Could someone advise me on overclocking my Palit GTX 970?

drkaii

drkaii
Was wondering if anyone had any experience overclocking the particular card. I've overclocked in the past, but it always seems to end up ugly. I also don't have the patience to stress test for 24 hours etc. and don't really know how to analyze the results. If someone's already done it, could they share the love?

Also, I have an i5 2500k, but my motherboard is pretty bad, very few overclocking options (it's a Gigabyte Z77 D3H - I've upgraded the BIOS and nearly bricked my PC. It was pure magic getting it working again so I'm not going to try again). Any ideas if this is just going to bottleneck any GPU overclocking attempts, or perhaps someone knows an OS based overclock for it?

Really appreciate it guys!
 

djbordie

D
DO not try to overclock your CPU with the OS. typical software CPU overclock put unnecc voltage and stress on the cpu.
best bet is to find a nice youtube video from a reputable source that does a i5 2500k overclock. (you probably need an all in one water cooler btw)

as for your GPU, simply using MSI Afterburner is safe. (gpus are overclock in windows, CPUs should not be)

I use AIDA64 to stress the GPU only for 10-15 minutes after my overclock settings.

ED is extremely good at stressing the GPU.

So with my 970 I increased the following: (and saved it as a profile, so normally the GPU is in stock mode, then i launch ED its in OC mode)

FAN 100% (or make a custom fan profile, so that when temps hit certain levels the fan increases rpm ,etc)
power limit to the max (should be about 106% for the 970)
temp limit to 89 deg is safe for the 970
core clock +200 mhz
memory clock +200 mhz

Now the last 2 are the "overclock"
this needs to be tested, benched, etc

EX on my zotac 970 i started with 200/200 then kept going up to 225/250 while running Aida 64 GPU only stress test.
i ended up with a nice stable overclock of 1350mhz/7500mhz which was 225/250 (i think, cant remember exact + numbers)

so 200/200 is a good start.

aslo google the specific card/brand an see the average others are overclocking to
so maybe your card people are averaging +180 and +210, or whatever

http://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/palit-geforce-gtx-970-jetstream-review,26.html
PALIT settings:
With AfterBurner we applied:

GPU clock +100 MHz
Power limiter 111%
Mem clock +450 MHz
Volatge + 87 Mv
FAN RPM 65% (remains fairly silent)
 
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djbordie

D
the 2500k is easy as pie to overclock and can hit monster speeds.
however i dont touch anything with stock fans or even low end air fans.

i like all in one water coolers, they are small keep your case tidy and provide excellent cooling for the price.
Antec 620 khuler, corsair h80/h100 i have used for years.

the concept there is to increase your base clock and other multipliers/voltage settings in the bios. Then do some aida 64 testing and bobs your uncle.
CPU overclocking takes way more time, as you should run these stress programs for 8+ hours.

I typically do 12-24 hours of aida 64 and call it a day...

but your cpu is killer fun to OC, you may have a crap cpu or an amazing one. this is the silicon lottery. same applies to the GPUs.

so get some cooling, cross your fingers, and watch some general i5 2500k guides and overclock bit by bit.
also you may find exact guides for your cpu/motherboard (you probably will, both very popular setups)

actually NP with that mobo and overclocking
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxCPyF-1tTc

you gotta do old school bios OC and youll be fine
 
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drkaii

drkaii
Man thanks SO much. This is exactly the response I was hoping for! I have to go or for the night. I'll try this and reply tomorrow night
 

djbordie

D
ill be overclocking my gtx 980 tonight, the little is in front of me at work starting at me...argh

and lso all the changes you mentioned, thanks for that pm

cant wait to try ED compared to the un tweaked 970oc i had been running

planet texture increase here i come
 

djbordie

D
i always use overclockers forum.

an idea is to go to the cpu club (ie 5820k club, 2500k club, gtx 980 club, etc)

basically looked at the 5820k club spread sheet, found a ton of users with my mobo/cpu setup and used that as a baseline for my OC #s.

very very helpful users in there too.
 

drkaii

drkaii
Well my mobo really don't have any room for oc. You can increase the base clock but you can't set it to be at a fixed speed. It will always be increasing the range of allowed speeds and if this is truly kept to idk. Its a bad bad bios on a bad bad mobo. I currently have it like that, theoretically it can go over 4GHz. Anyway I've oced my gpu 125/450， and made a world of difference. Smooth asteroid fields, nearly perfect starports (don't need to turn shadows off anymore), and stable. I'm a happy boy:D

Will get a better mobo and cpu in the medium term future. Thanks for the pro tips and not just sending me off to find it for myself, I really owe you
 

djbordie

D
great to hear, isnt it amazing what +100mhz would do ED...its insane.

my 980 overclocked tore anything i threw at it to shreds. i was not expecting this kind of power...
however it broke my existing cpu overclock and had to redo everything all weekend, didnt even try it on ED yet haha...almost lost my sanity.
i cant wait, the 970 to 980 difference for me is near 400mhz clock and 700 mhz on the mem i hope it can supersample x2 with everything turned up, in a station!

dont sell that cpu short, its your mobo holding you back probably.

Nvidia was using the 2600k (same as yours but with hyperthreading) for the far cry 4 benchmarks. it was over clocked to 4.5 ghz and they were using that and a gtx 980 to show off the game...if a 2600k is good enough for nvidia...haha

realistically if you got a new motherboard from ebay (used even) somethign that can clock better, that 2500k cpu will put ED to its knees.

its such a strong cpu compared to the modern ones...and overclocks so damn well!
you dont need the extra 4 threads from hyperthreading, most guides say turn off HT so you have a dedicated 4 core cpu...common performance enhancer...so dont worry about upgrading ur cpu.
its a sleeping giant
 

CMDR Holycow

CMDR Holycow
I am running my 970 at +200mhz and +200mem, and +5mv... and I don't really see a different in ED. Once I go up to 250 on the core, I start running into crashing. So 200 seems to be the spot where my card has reached it max. Remember, every card is unique in what it can "take" in regards to OCing... so you can't even look at somebody elses settings. Even using a stress tester didn't help me..as It would run FINE up to 275 there... but ED would crash every time at 275. You really need to test in the game you plan on running (in my experience).
 
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