Overclocking using FurMark?

[KopyKat]

So i downloaded a couple different benchmark/stablity testing programs today and the one that really stood out for stressing the GPU was FurMark.

That crazy program had my EVGA 8800GTS up to 87-88 degrees celsius and no other program did this in under 6-7 minutes if at all!

My card is very slightly overclocked from the stock 670/972 to 705/1005 and that was with the stock fan going at 60% instead of the stock 36%!

The second time i ran it for about 6-7 minutes i had the fan at 75% and it barely hit 80-81 degrees celsius.

Ive had no problems running Crysis or anything so i know thats a safe clock speed for slight OC.

So my questions are: Can i use FurMark's stability testing to further carefully overclock my card or is to unrealistic with the extremely high temps it gets the card to? Like will it show me artifacts if its getting pushed to far if i keep an eye on it like any other program or will it just fry the card before that lol?

Also can some of you guys give me your stock or OCed temp numbers when using this program for about 5-10 mins using the stability test? Ive heard it pushes cards to the max but it seems kinda overboard to me. How high can these cards handle, ive heard 90 degrees or so, is that about right?

I guess what im asking in summary is can i use FurMark to OC the card safely and will it show me artifacts before its too late if slowly upping clockspeeds and watching the temp?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Toxcity]

Most graphic cards are designed to take a lot of heat.For example I once had an ATI x800 running past 100oC without any problems.

I was using ATI Tools at the time and yes the program seemed to get the card hotter than any game would.

I saw this as a good thing, showing me I had a lot of head room in my overclock.

 

[!TIMMY!]

I used to use ATI Tool to test my oc as it did seem to stress the GC alot, and get the temps up. I don't use it now because Asus don't like to give you the ability to read the GPU temp.

 

[Bungral]

Yeah, that furry box in ATITool does your GPU in a goodun.

I had my 8800GT overclocked quite a bit last night playing STALKER on max settings and forgot to up my fan from like 10%.... Card got hot. Something like ummm 84 degs. Still worked fine with no artifacts.. Well, apart from the ones I was picking up in the game that is

 

[!TIMMY!]

Bungral, how do u monitor your GPU temp? U have the same Card as me.

 

[Bungral]

Bungral, how do u monitor your GPU temp? U have the same Card as me.

ATITool works but at the moment I use Everest Ultimate and have the Vista gadget attached to the sidebar with the info at all times.

 

[!TIMMY!]

do u have the normal fan or the Glacier fan? Cause i have the latter and iirc everest or Rivatuner can't see the temps.

 

[ali_james]

do u have the normal fan or the Glacier fan? Cause i have the latter and iirc everest or Rivatuner can't see the temps.

Give this a go mate: HWMonitor

IMO its an awesome little program.

 

[KopyKat]

I find that for my card, ATI tool's furry box doesn't compare in the same amount of time as the FurMark test. ATI tool barely got my card to 75 degrees never mind almost 90 with 60% fan speed. But im going to try it again for the same amount of time to confirm this.

Also do you mean just letting it rotate or the artifact test? Which one generates more heat?

Then again i was using full screen FurMark with 1280x1024 Resolution. Not sure if that makes a difference.

I guess it doesn't matter which program you use at long at its stressing the card good.

Thanks for the quick replys guys.

 

[Bungral]

do u have the normal fan or the Glacier fan? Cause i have the latter and iirc everest or Rivatuner can't see the temps.

I use the normal one..

 

[KopyKat]

Update:

Set fan to 80% and only gets about 67-68 degrees in ATI tools.

In Furmark i hit 75-76 in the same 6-7 minute run time.

So i shaved off like 10-11 degrees off my first furmark run by upping the fan from 60% to 80%.

One more question, should i be upping clock speeds slowly during the test or should i up them slowly out the test and restart it everytime?

 

[Bungral]

Update:

Set fan to 80% and only gets about 67-68 degrees in ATI tools.

In Furmark i hit 75-76 in the same 6-7 minute run time.

So i shaved off like 10-11 degrees off my first furmark run by upping the fan from 60% to 80%.

One more question, should i be upping clock speeds slowly during the test or should i up them slowly out the test and restart it everytime?

Restart the test every time is probably best.

 

[KopyKat]

Alright, thanks for the info