Question How to overclock a xfx amd 390x 8gb card?

[MasterofGG_]

ive tried for days doing my best to follow steps posted online and its not getting me anywhere,
i dont know if i should undervolt or overclock this card and im currently trying to play helldivers2
but the game is pushing my card to 94C. any replies ill dm asap with more info about my predicament.

 

[Lutfij]

There's no need to DM anyone, you should stick to this thread where everyone on the forums can and will chime in at their free time.

You might want to parse your full system's specs like so:
CPU:
CPU cooler:
Motherboard:
Ram:
SSD/HDD:
GPU:
PSU:
Chassis:
OS:
Monitor:
include the age of the PSU apart from it's make and model. BIOS version for your motherboard at this moment of time.

In all honesty, you might want to rethink your path moving forward. If you look here;

Helldivers 2 for PC | PlayStation

Helldivers 2 is now available to pre-order and download on Steam with a range of optimizations for PC players.

www.playstation.com

your discrete GPU doesn't even meet the minimum requirements.

 

[Joseph_138]

Honestly, I don't think overclocking such an old card is going to help very much. You might be able to squeeze another 2 or 3% out of it, which probably won't be too noticeable. I would be looking at upgrading. A GTX 1660 Ti, would be about 30-40% faster, which I'm guessing is the level of performance increase that you are probably looking for. It will use less power, and be in driver support longer. An RTX 20 card, would be an even better bet, because you also get to try out DLSS and ray tracing. A 2060, 2060 Super, or 2070 non-Super, represent good value in the RTX 20 lineup, for someone who may be on a limited budget.

 

[MasterofGG_]

CPU: i7 2600k from intel
CPU cooler: frozn A410 air cooler
Motherboard: gigabyte ga-p67a-ud4-b3
Ram: patriot ddr3 1866mghz dual channel (cant seem to run over 1600 without post failure)
SSD/HDD: 256gb ssd from vulcan with a extra 1tb external hdd and yes my os is on the ssd
GPU: XFX AMD rx390 8gb
PSU: 600w psu from Thermaltake
Chassis: aura case with 5 120mm fans 3 exhaust going from the top and backvent an 2 intake from the front
OS: windows 10 cant install 11 because of cpu being outdated
Monitor: LG 24GN650-B Ultragear Gaming Monitor 24” FHD (1920 x 1080) IPS Display, 144Hz Refresh Rate
edit: ive also have not been able to run 144Hz but only to 120, i assume it the HDMI cable I'm using but I'm unsure

 

[JeffreyP55]

ive tried for days doing my best to follow steps posted online and its not getting me anywhere,
i dont know if i should undervolt or overclock this card and im currently trying to play helldivers2
but the game is pushing my card to 94C. any replies ill dm asap with more info about my predicament.

Real men overclockers from the past overclock by replacing the crystal oscillator! What? Don't bother with ancient history hardware. You will be very disappointed.
BTW the CPU is also not up-gradable to windows 11.

 

[DSzymborski]

CPU: i7 2600k from intel
CPU cooler: frozn A410 air cooler
Motherboard: gigabyte ga-p67a-ud4-b3
Ram: patriot ddr3 1866mghz dual channel (cant seem to run over 1600 without post failure)
SSD/HDD: 256gb ssd from vulcan with a extra 1tb external hdd and yes my os is on the ssd
GPU: XFX AMD rx390 8gb
PSU: 600w psu from Thermaltake
Chassis: aura case with 5 120mm fans 3 exhaust going from the top and backvent an 2 intake from the front
OS: windows 10 cant install 11 because of cpu being outdated
Monitor: LG 24GN650-B Ultragear Gaming Monitor 24” FHD (1920 x 1080) IPS Display, 144Hz Refresh Rate

Dear lord, what Thermaltake PSU is this *exactly*? There are some Thermaltake PSUs at exactly 600W (TR2, anything with SMART, Litepower) that are of such junk-tier quality that you should not only not be trying to overclock on, you probably shouldn't even have the PC turned on with these parts.

 

[MasterofGG_]

Dear lord, what Thermaltake PSU is this *exactly*? There are some Thermaltake PSUs at exactly 600W (TR2, anything with SMART, Litepower) that are of such junk-tier quality that you should not only not be trying to overclock on, you probably shouldn't even have the PC turned on with these parts.

yeah its the smart branded psu, in total the build was about 340$ and its the first build ive done

 

[renz496]

ive tried for days doing my best to follow steps posted online and its not getting me anywhere,
i dont know if i should undervolt or overclock this card and im currently trying to play helldivers2
but the game is pushing my card to 94C. any replies ill dm asap with more info about my predicament.

AFAIK AMD GPU have some sort issue with this game before where driver updates are needed. 390X no longer receive driver updates from AMD so even with OC it might not fix the issue in that game. and with 94c temp OC is not really good idea either. looking how old this card are thermal paste most likely needing a replacement (including the termal pads on VRAM and VRM). but either way this card considered very old now to play modern games like Helldivers 2

 

[MasterofGG_]

AFAIK AMD GPU have some sort issue with this game before where driver updates are needed. 390X no longer receive driver updates from AMD so even with OC it might not fix the issue in that game. and with 94c temp OC is not really good idea either. looking how old this card are thermal paste most likely needing a replacement (including the termal pads on VRAM and VRM). but either way this card considered very old now to play modern games like Helldivers 2

ive seen some sites online with community led driver updates, would i consider doing something of that nature?
helldivers 2 just got a update and ive played it prior for weeks and now outta the blue it backscreens an crashes after somebody made a comment about the card no longer being supported , to be honest the guy i bought the card from sold it to me for 60$ and claimed he took care of the card and after seeing his setup i was convinced plus he was just a upstanding dude

 

[renz496]

the card still decent performer at 1080p despite being more than 10 years old at this point. but it really start showing it's age now. maybe you can try using AMD mod drivers. it is third party effort to make more recent AMD drivers to work with older cards that AMD no longer support officially. just look around "AMD Nimez mod drivers"

other than that the entire system most likely need an upgrade.

 

[DSzymborski]

yeah its the smart branded psu, in total the build was about 340$ and its the first build ive done

Oof. OK, first thing first, while this PSU was a poor choice and should be replaced immediately, especially because you have a power-hungry card, if you don't, you at least need to completely can the whole overclock idea.

These junky old group-regulated units had horrible issues with crossloads, so rigs that heavily rely on the +12V rail (as any post Pentium III PC with a GPU that requires supplementary power will), frequently see absolutely horrible voltage regulation. Some of the better group-regulated platforms, like SeaSonic's, were a bit less dire, but Thermaltake is notorious for going super-cheap on the entry-level PSUs. A lot of the RGB Smart PSUs are archaic Sirfa units with RGB lights thrown in so the whole package looks modern.

Overclocking just makes the whole situation worse. It certainly won't help the temperature situation either. Given that the 390x is a nearly decade-old card at this point, it may simply be overdue for new thermal paste.

I should also stress that you need to keep your goals realistic. You're playing a game in which you're below the minimum specs for CPU and the recommended for GPU, so there are naturally going to be some real performance issues. The 2600K was a great CPU (and I had its cousin, the 3770K, still in use over at my mom's house in her PC) but realistically, it's from 2011.

 

[MasterofGG_]

the card still decent performer at 1080p despite being more than 10 years old at this point. but it really start showing it's age now. maybe you can try using AMD mod drivers. it is third party effort to make more recent AMD drivers to work with older cards that AMD no longer support officially. just look around "AMD Nimez mod drivers"

other than that the entire system most likely need an upgrade.

i seem to be having more trouble trying to properly install R.ID amd 3rd party drivers, i went ahead
looking at it thought i needed legacy gcn 2 so i installed the programs and tried uninstalling my display drivers with DDU.
after that i still cant understand the hole ordeal with weird things like the card having pcie gen 3 support but
its only running up to gen 2 as reported by cpu-z. im not super inclined to understand how i could possibly get helldivers2 up an
going again after this new update, it worked alr considering yeah the card was pushing abnormal temps making my gpu stutter and with very
minimal tearing with the custom presets the game opted to use but the game overall was still playable at 35ish fps. i dont have any spare cash to go and replace 2-3 parts, and that begs the question of what's to be improved anyway?

 

[beyondlogic]

i seem to be having more trouble trying to properly install R.ID amd 3rd party drivers, i went ahead
looking at it thought i needed legacy gcn 2 so i installed the programs and tried uninstalling my display drivers with DDU.
after that i still cant understand the hole ordeal with weird things like the card having pcie gen 3 support but
its only running up to gen 2 as reported by cpu-z. im not super inclined to understand how i could possibly get helldivers2 up an
going again after this new update, it worked alr considering yeah the card was pushing abnormal temps making my gpu stutter and with very
minimal tearing with the custom presets the game opted to use but the game overall was still playable at 35ish fps. i dont have any spare cash to go and replace 2-3 parts, and that begs the question of what's to be improved anyway?

That's no great mystery your PCI gen is only as good as the CPU

I7 2600k only has support for PCI gen 2 that in itself already cripples any new hardware.

It's also why you can't hit the max speed of your ram support for that CPU is 1333mhz fact that it's doing 1600 is great

https://www.intel.com/content/www/u...r-8m-cache-up-to-3-80-ghz/specifications.html

Personally overclocking a old platform won't give you huge gains but if you want to improve it better on cheap update bios

Look for
Core i7-3770 on used market there fairly cheap opens up PCI gen 3

 

[Joseph_138]

Your system doesn't even meet the minimum system requirements of a RX 470 and i7 4790K. The recommended specs, for a more playable experience, are RX 6600 XT and i7 9700K. I don't think you are going to have a good experience running this game, no matter how many tweaks you apply.

As was mentioned, R9 series cards no longer get new drivers, and the game may require a newer driver that you can't use. You can try here, https://amernimezone.com/ to get a modded driver, but be sure you get the correct one. The newest GCN driver there is dated November 2023, so there is no guarantee that this driver will be the one you need to play the game, since it's already well outdated.

These drivers used to be called the Nimez drivers, but a new development team took over the project a while back, and they have been slower to roll out updates for them.