiating the crash, "amdkmdap", which appears to be some kind of legacy driver. I wonder if it's really necessary for my card to run.

[l1il]

Have you tried different drivers?

 

Latest drivers usually are good, but sometimes you can try to get back to older versions since the 6950 is supported from 12.3 to now. I have had a 6950 but I
was not able to unlock shaders (procedure maybe?) on a 1GB ASUS DCUII 6950. Most of the forums in the time said that if you get instabilities
you can whether flash back to your original BIOS (hope you did a back-up of your ROM) or lower the clock. I read on Techpowerup also that

an overclock gave same or better performance increase than a flash, but I don't know what was your overclock headroom on yours.

[sebzag]

Have you tried different drivers?

 

Latest drivers usually are good, but sometimes you can try to get back to older versions since the 6950 is supported from 12.3 to now. I have had a 6950 but I

was not able to unlock shaders (procedure maybe?) on a 1GB ASUS DCUII 6950. Most of the forums in the time said that if you get instabilities

you can whether flash back to your original BIOS (hope you did a back-up of your ROM) or lower the clock. I read on Techpowerup also that

an overclock gave same or better performance increase than a flash, but I don't know what was your overclock headroom on yours.

 

I've tried the latest drivers and I've reverted back to 8.97 April 18 since they give the best performance for the games I play. Yeah, the new 1GB cards are unlockable. Mine is successfully unlocked. I know I can push this card further than I currently can because I actually doubt that the VDDC is even being changed.

[wevsspot]

If you have any doubt that the 3rd party overclocking utility is truly raising your voltage per the settings that you input, you could always try a BIOS mod, or .cfg file mod to allow the voltage adjustment to be where you want it.  If maximum voltage offset is already programmed into the BIOS, then there aren't many (if any) 3rd party overclocking utilities that can over-ride the maximum value set in the BIOS.

 

But I'd just go back to what others have already said, if you've got your shaders unlocked be happy with that.  If you want about equal performance you can flash back to the stock BIOS and just overclock the snot out of your card.