MSI Afterburner 2.1.x Unofficial Overclocking

[Fire$torm]

Been having an issue trying to OC my GPUs with MSI Afterburner 2.1.0. Turns out the problem is Afterburner 2.1.x no longer will allow Unofficial OC on any nVidia cards even though MSI still produces them. It's AMD only now. Cannot find any reference on the net as to why. So if you wish to OC past official nVidia limits you will have to look elsewhere or stick to using AB 2.0.0.

I have DL'd EVGA's Precision 2.0.4 and will give it a try after I get some sleep. We'll see if it will work alongside AB (though I doubt it). I will post my finding asap.

This may be old news to some but I do not recall anyone posting about it on the forum.

@Beer & DrPop: If your interested, I can edit the text form the FAQ section to include my findings and PM it to you. Unless of course its already in there.

F$

[DrPop]

Huh? That is very strange indeed. Wonder why they would make such a change? I'll have to see what version I'm running and report back to this thread when I'm at my rigs.

[Mike029]

Been having an issue trying to OC my GPUs with MSI Afterburner 2.1.0. Turns out the problem is Afterburner 2.1.x no longer will allow Unofficial OC on any nVidia cards even though MSI still produces them. It's AMD only now. Cannot find any reference on the net as to why. So if you wish to OC past official nVidia limits you will have to look elsewhere or stick to using AB 2.0.0.

I have DL'd EVGA's Precision 2.0.4 and will give it a try after I get some sleep. We'll see if it will work alongside AB (though I doubt it). I will post my finding asap.

This may be old news to some but I do not recall anyone posting about it on the forum.

@Beer & DrPop: If your interested, I can edit the text form the FAQ section to include my findings and PM it to you. Unless of course its already in there.

F$


That sucks.. I'd be interested in your finds F$..

[Bryan]

I'm not a Cuda expert by any means, but with MSI AB 2.1 or 2.2 I can change voltage on my Nvidias above stock and clock the GTX 570s to at least 950 MHz. As you mentioned it also works on ATIs.

[Fire$torm]

I'm not a Cuda expert by any means, but with MSI AB 2.1 or 2.2 I can change voltage on my Nvidias above stock and clock the GTX 570s to at least 950 MHz. As you mentioned it also works on ATIs.

Right. I was referring to OC PAST factory limits. With my GTX 460 & AB 2.0.0 I can OC to 860Mhz. But that card controlled by AB 2.1.x everytime I set OC past the factory limit AB resets itself on restart.

Take a look at these posts from Unwinder (The guy that created RivaTuner & Afterburner) on the Guru3D forum Thread: HOW TO: Enable UNOFFICIAL overclocking mode in MSI AfterBurner. (http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=338906)

http://forums.guru3d.com/showpost.php?p=4008778&postcount=21


I am always getting BSOD after running the MSI Afterburner with my CrossfireX mode MSI R6950 Twin Frozr III Power Edition/OC.

And I'm always repeating the same boring thing again, again, again and again: read EULA prior to blindly copy-pasting "I confirm that I am aware of unofficial overclocking limitations and fully understand that MSI will not provide me any support on it"!! Doing it blindly is just plain stupid, it is hidden that far from beginners and limitations are mentioned there not just for fun!
Use search, read about ULPS, read what to expect from unofficial overclocking path before modifying the configuration files and only then enable it. Or blame nobody but yourself.

http://forums.guru3d.com/showpost.php?p=4029933&postcount=26


Cheers,

I have followed precisely the instructions provided above, but Afterburner is still limiting my overclocking speeds on an NVS3100.

Following the instructions is useless for you because they remove AMD Overdrive clock limits only, they have (and supposed to have) zero effect on NVIDIA graphics cards.

Edit: And sorry but I got busy with stuff here at home so never got around to try EVGA's OC tool. Hopefully tomorrow will be the day.

[Bryan]

The EULA only applies to AMD/ATI cards it has nothing to do with Nvida. The only change I have to make on 2.1 or 2.2 for Cuda is to go into the Setting AND .cfg file and enable "overvoltage".

[Fire$torm]

The EULA only applies to AMD/ATI cards it has nothing to do with Nvida. The only change I have to make on 2.1 or 2.2 for Cuda is to go into the Setting AND .cfg file and enable "overvoltage".

Understood. I guess more info will help. The two systems I am having issues with each have one nVidia card & one ATI card. Hence the need to unlock OC limits.

So after reading your last post I did some more searching on the net. I found all the same hits of posts from people having problems with AB 2.1.x on nVidia cards. AB would reset after making changes to OC settings. Sometimes immediately and other times after reboot. And at Guru3D any requests to Unwinder for help results in a snide remark.

Anyhow, after digging deeper through the search results I came across a reference of someone talking about file permissions. That as it turns out is the root cause of the reset issue. Why this seems to be sporadic among users I do not know. After installing AB 2.2.0 Beta-6, I opened Windows Explorer to get to the AB folder. Using the properties dialog I took ownership of the folder/subfolders and then granted myself full control. Then I unchecked the read only option for the AB folder and sub-folders and applied it. Problem solved. OC's for both ATI & nVidia cards now stay set.

To be honest I'm not sure if taking ownership was needed but I figured it wouldn't hurt. And as to my misinterpretation of Unwinder's posts, well... at least I'm not alone in that regard. :P

Hey Bryan, thanks for getting me on the right track.
BTW: I have a question: In your first post you stated you are OC'ing GTX 570s to 950Mhz. Which make/version of card is that? And is it water cooled? I ask because the highest OC I saw was 912Mhz in a HardOCP review.

[Bryan]

BTW: I have a question: In your first post you stated you are OC'ing GTX 570s to 950Mhz. Which make/version of card is that? And is it water cooled? I ask because the highest OC I saw was 912Mhz in a HardOCP review.

I said it would allow it, I didn't say it worked :)) I did try it but it bombed. I DO run all 4 of my GTX 570s at 900 MHz on anything except GPUGrid. On GPUGrid it will downclock itself at 900 MHz but it is stable at 850 MHz. Everything else is totally stable at 900. I set the Vcore voltage to 1038 and have no problem at all with heat nor downclocking (except for GPUGrid). 2 of the cards will hit 900 with 1025 mV (stock voltage on these cards) but 2 need the boost to 1038.

My cards are EVGA Superclocked with the stock clock at 797.

I'm glad you found the problem ... it didn't make any sense to me because I've had no problem with 2.1 (or 2.2) and I run an ATI and a Cuda in each of the 4 machines. Actually I used to, I lost a 5970 and a 5870 last week due to fan failures so they are on the way back to visit the factory. :(