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How To Overclock A Video Card: NVIDIA & AMD Graphics Card (GPU) Overclocking Guide

NVIDIA & AMD Video Card Overclocking Guide:

 

Google Doc Link Here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/14nUP9WowIM1E9_EW1XJ62eF5ueNONH7Qk9iJl3ZE0fo/edit

 

Prepared by BigDay

 

Last Updated: February 7, 2016

 

Since LTT has changed the forum style and removed spoilers, I have decided to post a link to the guide on Google Docs instead. It's easier to read and print than having it posted on the forum

 

Check out my other guides:

  1. Noctua vs Corsair Fan Guide:
  2. Haswell & Haswell Refresh CPU Overclocking Guide:

BigDay

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Hell of a post. This should serve excellent for those of whom are hesitant to overclock. :)

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Core clock is KING. You will benefit from a higher core as opposed to a higher memory clock.

I have seem way too many cases of this not being true. Several people have come to this forum asking why they get higher fps in a benchmark when they increase their mem by 100 rather than their core by 100

 

tbh I dont understand it either, but it is definitely not always the core clock that matters, so I suggest people test their GPU to find what gives them the best performance

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I have seem way too many cases of this not being true. Several people have come to this forum asking why they get higher fps in a benchmark when they increase their mem by 100 rather than their core by 100

 

tbh I dont understand it either, but it is definitely not always the core clock that matters, so I suggest people test their GPU to find what gives them the best performance

For all intents and purposes, I think it is safe to say cc is king.

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Thanks for making/posting this.  I'm interested to see the differences between what I'm running now and what this will do for me.  Its late tonight  but I'd be happy to post basic before and after results     edit: tomorrow

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Love the effort and work put into this thread......but without being a sticky, Im afraid it will get lost in the backpages...

 

/Needs a sticky bomb to keep it on the front page of this subforum.

@nicklmg

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Love the effort and work put into this thread......but without being a sticky, Im afraid it will get lost in the backpages...

 

/Needs a sticky bomb to keep it on the front page of this subforum.

@nicklmg

 

Perhaps @Windspeed36 could include this thread in his catalog?

BigDay

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Pretty sweg.

However @BigDay you said AMD rates their cards for safe operation upto 85C, not true, AMD rates for safe operation till 95C

Lets all ripperoni in pepperoni

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Pretty sweg.

However @BigDay you said AMD rates their cards for safe operation upto 85C, not true, AMD rates for safe operation till 95C

 

Thanks!

 

From AMD themselves:

 

image.jpg

BigDay

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Added information on EVGA's OC Scanner X. The guide includes instructions on its use in stress testing

BigDay

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GR8 post :D

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EVGA OC Scanner and OCCT is a terrible way to stress test a GPU, use Valley or Heaven for like 3 hours.

PEWDIEPIE DONT CROSS THAT BRIDGE

 

 

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I don't agree with the recommended voltages at all, some cards stock voltage is already 1.21v. My 980's GPU boost takes it to 1.212v right away, which is the limit on lots of cards without modification to BIOS / the card itself.

 

Maximum Recommended Core Voltages for NVIDIA & AMD:

  • NVIDIA: 1.21v
  • AMD: 1.20-1.25v

 

90% of the time GPU's that remain under 70-80c are perfectly fine if they have active cooled VRM's to go to 1.275-1.3v on air.  Hell, some 970's let you go to 1.262v out of the box.  I wouldn't recommend running 1.3v 24/7 on air if you have an older GPU though, lots of them tend to run much hotter than recent maxwell cards, those seem to be perfectly fine with up to 1.3v 24/7 on air.   Things like 780's, 780 ti's will run super hot with 1.3v, and will either need crazy fan speeds to stay cool, or massive coolers / watercooling.

 

I also don't recommend using OC scanner if it's anything like furmark, there are loads of people on other forums that have been shying away from furmark in the past few years, due to the unnecessary stress it puts on the GPU & VRM.  I'm a strong believer that you should stress it with benchmarks & games, firestrike & valley are my favorite benchmarks to test with, and BF4 is my favorite game to see if it's stable.

 

http://www.overclock.net/t/1361248/do-you-use-furmark-why-or-why-not-poll

 

About the voltage thing again, my rule of thumb is the more voltage you add, the cooler you should try to keep the card.   IE: if your card can run 1.2v @ 1500 mhz with fans at 40% hitting 75c, if you were to run 1550 mhz @ 1.3v, I'd recommend keeping it even cooler with more fan speed to help things stay stable.   LOTS of GPU's I have owned all seem to have multiple sweet spots, where at certain voltages + clock speeds, if kept under a certain temperature they will become more stable with higher overclocks.

My 980 Classified is a great example of this, it takes me 1.3v to hit 1580 mhz for benchmarking on the core, and will only remain stable if the GPU stays under 53c, if it goes over it crashes.  But on water, I can run it at 1.212v & 1595 mhz, with the temperature being much lower in the 30-40 mark.

The 780 Lightning I had previously for a while also did this, if it stayed under 60c, it'd scale all the way up to nearly 1350 mhz, but once it went 60, it didn't really want to do much over 1280.

 

 

 

Other than that your guide looks nice, I'm going to finish reading it now :D

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I don't agree with the recommended voltages at all, some cards stock voltage is already 1.21v. My 980's GPU boost takes it to 1.212v right away, which is the limit on lots of cards without modification to BIOS / the card itself.

 

Maximum Recommended Core Voltages for NVIDIA & AMD:

  • NVIDIA: 1.21v
  • AMD: 1.20-1.25v

 

90% of the time GPU's that remain under 70-80c are perfectly fine if they have active cooled VRM's to go to 1.275-1.3v on air.  Hell, some 970's let you go to 1.262v out of the box.  I wouldn't recommend running 1.3v 24/7 on air if you have an older GPU though, lots of them tend to run much hotter than recent maxwell cards, those seem to be perfectly fine with up to 1.3v 24/7 on air.   Things like 780's, 780 ti's will run super hot with 1.3v, and will either need crazy fan speeds to stay cool, or massive coolers / watercooling.

 

I also don't recommend using OC scanner if it's anything like furmark, there are loads of people on other forums that have been shying away from furmark in the past few years, due to the unnecessary stress it puts on the GPU & VRM.  I'm a strong believer that you should stress it with benchmarks & games, firestrike & valley are my favorite benchmarks to test with, and BF4 is my favorite game to see if it's stable.

 

http://www.overclock.net/t/1361248/do-you-use-furmark-why-or-why-not-poll

 

About the voltage thing again, my rule of thumb is the more voltage you add, the cooler you should try to keep the card.   IE: if your card can run 1.2v @ 1500 mhz with fans at 40% hitting 75c, if you were to run 1550 mhz @ 1.3v, I'd recommend keeping it even cooler with more fan speed to help things stay stable.   LOTS of GPU's I have owned all seem to have multiple sweet spots, where at certain voltages + clock speeds, if kept under a certain temperature they will become more stable with higher overclocks.

My 980 Classified is a great example of this, it takes me 1.3v to hit 1580 mhz for benchmarking on the core, and will only remain stable if the GPU stays under 53c, if it goes over it crashes.  But on water, I can run it at 1.212v & 1595 mhz, with the temperature being much lower in the 30-40 mark.

The 780 Lightning I had previously for a while also did this, if it stayed under 60c, it'd scale all the way up to nearly 1350 mhz, but once it went 60, it didn't really want to do much over 1280.

 

 

 

Other than that your guide looks nice, I'm going to finish reading it now :D

1575/2100 on the 970 stable @1.262

 

 

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1575/2100 on the 970 stable @1.262

 

how far does your voltage go up on msi afterburner? do you have a custom bios?

BigDay

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how far does your voltage go up on msi afterburner? do you have a custom bios?

Custom BIOS

 

 

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hey Ive done everything like in your guide, but when I try to increase core clock, it bumps down to 0.... >.< what to do?

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Hi I am new to overclocking but know a fair bit the bit that I struggle on is how to know if your gpu is stable and how far do you push your gpu clock and vram how long do you need to run benchmarks to be certain it is stable?

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Hi I am new to overclocking but know a fair bit the bit that I struggle on is how to know if your gpu is stable and how far do you push your gpu clock and vram how long do you need to run benchmarks to be certain it is stable?

 

in my guide above, i posit that if you are able to complete 30-45 minutes in occt or oc scanner x with error check/artifact scanner enabled, you may deem the overclock stable.

 

push your gpu as far as you are comfortable. you may be limited by stability or by temperatures. i recommend you stay within the voltage parameters that i set above in my guide. i also recommend that you stay within the temperature parameters that i outlined above. if you are close to the max temperature or voltage guidelines or you have met them exactly, i would not push the clocks any further.

BigDay

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Update: July 15, 2015 @ 9:38 AM

  • Added a section to the guide that teaches users how to disable NVIDIA Gsync in order to achieve consistent core and memory clocks as well as a high level of GPU usage during stress testing with OCCT and OC Scanner X

BigDay

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Update: July 15, 2015 @ 10:03 AM

  • Added a printer friendly version of the guide via Google Docs. The link is located at the top of the guide

BigDay

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Hi thanks for replying is Kombuster similar to oc scanner x

 

I have no experience in using Kombustor.

 

It seems similar based on the screenshots I've seen. After a few minutes of research, I haven't seen a tool like error check or artifact scanner built into it. The good thing about these tools is that they detect artifacts and errors for you without you having to sit at the screen for long periods of time in order to determine stability. That's why I suggest stress testing tools with this built in feature. They are more accurate and if they stress the gpu enough, they provide a more accurate idea of stability to the end user.

BigDay

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Update: July 15, 2015 @ 9:09 AM

 

Added one (1) new "IMPORTANT" note within the following section and within the printer friendly version of the guide:

 

C.) OCCT & EVGA OC Scanner X: Optimal Settings:

 

occt_disable_2.jpg

  • IMPORTANT: OCCT may not perform optimally or at all unless you "Disable visual themes" and "Disable desktop composition" within the "Compatibility" tab within "OCCT Properties". Some users MAY NOT have to complete this step, but if you are running into issues, follow the instructions below:

    To disable these settings, right click the OCCT icon on your desktop or in its folder on your hard drive, select "Properties", go the "Compatibility" tab, select "Change settings for all users", select "Run this program as an administrator", select "Disable visual themes", select "Disable desktop composition", and click OK

BigDay

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