Overclocking Sapphire 7970

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mcjord

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Apr 20, 2013
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Hi guys,
I'm really new in the world of PC gaming, and I've tried to read threads on overclocking, but it's made me really nervous. The last thing I want to do is fry my system. If someone could help guide me in the right direction, I would greatly appreciate it.

I won the majority of this build in a video contest, but I have a feeling that I am not maximizing on its potential. I was running off of a native 1440x900 resolution, and recently upgraded to a 120hz 1080p monitor, and I've noticed a decrease in FPS in the games I play (obviously) as a result.
The build is as follows:

i7-3960x @ 3.30 GHz
AMD Radeon Sapphire 7970 3gb (Not the OC'd edition)
32gb Corsair XMS3 DDR3 Ram
800w ATX power supply
P9X79LE Motherboard
Coolit 240 mm Liquid Cooling System
I have a Corsair 650D case as well.

Hopefully this is all the necessary specs.

In TRIXX, it says my 7970 is running at an average of 34 degrees Celsius at its stock settings. The core clock is set to 925, the memory clock is set to 1375, and the GPU voltage is at 1175.

All of these numbers are foreign to me, though I have been reading that some are necessary to move and others aren't initially? This is where I'm getting confused.

Not to jump the gun, but I have heard that CPU clocking is an option as well. In my case, would this be beneficial and/or necessary?

Thank you so much in advance.

-McJord

 
Solution
Novuake


OCing is ALWAYS a risk, but can be done safely by being methodical.
You have decent cooling so I should say you are safe up till 4.5GHz at least!

Just don't jump voltages TOO much.
http://www.overclock.net/t/1189242/sandy-bridge-e-overclocking-guide-walk-through-explanations-and-support-for-all-x79-overclockers

There is a full breakdown of OCing on SB-E...
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mcjord

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Well, I noticed it today when I was playing BF3 maxed out. I could always turn down the settings, but if it's possible to achieve higher fps without doing so, why not. When I'm sniping, for example, I drop to around 45-50 fps. It's not terribly bad, but it is noticeable.
 
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Novuake

Novuake

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Hmmm large multiplayer map or not?
I would say its a CPU OC for BF3...
 
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mcjord

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Yeah, definitely large multiplayer. Quite expansive. I updated the GPU driver the other day and it seemed to boost Crysis 3's FPS, but it didn't do anything for BF3. How would I go about a CPU OC, and is it relatively safe without any prior knowledge?
 
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Novuake

Novuake

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4800-clock-settings.jpg


Yeah its simple enough with decent cooling. Now I have never had OCd SB-E before, but the process is the same for Sandy and Ivy as SB-E.

As you can see above its just a multiplier increase and voltage bump at the end of the day.

Start by running prime95 for 30 minutes at your current 3.3GHz. Lets see what temps you get.
 
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mcjord

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Sorry for all of the questions, but I've never used prime95 before. Do I just run on the default "blend" test and the default 12 torture test threads?
 
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Novuake

Novuake

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Precisely. :D
Keep in eye on temps with HWmonitor or RealTemp.
 
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mcjord

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Alright, so it has been running for well over half an hour now. I had HWmonitor opened but realized halfway through that it was only showing assembly and airflow temps (which were at a max of 28 degrees Celsius), so I opened up Core Temps and found a maximum temp of 57 degrees @ 100% load.
 
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Novuake

Novuake

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Not bad! Well then. Now go into your BIOS.
Disable :
Limit CPUID Maximum
Power Technology
C1E Support
OverSpeed Protection
Spread Spectrum
Intel Turbo Boost

Enable :
Internal PLL Overvoltage
Execute Disable Bit
Intel Virtualization Tech

Keep in mind I have no idea which of those are present in SB-e. But they should all be.

Then increase your CPU Mulitplier to x40(4GHz). Run another half hour of Prime95.
 
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Novuake

Novuake

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One more thing. Get CPU-Z, you need to find out what voltages its maxing out on in the 4.0GHz Prime run. You then need to set it to FIXED voltage(or whatever its called), NOT OFFSET. I think stock is 1.3v, but I could be wrong. See where it peaks under load and then report back, we will figure it out from there.
 
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mcjord

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Apr 20, 2013
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Well, I was just in BIOS and came across one or two of the options you listed, but I couldn't find any of the other ones. I found options that looked similar, however I chose not to mess around with them. I may just see if I can pay someone locally to overclock it for me because I feel like I'm "in over my head" so to speak, haha.
 
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mcjord

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Apr 20, 2013
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Before my step by step, after having completed this post I came across an option called "OC Tuner". The caption says "OC Tuner automatically overclocks the frequency and voltage of CPU and DRAM for enhancing the system performance." Is this an option I should perhaps turn to?

Otherwise:

I'll take you step by step of where I went. (I'm not too familiar with BIOS either, haha).
--

Main bios screen, went into advanced settings.
--

I found "Limit CPUID Maximum" in "advanced" (it was already disabled).
--

Back in "Ai Tweaker" I clicked on a category called "DIGI + Power Control" and found two options called "CPU Power Phase Control" and "CPU Power Duty Control". There are numerous other options surrounding those two, but they seemed closest to "power technology."
--

Back in "Advanced --> CPU Configuration --> CPU Power Management Configuration" I came across "CPU C1E" which I am assuming is the "C1E support" you were speaking of.

--

I couldn't find anything on the "Overspeed Protection." I came across "Enhanced Intel SpeedStep Technology".
Also, below that is "Turbo Mode." Would that be the "Intel Turbo Mode"?
--
I found "Execute Disable Bit" / "Intel Virtualization Tech" in CPU Config, so that's a plus.
--

The only thing I found close to "Internal PLL Overvoltage" was "CPU PLL Voltage" under the main Ai Tweaker.

--
I couldn't find anything close to "Spread Spectrum".
--

That covers all of the options that you discussed in your post above.

Once I have all of these options figured out, where exactly is the CPU Multiplier?


Ps, thank you so much for your help. I really really appreciate it.
 
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mcjord

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Hmm. Ok. Now what if I can't find some of those options? Could that be detrimental to my CPU if I up the multiplier?
 
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Novuake

Novuake

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Aug 27, 2011
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OCing is ALWAYS a risk, but can be done safely by being methodical.
You have decent cooling so I should say you are safe up till 4.5GHz at least!

Just don't jump voltages TOO much.
http://www.overclock.net/t/1189242/sandy-bridge-e-overclocking-guide-walk-through-explanations-and-support-for-all-x79-overclockers

There is a full breakdown of OCing on SB-E...
 
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