Overclocking Sapphire HD5970

[Headshot_Harry]

Hi Guys, recently posted up a few threads about upgrading a 5970 and various options, first though I thought I'd have a crack at overclocking the card - However I've run into issues pretty much at the first hurdle.

I got myself the latest MSI Afterburner, upped a bit of voltage and upped the clock speeds by about 2% just as a start. Immediately after this I get weird things going on with my Eyefinity desktop, flickering etc. I removed the overclock and all is fine.

I thought about a few things, isn't there enough voltage? is it getting to hot? however I went back to the beginning and decided to increase the clock literally by as small amount as possible. Same thing?

I was wondering if anyone had any ideas on what might be causing this? If I'm doing anything wrong? or if simply my card is one of the few that doesn't like anything outside of it's own standard clock?

The current BIOS version on the card is: 012.013.000.002 - I'm wondering if there is a newer version available? and would it be worth flashing the BIOS?

Has anyone had similar issues when trying to overclock a 5970 when running Eyefinity monitors? (x3 24")

 

[raptor15sc]

"is it getting to hot?"

you tell us. what does Afterburner say the temp is--before and after?

and if you're only doing a small overclock, then you don't need to touch the voltages at all.

 

[Headshot_Harry]

max temp is approx 70 degrees, I should have said also, I've tried doing this and maxing the fans at the same time, temp with this (when running BF3 beta) is no more than about 60.

 

[Headshot_Harry]

Read somewhere something to do with the 2D clock causing the issues with overclocking?

 

[wa1]

well, maybe my question is out of topic, but why did you want to OC HD5970?
For me, it's already FAST enough to play most of games with HIGH setting...

 

[Headshot_Harry]

Because I run Eyefinity, and it isn't fast enough...

 

[go7roo7]

My 5970 does the same, from my research it seems its the luck of the draw. Seems we both got cards that dont like OC...even a little...

 

[go7roo7]

Finally I figured it out. The card seems to have a cold bug.

While lurking on about probably 30 forums, I saw a post that someone wrote:


edi_2
Registered User

Hi, Its called a cold bug. Open catalyst and create a slight overclock (5mhz) preset. Name the file and go to c:/users/username/appdata/local/ati/ace/profiles

there will be your created preset there. open it with notepad and change values 15700 which is a core speed when idle to 40000. also change mem speed from 30000 to 90000. save it and run preset from catalyst.

now when idle your core will be set tro 400 and mem to 900 and this should fix your cold bug.

I got home, tried it and BAM! worked! Now when I try to OC the card, it does downclock when idling, but not to the point when the screen begins to tear or have any issues.