Some ATI Crossfire AMD System Overclock Suggestions.

[Darkfalz]

It's generally better to have one GPU that's more powerful than two less powerful GPU's in crossfire.
Two 5770's combined have 1600 shaders in crossfire, but isn't as fast as one 5870 which has 1600 shaders by itself.

Thanks for all your help, still new to the PC building gig so Im still learning all this jazz. My understanding is the higher shader count is what makes the framerate better. To think I was always told it was better to do dual cards of a lower series for money saving............ So if i took out one of my 5770's and threw in a 5870 then that would do the trick? However in the meantime i would still like some nice suggestions as far as OCing goes until i get my hands on one.

 

[Apokalipse]

Thanks for all your help, still new to the PC building gig so Im still learning all this jazz. My understanding is the higher shader count is what makes the framerate better.

If you have two cards in crossfire, it's not going to scale to exactly 200% of single card performance. It might be 150%, or 180% depending on the game.

To think I was always told it was better to do dual cards of a lower series for money saving............

In this case, two 5770's will cost less than one 5870.
Though at the same time, they won't get as much performance, because crossfire scaling is less than 100% efficient.
So two 5770's will probably get about the same priceerformance as one 5870.
But it might be a hassle to get crossfire running.

So if i took out one of my 5770's and threw in a 5870 then that would do the trick?

If you already have two 5770's there isn't any point going to a 5870. Unless you want to get two 5870's and crossfire them.

However in the meantime i would still like some nice suggestions as far as OCing goes until i get my hands on one.

Have you got aftermarket cooling? Phenom II's overclock better the colder they get.
If it's a C3 stepping chip, you should be able to get 3.8GHZ at stock or near stock volts, just by increasing the core multiplier.

 

[Darkfalz]

If you have two cards in crossfire, it's not going to scale to exactly 200% of single card performance. It might be 150%, or 180% depending on the game.
In this case, two 5770's will cost less than one 5870.
Though at the same time, they won't get as much performance, because crossfire scaling is less than 100% efficient.
So two 5770's will probably get about the same priceerformance as one 5870.
But it might be a hassle to get crossfire running.
If you already have two 5770's there isn't any point going to a 5870. Unless you want to get two 5870's and crossfire them.
Have you got aftermarket cooling? Phenom II's overclock better the colder they get.
If it's a C3 stepping chip, you should be able to get 3.8GHZ at stock or near stock volts, just by increasing the core multiplier.

Liquid CPU Cooling System w/ 120mm Radiator [AMD]) Thats all i know about what i got in there. I was thinking more of tweaking the shaders but regardless I really dont know what all these things mean. Some have told me to go to bios to set clock speeds and I also notice i have ati overdrive. So if i could get a explanation of what shader clock, cpu clock, gpu clock, memory clock and all the other clocks do?

Also since im not getting any suggestions as far as what to what things i can tweak i figure if i can get all the clocks explained as well as how heavily adjusting them increases component temperatures I can see where to go from there. Also for the individual parts, if i could get a +/- of what temps that are recommended for idle/game temps would also be greatly appreciated. A techie i was talking to the other day mentioned that i have a nice liquid cooling setup (he asked me how it looked and from what i explained he mentioned its a very nice setup).

 

[Apokalipse]

Liquid CPU Cooling System w/ 120mm Radiator [AMD]) Thats all i know about what i got in there. I was thinking more of tweaking the shaders but regardless I really dont know what all these things mean. Some have told me to go to bios to set clock speeds and I also notice i have ati overdrive.

Setting clocks in the BIOS will make it run at those speeds from when you turn it on.
generally, it's better to set clocks in BIOS. AMD overdrive is just more convenient, because you don't have to reboot.

So if i could get a explanation of what shader clock, cpu clock, gpu clock, memory clock and all the other clocks do?

Only Nvidia cards have a separate GPU clock and shader clock. ATI cards clock the shaders at the same speed as the GPU (the shaders are inside the GPU; they're the logic circuits that actually process the data)

Increasign GPU clocks generally increases game performacne (GPU's are made to process graphics. Faster GPU = faster graphics processing)

Increasing CPU clock speeds generally increases the speed of general calculations (which is what the CPU does)
In the case of the Phenom II The CPU core speed is a combination of the HTT speed and core multiplier.
By default, the HTT speed is 200MHz, and CPU multiplier depends on the CPU model you have. On Black Edition chips, you can change the CPU multiplier.
If it has a multiplier of 15, it runs at 200 x 15 = 3000MHz
If you increase the HTT speed by 10MHz, the CPU will run at 210 x 15 = 3150MHz
Or if you increase the multiplier to 19X, it will run at 200 x 19 = 3800MHz.

RAM is where anything goes when it's opened.
A lot of the time, when you open something, it just sits in RAM unless you're actually changing things, so increasing RAM speeds usually doesn't improve performance much generally. Although it can if you're using a program that needs to read/write a lot of data to RAM constantly.
however, if you change the HTT speed, you also change the RAM speed. RAM also runs at a multiple of the HTT speed.
DDR3-1600 memory runs at 800MHz by default (HTT speed x 4)
So if you increase the HTT speed by 10MHz, it increases the CPU speed, but it also increases the RAM speed. DDR3-1600 would run at 210 x 4 = 840MHz (which is a speed of DDR3-1680)
a lot of RAM won't handle much higher frequencies, so you can either use a lower RAM multiplier, or you can just use the CPu multiplier to increase core speed.

Also for the individual parts, if i could get a +/- of what temps that are recommended for idle/game temps would also be greatly appreciated.

It depends on how well your cooling system works, and on the particular hardware you have.
a 5870 graphics card can run up to about 80ºC normally.
A Phenom II CPU shouldn't really be running much above 60ºC at most.

Mind you, Phenom II CPU's tend to overclock better the colder they get.

 

[Darkfalz]

Setting clocks in the BIOS will make it run at those speeds from when you turn it on.
generally, it's better to set clocks in BIOS. AMD overdrive is just more convenient, because you don't have to reboot.
Only Nvidia cards have a separate GPU clock and shader clock. ATI cards clock the shaders at the same speed as the GPU (the shaders are inside the GPU; they're the logic circuits that actually process the data)

Increasign GPU clocks generally increases game performacne (GPU's are made to process graphics. Faster GPU = faster graphics processing)

Increasing CPU clock speeds generally increases the speed of general calculations (which is what the CPU does)
In the case of the Phenom II The CPU core speed is a combination of the HTT speed and core multiplier.
By default, the HTT speed is 200MHz, and CPU multiplier depends on the CPU model you have. On Black Edition chips, you can change the CPU multiplier.
If it has a multiplier of 15, it runs at 200 x 15 = 3000MHz
If you increase the HTT speed by 10MHz, the CPU will run at 210 x 15 = 3150MHz
Or if you increase the multiplier to 19X, it will run at 200 x 19 = 3800MHz.

RAM is where anything goes when it's opened.
A lot of the time, when you open something, it just sits in RAM unless you're actually changing things, so increasing RAM speeds usually doesn't improve performance much generally. Although it can if you're using a program that needs to read/write a lot of data to RAM constantly.
however, if you change the HTT speed, you also change the RAM speed. RAM also runs at a multiple of the HTT speed.
DDR3-1600 memory runs at 800MHz by default (HTT speed x 4)
So if you increase the HTT speed by 10MHz, it increases the CPU speed, but it also increases the RAM speed. DDR3-1600 would run at 210 x 4 = 840MHz (which is a speed of DDR3-1680)
a lot of RAM won't handle much higher frequencies, so you can either use a lower RAM multiplier, or you can just use the CPu multiplier to increase core speed.

It depends on how well your cooling system works, and on the particular hardware you have.
a 5870 graphics card can run up to about 80ºC normally.
A Phenom II CPU shouldn't really be running much above 60ºC at most.

Mind you, Phenom II CPU's tend to overclock better the colder they get.

My guess is that CPU has to be set in the Bios and I can set my GPU and memory clock in ati overdrive. Not quite understanding what you mean by the ram but im guessing Ram = memory clock? My GPU is at 850MHz and my mem clock is at 1200... so just wondering how well im sitting right now.

 

[Apokalipse]

My guess is that CPU has to be set in the Bios and I can set my GPU and memory clock in ati overdrive.

AMD Overdrive or K10stat can be used to set clocks in windows. But it's better to use the BIOS generally.
ATI Overdrive is part of Catalyst Control Centre for ATI graphics cards.

Not quite understanding what you mean by the ram but im guessing Ram = memory clock?

yes. RAM = Random Access Memory.

My GPU is at 850MHz and my mem clock is at 1200... so just wondering how well im sitting right now.

what are the idle and load temperatures?

 

[Darkfalz]

AMD Overdrive or K10stat can be used to set clocks in windows. But it's better to use the BIOS generally.
ATI Overdrive is part of Catalyst Control Centre for ATI graphics cards.
yes. RAM = Random Access Memory.
what are the idle and load temperatures?

Idles at 39-40 degrees and loads at 53-60.

 

[Apokalipse]

If that's the graphics card, you have a fair bit of room as far as temperature goes.

 

[Darkfalz]

If that's the graphics card, you have a fair bit of room as far as temperature goes.

GPU Temp is my graphics card to my guess. My CPUs idle at 35 degrees, not sure how much they load, gotta check. Downloaded the AMD overdrive but not exactly sure on how to actually OC.

 

[Waynehead]

I would think your gpu could be clocked alittle higher and Im sure your cpu can. I am running a gigabyte mobo or I would give you a step by step. I have my 955be running at 3.8 on stock cooler and my intergrated hd4200 clocked at 900mhz.