Overclocking like linus?

Apothem · May 11, 2013

Hey guys so im newer to the whole computer building scene and used to be a competitive xbox gamer, untill of course i discovered the pc. Now i have a PC build that im going with through iBuyPower, im going with a radeon 7970. In all of linus's benchmarking videos they always say they overclock their cards, now when they do this is it from a software standpoint, as in a program on the computer, or a hardware tweak? If I were to do this safely to my card can you restore it to its original settings and when OC does it burn up faster or something? and of course is it really worth it to OC?

Thanks a lot guys and sorry for my newbie-ness, I'm trying to learn!

Hyydrah · May 11, 2013

It's a software tweak that can be benefited by making hardware modifications such as watercooling and fan upgrades. Try ASUS GPU Tweak, found here:

http://ca.asus.com/en/Graphics_Cards/NVIDIA_Series/GTX680DC2T2GD5/#download

Yes, it can be reset to its default settings on demand. I'm not sure what you mean by "burn up faster", but it doesn't noticeably decrease GPU longevity, and it definitely is worth overclocking if you're fine with the temperatures and power increase.

Apothem · May 11, 2013

It's a software tweak that can be benefited by making hardware modifications such as watercooling and fan upgrades. Try ASUS GPU Tweak, found here:

http://ca.asus.com/en/Graphics_Cards/NVIDIA_Series/GTX680DC2T2GD5/#download

Yes, it can be reset to its default settings on demand. I'm not sure what you mean by "burn up faster", but it doesn't noticeably decrease GPU longevity, and it definitely is worth overclocking if you're fine with the temperatures and power increase.

for a 7970 runnings games like bf3 or any game what are normal temperatures, and normal for resting rate aswell

Hyydrah · May 11, 2013

It depends on the cooler. 84 degrees should be the maximum you would ever see, that's when running 3DMark 11. 30-40 degrees is typical for most GPUs at idle.