Author Topic: What is your stable, air cooled, stock voltage OC for 7970 GHZ or 280x?  (Read 4526 times)

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Offline tormentor

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I was able to get a stable OC on my His R9 280x Turbo Boost of 1170 core and 1620 memory. Is this a decent overclock for a 280x/7970 on air? More or less the usual? Bad? In comparison to the Sapphire Toxic (which was $30 more with 1180 core and 1600 memory) It seemed decent. What stable OC does your 280x do? I've seen reports of HD 7970s going as far as 1300 core for an elite silicon on air, anyone lucky enough to get one of those gems as the 280x rebrand?

Offline tp4tissue

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Re: What is your stable, air cooled, stock voltage OC for 7970 GHZ or 280x?
« Reply #1 on: Sun, 27 October 2013, 01:39:32 »
I can push 1200mhz if I lock the boost voltage on both my 7970.. but it requires 100% fan speed to keep the vrm temps down enough...

Offline tormentor

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Re: What is your stable, air cooled, stock voltage OC for 7970 GHZ or 280x?
« Reply #2 on: Sun, 27 October 2013, 02:35:52 »
I can push 1200mhz if I lock the boost voltage on both my 7970.. but it requires 100% fan speed to keep the vrm temps down enough...

EDIT : I thought I raised the power limit on Afterburner but I didn't, I increased it to %30 and now I have a extreemely stable 1180, I haven't touched the memory again since, but not a bad card. Still haven't touched the voltage which has some room.
« Last Edit: Sun, 27 October 2013, 04:04:40 by tormentor »

Offline tp4tissue

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Re: What is your stable, air cooled, stock voltage OC for 7970 GHZ or 280x?
« Reply #3 on: Sun, 27 October 2013, 05:57:50 »
I can push 1200mhz if I lock the boost voltage on both my 7970.. but it requires 100% fan speed to keep the vrm temps down enough...

EDIT : I thought I raised the power limit on Afterburner but I didn't, I increased it to %30 and now I have a extreemely stable 1180, I haven't touched the memory again since, but not a bad card. Still haven't touched the voltage which has some room.

Memory OC is useless, I got 1-2% more performance for ocing memory to 1600, don't even bother with this, because it puts extra stress on the power circuit, while giving you nothing

As for the voltage.. just crank it as far as possible to meet the max voltage speced for your chip

don't even bother benching for stability either.. doesn't freaking matter..

For example, if you run OCCT, it will push ur vrm to max, but that situation will never happen in a real game..


It's like people who are obsessed with testing for stability using linpack / intelburn test... big waste of time...


Look up your card's specific max overclock that people get.. Lock the default max boost voltage, and you're done...


It's VERY UNLIKELY you're going to get much more than 1200 without modding the cooling.. because once the vrm heats up, ur max stable clock will drop.. 

Offline BakaPhoenix

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Re: What is your stable, air cooled, stock voltage OC for 7970 GHZ or 280x?
« Reply #4 on: Sun, 27 October 2013, 13:15:00 »
If i'm not wrong the r9 280 raise the coreclock automatically considering the core temp.

I don't think it will be easy to overclock it as the 7970

Offline tp4tissue

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Re: What is your stable, air cooled, stock voltage OC for 7970 GHZ or 280x?
« Reply #5 on: Sun, 27 October 2013, 13:20:28 »
If i'm not wrong the r9 280 raise the coreclock automatically considering the core temp.

I don't think it will be easy to overclock it as the 7970

idk if AB works the same way with 280 as it did with the 7970, but if you can lock boost voltage... then that's all you really need to get the 1200mhz 

For anything more, it's less software, and more "how to cool vrms"

Offline BakaPhoenix

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Re: What is your stable, air cooled, stock voltage OC for 7970 GHZ or 280x?
« Reply #6 on: Sun, 27 October 2013, 13:24:12 »
If i'm not wrong the r9 280 raise the coreclock automatically considering the core temp.

I don't think it will be easy to overclock it as the 7970

idk if AB works the same way with 280 as it did with the 7970, but if you can lock boost voltage... then that's all you really need to get the 1200mhz 

For anything more, it's less software, and more "how to cool vrms"

I'm not very sure since I'm more a nvidia guy XD
But i read that with the r9 280 you are more limited in the overclock since is more "automatic" than before. Maybe some reseller can add some control cuircuit do modify the other parameters

Offline tp4tissue

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Re: What is your stable, air cooled, stock voltage OC for 7970 GHZ or 280x?
« Reply #7 on: Sun, 27 October 2013, 13:25:38 »
If i'm not wrong the r9 280 raise the coreclock automatically considering the core temp.

I don't think it will be easy to overclock it as the 7970

idk if AB works the same way with 280 as it did with the 7970, but if you can lock boost voltage... then that's all you really need to get the 1200mhz 

For anything more, it's less software, and more "how to cool vrms"

I'm not very sure since I'm more a nvidia guy XD
But i read that with the r9 280 you are more limited in the overclock since is more "automatic" than before. Maybe some reseller can add some control cuircuit do modify the other parameters

I think it'll be fine.. just wait for the MSI AB guys to tweak their soft... then it's all good to go...

Offline BakaPhoenix

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Re: What is your stable, air cooled, stock voltage OC for 7970 GHZ or 280x?
« Reply #8 on: Sun, 27 October 2013, 13:29:42 »
That will be good since the new amd video cards look really promising :D

Offline Photoelectric

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Re: What is your stable, air cooled, stock voltage OC for 7970 GHZ or 280x?
« Reply #9 on: Sun, 27 October 2013, 13:44:42 »
This is going to be a very strong factor of your individual card's silicone and stock cooler.  I used to follow the 7950 / 7970 discussion thread on OCN closely for a long time, and some people couldn't even get to 1100 MHz for core or over 1500MHz for memory.  My Sapphire Dual-X (the original design) does 1150MHz / 1575MHz completely stable on stock cooling with heatsink base lapped and Arctic Cooling MX-4 thermal paste while staying within 72C on core and 75C for VRMs.  I actually undervolt a bit to run at 1100 / 1575 without the fans ever becoming significantly audible.
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Offline tp4tissue

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Re: What is your stable, air cooled, stock voltage OC for 7970 GHZ or 280x?
« Reply #10 on: Sun, 27 October 2013, 13:59:40 »
This is going to be a very strong factor of your individual card's silicone and stock cooler.  I used to follow the 7950 / 7970 discussion thread on OCN closely for a long time, and some people couldn't even get to 1100 MHz for core or over 1500MHz for memory.  My Sapphire Dual-X (the original design) does 1150MHz / 1575MHz completely stable on stock cooling with heatsink base lapped and Arctic Cooling MX-4 thermal paste while staying within 72C on core and 75C for VRMs.  I actually undervolt a bit to run at 1100 / 1575 without the fans ever becoming significantly audible.

I firmly believe that those people who couldn't do 1100+ was because they had a stuffy case, and their VRMs were getting to hot...


Offline Zeal

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Re: What is your stable, air cooled, stock voltage OC for 7970 GHZ or 280x?
« Reply #11 on: Sun, 27 October 2013, 14:20:57 »

Memory OC is useless, I got 1-2% more performance for ocing memory to 1600, don't even bother with this, because it puts extra stress on the power circuit, while giving you nothing


I believe they were talking about the Graphics Memory, not RAM speeds. And apparently BF4 will benefit up to 20% FPS performance at 4k when using 2400MHz vs 1600MHz.
Found the article: http://www.corsair.com/en/blog/bf4-loves-high-speed-memory

Waiting on the 290x to arrive in aftermarket cooling flavours.
« Last Edit: Sun, 27 October 2013, 15:37:52 by Zeal »
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Offline tp4tissue

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Re: What is your stable, air cooled, stock voltage OC for 7970 GHZ or 280x?
« Reply #12 on: Sun, 27 October 2013, 16:14:46 »

Memory OC is useless, I got 1-2% more performance for ocing memory to 1600, don't even bother with this, because it puts extra stress on the power circuit, while giving you nothing


I believe they were talking about the Graphics Memory, not RAM speeds. And apparently BF4 will benefit up to 20% FPS performance at 4k when using 2400MHz vs 1600MHz.
Found the article: http://www.corsair.com/en/blog/bf4-loves-high-speed-memory

Waiting on the 290x to arrive in aftermarket cooling flavours.

I'm talking about graphics memory oc. not desktop ram.

I have not seen desktop ram oc help me in the games I play. I run 2133 @ cas 10.

When I quoted the 1600 number that's for GDDR on my graphics card. it benches 1-2% higher

Offline Photoelectric

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Re: What is your stable, air cooled, stock voltage OC for 7970 GHZ or 280x?
« Reply #13 on: Sun, 27 October 2013, 16:18:59 »
Doesn't seem to be much of a difference in performance overclocking video memory for HD7970--and I use it for a 1440p monitor.  It already has very good memory bandwidth.  The nVidia 600-series is pretty much the opposite.   I got much better performance when overclocking video memory and leaving core at stock than going for high core overclock. 
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Offline tp4tissue

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Re: What is your stable, air cooled, stock voltage OC for 7970 GHZ or 280x?
« Reply #14 on: Sun, 27 October 2013, 16:33:51 »
Doesn't seem to be much of a difference in performance overclocking video memory for HD7970--and I use it for a 1440p monitor.  It already has very good memory bandwidth.  The nVidia 600-series is pretty much the opposite.   I got much better performance when overclocking video memory and leaving core at stock than going for high core overclock. 

I'm considering switching to green team now that they got this G-sync thing.. :D

Offline BakaPhoenix

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Re: What is your stable, air cooled, stock voltage OC for 7970 GHZ or 280x?
« Reply #15 on: Sun, 27 October 2013, 16:40:40 »
Doesn't seem to be much of a difference in performance overclocking video memory for HD7970--and I use it for a 1440p monitor.  It already has very good memory bandwidth.  The nVidia 600-series is pretty much the opposite.   I got much better performance when overclocking video memory and leaving core at stock than going for high core overclock. 

I'm considering switching to green team now that they got this G-sync thing.. :D

Too bad you need a new monitor for that <.<
I have a dell that i use for photo editing... I don't think we will never see a gaming feature on a non gaming monitor...

Offline tp4tissue

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Re: What is your stable, air cooled, stock voltage OC for 7970 GHZ or 280x?
« Reply #16 on: Sun, 27 October 2013, 17:15:49 »
Doesn't seem to be much of a difference in performance overclocking video memory for HD7970--and I use it for a 1440p monitor.  It already has very good memory bandwidth.  The nVidia 600-series is pretty much the opposite.   I got much better performance when overclocking video memory and leaving core at stock than going for high core overclock. 

I'm considering switching to green team now that they got this G-sync thing.. :D

Too bad you need a new monitor for that <.<
I have a dell that i use for photo editing... I don't think we will never see a gaming feature on a non gaming monitor...

it's a good thing I don't play games any more..

I want gsync because of the possibility of getting perfect movie frame judder correction on 60hz