Official 7900gs Overclocking Thread

your kidding right?

 

Yes indeed he is kidding. Man overclocking "another 100", do you know what that means!?

You will damage your notebook if you do that. But we have a huge topic going on about overclocking an 7900GS and about safe temps. Please read that, it has some great info.

Link to topic: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=64385

Charlie

 

ctrulock, merged your thread with the main Go7900GS overclocking thread.

 

hope you ****ing joking, he should stop OC at once, if he want to have his vidoecard for some more moths. everything over 90 C its really bad.

 

Hi Everyone;

1. Are the OC'ing drivers available for the 7900GS that work that don't require a 3rd party firmware upgrade?

2. If you do use the storm... firmware upgrade can you flash back if you don't like it?

3. Has anyone tried this firmware upgrade with a E1705 that has been upgraded from a t2500 to a t7400 cpu; as well as upgraded from a 7800 to a 7900?

4. I'm already seeing a CPUMark of 5200+ and a 3Dmark of 4100+. Is it going to really be worth it?


xor

 

On my Gateway M685-E, my GS is currently 450/1300. It's idling at 45C and 65C gaming. Is that good?

 

Jive those are great temperatures. And that with an overclock, very impressive.

Charlie

 

The "Detect Optimal Frequencies" gave me higher clocks but I lowered it.

 

I volted it to 1.24 2 months ago but swapped it back to stock.rom but it still seems to be running just as hot as the 1.24 mod. Any ideas?

 

thinking about one thing, if you example have 325/600 and DDR2 you can say that the memory is 600 x 2 = 1200mhz......@ (325/1200)

but now when i have go7900gs and GDDR3 , 375/500, does it means 3 x 500 = 1500mhz in memory ?.........@ (375/1500)

and whats the big different of DDR3 and GDDR3 ?

 

Hmmm. So the images on the first page are working for other people? I burned the ISO's and they aren't bootable. Tried Alcohol120%, Nero & Imgburn. But if I burn an image from somewhere else e.g. a Maxtor utilities ISO, it burns & boots just fine. So the burner & boot settings here seem fine. What am I missing?

edit - I took a good boot ISO image from another program (not from the first page) & added nvflash & the roms to the image. That boots fine, but I get a double fault /insufficient memory message when trying to flash the 7900GS. What is the recommended memory configuration for flashing? Or what memory utility was being used on the original boot images? Thanks.

edit - I managed to get my 7900GS flashed. As far as I can tell, the images on the first page of this thread are bad. Maybe there was a corrupt update somewhere along the way? If anyone finds them to work, I'd be curious to hear what extra step(s) you are doing, as they don't work as-is when burned as a standard ISO image. Anyway, I located a different image that works perfectly. It's actually an image intended for the 7900GTX card, so I just deleted the GTX rom files in the image, leaving the remaining files intact. And then copied the GS rom files from the non-working image on the first page into the GTX archive. Once the .rom files are replaced, it boots fine & flashes properly.

Image file - http://files.filefront.com/7900BOOTrar/;5098970;;/fileinfo.html



.

 

I would up the core to 500, memory seems about right.

 

Hey, just wondering if anyone had any advice on keeping your temps down. I get about 55-60 C idle and 65-70 (left it on my bed once for half an hour and it went up to 80, haha not smart) while gaming and I have my 7900gs OCed to 450/1100. I was considering buying a notebook cooler because I know that would bring my temps down and I already use I8kfangui but was just wondering if anyone had any other suggestions. Haha, I have 2 things of sticky notes under the back feet ATM to raise it up off the desk about a quarter inch.

 

Well the Spire Pacific Breeze cooler is very effective. But a lot of sound but I do not care about it. Raising the notebook may help but not very much.

Charlie

 

55-60 is pretty normal for an oced card hell i'm hitting 60 without oc so imagine

 

Yeah, I guess so but I sort of miss the temps I got before I OCed (it would drop down to like 40 while idle and never got above 65 gaming), but I would miss my extra 500 3dmarks I get in 3dmark06 after I OCed. Decisions decisions...

 

Not a big deal. Your card will idle up to 70-76C, no OC, just sitting there. At the high end your bios will kick in and run low or high fan to chill your GPU down to 60C or so then start cycle all over.

I was lead to believe my GPU was running too hot so Dell, who just doesn’t know, changed out the GPU...same temps with second card.

I find the sticky notes very quite and just not expensive as well

I also find that the BIOS turns on and overides my I8kfan settings which IMHO, is a very good thing. If not for this "fail safe" we might see a lot of burned out cards.

 

Depends, how accurate are your temps? Your laptop has single or dual pipes? Do you have to offset your temps like Dells have to do with I8kfan?

Most dell single pipes "game" at a true corrected temperatures of 79-85C depending on GPU load. I find a true 65C, under load, OK if your GPU fan is really moving some cool air.

 

Well, I just ordered this 9400 and have a week to wait
Will there be any speed difference because I'm getting the Core 2 Duo T7200 and 667RAM? I'm thinking not much, but maybe lower the overall temp of the thing.
Can't wait to start pushing the limits

 

Why is the waiting the hard part Enjoy!

 

Hello all. I am new to these forums and just wanted to say thanks for this amazing guide. On to my overclocking results:

Here is my stock 3dmark06 score:
stock

Now here is my score clocked at 1.24v(couldn't go past 470 w/out artifacts if I didn't increase the voltage) 575/1150:
575/1150

And here are the temps at said overclock after 20 minutes of atitool (no artifacts at all ):
oc_temps

GPU idles at 48 degrees celcius...and yes, I did put the +8 offset in i8kfangui

Edit: Forgot to add it's a single pipe

 

Wow, You went the whole deal (7400). I wonder what diff that would make.
That looks like some sweet gain.
My E date is now 6 Nov. What are you using ATItool for? I've got that on my x700. I couldn't do a lot of OC on that before artifacting. I think I got a 4% or something very lame.

 

Yeah, got the 7400 since I found a sweet deal on ebay.

I use atitool for artifact testing. Helped me to figure out that I can't have 1200 for memory, since it always causes artifacts. Benchmarks on settings that cause artifacts are meaningless, imo.

As for the difference a T7400 would make in comparison with a T7200, I'd say it's probably around 8% in the cpu score, since that's the difference in clock speed.

On another note, about to bench at 600/1150...just tested 600/1150 with atitool for awhile and had no artifacts...and temps actually went down (max of 75)

EDIT: Benchmarked at 600/1150...I broke 5k

600/1150

Unfortunately, I get artifacts for anything above 600 :'( Meaning this is the highest score I will probably get, lol

 

I'm reading it off NVidia's Control Panel.

Single, possibly.

I don't know. How do I find out?

My fan on the M685-E is constantly on; doesn't slow down or speed up, unless I unplug it and go on battery power. Also, I replaced the pads and thermal grease with AS5, plus, I have the back of the laptop lifted 5-6 inches above the desk.

Also, I'm now at 470/1400. No crashes or artifacts yet.

edit: Heh, just crashed. Reverting back to 450/1300. No more overclocking. Was just seeing how are I can take the card.

 

Idles at 48C? You mean with one fan running, right?

Mine with, one fan on low, sits at 55C after 2-3 hours or so but like yours when first fired up.

 

Nice laptop! I love the bottom access, i have to dig top down on mine.

Yep, single pipe.

Who is the OEM? Arima?

 

48C is what it dropped down to after the stress test with the fan on...eventually, haha. Took awhile to drop once it got down to 55. For awhile I thought it was idling at the 55C point, but then it continued to drop all the way down to 48.
Perhaps it had something to do with the laptop being in my lap while I was sitting in front of the fan on my desk while it was going full blast. Just speculation on my part

 

Hey Lordrahl,
Can you set up a test against the ones listed in http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics.html?modelx=33&model1=520&model2=584&chart=228?
Then we can see how much OCing does against their specs. I know they're for non-mobile, but it should be fairly accurate. I want to know if this OCing takes this baby up past the GT or encroaches on GTX territory.

 

I'll look into that after I get home from class tonight...should be interesting

 

cant understand why OC when your laptop perform good anyway (ok if i had a slow laptop, then i should OC),
i have original clock-settings, and i get ~7000 points in 3dmark05 anyway.(except for a newer driver with some controll changes)
i know some guys who got there cards really screwed up of VBIOS-flashing, by by warranty and by by money.

 

This question get asked a lot. The dells are a bit underclocked from the start to help control heat..by about 4C. Big whoop.

Like most, I like to squeeze a few more FPS from the newer games. Unlike cars VS horsepower it's way cheaper. Anyone price twin side draft Webers lately?

But like cars, if you push way to hard you could be out of some bucks. If you trash your GPU you could be out of $300 bucks, your choice.

 

i have a question about artifacting.
what exactly is artifacting? do perceivable artifacts mean that I'm damaging my graphics card? Games are stable--and I peak at around 70C (adjusted). I clocked to 500/1050 (stock voltage) and got a score of 4277. The only 3Dmark test with "bad" artifacts was the canyon flight one.

 

Does anyone know the refresh rate of the 9400 screen? Because OCing this to get more FPS might not actually matter if the Refresh is only 16ms or something.

Edit: Just read that the LG screens are 25ms. That's pretty lame. Have to see how it runs when it finally arrives.

 

people here should visit notebookforums and read the thread about the overclocked GS

 

Well it's arrived. I'll have to see what it can do tonight

 

is it normal that the gpu temp is ~70 C when i just do some normal web searching ? (i have ask Dells support several times, and they say its normal). when i play games the temp goes down nice and good to ~50-60 C, so thats no problem.

can i change somewhere so the fan kicks on a bit lower ? (like 65 C)

 

I see this quoted and I see a stock.rom on the ISO disk. However, is this just 375/100 as listed?

I don't have any proof that this is the stock of my 7900GS and there doesn't seem to be any way to get what your current GFX card is clocked at.

Has anyone answered the earlier posts of how to find out what you are currently (stock) clocking?

EDIT: Found my own answer. Powerstrip scans and tells you, just can't change with it I guess. 375/507 for me.
Cheers

 

70c is fine... let it stay that way. if you kick the fans in your battery will drain faster.

 

I am doing a minor OC of 430x1000 and am getting "Delta of ##### in ### pixels" from ATI tool. It also gives yellow pixels in the 3D picture.
It also says "No errors for ..." and this doesn't reset. Does anyone know what these Deltas are? Have I got a crap one which doesn't OC much?
Is it the errors I'm more worried about?
I got only 3915 @ 420x1200. That seems to be the best I can do stable.

 

how do a "kick the fan" ?

can i change my fan so its kicks in lower temp (like 65 C ).

i have no OC, (375/1014)

ps. losing faith, go back to original Dell driver and stock clock.

 

Those little yellow pixels are artifacts...back off the core to a previously stable level.

 

For those looking for better results, stability and performance:

http://www.notebookforums.com/thread180011.html

 

Does that mean my gfx card wont handle any of the 1.24v OCing and that I just got a standard GS that can only be OCed to 420x1200? That's a shame

EDIT: Well, I can't get above 420x1200 without changing the voltage.... So I changed the voltage, and it seems to be running stable (but jumped to 73deg idle). So I guess the artifacting was being caused by lack of voltage? Anyone know better?

Guess I'll keep going again

I am forcing my fans to high speed in I8kfanGUI and they don't go on continuosly. They seem to stutter every 5 secs or so, is this normal?

 

That's what the higher voltage is for, so you can reach the higher clock speeds. The same method is used for CPU OC as well. It is possible that you have maxed your supply but then some cards simply have a lower OC. Mine artifacts on stock voltage on anything higher than my SIG. I haven't tried the higher voltages, me big chicken!

Your fans are always controled by your BIOS. Your playing with fire to try to force your fans with I8kfan while gaming I use I8kfan for day to day, GPU fan on "low" or for logging my temps while gaming, great program.

When gaming my BIOS will kick the fans on low or high depending on load on the GPU so I don't want anything that could stall the fans or otherwise keep the fans from doing their job. I also don't want anything stealing CPU cycles to do what your BIOS does for "free".

Of course, YMMV,
Cheers

 

Thanks for the tips Hydra. I've pulled back to a stable 4201200 v1.0 for now and will await the results of Yolda's thread up there. I may try the GTX style once the gurus have it sorted neatly.

Cheers

 

people try using the gtx bios to flash your GS cards, scores so far reach 10000 3Dmarks on the 05 version.

 

which is the best videocard driver do you folks think.

(use 84.69 my self, BUT the driver dosent have any gpu temp, works fine anyway)

ps. is 90Watt supply and coolingsystem really enough using gtx Bios or high OC.

 

I'm OK with the stock, but let us know what you find.

ps. is 90Watt supply and coolingsystem really enough using gtx Bios or high OC

This is debated on several threads including here; http://www.notebookforums.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=153

I tend to agree with Dell with a 130W supply and dual pipes on their big dogs. I'm waiting for someone, who really knows, to post some real world current measurements. I have the equipment but looking for a spare plug, I'm not cutting up my still in warranty 90W brick

 

I'll check you out next week. I'm being kicked around by Websense (work) so spend time tryng to find a proxie Webnonsense hasn't blocked

 

For us non-uber users who just want a decent OC. What sort of lifetime damage would using a medium high v1.24 bios cause? I'm not too keen on the 7900 GSX until the whole VID thing is sorted (Other thread from Yolda). It looks interesting...and scary.
I'm just a bit concerned about the long term effects of pushing through a voltage that nVidia thought was too high.