Is my 7850 OC stable?

[zijin_cheng]

Hi, I actually asked this question at Anandtech and Overclockers but no one has replied me yet, so here it is.

I have an ASUS DCII 7850 and I overclocked it to the following:

1050/1250 1138mV (Stock Volts)
1150/1250 1138mV
1200/1250 1170mV

I stress tested these configurations using Heaven and furmark and no crashes. Is this enough testing? I also did 10 minutse of BF3 and Crysis 2 respectively

Also, are these normal scores for an OC'ed 7850?

3373 on furmark and 1395 on Heaven 1920x1080 at 1200/1250?

Do you think I can go any higher? My temps during furmark are 95C.

 

[vmem]

they synthetic benchmarks are certainly not enough for a true stability test.

if you're looking for a stability test for 24/7 or everyday use, just hop on a big multiplayer map on bf3 and fight away. if it doesn't lock up after a full gaming session, chances are you're all good.

as far as raw OCing goes, I think you can try higher, but honestly, your furmark temps are high already, your gaming load temps are probably over 80C. I would downclock it so gaming load's below 80 for everyday use/gaming

 

[unksol]

if it crashes or artifacts its not stable. if it doesn't it is.

no one can tell you

 

[oxford373]

GPU temperature mustn't exceed 90c for a safe overclocking
when your GPU gets overheated the games will slow down

 

[vmem]

That is incredibly hot!!

yup, it's hotter than your over volted pair of 480s

 

[vmem]

I have just taken a close look at the DCUII card:

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx143/PCTwin/Graphics card testing/ASUS HD7850 DCII/coolr1.jpg


I would stop whilst you are ahead... there is not enough to cool the VRM's and memory.

eww, no VRM and memory heat spreaders at all? shame on your ASUS, shame on you! you of all people should know better

 

[vmem]

My 480 VRM's pushing huge voltage do not rise past 68c under intense load, that is how bad it is...

well, you also have an amazing case and some nice custom air cooling

@OP but yeah, if you're serious about air cooled OCing, do some research and at least buy some custom memory and VRM heat spreader fins. you absolutely do not want to be bench marking and pushing higher voltages and clocks without proper memory and VRM cooling. your best bet would be got get a gelide icy or accelero extreme or something and apply all the heat spreaders onto the proper components on your PCB. without them, your VRMs or memory can be hitting 100C+ without you knowing it

In fact, I bought the sapphire dual-x 7970 myself specifically because I'm a lazy bum, and it was the only card out at the time that had good manufacturer installed VRM and memory cooling

 

[zijin_cheng]

well, you also have an amazing case and some nice custom air cooling

@OP but yeah, if you're serious about air cooled OCing, do some research and at least buy some custom memory and VRM heat spreader fins. you absolutely do not want to be bench marking and pushing higher voltages and clocks without proper memory and VRM cooling. your best bet would be got get a gelide icy or accelero extreme or something and apply all the heat spreaders onto the proper components on your PCB. without them, your VRMs or memory can be hitting 100C+ without you knowing it

In fact, I bought the sapphire dual-x 7970 myself specifically because I'm a lazy bum, and it was the only card out at the time that had good manufacturer installed VRM and memory cooling

So you're saying that even though my hwmonitor is reporting 90 degrees, my vrmand memory is hitting 100+? Is there any way I could lower the temperatures without spending another $40-50 on custom coolers? I might as well have just bought a 7950 on sale 3 weeks ago for $310, I don't want to spend too much on my computer.

If airflow in my case is really bad, will adding more fans for increased airflow bring the temperature down?

here's the link to my thread on case airflow. I only have the one case fan that came with the case, plan to buy 3 more.

forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2253029

 

[zijin_cheng]

are there good custom coolers for $30? I know the arctic twin turbo is like $60 and that's too much

 

[zijin_cheng]

Did some quick research and confirmed my initial fears, I've seen at least 2 other threads in anandtech and overclock where people Oc their DCII to 1250/1500 and have a max temp of 65 celsius under heaven and bf3 multiplayer.

Do you think its just my card? I really don't want to rma because I can hit 1200/1210 at 1180mV.

Please tell me its my case airflow, boohoo

 

[vmem]

No idea, but the VRM's are a major concern when overvolting any card.

^+1.

@OP, honestly, you don't have to overvolt your card and OC that hard. just run it on stock or OC on stock voltages. heavy overclocking is mainly for benchmark chasing and not everyday use, and it really should only be done by people who have the right set up to do so.

if you really want to hit amazing clocks on air cooling, I suggest you listen to recon and invest in a good custom cooler. otherwise just default back to stock volts. there's nothing wrong with doing that for everyday gaming (as a matter in fact, it's generally encouraged)

 

[zijin_cheng]

I'm currently looking at the Gelid Vision Rev 2, what are your opinions on that?

 

[zijin_cheng]

Epic..

More epic than the accelero twin turbo?

 

[zijin_cheng]

For the price... yes

Its $40 right now... is that good?