VTX 7850 possible damage?

[shanks86]

Hi,

This is my first time overclocking since overclocking a 9800pro- XT speeds...

I got the X edition VTX3D 1GB card (same as the powercolor pcs+) and have made a new build at last... tried my hand at overclocking. No overvolting has been used yet... I have gotten to 1115 core/ 1300 memory with no artifacts. However going to 1125 caused a black screen and a system freeze the 2 times I tried it...

I have 2 qs:

1- Could I have damaged the card (have never had a black screen in windows before- many bsods tho!)
2- Is the reason there is no artifacting because the card can go further but needs more voltage?

Sorry for me sounding crazy- just don't want to kill my new hardware and go back to the intel integrated gfx..!

 

[shanks86]

Also- left fan set at auto, have not seen temps go over 61 degrees in GPU-Z

Should this be set to manual?

 

[cheezecake56]

You can leave the fan at auto, if the card gets too hot then you set a custom fan profile that is more aggressive. The reason why the card has no artifacting is because it has enough voltage to be stable. I am pretty sure you have not damaged the card because you have not increased voltage. You may have damaged the OS installation though, but that is unlikely. Since you cant reach 1125, you will need to bump up the voltage a bit. Keep in mind bumping up the voltage too much creates unnecessary heat and unnecessary wear and tear on the gpu. Also, there is a max safe voltage for all gpus. For the 7850, I don't know what it is. But usually there is a margin above the max safe voltage. How big the margin is can only be determined by turning your new GPU into a paperweight. So before you trigger happy on overclocking and voltage increases, do your research on the max safe voltage so you won't have to use integrated gfx.

EDIT: cleared things up a bit.

 

[shanks86]

Hi,

I had installed that MVP thingy, used driver cleaner to remove the intel integrated graphics, uninstalled & reinstalled the gfx driver and removed Lucid (it was crap!)

Still getting the black screen in idle at random times and annoying screen flickering issues- most recently while browsing the internet when its in 2d mode. Have disabled that ulps and it's made no difference...

Am starting to get worried- have got it back to stock (it came at 1000/1225) and got a black screen :S

As said the max i've pushed the memory is 1300, but isn't the rated speed 1250 and with the good airflow in the case, with only the 1 3dmark run, could the memory chips have been battered?

should I do an OS reinstall?

PS- have turned off HW acceleration in firefox- no flickering yet- is that a driver issue or a hardware fault, as people have only really had this problem with older drivers :S

 

[cheezecake56]

Yea I think you should try an OS reinstall because if the OS was doing something important like an windows update, you could have corrupted part of the install.

 

[shanks86]

yep i think the SSD is getting upset as well... my steam install of crysis 2 disappeared with a hard reset when playing shift at 1110/1250... now running at 1075/1250 with no lockups.

Really regretting getting this VTX 3D- sapphire has unlocked vcores apparently!

probs will format tonight- hope the SSD is ok!