GPU Overclocking not changing benchmark results

[spartanw80]

I'm trying to overclock my MSI GTX 670 Power Edition with Afterburner but with little success.

The main problems are:

(1) Heaven Benchmark results remains the same no matter what I clock to.
(2) What was stable at one point is no longer stable after I restart my computer


Before restarting my computer, the following is what I was able to clock to and the result from Heaven. Now I can't even overclock to +100 core clock no matter the voltage. However, if I reinstall Afterburner, it will work again until I restart. However, at no point do the clock speeds actually change my benchmark results. I had similar issues with Kombustor. Sometimes Kombustor would even tell me that the clock is down to 700mhz even though the clock offset was set to +100 or +200.



Partial system specs:
Mobo: Asrock Z77 Pro 4
CPU: 3570k at stock clocks
Power Supply: Raidmax RX-730SS
GPU: MSI GTX 670 Power Edition

*Stock*
20.3-45.9-118.6

*Voltage and power limit max adjust*
23.0-46.0-118.0

*Core clock +100, all voltage, power limit*
-Failed

*Core clock +100, only power limit*
19.9-45.9-118.6

*Core clock +150, only power limit*
-Failed

*Core clock +150, power limit, +20mV*
21.2-45.9-118.6


*Core clock +200, power limit, +20mV*
-Failed

*Core clock +200, power limit, +50mV*
19.6-45.9-119.0

*Core clock +250, power limit, +50mV*
-Failed

*Core clock +250, power limit, +75mV*
16.2-45.9-119.7

*Core clock +300, power limit, +75mV*
-Failed

*Core clock +300, power limit, +100mV*
-22.1-45.8-119.4

*Core clock +350, power limit, +100mV*
-Screen turned green, had to restart

*Core clock +325, power limit, +100mV*
-Computer froze with visual artifacts, had to restart

 

[steddora]

Open up GPUZ and overclock it. In the Sensors tab, see if it's actually taking the overclock. My 550's both can go to 1100mhz with a small voltage adjust but however after the last few sets of drivers the cards max at 1Ghz(998mhz) and it is the drivers causing it. Even if I clock them with Asus Tweak to 1050mhz, they go back to 998mhz and run the same. The only thing I could do from there was clock the shader higher.

 

[spartanw80]

GPU-Z Testing while running Kombustor

*Stock*
-clock: 1149.7 Mhz

*Power limit increased to 114%, core clock + 50 Mhz*
-clock: 1175.8 Mhz

*Power limit increased to 114%, core clock + 100 Mhz*
-Failed

*Power limit increased to 114%, core clock + 100 Mhz, core +50 mV*
-clock: 1149.7 Mhz
-clock after restarting afterburner: fail(1250 Mhz for just a sec)

-from this point, afterburner is restarted before each test

*Power limit increased to 114%, core clock + 100 Mhz, core +100 mV*
-failed

*Power limit increased to 114%, core clock + 75 Mhz, core +100 mV*
-clock: 1201.9 Mhz

*Power limit increased to 114%, core clock + 75 Mhz*
-Failed

*Power limit increased to 114%, core clock + 75 Mhz, core + 50 mV*
-1201.9 Mhz Max (although more than often it sits at 1189.9 Mhz instead)

I'll edit this post when I finish running heaving with the +75 Mhz core and +100 mV core to see if there is any difference.

Edit: Still the same fps from Heaven(GPU-Z says that it was running at 1175.8 Mhz with the +75Mhz offset)

Edit: Overclocking the memory works. I changed the offset to +600 and no voltage increase and got 19.9-49.2-125.5 in heaven.

 

[steddora]

That is truly weird. There's something limiting that thing. Is it throttling at all? Try putting Heaven in a window and watch that sensors tab on GPU-Z. See what happens with that. If the results are consistent, there's something causing the overclock not to actually take effect. Try that and see what happens.

 

[mesab66]

Does it not come with a large overclock out of the box? If yes then there may be little if anything to gain.

Edit: http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/GTX_670_Power_Edition/31.html does show what can be done. A bit more googling should help with example settings.

 

[spartanw80]

For whatever reason, a lot of weird things happen if I don't restart Afterburner after applying new settings. I can blame that on the restarting computer issue. As far as the lack of a performance increase when the gpu core is overclocked by 75 Mhz, it might just be because that isn't enough to notice any difference. It's pretty disappointing that the voltage increases don't seem to do anything at all as far as overclocking is concerned for this card. At first it looked like they did but apparently that was only because the overclocks for the gpu core didn't get applied until after I restarted Afterburner.

In summary.

-Afterburner wasn't applying the overclocks until after I restarted Afterburner
-The gpu core can't overclock much past its stock clock
-Heaven probably didn't show an fps difference because there wasn't enough performance in the gpu clock to give any real world difference

I'll just settle for the decent memory overclock, 7400 Mhz effective, and call it a day.

I really appreciate you guys helping me figure out this issue.

 

[spartanw80]

Best answer selected by spartanw80.

 

[bigcyco1]

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/msi_gtx_680_lightning_voltage_tweaking,1.html

 

[bigcyco1]

Seems like you got unlucky mate.I have two now but this was with just one MSI 670 PE! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnLUJxCBZUg&feature=plcp


OUTDATED REVIEWS
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/56546-msi-gtx-670-power-edition-oc-review-20.html (670 PE OC)





http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/msi_geforce_gtx_670_power_edition_oc_review,24.html (MSI 670 PE Overclocking)


http://www.overclock.net/t/1265110/the-gtx-670-overclocking-master-guide Try this tutorial, it goes over EVERYTHING needed for GTX 670 overclocking, and takes into account that each chip is different.