How do I overclock my 580 GTX Lightning

[KING_OF_SAND]

The label is just a label to make it sound good and attract buyers (by no means I'm saying its a bad card). If they changed reference design, that is for stability, better cooling, etc. It also means potentially higher stable clocks.

That is totally not true! The card was designed from the ground up to take more volts then the reference design while keeping it more stable. The lightning cards use more watts than the reference cards as well. My 5870 lightning used TWO 8pins, it was just one card that used a crap load of power. The card was specifically built for the most EXTREME OC possible. The lightning cards dont even look anywhere near close to the reference cards.

Lightning 5870

stock 5870

 

[Sapsh]

The card was designed from the ground up to take more volts then the reference design while keeping it more stable.

This is exactly what I said in my previous post (more stable at higher volts, etc.), just decided not to go into much detail since the discussion is not about the card design.

In reference to the name, they could've called it something more/less flashy, but a good sounding name attracts more buyers, doesn't it? That's all.

Either way you have to agree that maxing out volts is not a way to go, and hopefully this is going to save you some money next time you oc (that is if your card will burn). But it's up to you at the end of the day, just please don't advise other people to do that, better to be safe than sorry.

2 Hunk: how are things going?

 

[Hunk]

This is exactly what I said in my previous post (more stable at higher volts, etc.), just decided not to go into much detail since the discussion is not about the card design.

In reference to the name, they could've called it something more/less flashy, but a good sounding name attracts more buyers, doesn't it? That's all.

Either way you have to agree that maxing out volts is not a way to go, and hopefully this is going to save you some money next time you oc (that is if your card will burn). But it's up to you at the end of the day, just please don't advise other people to do that, better to be safe than sorry.

2 Hunk: how are things going?

Well the card is acting weird.

Here's what I got yesterday using Kombuster Directx11 with extreme setting:

I tried again this morning but it crashed... With the exact same settings under Afterburner.

Am I doing something wrong?

Please let me know what you think I should up or decrease

Thanks, guys! I've learnt a lot already!

 

[daantjuh44]

Maybe up the voltage a bit. Mine is running 900 MHz with +12mV can't get it higher without using more volts but that's just my card.

Just keep experimenting, the voltage option has a drop down menu you can up the memory voltage and auxiliary voltage too !

 

[Hunk]

Maybe up the voltage a bit. Mine is running 900 MHz with +12mV can't get it higher without using more volts but that's just my card.

Just keep experimenting, the voltage option has a drop down menu you can up the memory voltage and auxiliary voltage too !

Thanks!

May I have a screenshot of your afterburner so I can see your complete settings?

 

[daantjuh44]

Not much point in that I am running a lower overclock than you do. You want to go higher don't you ?

 

[Hunk]

Not much point in that I am running a lower overclock than you do. You want to go higher don't you ?

Well I went back to the stock settings as the card was not very stable.

Basically, if I increase core clock/shader clock, do I have to increase everything else?

 

[daantjuh44]

I have no idea tbh !

It's also my fist time overclocking a gfx card I'm just testing till its stable.

Atm my settings are:

Core volt +12

Core clock 900

Shader clock 1800

Everything else is at stock settings.

 

[KING_OF_SAND]

This is exactly what I said in my previous post (more stable at higher volts, etc.), just decided not to go into much detail since the discussion is not about the card design.

In reference to the name, they could've called it something more/less flashy, but a good sounding name attracts more buyers, doesn't it? That's all.

Either way you have to agree that maxing out volts is not a way to go, and hopefully this is going to save you some money next time you oc (that is if your card will burn). But it's up to you at the end of the day, just please don't advise other people to do that, better to be safe than sorry.

2 Hunk: how are things going?

I dont see why it cant? If you max out the volts and your card breaks shortly after that means it was originally broken. This is how i test all the new GPUs i get. I put on the max volts but no increase in anything else and bench it for a good 10 to 2 hours. If the card breaks i return it. AMD cards especially were meant to be overclocked and i am sure they for saw voltage increases. I am confident that the card will be able to handle max voltages.

 

[Sapsh]

I dont see why it cant? If you max out the volts and your card breaks shortly after that means it was originally broken. This is how i test all the new GPUs i get. I put on the max volts but no increase in anything else and bench it for a good 10 to 2 hours. If the card breaks i return it. AMD cards especially were meant to be overclocked and i am sure they for saw voltage increases. I am confident that the card will be able to handle max voltages.

So you say, shops accept back burned cards with no questions? Hard to believe, tbh.

 

[KING_OF_SAND]

So you say, shops accept back burned cards with no questions? Hard to believe, tbh.

msi, xfx, diamond, and gigabyte did for me.

 

[Sapsh]

Well I went back to the stock settings as the card was not very stable.

Basically, if I increase core clock/shader clock, do I have to increase everything else?

Here's what you do:

Increase core/shader/memory clocks a bit, run smth like FurMark and write down scores and settings.

Do that until you start getting artifacts/instability/etc. Then up the volts (core and memory) a bit to get is stable, benchmark it and write down scores and settings.

Repeat the process.

You get the idea, its not a very quick process sometimes, thus proceed with patience.

It would also help you to plot the results in a spreadsheet - can easily visualise what is happening. At some point your scores will start saturating - that is a good place to stop, then test for stability for a couple of hours.

Hope this helps.

 

[Sapsh]

msi, xfx, diamond, and gigabyte did for me.

Lucky

I still stand by my point, though, and I see you too, so lets not clutter this thread further.

 

[JezEngland]

Hi.

Your card, Twin Frozer 3 is that right? YES? Then it has a custom BIOS for extreme overclocking wich allows Voltage far past the reference GTX580 so without adequate cooling, LN2 i think's the only way the chip would overheat like instantly and die anytime with Volts at max. I think that card has custom MSI enthusiast OC'ing software?. My reference cards are OK with max Voltage of 1138mV up from 1013mV. These top spec chips are very robust.

You don't have to OC memory aswell as core/shader. If your performance is bottlenecked by the memory OC'ing that will help. I think usage percentage and frequency are factors there, you have 1.5GB memory and if that's full OC'ing the memory will help as it speeds up communication allowing more data per second.

 

[Hunk]

Here's what you do:

Increase core/shader/memory clocks a bit, run smth like FurMark and write down scores and settings.

Do that until you start getting artifacts/instability/etc. Then up the volts (core and memory) a bit to get is stable, benchmark it and write down scores and settings.

Repeat the process.

You get the idea, its not a very quick process sometimes, thus proceed with patience.

It would also help you to plot the results in a spreadsheet - can easily visualise what is happening. At some point your scores will start saturating - that is a good place to stop, then test for stability for a couple of hours.

Hope this helps.

Thank you so much for the help, mate.

That's what I've been doing for 2 days. I'll do that for about a week and then see the results. But so far I haven't gotten much difference between the stock card and once I've overclocked it.

I may have to push it a little further.

 

[daantjuh44]

The increase i got in heaven was pretty good !

I had everything at the highest setting and my fps were :

@Stock: min 4.4, avg 7.7, max 17.1

@900: min 13.5, avg 32.9, max 81.9

Thats a huge increase in my opinion !

 

[KaraMurat]

The increase i got in heaven was pretty good !

I had everything at the highest setting and my fps were :

@Stock: min 4.4, avg 7.7, max 17.1

@900: min 13.5, avg 32.9, max 81.9

Thats a huge increase in my opinion !

lol seriously? may i ask what were the stock settings.

 

[daantjuh44]

The stock core speed is 832 MHz !

 

[KaraMurat]

wow whatever you did to make such a substantial performance increase, you got it right lol

 

[JezEngland]

The increase i got in heaven was pretty good !

I had everything at the highest setting and my fps were :

@Stock: min 4.4, avg 7.7, max 17.1

@900: min 13.5, avg 32.9, max 81.9

Thats a huge increase in my opinion !

Hi. Something is missing. The difference you got is not due to that OC. If you want to clarify you should try again chacking all settings are equal as the software does reset to standard config with each launch i think.