XFX 7870 Overclock

[grandfatman]

Hi guys.

I have just bought an XFX Core Edition 7870 and i'm new to over clocking.

I am using MSI Afterburner and to begin with the clock was at 1000 and the memory at 1200.

I am primarily using the card to mine bitcoins, and i've got these setting so far:

With these settings i'm getting around 415 - 420 mhp/s and at stock clock settings only around 360 mhp/s

I'm basically looking for advice of what you think for the "noobish" attempt at overclocking and if this will be safe to run, pretty much 24/7 or should i reset to stock every now and then? (say reset it to stock speeds overnight?) Would it be safe to try and push it more? How would i test if the clock is stable? without damaging the card? What happens if i DO go too far?

Currently in an open sided case.

Appreciate your help in advance, from the noobish overclocker.
GrandFatMan

 

[dragonstongue]

well you do not need memory overclocked at all for bitcoin mining(I use GUIminer) I have memory set for 600 for my 2nd card, this helps keep power draw lower as well as temps lower.

I would advice if you can change the thermal paste for the GPU core(the chip dead center of card covered by the cooler of course) this can help keep temps lower cause that is a high temp for that much fan speed.
GUIminer flags I use diakgcn -w 128 -f 1 for high usage same but -s 0.01 to -s 0.015 for low usage good for when you are gaming.

If you would be able to do so you can easily hit in the 430+ range with a decently overclocking card, but I would not be pushing it much further with the temps you are getting.

To test if "stable" run something like Heaven DX11 or jump in your favorite game for awhile, generally if card locks up/reset cause of driver crashing in my experience that is the core that is pushed to hard without enough volts, if same but end up with wicked artifacting that's usually the memory being pushed to hard, most 7870 will do around 1150 stock volts and up to about 1200 with a small boost, few will do above 1300, I got a good one for my 2nd card can hit almost 1350 stable with 1.26v but I have to use it as a second card and has to be mining only without me touching anything for the memory most will do around 1350 before they start losing gains cause of memory correcting the mistakes it is making for running to fast.

As long as temps are good and you are not pushing a lot of volts through it, then its "safe" as it can be, but those temps in my books are to hot for me, I like mine MAX at 78c or so and even then I will shut down for a bit or so, cards ran to hot for to long will wear out. Change thermal paste, add more fans to your case etc to help temps.