MSI GT70 2PC - 870m overclocking capabilities

Hi,

This thread is primarily a question towards users of the new generation of the GT-series as I am curious how the 870m in the GT70 (or GT60) is performing and to what level owners have been able to overclock it. I am thankful for any response as I am thinking of upgrading my current GT70 to the new one.

 

The 870M/880M are pushing the limit of this architecture therefore there isn't much you can do with the GPU.
The most OC you can get is around 10 - 15%.

 

Thanks for the reply! Yeah I was kind of expecting that any attempts at overclocking would be limited to say the least. Still interested in results from real usage of the GT-series though!

 

I picked up the GT60 2PC a few weeks ago.

Out of curiosity I was planning to OC the 870m, so I decided to do some initial thermal testing with the stock clock settings.

Here are my findings...

The shared heatsink 'bridge' design that MSI introduced may not be as beneficial as they claim.

My GPU and CPU Heatsinks have been lapped and Gelid GC has been applied along with 6 mini copper heatsinks have been placed where they can fit.

Ambient Room temp ~ 24C

When testing in Furmark for 20mins, temps remained relatively cool maxing at 75C.
On OCCT on a 20 min run (small data set) all 4 cores peaked no more than 68C. (67 / 68 / 68 / 63).

While running the tests independently, I've noticed that due to the 'shared' copper heat pipe between the gpu and cpu, temps would increase between the two chips..
I obviously took this into consideration and didn't run occt and furmark at the same time, but opted to try out some games for 30 mins while logging temps.

After playing path of exile and call of duty gpu temps peaked upto 83C and CPU to 78C. I can only imagine that the stock TIM application from MSI would peak cpu and gpu closer to 93-95C.

Although 83C and 78C are both well below the TJmax specifications for the i7 and the 870m. I've decided to hold off any overclocking until I throw on my spare parts from my old gt683 after some testing.

 

If you intend to overclock at the very least you should be re padding with thinner thermal pads and repasting.

The thermal bridge mostly helps idle temperatures.

max core speeds will lie around 1033-1050mhz. Exact speeds will depend on sample quality.

 

ya, FP .5mm 17w/mk were used

 

The exact spec of the pads is not so important, since the vrms are fine if they make any sort of contact, it's more about getting the core closer to the copper pad of the heatsink.