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Message boards : Number crunching : Getting the most performance (with overclocking)

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Dylan
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Message 28916 - Posted: 2 Mar 2013 | 17:15:08 UTC
Last modified: 2 Mar 2013 | 17:16:06 UTC

Are there any tips or tricks one can do to squeeze the last bit of performance out of the GPU for crunching?

I already allocated 2.5 CPU cores for my 2 GPU's and overclocked the CPU to ensure no bottlenecks, even though the CPU is fairly modern (i7-3820).

In terms of overclocking, I know that overclocking can cause tasks to fail, I have experienced this myself, however, I was wondering if it was safe to do a really small overclock, as in +25 mhz to the GPU clock. Would this cause tasks to fail? I figure that even though it's a small overclock, if it's stable, the tiny performance gain given by it will add up over the days/months/etc of crunching.

To say it simply: How much of an overclock can be pulled off that wouldn't fail tasks? Even a 1 mhz overclock would do something.

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Message 28918 - Posted: 2 Mar 2013 | 17:26:06 UTC

There is no general rule to overclocking. It depends on various factors, such as quality of MB, CPU, RAM, etc. The best rule is to try and see which one is stable for your specific PC configuration.
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Message 28920 - Posted: 2 Mar 2013 | 18:29:54 UTC - in response to Message 28918.
Last modified: 2 Mar 2013 | 18:31:11 UTC

True, but a stable GPU overclock would still fail tasks for me on GPUGRID, but perform fine on other tasks. I want to know how far one could overclock while still successfully completing tasks.

If it helps, I could post my system specs.

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Message 28921 - Posted: 2 Mar 2013 | 18:40:51 UTC
Last modified: 2 Mar 2013 | 18:41:57 UTC

With GPUGRID it's very tricky to know in advance which overclock will be stable for it. GPUGRID is very sensitive to overclocking and temperatures. For example, my GPU a while ago was running at close to 80°C and it repeatedly failed on GPUGRID while it had no problems on Milkyway and Einstein. Increasing the fan speed so it lowered the temps to 65°C was enough to make it stable for GPUGRID

Sorry if this doesn't answer your question but I honestly can't guess which OC will be stable for GPUGRID tasks. Maybe someone else can chime in...
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Message 28923 - Posted: 2 Mar 2013 | 21:23:28 UTC - in response to Message 28921.

Thanks, that answer did help. I read in another thread that the actual WU can have some effect on the stability. I have two cards at around 65-70C, so I'm going to put a 25 Mhz overclock on each GPU clock and see where that gets me. Thanks again.

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Message 28986 - Posted: 4 Mar 2013 | 22:10:07 UTC

For GPU-Grid pretty much the only OC that matters would be the chip clock of your GTX670s. You'll probably reach ~1.20 GHz at 1.175 V (maximum Turbo bin, maximum available via EVGA Precision) stable at GPU-Grid.

Mine (GTX660Ti) can do 1.23 GHz here, POEM at 1.33 GHz.. but will fail GPU-Grid at 1.25 GHz. SK's is doing ~20 MHz less and yours will be slightly different as well.

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Message 28991 - Posted: 5 Mar 2013 | 19:54:46 UTC - in response to Message 28986.

Alright, thanks for the answer, I'll play around and see what works.

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Message 28994 - Posted: 5 Mar 2013 | 21:38:31 UTC - in response to Message 28991.

Just make sure you'Re not running one of the current NOELIA WUs whilöe experimenting, these are often failing even on otherwise good hosts.

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Message boards : Number crunching : Getting the most performance (with overclocking)

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