MSI 6970 Lightning wont OC (Crossfire and eyefinity)

[funksoulninja]

Hey there

This is my first thread.
I have already tried to get information regarding this issue on this thread: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/274670-11-6970-lightning but have yet to receive a response so im trying here.

Heres the situation.
I recently bought two MSI 6970 Lightning cards with the aim to OC, Crossfire and Eyefinity in that order. (A whole can of worms i know)
I have experience in OCing GPU's as i took my old XFX 6970 2gb from a core clock 880 to 940 and ram to 1450 all stable with decent temps.
I have also OC my CPU happily. I am used to stress testing with Furmark and Kombuster, used to MSI Afterburner and GPU-Z.
However... i cannot get either of the cards even 10Mhz higher (either single or crossfired, not on eyefinity) without receiving blue screens mentioning driver issues.
I have CCC 12.1 which REFUSES to update to 12.3 or 12.4 much to my disamay. I have recently done a fresh install of windows 7 to see if that would help, it hasnt.

Am i missing something? because i find it hard to beleive that two brand new cards would both have the exact same limitations in OC. since i know this card is famous for breaking the 1000mhz mark its kinda gutting to not even break 950mhz.

Any help would be appreaciated
Thanks, Funk

Heres my Rig:

Asus Sabertooth P67 Mboard
Intel I7 2700k @4.5Ghz with H60 Watercooler
Amd msi 6970 lightning X 2 in Crossfire
8gig Corsair vengeance DDR3 Mem @1600
850Watt XFX XXX Edition PSU
60GB OCZ SSD
1TB Seagate HDD
NZXT Phantom Case
A butload of fans
3 X B2409HDS Iiyama Monitors

 

[Rustyy117]

Hi

Can you overclock either card with eyefinity disabled (using just a single monitor)?

Also when you did a fresh install of Windows 7 did you try first to install 12.4 or did you go straight to 12.1 and then try and update?

This may not be your issue, but 850W may not be enough once you start OCing the cards aswell, see here: http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/HD_6970_Lightning/21.html

A single HD6970 Lightning on its own under max load will use 250W, so your cards alone use 500W, plus an overclocked 2700K and the rest of your system.

Maybe reduce the power consumption by removing the CPU overclock and unpluging some devices like any optical devices or additional fans and see if you can then overclock the cards abit more, just as a test.

I take it you've tried a small voltage bump?

Just as a side note, try not to create multiple threads about the same issue, mods won't be pleased.