[ATI] Slight issue with OC'ing a Gigabyte 7970 OC.

[Jarek]

Hey everyone,

I'm having a couple issues with overclocking this card.

First, my PC specs:
MOBO: ASUS P5P43TD
CPU: i7 920 @ 4 GHz
RAM: Triple Channel Corsair Dom. @ 1600 MHz
GPU: Above mentioned with 12.8 Catalyst
HD: Intel G1 SSD
OS: Win. 7 Pro.

1) I've read many people saying that they were able to get to 1100/1500 with the stock voltages easily, but when I run Heaven at these clocks, I get artifacting and eventually the display driver fails. I also get the display driver issue at these clocks when browsing the web as well. The highest I've been able to get to is 1050/1450 without crashes or other issues.

Now, I do understand that not all cards are created equal and some are just better for overclocking than others, but is this a potential sign of a defective card? I just bought it on Monday, so I do have the option of an RMA. For what it's worth, GPU-Z reports pretty normal stats for temp., voltage, fan, etc. during the Heaven test at the 1050/1450 clocks, so I'm leaning towards my card just having sub-standard components, but you never know.

For what it's worth, my motherboard is an older one that only has PCIE 2.0 slots, so I wonder if that could also be an issue as well.

2) Has anyone been able to overvolt this card? The power slider on the CCC doesn't appear to do anything during testing, and no utility that I've tried (MSI AB, GB OC Guru, Sapphire TriXX) gives me the ability to overvolt the card, only undervolt it. If anyone has any tips for this, that would be appreciated, thanks.

 

[nna2]

to touch on my gigabyte experience, with a different card

i could overclock farther with the "overclock" bios instead of the "super overclock" bios
could never get OC guru to overvolt properly

it may be that OC guru over volted for the people who got 1100/1500, wouldn't suprize me

 

[inzone]

If you have no luck with overvolting the card just make sure that you don't wait too long before doing the RMA.

 

[Jarek]

My PSU: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139011

nna2: I know that the reference 7970s can be OC'd, and it may be those that people managed to OC.

inzone: That's IF I am able to overvolt it at some point.. :/

 

[Jarek]

I would RMA it now and get another one

Can you elaborate as to why? Not questioning your decision, just wondering about your reasoning behind it.

 

[inzone]

It may be that you have a defective card that will not overclock well or it may be the motherboard that is too old to make use of the full features of the video card but either way since the video card is still new and under the 30 days you will have an easier time with an RMA. Then you will have a new card that may be a better overclocker and in the meantime you can upgrade the bios of the motherboard in hopes that that will make a difference , or you can upgrede the bios first while your waiting for the RMA to process and if that fixes it then you wouldn't have to send the card back and you could cancel the RMA.

 

[Jarek]

Wow.. that mobo I stated is wrong, haha.

My mobo is actually a P6T Deluxe V2.

 

[Jarek]

Best answer selected by Jarek.

 

[Jarek]

Well, now I'm hearing a slight coil whine as well, and this is with the overclock turned off to test a CPU overclock, so I'm definitely RMA'ing this. Thanks for your input guys!