Is is better to overclock GPU through catalyst or bios?

[TheOKAY]

I have a ATI Radeon XFX 5770 and I overclocked the the Core Clock to 885MHz and the Memory Clock to 1305MHz quite easily using ATI Catalyst.
When overclocking my cpu I noticed that there is an option to increase the PCIE speed from 100MHz, if I am not mistaken.
So when overclocking my 5770 should I overclock with catalyst and bios or just one or the other?

Thanks.

 

[Metsuna]

Generally people use software such as Catalyst, nTune, Rivatuner, MSI afterburner, and EVGA Precision to overclock their graphics cards, and it's quite safe to do so. I don't know if there's a way to overclock the graphics card through bios, I think that option to increase PCIE speed does something different than what you think. I'm sure someone else can elaborate on that.

In conclusion, Catalyst is fine for overclocking your GPU.

 

[TheOKAY]

Thanks. I'll take a picture of my BIOS to show you the option that I mean.

 

[davcon]

Using CCC is fine if you want some finer controls download MSI Afterburner.
As for your modern gpu i would leave the bios feature of the pcie slot at 100Mhz which is default.
You could play with it but over 120Mhz could damage your gpu.

 

[Motopsychojdn]

^Bump, leave pcie alone
my 5770's running at 960/1450 quite cheerfully using catalyst, I also have my fan on manual 100% but auto is fine as well if you prefer,
Moto

 

[TheOKAY]

Dude that fan's hella loud. Seriously you run 100% all day long? You better turn your sound up.

 

[Snipergod87]

it will also wear out the bearings faster..

 

[aznshinobi]

Lululul, welll... it depends on your OC, but with minor OCs I don't think that running your fan at 100% is very good. =P I have my 5850 at a huge (ish) OC of 1000/1205, and all I need to run the fan at is 60% when I'm playing games =P

CCC should be good enough in your case btdubs. Like the overall concensus

 

[lubey]

I have my 5850 at a huge (ish) OC of 1000/1205, and all I need to run the fan at is 60% when I'm playing games =P

Can I ask what programs you use to achieve this? I'm guessing MSI afterburner, but how did you stress test it etc? I remember back in the day ATI tools scanned for artifacts for you, is there a way to do this nowadays? I also have a 5850, have it maxed out in CCC @ 920/1200.

So when overclocking my 5770 should I overclock with catalyst and bios or just one or the other?

The PCIE speed in the startup bios settings doesnt OC the video card, just the interface. If you have the slot running at 16x or even 8x speed this won't make a heap of difference. There is a program called RBE (and i'm sure there are others like it) which can flash the video card's bios with OC'ed speeds. This is more powerful than software overclock programs such as CCC (e.g. software usually automatically disables power saving functions so the idle power draw of the card skyrockets), but its extremely risky!!

 

[aznshinobi]

Wow they really did CCC since I used it. Back then it was just adding 25mhz of core clock so from 850-875. I use Afterburner just like you. You just have to stress with programs like Kombuster or Furmark. The only thing I have to ask though, is what is your 5850. Only the Asus DirectCu, maybe MSI TwinFrozr and All reference (so all the original 5850s) have voltage unlocked in any ocing program. So in order to even reach anything above 950 you'd have to be able to up your voltage.

Anyway back to stressing, you must run furmark or Kombuster(i use kombuster) for at least 3 minutes and not see artifacts. CCC sucks at stressing any higher oc.

 

[lubey]

Bummer, I have a gigabyte HD 5850. Thanks for the info though, I guess I'll still try out MSI A/B with kombuster, might be able to get a bit more out of it

 

[Motopsychojdn]

Lululul, welll... it depends on your OC, but with minor OCs I don't think that running your fan at 100% is very good. =P I have my 5850 at a huge (ish) OC of 1000/1205, and all I need to run the fan at is 60% when I'm playing games =P

CCC should be good enough in your case btdubs. Like the overall concensus

stock speeds on mine were 850/1200 and its at 960/1450 now so whilst not a huge clocking, its definately a decent edge over stock, and its not so much that I 'need' the fan on 100%,
I just prefer to avoid the whirring up/down that auto control delivers, I'd rather have a constant level of noise, easier to filter out
my gfx temps are about 40c normally though
Moto

 

[RickyT23]

My 5850 uses the original reference cooler, and at 100% fan speed it sounds like a chainsaw!!! Or a Harrier jump jet taking off