# Overclockd GPU failed



## RokkSolid (Sep 19, 2012)

Hello everyone,

My problem is overclocking and hardware related so I hope that I'm in the right passage, if not please feel free to move the thread to where it belongs.

Now to my issue. Recently I bought a new pc and to cut it short, messed with the overclocking in the CCC (card: hd 6780) and the following happened:

-Screen went black after two minutes of the "save" click
-Fan on card started to go crazy
-Forced kill on PSU
-Restart pc, no pci-e detected, graphics card working (fan)
-After a few minutes, everything shut down, cant turn pc back on
-Removed external card, plugd monitor into internal, turned pc back on, everything works fine

To cut it even shorter with things that I don't think you care about, I got a new card ordered and my question is: Will what happened affect the new card?

My thoughts are that the overclocking caused the PSU to fail as it couldn't supply enough power to the card but it doesn't explain the fact that it seems to suck the electricity out of the pc which is why it will not start at all with the external one. Or does it? This part is just to feed my own curiousity as it is bothering and I can't explain it. Dracula card also drained another PC I tried to start it up within.

I uninstalled the CCC which supposedly took down all the drivers with it(message popd up on uninstall claiming this) and as I was told by collegues it should be enough but still I worry that what happened recently will affect and possibly mess up another card for me.

PSU is at 500 W, card coming in is Radeon 6870 hd at 1GB.

I know that what I did was stupid so skiping that part is something I would appriciate very much. In my defence for those who thought this same thing, I didn't expect this outcome as I didn't think that the CCC would allow for such failure. Also the changes I made were minor, can not remember the exact measures.

No bios overclocking has happened, no cpu overclocking (through the CCC or any other method) has happened.

Thank you in advance and if you need to know just let me know.


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## Tyree (May 10, 2009)

First problem. Your PSU, even if it is good quality, is underpowered for a 6870 GPU and in no way suitable for any OC'ing.
You want to be at 650W minimum with a good quality PSU.
All GPU's are not good quality either and that may have had some effect on the failure.
We can't say, with any certainty, that the same or other problems might occur with a new GPU without knowing the rest of your specs.
PC Specs?
Pre- Built Brand & Model Number
Custom Built- Brand & Model of Mobo-CPU-RAM-Graphics-PSU.


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## RokkSolid (Sep 19, 2012)

AMD FX 4100 quad core 3.60 ghz -processor
8 GB of ddr3 -ram memory
Asus m5a78L-m LX v2 motherboard
500 W corsair - psu
Cooler master elite 430 midi tower..colour black ! - tower 
Custom made by the major modifier and destroyer of gpus - me

Internal gpu currently being used without any problems, pc running great actually even with the beast mode 256 MB internal one...low specs ofc ingame.

The old gpu was a PowerColor 6870 that I bought a while ago and hadn't used till I got the other parts.

The new card coming in is an Asus Radeon HD 6870. 

Thank you for your reply by the way and the useful info.


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## RokkSolid (Sep 19, 2012)

Don't think it matters but the RAM are kingstons at 667 Mhz speed. Might aswell be thorough on the answer


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## Johnny1982 (Oct 15, 2010)

It's possible that by overclocking your GPU you went too far and damaged the GPU. As Tyree states 500w is underpowered for the 6870.


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## cyricc (Feb 22, 2012)

Definitely PSU issue.

The HD Radeon 6870 recommends 500w but for overclocking you always want to go higher. Also, you mentioned that the GPU fan "went crazy", I assume you mean that it ramped in speed quite a lot. That would suggest that you set very high overclock settings that generated very high heat. 

I would suggest overclocking once you get 650 or more PSU and to overclock in 10 Mhz core and 15Mhz Memory steps.

Also just throwing this out there, but the "real world" aka "in game" boosts you would get from overclocking the 6870 are limited, if you truly want to see a performance increase in your system, I would recommend pairing your 6870 with a faster AMD cpu and at least 800mhz if not 1066mhz ram, also, pay attention to the timing of the ram, for example 667 at 6-6-6 would be very slow but 800 at 7-7-7 would be faster, 1066 at 8-8-8 would be faster still...


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## Johnny1982 (Oct 15, 2010)

I agree with cyricc, overclocking a GPU rarely gives any in-game performance boost. I overclocked my 560ti by 110mhz from the stock 830mhz and only saw a real "boost" in benchmarking. Games did not register the overclock that well, maybe there was a slight increase, but nothing worth risking your components for, especially PSU and GPU.


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