Yup, my GTX 280 core clock hit 774mhz (775 to be exact). On modest air cooling.
Awesome to know I can hit that. However, as you can guess, things got a bit unstable. Just the mere fact that my temps will still safe and my gpu is still fine is feat enough!
You ask what awful software let my 280 hit 775mhz core? ATI Tool, of course, which so many people swear works fine with nvidia cards.
I tried ATI Tool because like any responsible OC'er I want to OC in increments, being able to do a quick test for each little increase (as opposed to test for 2 hours for each 2mhz bump!).
Once ATI Tool clearly wasn't a good idea, I didn't know where to turn. Yes, I know there are good stability tests out there, but like I said, don't we have any software for vista that has the "test" button for an instant stability check?
That at least gave you a rough idea of where to go, then you could do more thorough testing from there.
I just don't have the time to test for hours for each bump. I've already noticed that artifacts sometimes won't pop up for a good 20 minutes or so. I've been using Crysis, the game itself and its benchmark.
However, things look promising. I have a GTX 280 SSC (the evga version with sweeet OC's that isn't over $700!). I was actually playing Crysis last night (again, modest air cooling at best) for one full hour at 702mhz core and 1440mhz memory, then at that hour mark I started getting some real small artifacts.
Given how well the GTX 280 underclocks itself when idle along with the fact that I rarely even play games, including Crysis, for more than an hour tell me I might be getting close to my optimal OC. I also have a suspision that it might be my RAM I need to bump down but my core clock can go through the roof (since I've already seen it hit 774mhz without crashing).
Anyhow, yeah I'm wondering if there is some quicker way than running Crysis or Fur for an hour to test my increments. Using Vista. Not a huge deal if there isn't, since I do think I'm getting close.
Overall, I'm really happy with my 280 so far. Last night I was playing Crysis quite smoothly with maxed driver settings (other than AA) @ 1680x, DX10, Very High settings, and 4xAA.
I've seen those AMD benchmarks saying that the 280 should only get 24 fps on those settings, but without any AA. I can say that in my case that is definitely wrong. With a modest OC to FTW speeds, 30 fps was the average (perfect, huh?), running the crysis benchmark with those settings, 5 loops. Without any OC at all I hit like 28 fps average.
And no quad core beast helping me out here. Just your run of the mill under $200 C2D.
"A little off topic, but..." while people are complaining about this card, assuming this or that, or judging by benchmarks...I'm sitting here with a single gpu solution playing Crysis quite smoothly with everything maxed @ Very High settings and 4xAA, no game tweaks at all (although I might bump the AA down to 2x or no AA just to give a little FPS headroom, but it doesn't seem like like I NEED to do it). So how the hell can I complain? Temps have been well to me too. This card is doing exactly what I paid for it to do, period.
Awesome to know I can hit that. However, as you can guess, things got a bit unstable. Just the mere fact that my temps will still safe and my gpu is still fine is feat enough!
You ask what awful software let my 280 hit 775mhz core? ATI Tool, of course, which so many people swear works fine with nvidia cards.
I tried ATI Tool because like any responsible OC'er I want to OC in increments, being able to do a quick test for each little increase (as opposed to test for 2 hours for each 2mhz bump!).
Once ATI Tool clearly wasn't a good idea, I didn't know where to turn. Yes, I know there are good stability tests out there, but like I said, don't we have any software for vista that has the "test" button for an instant stability check?
That at least gave you a rough idea of where to go, then you could do more thorough testing from there.
I just don't have the time to test for hours for each bump. I've already noticed that artifacts sometimes won't pop up for a good 20 minutes or so. I've been using Crysis, the game itself and its benchmark.
However, things look promising. I have a GTX 280 SSC (the evga version with sweeet OC's that isn't over $700!). I was actually playing Crysis last night (again, modest air cooling at best) for one full hour at 702mhz core and 1440mhz memory, then at that hour mark I started getting some real small artifacts.
Given how well the GTX 280 underclocks itself when idle along with the fact that I rarely even play games, including Crysis, for more than an hour tell me I might be getting close to my optimal OC. I also have a suspision that it might be my RAM I need to bump down but my core clock can go through the roof (since I've already seen it hit 774mhz without crashing).
Anyhow, yeah I'm wondering if there is some quicker way than running Crysis or Fur for an hour to test my increments. Using Vista. Not a huge deal if there isn't, since I do think I'm getting close.
Overall, I'm really happy with my 280 so far. Last night I was playing Crysis quite smoothly with maxed driver settings (other than AA) @ 1680x, DX10, Very High settings, and 4xAA.
I've seen those AMD benchmarks saying that the 280 should only get 24 fps on those settings, but without any AA. I can say that in my case that is definitely wrong. With a modest OC to FTW speeds, 30 fps was the average (perfect, huh?), running the crysis benchmark with those settings, 5 loops. Without any OC at all I hit like 28 fps average.
And no quad core beast helping me out here. Just your run of the mill under $200 C2D.
"A little off topic, but..." while people are complaining about this card, assuming this or that, or judging by benchmarks...I'm sitting here with a single gpu solution playing Crysis quite smoothly with everything maxed @ Very High settings and 4xAA, no game tweaks at all (although I might bump the AA down to 2x or no AA just to give a little FPS headroom, but it doesn't seem like like I NEED to do it). So how the hell can I complain? Temps have been well to me too. This card is doing exactly what I paid for it to do, period.
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