Help with overclocking HIS 5850

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Eriksrocks

Limp Gawd
Joined
Feb 14, 2010
Messages
397
Ok, so here's the deal: This is my first build and the first time I've ever seriously gotten into hardware besides installing a mainstream video card or wireless PCI card or something. :)

I'm absolutely loving it and my system is running great so far, but I thought I would take a crack at overclocking my 5850 (and eventually my i7, but that's a different topic).

Here's my sytem:
Antec 902 case
ASRock X58 Extreme motherboard
Intel Core i7-920 D0 @ stock
ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro Rev.2
HIS Radeon HD 5850 1GB @ stock
A-DATA Gaming Series 4GB DDR3 1600
WD Caviar Blue 640GB hard drive
LG DVD Burner GH24NS50
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

I'm looking for suggestions and a little bit of guidance. Seeing as this is the first time I've ever overclocked anything, I want to stay a little conservative, but I also want to overclock enough so that there's an improvement. I don't plan on changing any voltages. :)

I found this guide online:
http://tech.icrontic.com/articles/overclocking-the-radeon-hd-5850/

What do you guys think? Is this accurate and relatively safe? I've heard various things about ATI's "protection" against FurMark. Should I still use FurMark for stress testing? Will it provide accurate results?

Will the card start artifacting before temps get dangerously high or could the temps reach dangerous levels before I start noticing artifacts? How hot can a 5850 safely get? Apparently the HIS 5850's run pretty cool, and I like to think I have pretty good airflow in my case, but I don't want to push things too far.

I've read up on overclocking the 5800 series and I've read some other threads, but I won't really feel comfortable until I get some personal opinions.

Thanks for all your help guys. :D
 
Ok, I decided to follow the guide and I'm currently overclocking using the AMD GPU Clock Tool, FurMark 1.8.0, and GPU-Z to monitor temps and such.

I'm upping the memory first as per the guide. I'm currently at 1185 (60 Mhz above the limit in CCC) and I'm starting to get paranoid because I don't see any artifacts. Everything is running too well. :eek:

The GPU temperature is currently at 71C which is pretty much where it's been the entire time over the last two hours that I've been running FurMark.

Should I continue to push the memory clock until I start seeing artifacts? I'm kind of stuck on what to do because it's running better than expected.

EDIT: So I pushed the memory all the way to 1200 and I stopped there. Then I got the core up to 800. No artifacts in FurMark, no artifacts in the DX11 Unigine Heaven Benchmark. By using MSI's Afterburner Fan Curve I was able to get it to run at around 63C under full load (@ around 36% fan speed). I'm hesitant to run either Furmark or the Heaven benchmark overnight, but for now it seems like it's overclocking a lot farther than I thought it would.
 
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I just got a HIS 5850 as well and, after reading this, I just started the OC process. I'll share results :)
 
Are you leaving FurMark on its default settings? Also, are you monitoring temps and changing your fan speed accordingly or do you have your fan on auto in afterburner?

For some reason my fan speed doesn't seem to increase on its own without afterburner open. My card was at 76C and as soon as I launched afterburner, the fan jumped up to cool it down. Not sure which temperature range is safe with these cards, so I'll leave afterburner running for now. This fan can get quite loud though!
 
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All I did was just max the clocks in ATI CCC and start gaming, pretty [H] eh?

Maybe one of these days I'll get around to trying to max it out, but I don't really have a reason to as all my games are running smooth at the 1680x1050 I am currently playing at. :D
 
ballistic said:
All I did was just max the clocks in ATI CCC and start gaming, pretty [H] eh?

Maybe one of these days I'll get around to trying to max it out, but I don't really have a reason to as all my games are running smooth at the 1680x1050 I am currently playing at. :D
Click to expand...

I honestly have no reason to overclock either, even at 1920x1200. I just like to push things to the limit sometimes. :p

I bumped my core up to 775 since that's the "safe' limit, and memory is currently at 1300. Been running furmark on this setting for 10 minutes now.
 
I have a HIS 5850, do any of you guys bump up voltage at all? I haven't touched voltage in afterburner and I can only seem to get 775 core and 1125 on memory and the test in CCC fails if I go any higher. Is the test in CCC accurate or should I just keep bumping up the clocks and test it out by gaming? Does afterburner test overclocks for stability?
 
Furmark isn't very useful for testing an overclock. It's good to test the capacity and performance of the cooling solution, but you'll want to use modern games to test overclocks. Also note that you won't see artifacts when overclocking the memory because memory on the 58xx series is all ECC. The error correction just corrects the data so higher than stable overclocks manifest themselves as performance loss (a drop in FPS) rather than any visual artifacts.

Also, I recommend using MSI Afterburner over other programs, it does all you need in one simple GUI, and gives you a ton of flexibility. Note that while the CCC test is generally pretty accurate, I recommend doing your own testing, especially to take the card further.
 
Mr. K6 said:
Furmark isn't very useful for testing an overclock. It's good to test the capacity and performance of the cooling solution, but you'll want to use modern games to test overclocks.
Click to expand...

+1. One time I used Furmark to overclock my card. The maximum overclocked speeds that were stable in hours of Furmark testing would crash my card in mere seconds of actual gaming. So from that point on, I just use it to test cooling, as you indicated.
 
Before going to bed, I decided to set my clocks at 870/1250, based on what I was reading online. It seems people have been able to go higher but this seemed realistic to me, so I went with it.

I set Unigine Heaven to run and it has been fine for the last 5 hours. I left Unigine on stock settings:

DX11
High shaders
Tessellation enabled
Anisotropy 4
AA off
1024x768 windowed.

Not sure if this is a good indication whether these clocks are safe for me. Voltage is stock. Fan was set to Auto in Afterburner and after 5 hours was at 50% speed and 41C.

I guess I'll have to try these settings in a recent game. Maybe I'll go higher but I don't know if I should bump up core or memory first.
 
That is a impressive oc on stock voltage. Do you know what afterburner shows as your default voltage? Maybe HIS has more vcore dialed up in their bios than my asus cards. You may have more left on memory or not. You may have exceeded the best mem setting already. The new cards have some type mem correction on them. It will appear stable, but have lower performance if it is error correcting constantly. In other words, it may run faster at 1100 than 1250 on the mem. You need to benchmark at different settings and look at results.
 
dccmadams said:
That is a impressive oc on stock voltage. Do you know what afterburner shows as your default voltage? Maybe HIS has more vcore dialed up in their bios than my asus cards. You may have more left on memory or not. You may have exceeded the best mem setting already. The new cards have some type mem correction on them. It will appear stable, but have lower performance if it is error correcting constantly. In other words, it may run faster at 1100 than 1250 on the mem. You need to benchmark at different settings and look at results.
Click to expand...

I just ran 3DMark06 at both stock clocks and the OC I mentioned above.

Stock GPU Score: 13046
OC GPU Score: 12949

Looks like I might have exceeded the limit, as you mentioned. Afterburner isn't showing voltage for some reason.


EDIT: Do I need to keep AMD GPU Clock Tool running? I just opened it to change clocks and they were back to stock for some reason. Maybe they automatically reset after recovering from an error?
 
Good to see that others are posting feedback. :)

I just ran into a major disadvantage of overclocking beyond the limits of CCC: The GPU underclock-on-idle feature no longer functions. This means that your GPU will be running at the full OCed clock speed even when it is completely idle. This is a major bummer as it is wasting power, shortening the lifespan of the card, and producing lots of excess heat (to the tune of around 10C).

MSI Afterburner screenshot to demonstrate:
hbuRx.png


Idle at the automatic underclocked settings is usually around 33C. Idle at 780/1180 is usually around 44C. Quite a significant difference. :(

The FurMark options I was running at before:
WcIFW.png


I don't feel comfortable having the card over 70C for an extended period of time. Using ATI's "auto" fan settings, the card gets to exactly 70C with 775/1125 clocks. If I use Afterburner to control fan speed based on the fan curve I made, I can get the GPU temp down to 63C with 36% fan speed. I also find that it depends heavily on how I've got the fans on the front of my case set. If they're cranked (and they're still relatively silent) it really helps to circulate the air and drop the GPU temperature. My fan curve:
C0wfA.gif


It should never go over 75C, but just in case it does I've set the fan speeds way high. The fan is so damn loud at least I'll know that something's gone wrong. :p But seriously, this fan is loud. 100% sounds like a jet engine. 50% is very very noticeable, but not loud enough to drive you crazy. 40% is about the max I can live with.

To the person who was asking about voltage: the AMD tool lists my voltage as 1.088, which is stock.

SOOOO.... based on this entire thread, I'm planning to leave the clocks at 775/1125 for a number of reasons.
  1. It is the maximum overclocking that still allows the GPU to throttle down when idle.
  2. I don't have any necessity to overclock further. I can already run all the games I'm currently playing at high settings and smoothly.
  3. 775/1125 is the max 'safe' setting in CCC and it's the max setting controllable by MSI Afterburner.

One last thought: I am considering keeping the clocks at stock while doing general computing and then overclocking them to something like 800/1200 before I start a game. Is this a bad idea? Is it bad for the GPU to change the clocks frequently? An expert opinion on this would be great. :D

Thoughts? Ideas? Comments? What do you guys plan on overclocking to? :)

EDIT: Ran 3DMark Vantage again (performance preset):

Stock GPU Score: 13905
OC GPU Score: 13948

Was kind of hoping for more of an improvement. :/ On the other hand, my CPU score went up 84 points. Hmm... I have to go somewhere now. I think I might try another benchmark at 800/1200 when I get home just to see what I could be getting.
 
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I haven't touched my Sapphire 5850, am I safe to just jack everything in CCC and leave the cooling set as-is?
 
Eriksrocks said:
SOOOO.... based on this entire thread, I'm planning to leave the clocks at 775/1125 for a number of reasons.
  1. It is the maximum overclocking that still allows the GPU to throttle down when idle.
  2. I don't have any necessity to overclock further. I can already run all the games I'm currently playing at high settings and smoothly.
  3. 775/1125 is the max 'safe' setting in CCC and it's the max setting controllable by MSI Afterburner.

One last thought: I am considering keeping the clocks at stock while doing general computing and then overclocking them to something like 800/1200 before I start a game. Is this a bad idea? Is it bad for the GPU to change the clocks frequently? An expert opinion on this would be great. :D

Thoughts? Ideas? Comments? What do you guys plan on overclocking to? :)

EDIT: Ran 3DMark Vantage again (performance preset):

Stock GPU Score: 13905
OC GPU Score: 13948

Was kind of hoping for more of an improvement. :/ On the other hand, my CPU score went up 84 points. Hmm... I have to go somewhere now. I think I might try another benchmark at 800/1200 when I get home just to see what I could be getting.
Click to expand...

I actually did the same thing. I maxed it out in CCC and left it like that. Do clocks come back down at idle with CCC?

I don't think changing clocks right before gaming is a bad thing, but don't quote me on it. I used to do it back in the X800 days though.

I wonder why you got almost 1k higher than I did, even stock VS stock. :eek:
 
Eriksrocks said:
One last thought: I am considering keeping the clocks at stock while doing general computing and then overclocking them to something like 800/1200 before I start a game. Is this a bad idea? Is it bad for the GPU to change the clocks frequently? An expert opinion on this would be great. :D
Click to expand...
The card automatically downclocks in 2D mode to conserve power (to 157 core/300 memory, IIRC); watch the graph in Afterburner. All video cards do this and have done this for at least the last five years+.

Eriksrocks said:
EDIT: Ran 3DMark Vantage again (performance preset):

Stock GPU Score: 13905
OC GPU Score: 13948

Was kind of hoping for more of an improvement. :/ On the other hand, my CPU score went up 84 points. Hmm... I have to go somewhere now. I think I might try another benchmark at 800/1200 when I get home just to see what I could be getting.
Click to expand...
At what clocks were you at when did you "OC" run? Try it again overclocking the GPU core only and leaving the RAM at stock. Like I and others said, if you overclock the RAM too far, it'll just start killing performance without any visual indications beyond your FPS rate.
 
The 5850 is a ballin-beast of a card when it comes to overclocking. It barely needs/uses that second 6-pin (if at all), so you get all that extra OC headroom your PSU can provide with that 75W overhead.

Also works the other way around. The 5850 works perfectly aggressively undervolted at stock clocks.. I have no performance loss from stock and could probably go lower than 1.00v if Afterburner allowed me too. :)
 
Mr. K6 said:
The card automatically downclocks in 2D mode to conserve power (to 157 core/300 memory, IIRC); watch the graph in Afterburner. All video cards do this and have done this for at least the last five years+.
Click to expand...
See my post above. It does not do this if overclocked beyond the limits in CCC. The card stays at full clock speeds even when completely idle. This is why I'm having to think really hard about going over the CCC limits.

Mr. K6 said:
At what clocks were you at when did you "OC" run? Try it again overclocking the GPU core only and leaving the RAM at stock. Like I and others said, if you overclock the RAM too far, it'll just start killing performance without any visual indications beyond your FPS rate.
Click to expand...

The clocks in the "OC" run were 775/1125 (the highest possible in CCC). I suppose I could try decreasing the mem clock and see if that improves anything. :)

blindexodus said:
I wonder why you got almost 1k higher than I did, even stock VS stock. :eek:
Click to expand...

My core i7 is probably indirectly bumping up my GPU score. Or I just got a lucky card.

EDIT: Ran 3DMark Vantage again at 775/1000.

GPU Scores for Performance Preset
Stock (725/1000): 13905
775/1125: 13948
775/1000: 14580

Now we're talking. If I can figure out a way to fix the "no throttle down on idle" problem, I'll probably try increasing the core more and bumping the memory up just a bit.
 
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Eriksrocks said:
See my post above. It does not do this if overclocked beyond the limits in CCC. The card stays at full clock speeds even when completely idle. This is why I'm having to think really hard about going over the CCC limits.
Click to expand...
Interesting, I thought I read that this was fixed in Afterburner, guess not. Easiest thing to do here is flash your 5850 with an ASUS TOP 5850 BIOS to extend those limits :).
 
Ok, sorry for the double post but this warrants it. I found a way to overclock beyond the limits in CCC using only MSI Afterburner AND the GPU still throttles down when idle/in 2D mode. Here are the steps, in order (note that you should already know your max clock speed before following this):

  1. Close any 3D applications and anything related to your graphics card.
  2. Open up the AMD GPU Clock Tool. Click "Restore Default Clocks." Click OK.
  3. Go to the installation directory of Afterburner. Open up MSIAfterburner.cfg. You will need to open it as an Administrator. Find this line:
    EnableUnofficialOverclocking = 0
    Change the 0 to a 1. Save the file.
  4. Open up MSI Afterburner. The clock settings in the sliders should display 725/1000 while the graph on the right should display 157/300 as the current, throttled-down clocks (no 3D apps should be open). Save this to profile one.
  5. Use MSI Afterburner to set your max gaming clock speeds (type the settings in the box and then hit enter). Once these are set, save this to profile 2.
  6. Click on Settings. Go to the Profiles tab.
  7. Set your 2D profile to profile 1 (725/1000). Set your 3D profile to profile 2 (your max clock settings).
  8. Done. When there are no 3D apps open, MSI Afterburner will automatically set your clocks at 725/1000. CCC will then throttle the GPU down to 157/300. When Afterburner detects that a 3D app is open, it will increase the clocks to your chosen settings. The result is you can get the clock speeds you want, but also have the GPU throttle down when it's not doing anything. The only downside to this method is that the "Afterburner server" or Afterburner itself has to be running any time your PC is on. It's not a big tradeoff for the features that Afterburner provides, however (including the very useful fan speed curve).

I think this is what I'll be doing assuming I can find the best clock speeds for my card without pushing things to far. Going to run a 3DMark Vantage benchmark at 800/1050 right after I post this. Should be interesting. MSI Afterburner rocks. :D

Mr. K6 said:
Interesting, I thought I read that this was fixed in Afterburner, guess not. Easiest thing to do here is flash your 5850 with an ASUS TOP 5850 BIOS to extend those limits :).
Click to expand...
Don't want to flash the BIOS right now. Don't have the balls and I am too afraid I might end up with a bricked card. Anyway that point is mute considering the instructions I just posted above. :)

EDIT:
800/1050: 14932 :D
EDIT 2:
850/1050: 15608 = oh my gawd. :D No voltage changes, no appearance of artifacts during the benchmark. Temp levels out at 63C when testing with FurMark. No visible artifacts. It may not stand up in long gaming sessions but we'll see. :D
 
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Erik, which version of 3DMark are you running? I tried 06 but it only allows for a couple of runs.
 
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He is running 3DMark Vantage, you were running 3DMark 06 for those scores.

And btw blindexodus from looking at your 06 scores you are running that Q6600 at stock?
If you could try running 9x334 for 3ghz and set your ram to a 1:1.2 divider for DDR2-800 you will really start to wake that 5850 up! I could run 9x334 with the stock voltage of my Q6600 and with C1E/EIST enabled it ran really cool, and ramped up nicely when I needed some power.

I was scoring 15500 in 3DM06 with my Q6600 at 3.6ghz and my 8800gt at 720/1850/2000, I'm at about 19000 now and I know I could push it over 20k if wanted.
 
Wonder if there is any truth to the article at techpowerup. They say that you don't necessarily see failures with overclocking in the general sense (eg. artifacts) because it just reattempts to submit until successful. So we still see the picture as intended but the downside being that after passing the sweet point, performance actually drops (i.e. less FPS Im guessing).

I haven't really been following AMD/ATI so I apologize if this was something already discussed.
 
Term-X said:
Wonder if there is any truth to the article at techpowerup. They say that you don't necessarily see failures with overclocking in the general sense (eg. artifacts) because it just reattempts to submit until successful. So we still see the picture as intended but the downside being that after passing the sweet point, performance actually drops (i.e. less FPS Im guessing).

I haven't really been following AMD/ATI so I apologize if this was something already discussed.
Click to expand...

That's true when you're talking about overclocking VRam, If you push the core too fast, you'll still get traditional artifacts. Look at [H]'s review of the 5870, they dedicate a section to it.

Here's a link, and they mention EDC about halfway down.
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2009/09/22/amds_ati_radeon_hd_5870_video_card_review/5
 
Just an update: I was playing the BFBC2 beta yesterday and I think I might have noticed some small artifacts (the first time I've ever noticed anything at 850/1050), so I've gone down to 825/1050.

I almost wish this card didn't have memory error correction. It would make it a hell of a lot easier to overclock it.

EDIT: Using the Unigine Heaven benchmark I found my memory sweetspot at 1150. So I've now settled at 825/1150.
 
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ballistic said:
He is running 3DMark Vantage, you were running 3DMark 06 for those scores.

And btw blindexodus from looking at your 06 scores you are running that Q6600 at stock?
If you could try running 9x334 for 3ghz and set your ram to a 1:1.2 divider for DDR2-800 you will really start to wake that 5850 up! I could run 9x334 with the stock voltage of my Q6600 and with C1E/EIST enabled it ran really cool, and ramped up nicely when I needed some power.

I was scoring 15500 in 3DM06 with my Q6600 at 3.6ghz and my 8800gt at 720/1850/2000, I'm at about 19000 now and I know I could push it over 20k if wanted.
Click to expand...

Eriksrocks said:
Just an update: I was playing the BFBC2 beta yesterday and I think I might have noticed some small artifacts (the first time I've ever noticed anything at 850/1050), so I've gone down to 825/1050.

I almost wish this card didn't have memory error correction. It would make it a hell of a lot easier to overclock it.

EDIT: Using the Unigine Heaven benchmark I found my memory sweetspot at 1150. So I've now settled at 825/1150.
Click to expand...

Thanks so much for this info. I just bumped my CPU up to 9x334 and the ram to 1:1.2. Also bumped the GPU up to 825/1150.

My 3dMark Vantage score was:

CPU: 10982
GPU: 15222

GPU score is much better than before. I forget what my CPU score was before the OC. I had never OC'd my CPU before tonight.
 
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blindexodus said:
Also bumped the GPU up to 825/1150.
Click to expand...

Keep in mind that every sample overclocks differently. You might be pushing it for your particular card or you might have a lot more room to OC - I don't know. 825/1150 seems like a good middle of the road overclock, though. :)

Your 3DMark Vantage score seems about right where it should be for 825/1150. I haven't benchmarked my new clocks yet, but 15222 seems about right. :)
 
When I am overclocking my 5850 with 10.2 and 10.3 betas, should I set my CPU to stock first to rule out that for the reason for it crashing? When I OC my 5850 just a little bit, 760/1115 it crashes in 3d games and apps. I don't understand because I know this card can do 800/1175 on stock voltages in other people's reviews. Could I have just gotten a bad card?
 
neokeelo said:
When I am overclocking my 5850 with 10.2 and 10.3 betas, should I set my CPU to stock first to rule out that for the reason for it crashing? When I OC my 5850 just a little bit, 760/1115 it crashes in 3d games and apps. I don't understand because I know this card can do 800/1175 on stock voltages in other people's reviews. Could I have just gotten a bad card?
Click to expand...
If your CPU overclock is not stable, it could cause issues. Unless you are 100% sure your overclock is stable and you have tested it to be so, try setting it back to stock. Also, overclock only one component at a time (either core or memory, not both).
 
My asus bios lets ccc have a far higher ceiling. I can oc to 950 and beyond in afterburner/CCC, and it still drops to 157 like stock settings. To enable the voltage control in the new afterburner, you have to click settings, then the box, then restart afterburner.
 
Glad to help, how is the overclock so far on your CPU? Stable? Temps fine?
Welcome to the addiction!
blindexodus said:
Thanks so much for this info. I just bumped my CPU up to 9x334 and the ram to 1:1.2. Also bumped the GPU up to 825/1150.

My 3dMark Vantage score was:

CPU: 10982
GPU: 15222

GPU score is much better than before. I forget what my CPU score was before the OC. I had never OC'd my CPU before tonight.
Click to expand...
 
I set all my hardware at defaults but still it crashs when I overclock even a little bit. Im wondering if I should switch out the card or just wait for better drivers..
 
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