Graphics 7970 overclocking - what are your results?

Hey all, i have recently purchased a 7970 and this weekend i intend to play around with overclocking it and benching it on air, before i put it under water.

What i would like to know is...

- what clocks did you achieve?
- what software did you use?
- air cooled or water?
- stock volts? Or increased?

This will help me gauge where my card sits in the rankings and how much difference putting it under water will help.

Thank you.

 

If it helps Bob gpu-z can tell you the quality of the silicon in your gpu. You just right click on the title bar and it's in the menu somewhere. Gives you a purity percentage value that is apparently what is used to determine which bin the chip ends up going too.

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Oh never knew that. Mine says ASIC Quality 70.6%.

 

From what I remember that's in the good category. Over 75% is excellent. Think mine was about 73% and I've managed a good oc. Not just down to the chip quality though. The power circuitry and cooling play a big part also.

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Oh thats pretty good then. It will be under water so it should hopefully achieve a decent oc on stock volts.

Any other 7970 owners got some overclock numbers to share?

 

I can max ccc settings 1125/1536 with stock voltage and ref cooler, any higher it depends what software i use, i find trixx more stable than afterburner and can bench heaven at 1200 with a slight bump in voltage

 

When I used to own a reference Powecolor HD7970 I achieved the following:

Stock volts / Stock Fan profile - 1075/6600

Voltage of 1.175 / Stock fan profile - 1125/6600

Voltage of 1.25 / Aggressive fan profile to keep temps below 70 degrees - 1150/6600

Generall speaking I found that the most important aspect to overclocking the HD7970 was keeping the VRM area cool.

In the end I mostly ran it at 1100/6600 to keep temps and voltages in check.

I should point out of couse that these clocks were game stable. I may have been able to push further in say 3DMark11 or Heaven, but utlimately if clocks are not game stable what is the point?!

 

I never knew that!!


Smell my cheese!!!

 

Awesome oc info thanks chaps. Exactly what i was after.

Had a delay in getting my rig rebuilt so it will be a couple more weeks now before i get the gpu under water.

But i will test the clocks on air to see what she can do!!

 

I've seen reports of some scoring over 100% by a fair whack also. I'm not entirely sure how that works. I'm not even entirely sure it matters. Although my 460 gtx gets 60% ish and doesn't overclock as high as I'd like with the voltages... So maybe it does bare some meaning.

 

It matters little I think. Also, the over 100% were with the older version of GPU-Z only.

I suspect this is like the Windows Performance index thing... ultimately useless. There are people out there with 50% cards running nice overclocks.

However... I can boost to 1250MHz with no voltage increase.... so.. (shrug)

 

wow, never knew that +rep to you

my 570s have 90.3% and 92.6% might have to up the oc a tad

 

I get 1125MHz and about 1600MHz on the memory at stock voltage (1.080v). I can't increase my voltage, otherwise I expect I'd get higher.

 

I get 67% ASIC quality, but at 1.275V under water I have 1250/1650Mhz, which is enough to leave overclocked 680s in the dust overall.

 

Interesting that lower ASIC quality will actually overclock better when under water, yet worse under air. Anyone know why that is? Seems rather counter to what you'd expect.

 

One of the reasons I suspect this is all a load of BS. Surely a card that clocks great on air is also going to clock great under water.

I call BS.

 

I don't think the reported ASIC value means a lot, judging from what I've seen on various forums.

 

Hmm that is rather weird. When I first looked at the guide I didn't even read it as that way round, my mind automatically switched it. I can't think of a reason why a higher voltage/higher power consumption part will do better under water. Maybe they hold up to higher voltages better when overclocking?

 

What board you using it with mate

 

Reference PowerColor 7970 on air with 68.4% asic, can get to 1275mhz at 1.28v as per http://3dmark.com/3dm11/4050283