R9 280x Overclocking - is it worth it?

[CGurrell]

Hi guys,

So I was thinking today about overclocking my Graphics Card, a Sapphire Dual-X r9 280x. It is currently overclocked slightly (GPU Clock 1040MHz instead of 1000MHz, Memory clock 6080MHz instead of 6000MHz), but I don't know if the rest of my PC could handle overclocking this card. My first issue is the motherboard, a piece of s*** ASUS P8-H61M R2.0. I know that this mobo doesn't allow CPU overclocking (I have a non-K i5 anyway so doesn't affect me) but I'm not sure of it's affect on GPU OC'ing.

Second of all is cooling, I am using a Dual-X r9 280x which is a great cooling system, but the whole system is air cooled using Corsair AF140s (apart from 1 CM BC120 at the rear). In a burn-in test on Furmark (1920x1080 res which is what I game at) the GPU peaked at 72c, which seems pretty hot to me, but I'm not sure whether or not it is extremely hot as a stock r9 290x was hitting over 90 degrees in a review I saw on another website.

My PSU can definitely handle overclocking (XFX Pro Series 1250w), but I'm worried mainly about temps. What do you guys think? Will OCing make all that much of a difference, and will that difference be worth it if it reduces the lifetime of the card?

 

[unknownofprob]

Your system can easily handle the overclock, the motherboard is fine and should not effect it. I do think it is worth it, if you use the manufacturer OC software take the core clock to 1230Mhz and see the difference! Make sure you have manual fan settings on, and on a higher RPM as temp increases. This is to be sure temps are at best.

 

[CGurrell]

Your system can easily handle the overclock, the motherboard is fine and should not effect it. I do think it is worth it, if you use the manufacturer OC software take the core clock to 1230Mhz and see the difference! Make sure you have manual fan settings on, and on a higher RPM as temp increases. This is to be sure temps are at best.

Thanks unknown When I take the core clock to 1230MHz, should I perform another burn-in test on furmark to check temps are ok?

Also should i use AMD OverDrive to OC or ASUS GPU Tweak?

 

[unknownofprob]

yes, always test your max temps after an overclock. Use GPU tweak, much more user friendly and voltage should be done for you, the fiddle stuff in other words.

 

[CGurrell]

yes, always test your max temps after an overclock. Use GPU tweak, much more user friendly and voltage should be done for you, the fiddle stuff in other words.

Ok so I've upped the GPU clock to 1230, what about Memory Clock and Power Target? should i increase those too? (First time overclocker lol, but i know the risks)

http://gyazo.com/29ffe05ddca5014b8d055f76cc7ff257

 

[unknownofprob]

memory clock, leave it for now and power target, +20% when @ 1230Mhz.

 

[CGurrell]

Ok Should i hit the burn button?

 

[unknownofprob]

yep, go for it!

did you change fan speed? You might want higher RPM when gaming, overclocked cards do run hotter.

 

[CGurrell]

eh? The burn button has diappeared :/ It disappears whenever i set the GPU Clock to 1230

 

[CGurrell]

yep, go for it!

did you change fan speed? You might want higher RPM when gaming, overclocked cards do run hotter.

It's set to Auto so it should increase as the gpu gets hotter right? Also the burn has disappeared (read prev post)

 

[unknownofprob]

can you "apply" it like in this image/review;

http://www.hardocp.com/image.html?image=MTM4MTc0OTc0N3VFcGVwMm9DeFlfMV81X2wuZ2lm

If you want, use those settings.

Yes auto does increase as it gets hotter, but the fan speed is quite low and can run into the 85 degrees +

 

[CGurrell]

I can press apply but it doesn't save those settings anywhere. Also my GPU tweak recognises my card as a Matrix 7970 (Yet the GPU Info shows AMD Radeon r9 200 series with the correct vendor etc). Could this just be an error with the 280x being a rebranded 7970?

Just hit apply, wow those fans are loud at 100%!

 

[CGurrell]

Restarted GPU Tweak, all seems to be working well now apart from the Matrix 7970 thing, I haven't hit burn yet or increased the fans to anything above 20%. Should i consider making a user defined fan profile to keep the speeds down at low temps?

 

[unknownofprob]

yes, it is a rebrand 7970 which it may be because of your CCC. So did it apply and did it overclock?

As for it not saving try this;

"go into settings, select the "tune" tab, tune settings, then check keep settings next time i start windows"
Beezy quote.

 

[CGurrell]

yes, it is a rebrand 7970 which it may be because of your CCC. So did it apply and did it overclock?

As for it not saving try this;

"go into settings, select the "tune" tab, tune settings, then check keep settings next time i start windows"
Beezy quote.

I've hit apply but not burn just yet, can i test these settings before burning the settings into the BIOS? (I think that's what burn does lol, again uber oc noob)

 

[unknownofprob]

you don't need to burn anything into BIOS, just save it in GPU tweak.

 

[CGurrell]

you don't need to burn anything into BIOS, just save it in GPU tweak.

ok, gonna run furmark now How will i know if the card has overclocked successfully? Will the clock speeds be displayed in furmark or something?

EDIT: Just opened up GPU-Z within furmark, all looks promising http://gyazo.com/421ebeff1f0591082f9f6f612bb61f0a

 

[unknownofprob]

test and compare old score to new score, that'll be your best bet.

 

[Romeru]

you don't need to burn anything into BIOS, just save it in GPU tweak.

ok, gonna run furmark now How will i know if the card has overclocked successfully? Will the clock speeds be displayed in furmark or something?

EDIT: Just opened up GPU-Z within furmark, all looks promising http://gyazo.com/421ebeff1f0591082f9f6f612bb61f0a

Furmark is a very unrealistic benchmark and will NOT provide you with good results. There is no games out there that puts this much stress on your gpu.

Use something like valley instead: https://unigine.com/products/valley/download/
And like unknown said make sure to use the benchmark feauture in valley to compare your score. You want to know that your overclock is improving your performance.

 

[CGurrell]

Just attempted to do a burn in with Furmark, GPU didn't take it well at all. Checkered pattern on screen, had to reboot to fix. I'll have a look at unigine now but I'm a little scared I've damaged my GPU at this point

 

[Romeru]

Just attempted to do a burn in with Furmark, GPU didn't take it well at all. Checked pattern on screen, had to reboot to fix. I'll have a look at unigine now but I'm a little scared I've damaged my GPU at this point

Nah, no worries. A reboot will fix it. Just lower the clock down.

 

[unknownofprob]

graphics cards are very durable these days, this hasn't damaged it, you need a lot more abuse then this to do that.

 

[CGurrell]

ok thanks guys, gonna lower the clock to around 1150MHz and see if that helps. I think the problem may have been the fan profile though, this is what I was running (Stupidly). http://gyazo.com/8c24bd15aff5bff86b18ee7851bc136c Should I make the fans go quicker at a lower temp than 50?

 

[unknownofprob]

could be due to the fact that the tests you used do not support that overclock, but that is to be expected at 1230Mhz for some tasks.

at 50 degrees, that is looking good, though you do have major speed spikes, it should be fine.

 

[CGurrell]

ok something weird is happening, for some reason Chrome won't allow me to download unigine, whenever i hit download i get the little circle loading sign thing on the tab, doesn't do anything, then acts like it's done and nothing has happened :/

EDIT: Nevermind, 3 downloads just all appeared at once in the little download bar that comes up. Oh google...