GPU OCing Help Thread

[Snow Crash]

Mabyboi ... I am running an i7-920 at 4.0 GHz which helps and sometimes it is days between when I actually plug in a video cable and look at that machine :-)
I am also running it with HT off anf most importantly, because this is a dedicated crunher (cpu doing WCG) I am running Windows XP which helps reduce runtimes by ~20 minutes per wu.

[mreuter80]

Hey Otis,
Just a little update.
My RAC climbed a little bit to 26650 PPD. I haven't changed anything on the clocks.
Looking at the graph in BOINC managaer it seems that the average is still growing with a small rate - max not reached. I guesstimate it will level a little bit above 27K.

[Mabyboi]

just got my air back, gonna let the desktop sit and accumulate points now bumped the clock up to 717mhz too.

[Snow Crash]

Otis11 ...

I may be old but if you beat me hard enough with a stick long enough I can learn new tricks

You got me thinking about the interaction between the GPU components and I realized I was blinding myself with the *shaders shaders shaders* mantra.
While not for the same reasons you state in your ratio theory (harmonic distortion, frequency collisions ... dude... what??? not saying you are wrong, I'm just not smart enough for that), I decided to see if I had my shaders so high it was preventing my memory OC which in turn was starving the very shaders I think are the catz azz.

Damn , damn, damn ... I gotta listen better to you whippersnappers ... I turned my shaders down one notch (1620) and my memory up (1215). While I did get a couple of errors this morning I have since been returning a little FASTER than before (~10 min per WU). So yes, utlimately I think ratios are important and will continue working on finding the sweet spot for my cards.

[Mabyboi]

Since upping my core clock from 707 to 717 i've gone from 6k PPU up to 6.8K PPU! a whole .8 from that little?! WHAT DID I DOOO

[Snow Crash]

which PPU are you referring to?
PPU Pay Per Use
PPU Physics Processing Unit
PPU Palestine Polytechnic University
PPU Power Processing Unit (solar electric propulsion)
PPU Picture Processing Unit
PPU Public Protection Unit (UK)
PPU Price Per Unit
PPU Point Park University (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)
PPU Professional People in Urbe
PPU Portable Pilot Unit (Microsoft)
PPU Physical Planning Unit (Grenada)
PPU Procurement Policy Unit (UK)
PPU Peoples Potential Unlimited (record label that reissues vinyl records)
PPU Portable Production Unit
PPU Pending Pick Up
PPU Prime Power Unit
PPU Packet Pick-Up (racing events)
PPU Please Pick Up
PPU Peripheral Processor Unit
PPU Protocol Processing Unit
PPU Pre Purification Unit
PPU Post Processing Unit
PPU Pre Processor Utility
PPU Postpartum Unit
PPU Pixelpushers United (pixel art commune)
PPU Primary Place of Usage
PPU Preproduction Unit
PPU Production Prototype Unit
PPU Powerplay Unit (hockey)
PPU Programme de Prévention Urbaine (French)

[Mabyboi]

which PPU are you referring to?
PPU Pay Per Use
PPU Physics Processing Unit
PPU Palestine Polytechnic University
PPU Power Processing Unit (solar electric propulsion)
PPU Picture Processing Unit
PPU Public Protection Unit (UK)
PPU Price Per Unit
PPU Point Park University (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)
PPU Professional People in Urbe
PPU Portable Pilot Unit (Microsoft)
PPU Physical Planning Unit (Grenada)
PPU Procurement Policy Unit (UK)
PPU Peoples Potential Unlimited (record label that reissues vinyl records)
PPU Portable Production Unit
PPU Pending Pick Up
PPU Prime Power Unit
PPU Packet Pick-Up (racing events)
PPU Please Pick Up
PPU Peripheral Processor Unit
PPU Protocol Processing Unit
PPU Pre Purification Unit
PPU Post Processing Unit
PPU Pre Processor Utility
PPU Postpartum Unit
PPU Pixelpushers United (pixel art commune)
PPU Primary Place of Usage
PPU Preproduction Unit
PPU Production Prototype Unit
PPU Powerplay Unit (hockey)
PPU Programme de Prévention Urbaine (French)

My programme went up by .8! but then i realised its cause of the new boosts...

[Snow Crash]

So you meant Points Per Unit.
Not only are they changing because of the new bonus scheme but they vary between WU types anyway.
That's why I try to always test from the same *type*, they are usually consitant and not just in runtime but also in how they use the GPU itself.

[Mabyboi]

Riddle me this: If everyone says that GPUgrid is the toughest thing for your gpu, and if its stable here, its stable everywhere.. and my 717/1600/1233 is stable here.. but then when video gaming. it crashes... why is that? it does the driver reset thingy and does half of what its supposed to..

[CaptMorgan]

Mabyboi- maybe because the work the Grid does is consistent; my own experience game graphics are dif kind of intensive

[PoppaGeek]

GPUGrid and F@H use the cards differently than games do. I had a 260 that was fine in games and certain F@H WUs but not GPUGrid and most F@H WUs. I also think F@H is much more demanding than GPUGrid on most WUs. GPUGrid does not generate as much heat either.

[Otis11]

GPUGrid also only stresses the Shaders... sure it uses the other stuff, but they don't feel the pressure. Games make the core work and can even max the memory - Two things Grid will never do.

I do maintain though... If you're GPUGrid stable you're pretty flippin stable.

[Mabyboi]

and my games are coming out crappy, even at stock settings... dead card?

[PoppaGeek]

and my games are coming out crappy, even at stock settings... dead card?

Ya might try CUDA Memory Tester. Tests GPU memory. Let it run like 1000 or more loops.

[Mabyboi]

Ya might try CUDA Memory Tester. Tests GPU memory. Let it run like 1000 or more loops.

When gaming, it makes parts of the screen look like they're artifacting, and tearing.. its not good... would this help?

[PoppaGeek]

Artifacts a good or I should say bad sign of memory problems. OCing can cause artifacts. The tearing may be syncing. Try setting game to sync with monitor. Nvidia drivers call it "Vertical sync". Set to yes and also in game. If you can limit it to a little less than htz of monitor. My LCDs are 60HZ so i set game to 56 and sync frame or horizontal.

[OldChap]

How many results completed do you want to get an average ppd?

I'm seriously impressed with this so far ...when I first used my 295 on here I was getting around 36k/day...from 4 results today I average over 31k on a 260 55nm

[Snow Crash]

PPD just started to settle in after the last new app but bonus points changed yesterday so they are changing again.

On top of that they just put up a new beta (6.16 for windows only) that is suppose to be even faster still
PPD are going to in flux for quite some time. All moving upwards so it's all good

[Otis11]

PPD just started to settle in after the last new app but bonus points changed yesterday so they are changing again.

On top of that they just put up a new beta (6.16 for windows only) that is suppose to be even faster still
PPD are going to in flux for quite some time. All moving upwards so it's all good

Yeah, unfortunately because of that, ppd is not a good gauge of how effective the OC is...

So any ideas on how to do this strategically? Test the effects of OC?

[Snow Crash]

I try not to use PPD to gauge how effctive my OC test settings are for two main reasons. 1. It simply takes way to freakin long for PPD to normalize again after changing settings and 2. I'm just not that patient. I typically look at runtimes of individual WUs of the same type within a given application version, then I try to see if I can get a couple in a row to get a better sense of an average. This way I can use WUs I already crunched as my baseline and realisticaslly only need between 1 and 4 WU of the same type to see if/ how much of a difference I am making. I will say there is one downfall to this approach and that is that you are onlyntesting against one WU typre and they are all a little different so you might not be as stable as you think you are until your run a couple of each.

[Otis11]

So it should be updated... Please let me know if I missed something, cuz that is VERY likely... Tried me best though.

Also, anyone figure out anything?

As far as the timing issue goes - I talked to a researcher about it... He said the OC is only going to help if that component is being stressed as newer cards have advanced interfaces between the different components. But it might have an impact on older cards... Not that we have many of those... (idk where that distinction is though...)

[mreuter80]

Hey Otis,

Since we get more points for the WUs I think we can scratch all PPD/RAC from the first message.
My latest OC success: 702/1656/1296; fan 55; temp 70 (GPUGrid stable , but not FurMark ).
Points will need some time, because the machine will be on/and off (so no 24/7 right now). But from what I see it's maybe some 3% faster than just using the shaders. Only time will tell.

Considering your previous message, I really think to revert back to stock and just leave it running at that speed.
Cheers

[Mabyboi]

If anyone is interested, my 295 is now up for sale in the for sale section: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=248061

[WhiteFireDragon]

i wasn't sure if i should use EVGA precision or riva tuner, so i picked evga precision for the sake of simplicity, and it also works my zotac gtx260 . either i got lucky or this software is not exclusive to evga cards only.

so i got lazy and ramped up my clocks to Otis11's max OC on his gtx260. i'm now crunching at 700/1507/40, fan on auto at 40% 60C for 24/7 load win7 64bit. so far, 2 WU's has been complete at these clocks and they are both vaid. i'll report back if i get any errors. thanks Otis11!

[Otis11]

Huh, good to know Precision works with zotac... i think you just got lucky, but hey, if it works.