Safe overclock for r9 290x??

[john1587]

Hi,

Im currently playing with a msi r9 290x lightning, so far I could get 1130mhz on the core and 1350 on the memory without artifacts on stock volts +63mv, and temps dont go higher than 63C with this OC, the question is which will be a safe core voltage to keep pushing? +100mv? or can i make a test with +200mv? could i damage the vcard raising voltage even if temps stays below 75C?

 

[Coolboy951]

you can keep going up 10 on core and memory and increase the voltage by 5 and run furmark and check for artifacts and watch the Temps
http://www.ozone3d.net/benchmarks/fur/

 

[john1587]

you can keep going up 10 on core and memory and increase the voltage by 5 and run furmark and check for artifacts and watch the Temps
http://www.ozone3d.net/benchmarks/fur/

Thanks for the quick answer but, as good as temps are ok can i keep raising the voltage? or voltage have a kind of safe limit i should consider?

 

[tsnor]

There is no 'safe' overclock... each increment increases the probability of failure. Increased temperature also leads to higher failure rates. This is as true for SSDs and CPUs as it is for GPUs.

Suggest you look at your tolerance for getting a new card in a year or two. If you plan to do it anyway then volt mod at the limits other people use. If like me you might end up 3 or more years on a GPU and it would bother you to have it fail then stick to OC'ing on stock voltage and continue to watch temps as you already are doing.

People will flame 'it does not either hurt GPU life to do minor volt moding' however they rarely explain why the manufacturer of the card didn't factory volt mod the chip to get a more valuable stable higher OC GPU instead of the whatever spec GPU they sold. Answer is the community would flame them like crazy if they were caught shipping out of spec voltage because of the elevated failure rates. The GPU manufacturers would be upset also because the higher failure rate reflects back on them.

update: Here is a published fail rate estimation sheet. Note the formula used to project failures uses the cube of the ratio of the stock voltage and the operating voltage. λ = λ0 (V/V0 ) 3 x 2 (T-To)/10
http://www.niccomp.com/Products/smt/NTCRel-FR71399.pdf

 

[Coolboy951]

i would add 10-20 more voltages than the stock voltages and than overclock and run furmark if artifacts show up than reduce the clocks

 

[dmstewart]

Hi,

Im currently playing with a msi r9 290x lightning, so far I could get 1130mhz on the core and 1350 on the memory without artifacts on stock volts +63mv, and temps dont go higher than 63C with this OC, the question is which will be a safe core voltage to keep pushing? +100mv? or can i make a test with +200mv? could i damage the vcard raising voltage even if temps stays below 75C?

Thats about what both my cards do on the stock +63 voltage. One way to get an idea of how much voltage you can get away with is to first take a look at the ASIC quality via GPU-Z. Right click the the icon in the top left that looks like a little gpu and select "Read ASIC Quality". Lightnings should be 72% and higher. If youre in the 74-78% range then it means you can get some good performance via overclocking no matter if youre on air or water.

Now, as far as voltage and possible damage...Many people have no problems unlocking the voltage on these cards and pushing it to the +200. I will do it to see what I can get out of the card but its not what I do for gaming (the activity I do the most). Heres how I do my OC on the 290x Lightnings. Like you, I get the highest OC on the "stock" +63 voltage setting. I then increase to +69 and see what my ceiling is. I just picked up a third Lightning, put the water block on it, and I could do 1175 core/1375 memory. But starting here it becomes a real uphill battle. I have to jump two notches to +81 voltage to be able to get to 1190/1400.

Now, I will see what I can get out of +200v but I wont be really using that setting at all. I want to be able to resell my cards (as I always do) and I dont like passing along a thrashed card to someone else. So I try to stay near to +100 volts. However, and this is a big exception, if a Lightning shows a significant performance boost at anything above the +100 voltage then I may consider running it as my 3d/Game setting. But since the law of diminishing returns hits hard on most cards the closer you get to +200 I tend to only hit the highest OC and then back it down. As an example, I had a possessed Lightning that did 1435/1550 and it just wanted more. But I felt confident running that card near +200. Temps were good all the way around, even PCB temps werent as high as they shouldve been.

But you'll start to get a feel for the card's capability right off the bat by reading the ASIC quality. For example, this one that Im OC'ing now is almost 78% ASIC so I know that on +63 volt Im going to hit a wall at 1165/1350 (or maybe 1145/1400-you get my drift) under water.

BTW, Ive reverted back to using Unigine's Heaven for one reason...rather than dealing with artifacting or possible black screens, lock-ups, et al, in scene 6 you can see the lighting change (as it pans by the floating ship). If you see that anything higher on the clocks will cause you problems. But at that point you can safely exit, up the voltage, and redo without having to run the whole test. And of course once Im done with Heaven I run it through 3D Mark.

I know the thread is old but since Im doing a third personal card, I figured I would add my two cents (or two dollars depending how much it helps anyone)