Question about AMD Catalyst Control Center

Arthemius

Reputable
Oct 9, 2014
35
0
4,530
Hey there,

I have an AMD graphics card and I want to max out the settings in the Catalyst Control Center.
In shorter words: is it harmful or dangerous for the card to max out these settings? (See linked picture)
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PS: What does the Power limit settings do exactly?

Arthemius
 
Solution
"is it harmful or dangerous for the card to max out these settings?"

Any time you overclock a part it is dangerous. This is because the part is designed to operate at stock frequency's. When ocing your are making the parts run at a faster clock speed and at a higher temperature.

To OC your card safely follow these steps:
1. download OCCT and use this program only for the GPU test with error checking enabled.
2. Up one clock at a time, start with the core clock and up it by 20 MHz and test for 30 mins using OCCT with error checking enabled. IF the card errors start backing it back down by 2's till the error disappears.
3. repeat the first part of step 2 till errors appear. Once an error appears back the clock down by 2's till...

AdviserKulikov

Honorable
Jan 13, 2015
1,099
0
11,960
AMD CCC does not allow the most dangerous overclocking possible, at most you're going to crash and then you turn it down. Power limit increases the amount of power draw allowed to the card, it allows higher clock rates/stability.

I have yet to ruin a card by turning CCC to max, i've gotten flickering issues with dual monitors (old drivers on old cards), but no stability problems.
 
"is it harmful or dangerous for the card to max out these settings?"

Any time you overclock a part it is dangerous. This is because the part is designed to operate at stock frequency's. When ocing your are making the parts run at a faster clock speed and at a higher temperature.

To OC your card safely follow these steps:
1. download OCCT and use this program only for the GPU test with error checking enabled.
2. Up one clock at a time, start with the core clock and up it by 20 MHz and test for 30 mins using OCCT with error checking enabled. IF the card errors start backing it back down by 2's till the error disappears.
3. repeat the first part of step 2 till errors appear. Once an error appears back the clock down by 2's till the card does not error.
4. Write down core clock speed and reset to stock.
5. follow the same procedure for the memory clock speeds till it errors and back it down by 2's till the errors stop.

once you have both max clocks put them in and test for 1 hour to be sure the card is stable. IF it errors back down both clocks by 2 and retest. THis will give you your max OC.

watch for heat. upping the speeds will cause the card to heat up more causing it to throttle and drop performance. Also watch for throttling (the Core speed dropping to prevent overheating.)

"What does the Power limit settings do exactly?"

adjusting the power limit actually adjusts the point that the card will start to throttle the speed. By upping it by 8 it will adjust the throttle point from lets say 72°C to 88°C allowing the GPU to be OCed more but at the expense of heat. doing so could cause the GPU to overheat and hurt the GPU chip. Do so only when watching temps.

do not let the GPU go over 95°C at any point.
 
Solution