Hardware How to Overclock Your Graphics Card

We show you how to get the best from your graphics card with our simple guide.

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2010/09/15/how-to-overclock-your-graphics-card/1

 

short and sweet

 

"Disclaimer
The guides in this article are presented in good faith, and are representative of how to overclock your graphics card. Bit-tech accepts no responsibility for loss, disruption or damage to your data or PC which may occur as a result of following or attempting anything in this article. If something does go wrong, take a deep breath and have some cheesecake. Everything seems better after cheesecake."

But I really don't like cheesecake!

 

WOW! that 460 overclocks like a demon! Thanks guys, I'm going to try this on the 5770 I've just installed on the new budget rig I've built.

 

Hmmm...i seem to have purchased a Gfx card that does not allow for manual voltage control, BIOS locked.

Typical.....Powercolor you W@#*ers.....!!!!

 

Really need to see if I can get any more out of my 285 Matrix card.

Whats Asus' software called?

 

Smart Doctor, and it's truly dreadful. MSI Afterburner should allow voltage mods for it too though if you're lucky. It certainly worked with the EVGA GTX 460 I've been playing with.

 

GTX460 is pretty much the only card worth overclocking at the moment. bump to 470 performance for free.

i tried overclocking with my 5870, a couple unnoticeable FPS more for a lot of work and possibility of instability. don't know about you, i don't think it's worth it.

 

Nice guide but it would have been better (IMO) to show people how to use RivaTuner properly, rather than the programs featured.

 

Find a different bios for your GPU and flash it to a bios that isnt voltage locked. Personally I wouldnt touch the voltage. I have my GPU overclocked through the bios by editing the bios with Nibitor and flashed the edited bios to my GPU and then tested it again. I first done the OC with software before doing it through the bios to make sure it was stable. My OC'd GTX280 is going strong with two years now and I dont have to run software to OC my GPU whenever I need to reinstall windows.

 

Was going to say the exact same thing. I just use RivaTuner for my 8800gts 640 (I know, needs to be upgraded) and I've found it to be a great program.

 

Sure does! Got mine running stable the last few days 24/7 @ 945Mhz core / 1890Mhz shader / 2160Mhz memory!!
Here's an indication of the performance (had to drop the memory speed slightly since this screenshot was taken as windows began occasionally locking up):


People that have dared flash a custom bios and overvolted further have got the core clock above 1100Ghz! Not sure how stable that is tho.

 

Never tried doing OC on my HD5870, it's already doomed, as she's stuck with the Q6600@3.2Ghz... And in the first reviews of the card, I never saw much benefit in fps, with the OC, it seems that the card is at it's maximum... maybe the 256bits bus has something to do with it...

 

Yeah, I used to experiment with OC'ing on my 8800GTX, then would flash it to the BIOS once I knew it was stable, as I don't like running apps in the background.

 

What I don't like with tools like MSI AfterBurner, is that everytime you start Windows, you need to give them Admin privileges. While the sucky (but still kinda works) Nvidia nTunes, doesn't (it's more of a problem with the editor, it does apply the settings correctly though). Also, nTunes provides almost the same features as the option tools.

 

what are the best over-clocking cards on the market?

also - I want an nvidia (as I have 3d ok!) card say 30-40% more powerful than the stock 460 - would an overclocked 470 reach that? can 480 even overclock?

 

I'd say go with 460 SLI as that's about 90% more powerful than one 460 and the same price as one 480 but again quite a bit more performance than one 480.

 

* Determine your current performance Run a test to determine how fast your PC is before overclocking.
* Get a benchmark Whether synthetic or real-world, get a benchmark that allows you to stress your overclock and give you an idea of how much speed you’re adding. You can use FRAPS and play a section of a game, use an in-game benchmark or download a synthetic test such as 3DMark Vantage or Unigine Heaven.
* Get your overclocking toolkit Download an overclocking application and GPU-Z to verify that it’s working.
* Raise the frequencies gradually, testing as you go You should be able to add something like 100MHz to the Core frequency of a good card, and 100-200MHz to the memory speed. Remember that after applying every overclock you need to run your chosen benchmark a few times to check that it’s stable, and that it’s actually increasing the performance of your PC.
* Bragging Once you’re done, and you’ve added 20 per cent more speed for free, you can officially boast your l33t skills to your friends and family. But don’t go on about it too much, or you’ll become Tech Support Guy/Girl for the rest of your life.
*?????
*Profit

 

to my knowledge, rivatuner still has issues with newer graphics cards Nvidia GTX4xx cards are concerned, it might just be certain vendors and models, but i can verify that it does not work with my gtx460 whatsoever, so this may have had something to do with its exclusion from this guide.

worth mentioning is the fact that MSI Afterburner software actually is a heavily modified, reskinned build of RivaTuner with the most important functions brought to the front instead of hidden away (also worth mentioning, it -does- work with my card, where rivatuner itself does not).

otherwise i agree with you whole heartedly. rivatuner is teh sex indeed, it just might be a bit overwhelming for people getting their feet wet with gpu overclocking.

[my card is the Gigabyte GTX460 768mb @ 850mhz core/1700mhz shader - 4ghz vmem]

 

If overclocking a gpu puts you from a minimum of 22 fps to a playable minimum of 25 fps then it's worth it, otherwise if you have good fps then I wouldn't bother your just introducing instability for nothing.