Two questions oc'ing 7870 xt (noise and temp)

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Ravnen

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Apr 11, 2013
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Hi everyone.

I just put together my new pc and have started overclocking it. I have bought a sapphire 7870 xt. I have seen a lot of reviews were people have reached 1200-1275 on the core, though I haven't heard any non-reviewers getting much more than 1150.

1) The weird thing is that I am able to put the clock at 1210 already and the temperature doesn't reach much more than 55 degrees (celsius) when I test it in different games and Heaven 4.0. Could the temperature sensor be broken because it seems really low.

2) Under graphical load the computer makes a strange sound I haven't experienced before. It's a high frequency and sounds a little like when the lid on a thermo pot is not completely sealed. Is it just the capacitors making this noise? Should I be worried?

My specs are:

Asrock z77 Extreme4
i5 3570k (not oc'ed yet)
6 Gb OCZ 1033 (my new ram arrives tomorrow)
Antec 1100 (two front fans + top@12 volt, two side fans + rear@7 volt)

I hope you can help me :).
 
Solution
Blahman11
Does the fan speed go up when the wierd noise starts? It could just be that. The reviewers get the best quality GPUs from the supplier, so they will overclock better and require less voltage and kick out less heat. You could be lucky and have one of those good quality GPUs. The best way to see whether the OC is stable is as to whether the GPU driver doesn't crash, or the FPS is stable at that speed. The latter is a better indicator. If it jumps about the place, or is lower than when the GPU is at lower clocks, then the GPU can't run at those clocks stably. Another indicator is if the screen starts to show artifacts.
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Blahman11

Blahman11

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May 23, 2011
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Does the fan speed go up when the wierd noise starts? It could just be that. The reviewers get the best quality GPUs from the supplier, so they will overclock better and require less voltage and kick out less heat. You could be lucky and have one of those good quality GPUs. The best way to see whether the OC is stable is as to whether the GPU driver doesn't crash, or the FPS is stable at that speed. The latter is a better indicator. If it jumps about the place, or is lower than when the GPU is at lower clocks, then the GPU can't run at those clocks stably. Another indicator is if the screen starts to show artifacts.
 
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Solution
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Ravnen

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Apr 11, 2013
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It's not the fans. I tried to stop the fans with my hands for a second and the sound did not change. It is mostly in the graphic heavy sessions it becomes audible. It's very prominent in the heavy graphic sessions but there's no sound at all in the physic tests. I will try to make a recording of it later.

I have tried to use "valley" from unigine as a stress test and it produces temperatures upto 65 degrees. I reached 118 as a maximum clock on the core. I don't get any artifacts or any other indication that the gfx is pressured but if I go to 119 the computer freezes after aprox. 30 seconds of testing. Will try to look into it later after I have overclocked the memory. Any idea as to why this is happening would be appreciated :).
 
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Blahman11

Blahman11

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May 23, 2011
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Ok the noise is probably the GPU equivalent of 'running in' then. By the looks of things you seem to have found it's limit. You could get more if you increase the voltage (If you haven't already) so long as the cooler can cope. I don't know what the heat limits of the GPU are, but so long as you keeping the temps under it then you're fine. Enjoy the increase :)
 
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rvieaujr

rvieaujr

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Mar 3, 2013
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the card powercolor or sapphire version? i've heard alot of this from the powercolor. let me know, if it is the powercolor i'd say trade it in and go for the sapphire version or upgrade and go with a 7950.
 
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Potato13

Potato13

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May 30, 2012
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That's coil whine and I have it too. Some say all 7870 XTs have it and some say it only happens with corsair PSU's and certain GPUs. You can try changing the PSU and see if it resolves the problem. Personally, I just live with it because I game with headphones and the sound is not that bad. And btw those are some awesome temps, I get like 60-75 degrees under load and 33-35 degrees normally. I'm unsure if the sensor is broken but I know that the coil whine is harmless, you could return it and get another card or you could live it. Just game with some headphones, or get some sound proofing foam.
 
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