Underclocking 290x crossfire?

[Kushiro]

Hi guys,

So basically as the title suggests I want to underclock my 290x cfx setup. The reason being that I have ordered a set of waterblocks that I intend to install on them, and just want to keep the temps down, lower power consumption would be a bonus.

Does anyone have any experience doing this, I realize that people would generally be going for higher performance as opposed to lower performance for these GPU's.

 

[NeverBackDown]

Well underclocking can imply two things. First being you want to lower the clocks or you want to keep the stock clocks and undervolt. Most people end up undervolting but for a 290x Xfire setup i can see why you want to underclock.

Really its the same as Overclocking. Instead of going up you go down but all rules stay the same. You still need to find a stable clock with stable volts. Looking at your signature i assume its reference cards(one being sapphire and other asus)? If that is the case then i would try to find the highest clock you can find that they can constantly hit and not throttle at, which is lower than stock speeds. As you lower clocks and test don't forget to lower volts.

Its not that much different just do it right and you'll be ok.

 

[Kushiro]

Sorry I might not have been very clear in the OP, I really just wanted peoples experiences and results, but thank you for the in depth explanation though, I am sure it will help others that see this thread.

Again thanks for the input

 

[NeverBackDown]

I have undervolted my card about 60mv from stock and 20mv on the memory on stock clocks. Temps dropped about 5C even without changing my clocks. Could go lower but a couple of my games crash while other more intensive games/ benchmarks are still stable( weird). The result of the temp drop made me be slightly less aggressive on the fan profile and noise went down considerably.

 

[Kushiro]

I see, thats good to know. Did you use MSI AB or Asus Tweak? Also I know what you mean by the wierd crashes, I could get furmark stable yet crysis or even light games like dota 2 would just give me an error haha.

 

[NeverBackDown]

I know right? Its weird!

I used AB since my card is a MSI Twin Frozer cooler. My brother has an Asus card and i have used Tweak but even with it updated its still buggy and weird. I don't trust it very much. Just compared to AB it doesn't seem as stable and its literally an exact copy with a few more features(less options though) but its slow.

 

[Kushiro]

yea, agreed. I use MSI AB as well now, as I found that it was the most stable for my setup, not to mention it was far better equipped compared to the sapphire trixx utility, though I did like it for a period of time when I was using my 7990.

 

[SuB]

From my personal experience, don't use furmark as a benchmark, that thing destroys cards because it loads the GPU incorrectly. Instead of sending it bursts of data like a regular benchmark it 100% loads it on all possible cores/shaders/etc. This can and WILL damage your GPU. (I've damaged a GPU with furmark before, so I'm not just talking out of my ass )

 

[Kushiro]

yea, thanks for the info. The reason I used furmark was just because I wanted an extra test after benches like valley, heaven and 3d mark. Somehow the error did not present itself until I ran a game, then BAM.

P.S I find heaven to look much more beautiful compared to valley, but scary in some scenes too no idea why heaven is scary o-o.