Maximum Overclock for Sapphire R9 270X Dual X?

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Icaraeus

Icaraeus

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Oct 9, 2013
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The default clocks of my R9 270X are 1070mhz GPU and 1400mhz memory. It's been stable at 1120mhz GPU and 1520mhz memory for some time but today I tried to push it more and managed to get 1125mhz GPU and 1550mhz GPU. My power limit has been increased by 20% and GPU fan is at the default 40%. Overclocking the memory to 1560mhz results in my PC messing up in Battlefield 4 even though it passes 3DMark, Tomb Raider benchmark and GPU-Z stress test. It took me a few reboots to get my PC to boot back to Windows as well so I could change the overclock. 1550mhz memory appears to be okay though. The max temp the GPU reaches is 57-58 degrees. The GPU fan is set to 40% speed.

Simpler term:

GPU clock from 1070mhz to 1125mhz
memory clock from 1400mhz to 1550mhz
Power limit increased to 20%
Fan speed at default 40%
Stability tested through 3Dmark, GPU-Z built in stress test, Tomb Raider benchmark and Battlefield 4 multiplayer.

Is there any way I can make my GPU overclock further? I don't think my voltage is unlocked. My GPU drivers are the AMD Catalyst 14.6 Beta drivers.
 
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You can raise the voltage with MSI afterburner and EVGA precision, even if the voltage is locked in the GPU's BIOS. It will only allow the maximum safe voltage. Technically, the voltage is still locked even though you can raise it slightly in one of those OC programs. Core clock has a larger benefit in gaming than memory, so I would leave the memory at +0-50 offset (+300 core clock will yield better FPS than +150 core and +150 memory). Also it is easier to find max overclocks if you OC the core and memory separately. I would manually set the fans to 100% or the max allowed by the BIOS if you don't mind noise. OC'ing isn't a "one size fits all" kind of thing. Every GPU, even if the same model, will perform differently when OC'ed. My GTX 770 can hit +200 core clock offset on the stock voltages, which not all cards can do. Keep increasing core clock by +25 and stress testing it, and if it's unstable, MSI afterburner or EVGA precision should automatically undo the changes before the system crashes. Once you find the max OC for the core clock, set it back to default and repeat the same steps for the memory clock. Once you find the max OC for both, work on combining them, favoring core clock over memory (maybe +25 on the core while only +10 on memory). There will be a certain point where either increasing voltage any further causes temps to sky-rocket, or you need to dramatically increase voltages to even get +20 more MHz out of the GPU. High voltages can cause damage/kill the VRMs on the card.

Depending on what cooler than card has on it, you should be able to get +150 to +200 on the core clock and probably limit the memory clock to +50 to +75. Just watch the GPU temps and VRM temps if the card has VRM temperature sensors.

I learned this just yesterday: most games can only handle a certain OC on a certain card, before the game will crash. I think the reason for this is the game's graphic API that uses DirectX is expecting a certain response from that specific GPU model when rendering, and when an OC it too high, there's a timing dependent variable in the game engine that your overclocking caused something to come back too fast, too slow, not in order, or something similar to that.
 
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So how many mV of voltage should I increase at a time before attempting to increase the GPU overclock further? I downloaded the Sapphire TriXX utility and it says VDDC (GPU voltage?) is at 1225 which I think means 1.225. I pressed the + on it once and it jumped to 1226. Should I do 5 or 10 more mV of voltage at once or what?
 
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Yes, VDDC is the voltage. Keep raising the clock speeds until the drivers crash. They should automatically restart. That's when you know you need to increase voltage. I increase by 10mv once it becomes unstable. Don't go over 1.300 volts though. At that point you're .1 volt over stock and the VRMs are probably getting pretty toasty. I wouldn't keep an OC 24/7 if it's above stock voltages, I only leave it over-volted for shorter gaming sessions, but that's my own opinion. Btw, the Sapphire R9 270x Dual-X is factory overclocked, but their stock voltage is higher than it needs to be. You can try under-volting it to maintain stock clocks, but it would allow it to run cooler and use less power.
 
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It took a little while but I managed to boost the core clock to 1170mhz while the memory clock stayed at 1550mhz. This makes my GPU's core clock +100 over my GPU's factory clocks, and +150 over the AMD factory R9 270X. Memory clock is +150 over the stock memory. I increased the voltage incrementally from 1.225 to 1.230 (+ 0.005mV) which somehow enabled me to boost the core clock up 55mhz, but maybe it's because Sapphire increased the voltage more than necessary as you said. The maximum temps I get on load through 3dmark are 68 degrees, though it normally stays around the low 60s.

I think I've reached the memory clock limit as pushing the clock to 1560mhz results in very heavy artifacting in 3dmark within the first couple of seconds. I attempted to raise the GPU core clock to 1180mhz at 1.240mV but it appears to make my PC crash. I'm thinking this is the max I can go. I'm not sure whether increased voltage will eliminate artefacts or not. I'm at 1.230mV atm which gives me room to increase voltage but I don't think it would be a good idea to raise it close to 1.300mV.

GPU clock = 1170mhz (+100mhz)
Memory clock = 1550mhz (+150mhz)
Pixel fillrate = 37.4 GPixel's
Texture fillrate = 93.6 GTexel's
Bandwidth = 198.4 GB/s (6.4Ghz/6400mhz effective memory speed)

The GPU drivers haven't crashed; the only thing that happened is very heavy artefacts or my PC force rebooting. Should I leave the voltage where it is or can I push it a bit further? GPU core clock of 1200mhz would be a good goal to reach if possible.
 
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It's odd your computer crashes overclocking your GPU too high, if I set my core clock to +300, the drivers just crash and restart. Maybe your PSU can't handle it? The artifacts you're seeing are caused by too high of a memory clock, if I set my memory clock to +800 the screen turns a gray color and I need to reboot to fix it. You can raise the voltages higher... but increasing it won't correct artifacts. I don't think you will be able to get any more performance out it even by increasing voltage to 1.3 volts. For those clock speeds, 1.230 volts seems a little high, maybe your card just doesn't OC as well as others. But +150 on Rx 200 series cards sounds about right, you can try going a little higher, but I would rather have my GPU last longer, be more stable, and consume less power than gain an extra 1 fps in a game.
 
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the memory overclock will show a performance increase in some synthetic benchmarks like unigine valley. but, in real world gaming on a single 1080p/1440p monitor the memory overclock will give you virtually no fps increase. save the stability for the core clock.... see how far you can push your core with no memory overclock.

i would use msi ab and unigine valley for initial testing, then a good hour or so of gaming for final stability testing. crysis 3 is probably still the go to game for system punishing and stability testing, some think it can fish out unstable cpu overclocks that are intel burn test/prime95 stable. but i do hear the tomb raider can fish out gpu instability too.
 
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It appears that I can only get the core clock to reach 1170mhz even if I leave the memory clock at 1400mhz. I'm assuming that 1170mhz core and 1550mhz memory is the highest I can go. I haven't attempted to increase the voltage further than 1.240mV with the core. Now it seems that sometimes when I try and modify the core clock from a fresh boot via Sapphire TriXX from 1170 to 1180mhz my PC freezes (I try to modify it again right after my PC boots from a crash), the display blanks and my fans speed up in my PC to max. Seeing as 1.230mV is apparently high voltage (when 1.225mV is factory) I guess I shouldn't risk things and leave things there.

I don't have anything running in the background at startup apart from Folding @ Home which is always left at idle.
 
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i wouldn't worry about the core voltage as long as your temps are ok. not sure about your particular card if you can read vrm temps, you really dont want them over 85c, if you can read them. usually vrm temps are a little bit higher than the core temps depending on the card.
 
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High guys this is the 1st time i am posting here.
I ve been following the whole "OC ablility" thing concerning the r9270x and i decided to input my experience.

I ve recently bought a Sapphire r9270x (dual-x fans) 4gb ddr5 while wanting to partially upgrade a rig including an OCed i7 (1st gen) 920@3.2Ghz.
After research i finally got to OC the card to the following rates, using the TRIxx software:

GPU clock: 1200mhz
Memory clock : 1500mhz
VVDC : 1285
Power Limit: 20

Snapshot of my settings >>> http://i.imgur.com/g4l9Z96.png

The above settings have been tested with FURmark on 1080p (1920x1080) and 8x MSSA
for at least 15mins with the temperature of the card never exceeding 71 c .

So , do u feel this is a safe OC, and one that can carry out games like BF4?
Is the VVDC setting stressing the card too much?
Is the power limit within the safety limits?
How is the latter actually shrinking the life expectancy of a card?
 
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Will just start off saying this: stop using furmark, it has potential of destroying the VRMs on your card. Use valley benchmark instead.

- Yes the OC is safe, but it might be unstable. A benchmark program can detect some instabilities, but the best stress test is to test your OC in the real world: the game you intend on playing.
- Voltage is pretty high, DO NOT go over 1300mV though. If it is causing concern, download HWinfo64 and check to see the VRM temps under load. 120C is maximum VRM temp on most cards, 90-100C is a good safe limit.
- Yes, theroretically it will reduce the life span of your card. Reason I say theoretically is because unless you plan on keeping that GPU on that OC for 8+ years, you will never run the risk of the card burning out because of the OC (as long as you keep it within safe operating temps). Again, if it is cause for concern, do what I do: Set that OC as a preset in TriXX and only apply it when you are gaming.
 
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i've overclocked mine to 1100 GPU Clock , 1500 Memory Clock & 20+ Power Limit! (Auto-Fan) , after playing GTA 5 at Very High settings (75 FPS AVG) for hour+ the Max temp was 68°C , Saints Row 4 at Ultra settings(70-90 FPS) for hour the Max temp reached 70°C (as far it's not crashing and doesn't reach 80°C it shoud be ok) so a damn good overclock 😉 for my setup i assume , my Build :

Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-6700 CPU @ 3.40GHz
Radeon R9 270X Sapphire Dual-X 2GB OC
Kingston DDR3L ValueRam 16 GB 1600 MHz (Would pick a nicer/better RAM but Skylake CPU's do not offically support DDR3 as it may break the CPU overtime , still a good RAM overall just looks bad)
Gigabyte Z170-HD3 DDR3 Motherboard
Kingston SSD HyperX Savage 240 GB
Old WD 650 GB Hard Drive (Not really sure what model it is , as mentioned it's 'OLD' going to upgrade to 2 TB 7200 RPM soon.)
HKC USP 5565550W Power Supply ( it's not the best and the safest , but it does the job for now.)
Aerocool Strike-X ONE Advance (Comes with one RED LED fan on Front Side and one Non Led fan on the back , it's a Very nice case , has good Airflow and a lot of Space for extra Fans up to 12)
4x Arctic Cooling Arctic F12 120 Fans
1x NZXT LED ventilator FZ 120mm RED
 
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In Assetto Corsa I get over 60 fps but after some time, it gets too hot. I don't want to increase memory or clock, just cooling. What kind of fan speed settings is safe with everything left default?
 
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