Sapphire R9 290 Tri-X overclocking results and benchmarks.

[usman mani]

Note: Dear respected MOD please move my post to appropriate section, i accidentally post it here. sorry for the trouble..

Asalam o alaikum dear all pg members.


After salam i would like to discuss the most discussed issue again with some questions in my mind. i have Sapphire R9 290 tri-x OC, i am pretty happy with it, but since few days i am thinking about buying gtx 970 as it has a decent 1200 base clock etc, and started digging around the internet to see if it is worth upgrading to gtx 970. well with so much reviews and benchmarks which i think were 50 50 in favor of both, some said gtx 970 has different architecture and more base clock and some said if u go to high resolution u need 290 or 290x and even if u overclock 290 tri-x it can achieve decent clocks. so i decided to do some overclocking on my 290 tri-x, so i did. i used heaven benchmark for results and used trixxx to overclock and played some most demanding games too on my desktop as i have all demanding games installed, any ways here are the results.

At stock settings and Benchmarks.

at stock every thing is very outstanding. as for a r9 290 it is too quiet, as a matter of fact i disabled all case fans and i was amazed to here nothing but a silence. temps hardly goes above 68c.

1. gpu clock = 1000
2. mem clock = 5200
3. VDDC offset = 0
4. power limit = 0

At overclock settings and benchmarks.

now at these settings card started to make some noice which was negligible.

1. gpu clock = 1200
2. mem clock = 6000
3. VDDC offset = 181
4. power limit = 30

now i am trying to go further but i need your beneficial information if i shall go further or not cause at these settings card temps are not exceeding from 80c on full load and fan at 47 to 53%. i gamed every game on my desktop for 20 20 min and the temps were at 80c. i noticed some good FPS difference in game play, i think a noticeable 6 to 8 FPS. i wanted to know some real easy answers from you guys for my below questions.

1. What is the maximum GPU clock can i set? maximum enough to not harm my GPU.
2. what is VDDC offset? i changed it too much but could not figured the difference. how much shall i go on this one?
3. what is power limits? can i go to 50% will it harm my GPU?
4. memory clock can go above 6000 but i sticked to 6000 as it is effective memory i guess. so going above will do any harm??
5. how much ratio shall i keep between GPU and memory CLOCK?
please dont mind my questions cause i am noob to this but away too curious to tried some settings my self . and if you think i am missing some thing here then please let me know.


Thanx in advance.


-------------- UPDATE -------------

i could go only till 1220Mhz the most stable clock i could achieve. after that small blue boxes started appearing then i decided to get back now. so how is for r9 290 tri-x to get 1220mhz stable gpu clock??

 

[siddiec2013]

this is not the right place to discuss. its the selling section you should post in discussion section

 

[usman mani]

come on guyz your guidance is really much needed..

 

[Voodoo]

i think you already have reached the maximum clocks
r9 29x ocing ability is not like 79xx series

 

[usman mani]

i think you already have reached the maximum clocks
r9 29x ocing ability is not like 79xx series

i c.. do you think 780 can oc better then 290 tri-x???

 

[Jager]

Dude a fps raise of 5 is not good for frying ur chip
80 degrees is quiet hot as compared to 68 but a clock in range of 1150 to 1200 is safe for trix
If u want to upgrade wait for amd 3 series cards
And dont endager ur precious gpu for 5 fps

 

[Jager]

780 can get higher core clocks

 

[usman mani]

Dude a fps raise of 5 is not good for frying ur chip
80 degrees is quiet hot as compared to 68 but a clock in range of 1150 to 1200 is safe for trix
If u want to upgrade wait for amd 3 series cards
And dont endager ur precious gpu for 5 fps

hmmm.. well that is right actually.. i better wait for 3xxx series and then have to wait even more for the price to get down..

 

[Jager]

Pakistan dude

 

[Jager]

hmmm.. well that is right actually.. i better wait for 3xxx series and then have to wait even more for the price to get down..

Pakistan dude but some dealers dont earn too much check ease tec

 

[nafu]

i c.. do you think 780 can oc better then 290 tri-x???

due to high power draw from 290 it is possible that 290 dont oc much higher. nvidia 780 can go higher due to low power consumption and boost core. but AMD's performance per watt is not great but performance per dollar is much better than nvidia. if comparing till kepler

 

[nafu]

[MENTION=44762]usman mani[/MENTION]

1. you already achieved 1220mhz so its good to go.
2. Use sapphire Trixx and/or MSI AB to unlock full voltage for 290
3. Power Limits does not harm GPU. infact it gives more room to GPU to Perform at fuller. and so Allow more stable overclock to some extend
4. Memory should be fine. but try to Overclock more as the Valley benchmark gain more performance from higher memory too.
5. if you like Benchmarking then Overclock to highest possible levels. if you have good enough GOLD rated PSU then you can achieve higher memory with stability too.

i would say, dont Overclock you GPU for Gaming. as you already have enough GPU power at stock that giving you 60+ fps in most games if you're at 1080p. here most people do overclocking for benchmarking purposes.

 

[usman mani]

@usman mani

1. you already achieved 1220mhz so its good to go.
2. Use sapphire Trixx and/or MSI AB to unlock full voltage for 290
3. Power Limits does not harm GPU. infact it gives more room to GPU to Perform at fuller. and so Allow more stable overclock to some extend
4. Memory should be fine. but try to Overclock more as the Valley benchmark gain more performance from higher memory too.
5. if you like Benchmarking then Overclock to highest possible levels. if you have good enough GOLD rated PSU then you can achieve higher memory with stability too.

i would say, dont Overclock you GPU for Gaming. as you already have enough GPU power at stock that giving you 60+ fps in most games if you're at 1080p. here most people do overclocking for benchmarking purposes.

well that is so correct nafu bro. thanks for your detailed info. i am using trixxx to overclock, i have saved seperate profile for overclocking, when ever i do game i just select that profile an bingo . i think 6 to 7 fps is good change dont u think? anyways thanx for the answers.

 

[nafu]

well that is so correct nafu bro. thanks for your detailed info. i am using trixxx to overclock, i have saved seperate profile for overclocking, when ever i do game i just select that profile an bingo . i think 6 to 7 fps is good change dont u think? anyways thanx for the answers.

if you ask me, 6-7 FPS in gaming is meaning less. but yeah its noticeable and beneficial in benchmarking stuff.

i'd receommed you don't game at 1220mhz core. cuz 290 is already have power draw much higher. when it overclocks. if you really want to game on overclocked clocks, then set to under 1100mhz core its sweet spot for Gaming.

Use sapphire 4.4 Modded version. it will unlock voltage closer to 1.40v, if support

 

[iampasha]

But why would you want to overclock the GPU that further?

 

[Dark Sith]

i would not push that gpu that hard / coz summers are right around the corner and these things get hot even if they are 3 fans in it ---

- - - Updated - - -

if you really want some power then wait for the next gen to arrive which will be in summers / that beats the crap out of gtx 980 even / plus its stacked mem / so with new dx/12 and driver support if you ahve 2 gpu with 4gb each it will be actual 8gb of vram as opposed to current status which is only 4gb .

 

[haroonshaikh]

I think you are pretty safe. Set a custom fan profile if you want added protection to keep your card running cooler. You can also set your fan speed to 80-90% at 80 degrees if the noise doesn't bother you. ( I keep my card fan speed at 100% on 80 degrees).
Otherwise if the overclock is stable then i think you can keep going further.