R9700 vGPU mod done....

[PiLsY]

GPU mod connected up tonight. Its been on but not connected for a week or so now. Wanted to make sure I had no problems before cranking the volts up. So far results look OK.

Vmem mod made no difference - that ram is just too hot already to benefit from more volts.
Vgpu mod however did make a difference. Went from a stable 400 gpu to a stable 433 gpu. 3D mark will run after a few hours cool down at 437mhz. Voltage however is up form my default 1.56v to 1.95v, which is pretty high. Not sure what the limit should be. Day to day use I can crank it down to 1.8v and sit at 425mhz stable and artifact free. Those last few mhz take a lot of juice.

Any comments on max safe vGPU? I wont go over a 25% increase on voltage even for a 3dmark run, but im thinking a 15% increase for day to day would be safe.

FYI this is all straight water cooled on the same loop as my northbridge block.

No 3dmark up yet as ive been testing all night so everythings nice and toasty at the moment. Ill do a run first thing in the morning when theres some cool air in here. Am hoping for a decent increase, maybe hit my 18333 target, but in the back of my mind 18500 is hovering around ;).

Results in this thread tomorrow :).

PiLsY.

[OPPAINTER]

I went from 1.50 to 1.75 to get my card doing 500 with chilled pelt. Not sure what the limit is but in the past I allways ran about 1.96-2.00 for benching, no higher. I did fry a card once when I left the mod connected at 1.98 or so when my pelt was off so it would be a safe move to run at lower voltage unless benching.

Seeing how your doing some high voltage there I may have to give it a try and see If I can get this thing higher.

Good luck on your benching.

OPP

[Creative]

Awesome PiLsY, simply awesome...:) Do you think that you might get higher at same volts and same circumstances but change to a pelt or something? I dont know much about pelts but that thought of having to do that silicon around the gpu or whatever kinda puts me off using a pelt...:D

When volt modding these cards, do you recommend getting a waterblock or sticking with the default cooler and see how it goes? I have both a Pixelice waterblock and also a DD GF3 block here and I dont know which to use. I am leaning towards the DD block as the Pixelice isnt that great imo. I have never used the DD block, it was given to me in a trade a few months ago. The bottom feels very very smooth. It used to belong to Cathar from MO forums...:)

http://www.dangerden.com/images/water_blocks/gfvid_large.gif
The DD block I have

http://www.pccasegear.com.au/prod414.htm
PixelIce I have also

Hmmm any suggestions guys?

[PiLsY]

I only go for watercooling the GPU because its much quieter and just as effective as strapping a huge great 80mm delta onto it. You dont really get any core increase over air, just saves your eardrums :).

I dont run a pelt on it as first off I, like yourself, dont fancy the idea of smothering my gfx card in condensation proofing, or running an external dedicated PSU. My entire PC is enclosed and portable (but fkin heavy :p). Secondly right now I cant afford to have the radeon die on me. Once ive got some money banked up then ill experiment with some serious cooling. For now im content that I can reach top 10 without any huge modifications. Cracking 18k with no vmods and straight watercooled gfx card really made me proud :).

My next score increase will come from the vGPU mod, but I dont expect a huge amount from it due to my mis-matched cpu and memory at the moment (running 187 @ 1:1 with maxed mem timings. Mem bandwidth is crap, but I need the cpu mhz. When get a 2.8b in there I should be able to match up some real mhz with some huge mem bandwidth, which will give some interesting results I hope.

PiLsY.

[Creative]

Yep the quietness is my main motivation for getting the waterblock on there also. Gone are the days of having 60db fans in my case. My hearing is getting more sensitive in my old age :p

I forgot about the sperate PSU for the pelt so i think that has made my decision for me....NO PELT for now and as like you, I need this card for a while so cant afford to have it die on me. Im hoping I can keep this same setup till the end of the year with just a cpu change. Liek you, I find the 2,8 very very appealing, its just they are $550USD here in Australia and thats a freakin ripoff...:(

Im running a 2.4b atm and benching it at 169 3:4 mode 2-3-3-6 Enhance on and getting favourable scores but I wish I was getting more than 17050 points. My aim is 17500 today :)

You should be proud PiLsY for that score with straight watercooling and no volt mods. I need to do some *alot* more testing before I can say see you up there, but Im sure it will be sooner rather than later :)

Cheers bud