[SOLVED] guidance on OC and tuning?

[JimTH]

Just built our first system since the stone ages. Damn its addicting. We had a very modest budget ($350-$480) and had to emphasis the CPU for rendering. But increased our video and anime render speeds by 4X. The heart of the thing is a AMD build - B450 MoBo/Ryzen2700 8 core, and an RX 580 (8 GB)GPU. We could only afford 16 gb of RAM (3200). PSU 530 W. The RX 580 is most likely the major source of bottle necking. Could someone recommend from experience OC settings for the GPU that are not extreme, but will reduce this limitation (details welcome...first time in a long time). Would not mind similar guidance on the RAM.

 

[tennis2]

What is the manufacturer and model name of your RX580?

For the RAM, just set the XMP so it's running at 3200MHz and you're done

 

[JimTH]

What is the manufacturer and model name of your RX580?

For the RAM, just set the XMP so it's running at 3200MHz and you're done

Thanks!!!. the gpu is an XFX RX 580 (8 gb ram) . Will look up the XMP you mentioned for RAM (we are spending this weekend testing it in its default settings, so I have not tried the OC menu, but my meager understanding was I needed to both change the frequency and the power. I know this is basic (and I run a clean room and fix instruments all the time-so not completely hopeless) but OC was not really a thing back when I was building.

 

[tennis2]

I'll assume that's the XFX RX580 8GB GTS version which is fairly common. Although, to be clear, there they make many models.
The GTS version has a max advertised clock speed of 1366MHz. Which I would assume if you fire up GPUz your card probably won't hit using "auto" voltage settings. This is because these cards run in to a "power limit" (power/voltage limit and thermal limit are the two main factors in OCing any CPU/GPU), and many cards have their auto voltages set so high, you hit that limit at around 1300MHz (give or take). To get to/above that, you'll need to do one of two things:

1. Increase the "power limit" of your GPU. There's a "power limit" slider on AMD WattMan and MSI Afterburner. I believe 50% is the max you can set in either application. This will simply allow the GPU to apply more voltage without hitting the power limits. However, this also results in higher temps.
2. Set a manual frequency/voltage curve so that the GPU uses less voltage to hit a given frequency. For example, if your power limit is hit at ~1150mV without any adjustments to the "Power Limit" slider and that corresponds to 1300Mhz, if you make 1400MHz = 1150mV, now you can get to 1400MHz at the power limit. Because you're reducing the voltage used for a given frequency (or > frequency for a given voltage) you're getting more performance for the same power/heat output as stock.

I typed up a guide here to explain the process of manually setting voltages using AMD's WattMan utility. As I mentioned in that guide, I've found it easiest to create a spreadsheet and scatter plot of the voltages that you've tested as stable to allow you to extrapolate other values along the curve. To get you started, I've put some rough points along the frequency curve so you can apply to the specific frequencies of your GPU (which will show up when you switch from % to Dynamic Frequency in WattMan). Remember, that similar to CPUs, every GPU responds differently to voltages. Some chips need more voltage to be stable at a given frequency than others.

1000MHz = 890mV
1100MHz = 910mV
1200MHz = 940mV (this 940mV is typically an inflection point on the curve, it gets steeper above this value. Notice that values below this are ~25mV/100MHz and values above are 100mV/100MHz)
1300MHz = 1030mV
1400MHz = 1150mV

2000MHz VRAM = 930mV

 

[JimTH]

I'll assume that's the XFX RX580 8GB GTS version which is fairly common. Although, to be clear, there they make many models.
The GTS version has a max advertised clock speed of 1366MHz. Which I would assume if you fire up GPUz your card probably won't hit using "auto" voltage settings. This is because these cards run in to a "power limit" (power/voltage limit and thermal limit are the two main factors in OCing any CPU/GPU), and many cards have their auto voltages set so high, you hit that limit at around 1300MHz (give or take). To get to/above that, you'll need to do one of two things:

1. Increase the "power limit" of your GPU. There's a "power limit" slider on AMD WattMan and MSI Afterburner. I believe 50% is the max you can set in either application. This will simply allow the GPU to apply more voltage without hitting the power limits. However, this also results in higher temps.
2. Set a manual frequency/voltage curve so that the GPU uses less voltage to hit a given frequency. For example, if your power limit is hit at ~1150mV without any adjustments to the "Power Limit" slider and that corresponds to 1300Mhz, if you make 1400MHz = 1150mV, now you can get to 1400MHz at the power limit. Because you're reducing the voltage used for a given frequency (or > frequency for a given voltage) you're getting more performance for the same power/heat output as stock.

I typed up a guide here to explain the process of manually setting voltages using AMD's WattMan utility. As I mentioned in that guide, I've found it easiest to create a spreadsheet and scatter plot of the voltages that you've tested as stable to allow you to extrapolate other values along the curve. To get you started, I've put some rough points along the frequency curve so you can apply to the specific frequencies of your GPU (which will show up when you switch from % to Dynamic Frequency in WattMan). Remember, that similar to CPUs, every GPU responds differently to voltages. Some chips need more voltage to be stable at a given frequency than others.

1000MHz = 890mV
1100MHz = 910mV
1200MHz = 940mV (this 940mV is typically an inflection point on the curve, it gets steeper above this value. Notice that values below this are ~25mV/100MHz and values above are 100mV/100MHz)
1300MHz = 1030mV
1400MHz = 1150mV

2000MHz VRAM = 930mV

Great reply, great guidance. I train students every day (some are NASA fellows) and this is a great example of how to teach a technical skill. Thanks!

 

[tennis2]

Happy to help. As you can imagine, the level to which you test is up to you. If you're okay with slightly higher than necessary voltages (ie power/heat) in exchange for less testing time, that's your choice. The values I gave are a bit of a middle ground from my experience. Slightly conservative for some chips, while other chips may need a bit more than those amounts. I like to tinker, so I've got my GPU within 10-15mV of instability most of the time.

Also, I've found that there are outlier games here and there (Shadow Warrior 2 is the worst I've found so far) that seem to throw game crashes like toddler tantrums unless you give them the "auto" treatment. Part of the challenge. At least you can save profiles of various settings to make dealing with those situations easier.

Good luck. Let us know if you have any other questions.