Overclocking and autodownclock?

[chico1st]

I have an ATI 5770 and an X3-440 and i understand that they downclock themselves when not needed.

However i have noticed on my 5770 that when i overclock it, it doesn't downclock as well. At stock clocks my 5770 will go down to 157MHz when not gaming but if I overclock it even 10 MHz it will only downclock to 400MHz, which means more heat (i really want to avoid extra heat when not gaming to make my computer quiet).

Is there any way to mitigate this? Will my X3-440 have the same effect?

 

[wolfram23]

No idea about the 440, but for the 5770 that's normal. You basically have two options. First, use a profile for the OC - MSI Afterburner will make this easy. Then just load the OC profile for gaming as you need it, and otherwise leave on a "stock" profile for the idle savings.
The second option is to BIOS flash the card, so that it thinks the OC is normal. This is what I've done on my 5850s so they idle at 157/300 but under usage go to 875/1205, and I don't change a thing. To do this you'll need RBE (Radeon Bios Editor), GPUZ (to save your current BIOS for editing), and ATIFlash or ATIWinFlash (I use Win flash, but the other one is considered "safer" if you can boot into it).
You'll find the above mentioned programs at Tech Powerup as well as tutorials.

 

[chico1st]

Thanks thats super helpful.

does anyone know if the same applies to the X3-440?

 

[wolfram23]

Well, I'm not an AMD guy but I'm pretty sure there's a feature called Cool N Quiet, which is the feature that will downclock at idle. It's your choice if you enable or disable it, but generally it's good to leave on. Most people have to disable that only with a fairly good overclock.

 

[EXT64]

If you OC the CPU, CnQ will still try to work by changing the multiplier, however the voltages and clock will be all off and might cause instability.

The best way to have the best of both worlds is by manually setting your p-states with a program like K10Stat. It is a bit of a headache to learn, but once you get the hang of it it's ok. I use it so my 1055T, while not OC'ed, uses much lower voltages.

 

[chico1st]

Best answer selected by chico1st.

 

[chico1st]

cool thanks. Im happy i can still have the autodownclocking even with an OCd rig