New to GPU

[IamFuzzles]

Was going to post this in technical support, but maybe someone useful will read it here. Just new to mining, but I've heard that overclocking the gpu is helpful. Thing is, I've never tried anything like that. Any good resources to look into? I'd like to know the risks and how to minimize them, and the benefits as well. I have an ATI Radeon HD4870. Thanks in advance for the help.

[stordoff]

Look in AMD/ATi Overdrive. It's an option in your graphics drivers that will automatically find the max stable speed. For a novice user, it's the best way to get started with overclocking IMO

[IamFuzzles]

Again, very new, so is that an option I can find on my computer, or is that a program?

[stordoff]

On my Mac ATM, but from memory you need to:

• Right-click on the desktop and choose "Catalyst Control Center"
• Find the "performance tab"
• Under that, there should be an Overdrive option
• Choose auto-tune for it to find the best frequency. You can also increase the fan speed if you want to maximise your card's lifespan

N.B. You might need to update your drivers first from http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/Pages/index.aspx

[IamFuzzles]

Alright, I know about Catalyst Control Center. Thanks a lot. Any recommendations on places to read up on this stuff? Like, from noob to advanced? I'd like to progress and learn as quickly as I can. Safely of course.

[yk]

I believe the worst thing that can happen over clocking nowadays is that your card will be unstable. This usually happens when a card gets to hot, so you should watch the temperature, a value below 80°C should be fine. With Ati cards on Linux the command to get the temperature is

Code:

aticonfig --odgt

For Windows there should be some option in the driver (or third party software).

[lost in the wild]

For Windows there should be some option in the driver (or third party software).

In Windows, the Catalyst Control Center has a screen that shows temperature on a dial.

[stordoff]

The temperature should be shown in the Overdrive option when using Windows. For the 4870, anything below 85C is OK, but personally I aim for 75C (just needed to bump the fan speed slightly on mine)

[IamFuzzles]

Good to know. Again, in case it was overlooked in my last post, Any recommendations on places to read up on this stuff? Like, from noob to advanced? I'd like to progress and learn as quickly as I can. Safely of course.

[joec0p]

As a quick tip...CCC had some issues controlling fan speeds with a few different 4xxx and 5xxx series radeons. I noticed this when mining and decided to manually set fan speeds through catalyst control center / amd overdrive enabled. Brought temps down from 80c to 58c, and fan was only at 50%.

Also, HWMonitor from the company CPUid can show GPU temp too. Its not good for the cards to run around 90-105c.

[topuli]

look at the ratio between hash\sec and Watt\hour
often it is more profitable to not overclock but underclock or undervolt your gpu.

[odolvlobo]

Was going to post this in technical support, but maybe someone useful will read it here. Just new to mining, but I've heard that overclocking the gpu is helpful. Thing is, I've never tried anything like that. Any good resources to look into? I'd like to know the risks and how to minimize them, and the benefits as well. I have an ATI Radeon HD4870. Thanks in advance for the help.

I think you mean "underclock" and not "overclock". Overclocking will raise the hash rate, but it may raise the power consumption even more.