Oc'ing a graphics card?

Posted: Sun Sep 09, 2007 9:06 pm

just out of interest,been looking at graphics cards tonight. seen a 8800gts oc and a superclocked version. both considerably more expensive than the standard. the oc'd version was 550mhz instead of 500mhz standard. how do manufacturers oc these cards,is it something you could do yourself? has anyone oc'd a card themselves? the oc'd card still had lifetime warranty so obviously doesn't damage the card.

Joined: Aug 02, 2006 Posts: 85 Location: colchester, essex

hi mate, overclocking an nvidia card could not be easier! download a copy of nvidia ntune! with this software u can manualy adjust the clock settings which takes no time at all, then u can test to see if its stable! i have clocked my cards before and got nearly 100mhz extra from them!!

Posted: Sun Sep 09, 2007 9:37 pm

hi jackrabbit. so there's no real point to paying the extra for an oc'd card. you could simply buy the standard card,download the software and oc your card to the same speed as the oc'd and much more expensive one. i presume this would invalidate the warranty.

Joined: Aug 02, 2006 Posts: 85 Location: colchester, essex

as long as u keep an eye on the temps the cards are running then u should be fine! but the software is made by nvidia so it is pretty safe to use, it wont let u push the card to breaking point so u should get no trouble from it! my cards have been running at the max oc for nearly a year now and are still fine! it makes more sense to save ur money and buy the normal card and spend 5 mins clocking it to the speed of the 'superclocked' version!

Joined: Jun 02, 2006 Posts: 28 Location: UK

welcome roguesamuri007 to a basic Graphics card overclocking guide.

WARNING: Before you proceed with this guide understand that by overclocking your system you run the risk of creating componet or system failure. I take no responsibilty for any damages caused by overclocking your system.

Your graphics card is the easiest component to overclock and the one that usually yields the most profit.

Built-in disaster sensors on more recent cards means they'll also automatically shut down in the event that they're overheating.

Indeed, 3D card overclocking is now so much a part of a hardcore gamer's furniture that manufacturers build the tools to do it into their own drivers. Often, too, they'll knowingly leave some headroom in their cards for faster speeds, which means pretty much any board from the last couple of years can have at least a few more frames per second squeezed out of them.

As with overclocking any component, resist the urge to immediately ramp speeds all the way up to 11, or whatever the equivalent is in megahertz. Advance in small increments. Yes, the card should cut out if it gets too hot, but there's a chance it'll overheat so rapidly it won't get a chance to, plus crashing your PC is rarely good for it.

There are two things you're overclocking with a graphics card - its GPU, which is essentially a highly specialised processor, and the speed of its memory. The two aren't linked, so in some cases you'll be able to overclock one by a much higher factor than another, but you can end up with bottle-necking in the memory if it can't keep up with the GPU. This could mean your world-record overclock of the GPU actually achieves nothing, so you'll need to test to find out.

3D Mark 06 (www.futuremark.com) isn't wholly reliable when it comes to comparing rival graphics cards, but it is an effective benchmark of what effect your changes have had on the same card. So, grit your teeth at the time it takes and run it before and after your overclocks, paying particular attention to the framerate in the first couple of tests, and see if your tinkering has been worth it. The built-in benchmark test in Company of Heroes is also a goodie if you have it.

One final note - check for new drivers on at least a monthly basis. They usually contain optimisations for big games that sometimes can improve performance more than any overclock can.

nVidia cards:

1. nVidia have overclocking tools in their drivers, but they hide them, like pixel-boosting truffles. Coolbits 2.0 (downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=815)
will dig them up if you double click it.

2. Right click on your desktop and select nVidia Control Panel. Click on the button marked Standard View and it should switch to Advanced view. Next, click the great big button labelled 3D Settings.

3. If you've enabled Coolbits, you'll see a link called Change Overclocking configuration under 'Performance' at the bottom. Select My Own Custom Frequencies and agree to the laughably long-winded warning screen.

4. You can then select Find Optimal Settings and the driver will attempt to establish the highest safe GPU and RAM speeds for the card. Click Apply when done, then see how stable it is with a couple of recent games.

5. As with the ATI driver, you can then manually tweak the speeds if there's a problem or the card is still entirely unflustered. It's usually possible to go a little higher than the optimal setting the check recommends.

ATI cards:

1. Load up ATI's Cataylst Control Centre, part of its driver package, by right clicking on the desktop and selecting its name on the menu that pops up. When prompted, choose Advanced rather than Basic mode.

2. From the list of settings on the left, you want the bottom one - ATI Overdrive. If you're sure you want to do this thing, you then need to click on the padlock icon over on the top right to allow speed changes.

3. The best option if you're a first- or indeed a fortieth-timer at graphics card overclocking is to click Run Automated Clock Configuration Utility. This will test the card's GPU and RAM at various different speeds, working out what's safe to run at.

4. Once it's done you should notice a few more megahertz from the default settings. Click apply, then gun up a few games and give them a quick run through to see if the new speed is stable.

5. If your new setting isn't causing glitches or overheating, you can check 'Preserve ATI Overdrive Settings at logon' so the card will remember its new speed. If the new speed did cause some problems, try lowering the sliders next to Graphics Processor and Graphics Memory Status by, say, 10Mhz at a time.

Thats the basics of OCing roguesamuri007 I hope it helps. My advice would be if you intend in buying a new card then wait untill it comes and then try OCing your old card. By doing this you will gain some selftaught knowledge and peace of mind that if your fiddling does lead to trouble you've still got a nice new sparkling card to use. Remember nothing ventured nothing gained.

Joined: Apr 24, 2006 Posts: 525 Location: Manchester UK

I got my 8800GTS (default 500MHz) to reach 650MHz!! Mind you I did use custom cooling in the form of a thermalright HR-03 heatsink, which cost me about £30. Careful, those things get really really hot!

In 3D mark and games you will get a direct improvement to your FPS when oc'ing the video card, much more so than the CPU.

It seems to be safe as when you overclock too much you get graphical anomolies, like white triangles on your screen. Push it too far and the nvidia drivers crash and give you a warning. Worst case scenario is you'll get some bluescreens, but do monitor those temperatures as if it goes above 80degrees, its way to hot.

Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2007 5:00 pm

80degrees way to hot? - Rouge, buy an ATI card and strip your room of radiators. My comp is like a storage heater - it's killing my bloody plant though Sad

Joined: Apr 24, 2006 Posts: 525 Location: Manchester UK

lol

The upper limit for computer chips is 125degress. At that point they become a puff of smoke. But an nvidia card shouldnt run that hot. Mind you, GPUs take a lot more of a bashing than CPUs Cool