Did I overclock my GPU correctly?

[SamHF]

First of all sorry if this is the wrong section. Wasn't sure where else to post this.

I'll do my best to explain the steps I done in order.

Put 50% Fan Speed on MSI Afterburner to ensure I won't have any GPU temp problems.

 

Core Clock -  Increased the core clock from 0 - +25% and opened Heaven Benchmark 4.0 and done a whole playthrough. After every successful benchmark playthrough I was increasing the core clock by +25 up until I hit a point where my PC/Driver would crash. My crashing point was +120 on the core clock so I immediately reduced the core clock back down to +110 then I done x2 benchmark playthroughs and everything seemed to be ok.

 

- I set the core clock back to 0% to start on the memory clock separately

 

Memory Clock - I started at +100 on the mem clock and after every successful playthrough on the benchmark I kept adding another +100. When I got to +600 I crashed, so I took away  50+ and crashed again. Took away +25s until I stopped crashing. Managed to get +500 on the memory clock with no crashes.

 

Core and Mem clock settings - https://gyazo.com/2ef27eaffb3f733ef1a3fc5128ebef9e

 

 

I then put my highest core and memory clock back into MSI Afterburner together and managed to do x3 benchmark playthroughs without any problems.
 After benchmarking at default and overclocked these are the results, just wanted to check if this was normal and good?

 

 

 

Default - https://gyazo.com/dd77652368a6b5135b5a26d86d50c689

Overclock - https://gyazo.com/8fceacfe62257db5c8a3719e535c8ee4

Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
Intel Core i7 @ 4.00GHz
16.0GB
MSI Z170A GAMING M5 (MS-7977) (U3E1)
BenQ XL2411Z (1920x1080@144Hz)
2047MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti (EVGA)
465GB Samsung SSD 850 EVO 500GB (SATA (SSD))    
931GB Western Digital WDC WD1003FZEX-00MK2A0 (SATA )
EVGA Supernova 850w

My question now is should I take it to the next level and increase the core clock by +1 up until I crash to try and get the most out of my gpu or just leave it how it is?
Also how safe or reliable would it for me to run the benchmark with the stable clocks I got above and go AFK for a while (for example go and shower and leave benchmark running in a loop)

Sorry for the huge thread this is my first time actually putting in the time to overclock a GPU. Do you think I will notice a better performance if I keep the overclock?

[IdiotPenguin]

It’ll be fine if you leave it and go do something. You should make a custom fan curve (if you have i’m sorry I skimmed through it lol) for max performance and quietness when appropriate. You should also do some long tests see if it’s actual stable. If you’re picky it could take a while to find where you’re happy that’s stable and won’t crash after like 2 hours although you probably won’t encounter the type of stress you get while you game vs a stress test. 

[Skiiwee29]

+1 going up wont matter, as it goes in increments of +15mhz (I believe) before you will actually see the core clock change. As for GPU stability testing, I find that I get the best reliability when using Firestrike or Timespy to test my overclock compared to something like Heaven or Valley benchmark. Those are great ones to start out in, but I feel I get/got more crashes from Firestrike and Timespy comparatively. 

[SamHF]

Just now, IdiotPenguin said:

It’ll be fine if you leave it and go do something. You should make a custom fan curve (if you have i’m sorry I skimmed through it lol) for max performance and quietness when appropriate. You should also do some long tests see if it’s actual stable. If you’re picky it could take a while to find where you’re happy that’s stable and won’t crash after like 2 hours although you probably won’t encounter the type of stress you get while you game vs a stress test. 

Thanks for the reply. I haven't done a custom fan curve just yet but before I even attempted to overclock I just manually put my fan to 50+. Throughtout the several hours of overclocking my GPU never reached over 80degrees.

[Jurrunio]

what 980ti is this? the memory amount looks very wrong. I know Speccy doenst get this right 99% of the time, but it usually gets half the amount rather than 1/3 of the amount.

 

It's better to do memory OC with core OC applied.

[SamHF]

1 minute ago, Skiiwee29 said:

+1 going up wont matter, as it goes in increments of +15mhz (I believe) before you will actually see the core clock change. As for GPU stability testing, I find that I get the best reliability when using Firestrike or Timespy to test my overclock compared to something like Heaven or Valley benchmark. Those are great ones to start out in, but I feel I get/got more crashes from Firestrike and Timespy comparatively. 

Thanks. I'm kind of clueless but was my results good for my GPU?

[SamHF]

Just now, Jurrunio said:

what 980ti is this? the memory amount looks very wrong. I know Speccy doenst get this right 99% of the time, but it usually gets half the amount rather than 1/3 of the amount.

 

It's better to do memory OC with core OC applied.

I copied my hardware from Speccy lol. Speccy is a awful program, for example look how broken it is for me - https://gyazo.com/a98a9d551b59e6ed4e455ab17a5d3707

To answer your question it is the EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Ti SC+ GAMING ACX 2.0+

 

https://www.evga.com/products/specs/gpu.aspx?pn=3cdfab4c-0eab-44b7-8f32-2a6780a37c4b

[Skiiwee29]

Just now, SamHF said:

Thanks. I'm kind of clueless but was my results good for my GPU?

Here is a written guide you can use for comparison from Gamers Nexus to see how yours stacks up on overclocking it. You may achieve better, or worse based on how good the card actually is and how aggressive you set the fan curve.

 

https://www.gamersnexus.net/guides/1965-overclocking-gtx-980-ti-performance-benchmark

[SamHF]

Just now, Skiiwee29 said:

Here is a written guide you can use for comparison from Gamers Nexus to see how yours stacks up on overclocking it. You may achieve better, or worse based on how good the card actually is and how aggressive you set the fan curve.

 

https://www.gamersnexus.net/guides/1965-overclocking-gtx-980-ti-performance-benchmark

This GPU is a RMA which I got a few days ago. I attempted to overclock the previous 980ti after 2 years of default use so I assume it fried or something. EVGA gave me a new one though thank fully. no idea what happened to it.

[Jurrunio]

1 minute ago, SamHF said:

I copied my hardware from Speccy lol. Speccy is a awful program, for example look how broken it is for me - https://gyazo.com/a98a9d551b59e6ed4e455ab17a5d3707

To answer your question it is the EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Ti SC+ GAMING ACX 2.0+

 

https://www.evga.com/products/specs/gpu.aspx?pn=3cdfab4c-0eab-44b7-8f32-2a6780a37c4b

the thing is I dont have my PC on hand (or time to look up in the internet) to check whether your Heaven results are good, but I have seen 4GB 980tis being build from BIOS flashed 970s.

[Skiiwee29]

1 minute ago, SamHF said:

This GPU is a RMA which I got a few days ago. I attempted to overclock the previous 980ti after 2 years of default use so I assume it fried or something. EVGA gave me a new one though thank fully. no idea what happened to it.

The way you did your step ups was correct where you slowly increase until you start to crash, then you back it down until stable. +/- 15mhz is the sizes you need to play with once you reach the maximum for core clock. +25 is fine for memory to use. 

[SamHF]

1 minute ago, Jurrunio said:

the thing is I dont have my PC on hand (or time to look up in the internet) to check whether your Heaven results are good, but I have seen 4GB 980tis being build from BIOS flashed 970s.

No problem. I'll try and do some research myself in a second.

A quick question, I'm going to go AFK with my core and mem clock which I managed to achieve. Lets say after 1 hour it crashes, what should I do to try and fix the problem? Do I reduce the core or mem clock if I crash?

[SamHF]

1 minute ago, Skiiwee29 said:

The way you did your step ups was correct where you slowly increase until you start to crash, then you back it down until stable. +/- 15mhz is the sizes you need to play with once you reach the maximum for core clock. +25 is fine for memory to use. 

A quick question, I'm going to go AFK with my core and mem clock which I managed to achieve. Lets say after 1 hour it crashes, what should I do to try and fix the problem? Do I reduce the core or mem clock if I crash?

[Jurrunio]

48 minutes ago, SamHF said:

No problem. I'll try and do some research myself in a second.

A quick question, I'm going to go AFK with my core and mem clock which I managed to achieve. Lets say after 1 hour it crashes, what should I do to try and fix the problem? Do I reduce the core or mem clock if I crash?

That's why you should only use the core OC run while before applying mem OC, so there's only 1 thing to go wrong.

[SamHF]

3 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

That's why you should only use the core OC run while before applying mem OC, so there's only 1 thing to go wrong.

https://forums.evga.com/Guide-How-to-force-max-voltage-curve-overclock-with-msi-afterburner-m2820280.aspx#2820280

Would this be safe to do? It states max out voltage and power limit first.

[Jurrunio]

32 minutes ago, SamHF said:

https://forums.evga.com/Guide-How-to-force-max-voltage-curve-overclock-with-msi-afterburner-m2820280.aspx#2820280

Would this be safe to do? It states max out voltage and power limit first.

9 series cards like yours doesnt support the frequency/voltage curve.

 

I won't touch the voltage on NVidia cards because their upper voltage limit is locked and increasing it in the voltage doesnt change that. As for the power limit, riase that up if your card is appropriately cooled.

[SamHF]

21 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

9 series cards like yours doesnt support the frequency/voltage curve.

 

I won't touch the voltage on NVidia cards because their upper voltage limit is locked and increasing it in the voltage doesnt change that. As for the power limit, riase that up if your card is appropriately cooled.

Done some firestrike benchmarks and overall the current overclock I found gives an extra 5% in my score apparently. doesnt seem like much

[Jurrunio]

51 minutes ago, SamHF said:

Done some firestrike benchmarks and overall the current overclock I found gives an extra 5% in my score apparently. doesnt seem like much

GPUs just dont gain much in performance when overclocked, unlike CPUs.. Some (like yours) have factory overclocks on top of NVidia's reference frequency, so overclocking headroom reduces further.