The 6990m's do not overclock well.

At least mine don't. I've seen people here OC their 6970m's 20-25% and remain stable. The nvidia 580m's seem to overclock very well, too. In that 20-25% range.

With my 6990m's, if I go over 780 core clock I crash when I start up 3dmark 11 or vantage. That's a 9% overclock.

I also just crashed at 780/1100.

The best I can do and remain stable seems to be 780/1000. From 715/900.

 

thats expected. more shaders = less max core speed.

 

That is kinda a Bumber. I was hoping for similar increases. A moderately OCd 6970 @ 820/1100 is slightly faster than a stock 6990.

 

Definitely a bummer.

 

not all cards are the same i can do 834-840core before crashing
Imageshack - oc4.png

 

Don't jump at conclusions just because your card can't overclock that much. It seems that you're simply unlucky. Remember that every overclock is simply a "bonus" and can't be taken for granted.
780 MHz is indeed not a very high overclock, but every chip behaves differently. All your GPU has to do, is working flawlessly at stock clocks, nothing less, nothing more.

The Rev and Inap already posted some nice benchmarks at higher clocks, e.g. this one at 850 MHz.

Edit: Hahaha, Speedy was speedy

 

here is a 860/1100 i just ran, i tried higher about 875/1100 but the driver crashes even though it looks stable and without artifacts.

 

I benched my 5870s at a 44%-45% overclock. Those cards were sweet.

 

@Inap: Nice, I never had artifacts with my 6970m either, just driver crashes at higher clocks.

@DR650SE: Yeah, you managed some crazy clocks on your cards... hahah, 1 GHz + , respect!
The 5850m was/is also crazy when it comes to overclocking.

 

Well that sucks. For me.

 

Which drivers are you using?

 

Check out his screenshot, all information can be found in GPU-Z... he's on 11.8.

 

Ah.

Hell of an overclock. 20%

Is there anything I can do to help the situation? Modifying the voltage or anything?

 

Hmm, your GPU score should be higher, in the 16k range. I think it could be throttling. Do you notice any slowdowns FPS wise when you're running the first 3d test? (It happens to me when I try to push my memory clocks high)

 

not really but my card has been acting wierd, think i have a faulty card.
do you have any of your old 1120 shader card benches you can repost for me?

 

Nope, it belongs to Widezu69 now. As a matter of fact, his GPU score with that card in Vantage was near 15000 at 775/1000

 

was wondering can a moderately OC'ed 6990m beat a high OC'ed 6970m?

 

the 6970m would need a 20% overclock to match the 6990m.

 

To be fair some people have been getting 30%+ OCs on the 6970 ... but then you would have to include an easy 10% OC 6990 and it should beat even the most OC'd 6970 ... IMO

 

At the end of the day after the buzz dies when everyone gets their 6990's the 7 series will be out which will be very nice with 28nm + the new IVY bridge which will start the craze all over. Right now 6970 OC/6990 OC/580M OC (outside of benchmarks) are all playing the same games at very similar settings. When there are games out that can't be played well on a 6970, it will likely be the same for the other current generation offerings. This can be a very expensive hobby on the laptop side of things. I got my machine to enjoy games for the new few years. My m15x lasted a good 3 with the 8800GTX. After a few months of having the "best" GPU, the duals came out, then the 9800s, and I really didn't care as it was playing the games I needed to. These machines will last for awhile. Even the 5870 CF is a viable gaming laptop for the next few years. I can't tell hardly a difference in gaming with my 6970s that are supposed to be 50% faster than my old R2. I DO see the difference with lack of RGB though...tears

 

Yes yes yes ... but that has nothing to do with the point here. People aren't interested in any of that. If so these bench threads would be entitled "Can play games at acceptably high detail" That is the real world implications of these systems. Posts like this want to push, want to find the limits of their tech and stretch them. Yes when the 7ks come out we will start again ... but in the mean time this is what we like to do ... and we deal with the tech of our time. The point is not "can we play x game" its -how far can I push this tech- .... I engage in this too. Even though I have a 2630 CPU ... I still want to push and stretch as far as I can, its FUN ... I LIKE it. I don't care that in 6 months I will be upgrading GPU and CPU ... in fact I kind of look forward to learning from what I do during this gen and pushing farther in the next gen.

 

when will the 7 series come out?

 

probably tomorrow at the rate things have been going lol. Seriously probably within a yr for sure.

 

Umm...I would agree with you if this was a pure benchmark thread. I would never post that. This is a "The 6990 doesn't OC well" thread. So while it is about pushing the card, there is also other discussion going on about "not worrying about it as each card has different potential." The OP is clearly a bit new to OC cards. So I just offered a different POV to put some perspective on things as I have been buying and building gaming PC's since 2004 (which isn't that long IMO). I have my 2720 OC'ed, my 6970's OC'ed and pushing a 23K Vantage benchmark with small OC's going to both CPU and GPU; so clearly I am a benchmark person too; just to a lesser degree than say Joker and others. I hear you brother, it's all good and I agree with what you wrote...but this is NOT a pure benchmark thread so my point is still valid.

 

I think I read 2ndQ 2012. Back on topic, like other's said, each card has different potential. Also, a lot can depend on ambient temp settings and you can get a good cooler. I have found to have the laptop on a cooler tilted slightly forward (toward you) and that offers the best cooling outside of moderate adjustments (repasting, pad replacement, etc) and extreme settings (ice cooling, extra fans, exposed components, etc). I would NEVER do the latter as that is for people that really understand components and electronics and troubleshoot very well. Even at stock the 6990 is a BEAST right now; two of them.....games are buttery smooth. Enjoy

 

on dual 6970's at 775/1000

3dmark 11 P6195

3dmark vantage P21767

 

Fair enough

 

Thank you for offering your perspective.

I've come to terms with the fact that my cards don't really overclock much at all with any degree of stability. I'm probably going to be running them at stock clocks most of the time. Which is fine.

It just frustrates me mildly that others with the same hardware will have 10-15% greater performance than me (not an insignificant amount). I paid extra to upgrade my 6970's to the 6990's and went through a hassle, and people with 6970's are out-benching me.

 

Welcome to the world of OCing. Sometimes you get lucky and sometimes you don't. One should only consider what speeds you get as "stock". Anything above that is just gravy.

 

Indeed, the world of overclocking can be a frustrating one. I began OCing trying to squeeze a few more fps in the most demanding games I play. Then, I began benching a bit with 3dmark & Co. and no longer after that, the whole thing became somehow addictive and frustrating at once. It's rewarding the moment you see your hardware flying toward the top, which although withing reach you'll never see, as you painfully discover that your hardware has its limits, no matter how hard, and what you try. Nevertheless, benching parentheses aside, it's the game factor that interests me the most when it comes to GPU and CPU OC. For example, I ran the Metro 2033 a couple of times with the new rig, trying to see how far these cards would go, and saw that with everything maxed out it never went under 35 fps. Yet, even if on a benchmark level the result was more than satisfying, it would be for me unacceptable to play at that frame rate. That's why I slightly OC'ed, turned down DOF and Tessellation and could finally enjoy higher fps with dx11 and very high settings. I think that overclocking could be used as a tool to improve the overall performance of your hardware, but also lead you to the "dark" side of it in which you'd do everything in your power, and even more, just to gain a few more points in 3d mark - which is also annoyingly fun

 

Hey guys, for the past couple months I've started to get into overclocking a bit, so im kind of a noob (Hence the new account). I have two questions, one of which is only minor.

First, I have been using sapphire trixx for overclocking and atitool for putting load and measuring the cards performance, I just wanted to know what you guys think of trixx. Are there better programs for overclocking that I should try/be using? The newest version of trixx (4.0.2) has a problem with setting custom fans on both cards. It for some reason doesn't apply to both cards.

My big questions is about the overclocks I have found (800/1100). I am very happy with their performance and the performance of my m18x, but I want to know, is it harmful to switch back and forth between stock clocks and my overclocked settings? Every time I play games, I set my overclocked settings, and as soon as I am done playing, I switch back clocks to stock. I do not know if this is damaging, so any help would be appreciated.

If it helps at all, I only set my overclock settings for some games. Others, (such as battlefield BC2) I just run at stock settings.

 

I agree, it can be a dark dark hole ... however what I have found is that, if you can, you have to simply explore --your- hardware, push what you have as far as you can. Its ok to look at what others do but I am trying to find the fun in just pushing mine. I only have the 2630 CPU, I know I wont compare to the 2920s .... but I still like pushing and seeing what I can pull out of them. And then when I find the limit of MY cards, try to tweak some more.

Either way, even at only 10 - 15% OC ... your cards will still rock any game you want to throw at it ... these machines are BEAST

 

Hi everyone! I just got an Alienware M17x r3 10 days ago or so with 2630QM and 6990M. What's the best program I could use for overclocking? I really don't know which are the right programs (in my desktop GPU -4870x2- I just used the CCC and it worked fine for me).

Besides, having the 6990M overclocked is secure? I don't want to do that if I can get to the point of ending up without laptop... That would be awful xD I'd like my Alienware to last for some years without getting my GPU fried...

Thank you!

 

Word of advice before overclocking - make sure the drivers are current. I would be shocked if Dell actually sent you the most current drivers.

 

I got 11.8 myself , but i dont remember downloading it from ATI... was a link from one of the posts here.
can it be that its a 11.8 beta or something like that ? becaus i dont remember 11.8 being officialy out yet

 

on a side note , what would be the minimum GPU core OC recomended to see some sort of a change in performance ? ( using sapphire trixx )

 

Note about Trixx: Tick off Sync Both Cards and disable ULPS (I think that's what it's called).

Min would be stock at 715/900, typically I start cranking up the GPU clock in 5-10MHz increments and run furmark to test temps/stability. Then jump to the memory. Furmark is know to crank temps really high so have HWInfo set the fans on full before running the burn-in test as they peak very quickly. For example at 840/1040 I'm seeing a max of 92 Deg C on card 2; However, when running normal games I never see over 85 Deg C (TBH I might need to repaste the cards and cpu shortly to push it even more).

In terms of performance at 840/1040 I see a roughly 5-7 FPS increase, not much but some of the sub 30 FPS games are evened out when pushing really hard. Crysis 2 + Dx11 comes to mind, makes it just a little bit smoother when outdoors with all the settings on Ultra.

 

furmark is a power virus. don't use it or any other power virus. it does nothing to guarantee stability in gaming. i have alot of experience with this stuff. use the latest gpu-intensive games to test for stability. when you find the max overclock turn it down by 5% to guarantee stability in all environments and through all drivers.

 

To each there own, furmark does what it's intended to do very well. Heat up the cards and show artifacts when pushed too hard.

 

no it's not "to each his own". it's a factually correct statement, bud. i've been there done that with furmark. all it does is power draw. when nvidia and amd started releasing warnings about using these power viruses, and especially when nvidia built in protection on their latest gpu to downclock when running under them, that is when the gpu folks realized the danger and how pointless this type of software is.

like i said before, i was testing for stability with furmark. the gtx480 was scorching hot and it's fan was screaming, but it was stable. i then fired up a game only to find out it crashed, thus forcing me to scale back the overclocks. that is when it became evidently clear that these power viruses are just that, and they do nothing for stability under real world applications.

 

Actually, I believe Dell implemented the throttling. Hence the reason m17x R3 owners are flashing the A04 bios. It doesn't have the throttling. I don't know about other systems, however I full heartedly believe to design a card that can't be utilized 100% is a waste. Just design a cheaper less capable card that runs 100% on less power. That said, Im sure Dell did it to reduce the number of returns. Same reason overvolting on 6990s and 6790s is prevented. $$$. Or perhaps they should just redesign the heatsinks to be more efficient. More money upfront. Less after the fact. More satisfied customers as well. An extra pipe and more copper would go a long way. Don't even get me started on the toothpaste the call thermal paste.

 

What does this do?

 

Sets the same clock/mem rate on both cards. Just ensure it's selected otherwise you have to do each one separately.

 

Hey guys, i would like to BUMP this post since i have same question here, and i'm pretty noob too on this.

Thanks in advance

 

Yea ... there is no harm done, although you really shouldn't need to OC at all for most games ... don't know what you are OCing for (ie: witch games) but there is no harm in switching back and forth.

 

You're right for most games i don't need oc actually, but with my OC i can get 10-12 FPS more in Metro 2033 Highest settings, which is only 40 45 FPS


plus with the Crysis 2 Blackfire's Mod 2 and Mahlo HD textures, i can get decent FPS on it

 

Yeah the Crysis 2 blackfire Mods looked much better than Crytek's half arsed update release.

Now if they could only eliminate the conspiracy ploy of having the tessellated sea invisibly rendered in scenes where its not even supposed to exist....

 

Have any proof?

How did you keep them from overheating?

 

Dry Ice or LN2 runs, just for benches. Not a day to day overclock.