How To Overclock Your Graphics Card
Table of contents
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Software or Hardware Overclocking?
- 3. Overclocking Nvidia: GeForce 9600 GT
- 4. Trial and Error
- 5. nTune vs. RivaTuner
Overclocking is more popular than ever. And since it’s so easy to boost the frequency of your Intel processor, it would be a shame not to. But CPUs aren’t the only components that can be overclocked. The GPUs on graphics cards can also be speeded up, and so can their memory. And since an affordable card only differs from more expensive ones in its clock speed, overclocking can be your key to some real savings.
Overclocking a GPU is a less common process than overclocking a CPU, and above all, it’s more complex. One of the reasons for that is that a graphics card’s BIOS is not as easily accessible as a motherboard’s. This article will shed some light on the different methods that can be used and the results you can expect when overclocking your graphics card.
A very insightful article. May have to experiment pushing my 3850 a bit further!
I havent read all of the article so forgive me if it already answers this questtion but what would be better overclocking a graphics card yourself or buying one factory overclocked?. Also couldn't there have been a list of the overclockability of some graphics cards
Will overclocking in BIOS overclock all cards in case of SLI mode?
Funny, my 3850 could be pushed to 820MHz GPU within Catalyst's Overdrive page, not 730MHz. And Overdrive's Auto-Tune is very, VERY optimistic too - it pushed my stock-voltage 3850 to 775MHz core. Worked in SupCom:FA for three whole minutes! XD
mi1ez: Be careful, many 3850s have bad overheat issues under OC, and mistakenly pumping up the voltage will make that situation worse. I found out the hard way... With boosted voltage a 3850 can reach crazy speeds... if you decided to use watercooling, that is...
David345: Manufacturer-OC will yield lower speeds than DIY while costing a whole lot more. But the cards are usually much more stable and if you don't mess with them then its not your problem if the card gets borked. DIY saves (money)... unless you bork the card, in which case, good luck. You'll need it...
I havent read all of the article so forgive me if it already answers this questtion but what would be better overclocking a graphics card yourself or buying one factory overclocked?. Also couldn't there have been a list of the overclockability of some graphics cards
Of course, getting hardware that is already overclocked by the manufacturer is better. It however costs you considerably more money, too. Money which you could have invested into a completely different graphics card perhaps.
I personally avoid manufacturers who overclock hardware since I like to overclock it myself. If you then buy a card from a manufacturer that sells overclocked as well as standard hardware you will get only a little gain out of their standard offerings simply because they ones with a high gain got sorted out. Therefore best for overclocking is hardware that is being sold only as standard without an option of getting an overclocked version. These provide a better chance for a high gain and cost only little.
hi i tryed it out yesteday but got a error on gpu-z when i go to save the bios it says (bios reading not supported on this device) i would really like to put it in to the bios but i need that saved file any ideas
How much heat gets generated when doing this sort of overclock? Would a cooler upgrade be necessary? Plan on OC'ing my GT8500.