GTX550Ti overclock, seem like a decent one?

[steddora]

One thing I have noticed about these cards is that they weren't all that popular. But to hold me over until the nVidia 7xx series and AMD 8xxx series comes around; I decided to try some GPU overclocking. Now, I wanted to keep the GPU's the same to keep it easier on myself with Asus's software. So, I clocked them the same on the memory and the GPU frequencies.

Stock reference is 1125mv@900Mhz on the GPU and I believe 1000mhz on the memory.

The Asus GTX 550Ti DirectCU II which I have is clocked at 910mhz and 1026 for the memory.

I've reached on stock voltage (I don't like boosting voltage) to 1050Mhz on both GPU's and 1200mhz on the memory. With the Unigine Heaven benchmark I've went from a score of 623 to 752 on the most extreme settings at 1920x1080. Extreme Tessellation, 16x Anistropic, 8x Anti-Aliasing. I do notice the change and even saw quite an improvement in games like BF3 and Metro 2033. What I don't see much about is what others have really achieved with the 550Ti GPU's. I have found a few and some have hit as high as 1150 and 1200mhz on these chips. Does a 1050mhz GPU and 1200Mhz memory clock sound decent? I figured I've gained about 17% performance over the stock clocks of these boards. What do you think?

 

[Guest]

One thing I have noticed about these cards is that they weren't all that popular. But to hold me over until the nVidia 7xx series and AMD 8xxx series comes around; I decided to try some GPU overclocking. Now, I wanted to keep the GPU's the same to keep it easier on myself with Asus's software. So, I clocked them the same on the memory and the GPU frequencies.

Stock reference is 1125mv@900Mhz on the GPU and I believe 1000mhz on the memory.

The Asus GTX 550Ti DirectCU II which I have is clocked at 910mhz and 1026 for the memory.

I've reached on stock voltage (I don't like boosting voltage) to 1050Mhz on both GPU's and 1200mhz on the memory. With the Unigine Heaven benchmark I've went from a score of 623 to 752 on the most extreme settings at 1920x1080. Extreme Tessellation, 16x Anistropic, 8x Anti-Aliasing. I do notice the change and even saw quite an improvement in games like BF3 and Metro 2033. What I don't see much about is what others have really achieved with the 550Ti GPU's. I have found a few and some have hit as high as 1150 and 1200mhz on these chips. Does a 1050mhz GPU and 1200Mhz memory clock sound decent? I figured I've gained about 17% performance over the stock clocks of these boards. What do you think?

first every gpu chip is different; what one gets doesn't means that is what the next will get. also after 296.10 any driver will throttle down more than 999 on the core. i didn't find that out until i saw it while benching in kombuster and GPU shark verified it - didn't see the throttle in OC scanner of any OCD in heaven.

here is a thread on guru 3d forums:
http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=364272
the last post verifies it.

so some of those folks may think they are getting that high of a clock and may see a small improvement but, i guarantee you if they are using 3xx.xx drivers, their 550ti is throttling to half the speed of the "set core clock".

but back to your card. if i remember before i got the 570, i think i hit ~1150ish with a 296.10 driver to bench in heaven and play far cry 2 and rage. metro 2033 decimated me - and sorta still does :lol: i have the evga super clock 981/ 2257(1128)@ 1.162 volts out of the box. like you i left the volts alone. now you ASUS DC II most likely could afford a bit more volts than what it has on stock. though the EVGA SC was a little "juiced up" to begin with but, i think you can go for the same 1.162 that i have/had without a problem.

btw, whenever i overclock i always set the fan to max. - it still would hit 70c but i have a reference cooler


cheers.

 

[steddora]

GPU-Z seems to show the clock as successful. I could probably get over 1100mhz easily with a boost in the voltage; but I'm not wanting any more heat than the SLi setup already tosses out of the top card. I know at 80% fan the top card hits 60C at full usage with a few games. I know there's headroom, but I'll leave that to when I KNOW I'm getting a new card LOL

Anyways, I use GPU Tweak and don't seem to have any issue with the automatic downclocking. I'm going to read more about it; but so far, I haven't noticed it change at all; even with heavy usage from a windowed program; seems like the clock stays at 1050 on both cards in GPU-Z.

 

[Guest]

not trying to argue with you but GPU-Z also read my clocks at what i set them. its a false reading; the same with afterburner and precisionX. use krombuster and start GPU shark, you will see the throttling. furmark would be valid either since nvidia's drivers will throttle that even at stock settings.

 

[steddora]

I actually ran Furmark, GPU1 @ 999Mhz (Throttling -51Mhz)

What the.... What is causing this completely stupid throttling!?

 

[Guest]

any driver past 296.xx for *that* card.

really any driver past 27x.xx did not give me any performance difference in the games i was playing at the time: crysis 2, BFBC2, far cry 2, rage . .

the 3xx.xx series were released for kepler where boosts and clock rates were set by the drivers, or should i say "supported" by the drivers.

so blame kepler.

 

[steddora]

So basically, I can't overclock my cards where I want my cards to be because of some driver for a newer GPU? That's some BS. That's complete BS.

 

[Guest]

i feel you man. i was in the same boat until i picked of a 570 for $160 on ebay. and since there is no way that can overclock to 1000 it didn't matter any more to me after that.

but there is an option; forget using the newer drivers. they really are not "tweaked out" for fermi anyhow; they are geared for kepler. if there is any performance difference, it can be more than compensated with by being able to increase the overclocking without the 999 limit.

if the newer drivers have any updated gaming profiles then that can be added by using nvidia inspector and add the profile manually. it can be rather time consuming but it is an option. there are several guides and discussion forums you can run across by some googling. by the time you get a handle on it, you will have made some serious advances in your knowledge and experience.

though is might not be for everyone, there were several times it seemed my brain ceased to function trying to absorb it . . :lol:

don't get too upset, just roll back the drivers, keep the physX updated if you use that at all, do some gaming/benching and take it from there.