Overclocking newbie and overclocking things

[J4NdRo]

Hey guys, I'm new to overclocking and this night I've been tinkering with my GPU. The GPU is the 4GB GTX 760 with an EVGA ACX cooler. I'm using their PrecisionX 16 tool to overclock my card due to the UI which I find easier to understand. I've started at a 50MHz overclock which people seem to recommend online and everything was great. I used the MSI Kombuster stress tester and it worked fine for 20 minutes and I was satisfied. Then I went on to Heaven 4.0 great blah blah blah yay 50MHz. Then I went to 60MHz everything is great 10/10 ign gr8 b8 m8 i rate 8/8 right?  But then the 70MHz came and things started happening. I let MSI Kombuster for 25 minutes and was at 80-81c. Worked great even at high temperature no crashes. Then came the Heaven benchmark and it only was at around 64c or 67c (can't remember ) and it just crashed. I (quickly with panic) restart my system. Starts of weird whatever doesn't matter (at least I think) everything goes back to normal decide to try 60MHz again everything works. Then I tried 70MHz another time it was fine with the Kombuster and Heaven. So I decided sweet! Stability, awesome! Time to play some GTA V see what FPS's I can get in what places (if you want a cool FPS boost go to the tunnel thats in the woods that usually has no cars driving in it) works great played for an hour yay! So I decide it's time to benchmark the game aaaand halfway through the benchmark it crashes my whole system like any other overclock crash I had. But the GPU temp was at 65c (also my GPU became a lot cooler after letting precisionX 16 handle my fan curve, it's insane) so two questions.

 

1) Most importantly, did me overclocking to 70MHz with no extra voltage and no overheating damage my GPU or anything else. (crashes are scary)

 

2) Why the hell is my GPU crashing at 70MHz with no overheating at all. Is it possible my voltage is too low or is it possible my power target is too low. I'm running a 110% power target on PrecisionX.

 

3) Let's say hypothetically I just can't get 70MHz for anything, it's whatever, done. How can I really make sure that my 60MHz overclock is stable (I want to hand down this GPU to a family member later once I upgrade to the new line of Nvidia GPUs coming this year (can't wait).

 

Thanks if you've read all of this Newbieness.

 

Also wanna add that I did not add any extra voltage to my GPU. Well at least that's what the voltage bar says in PrecisionX

[darealsoulless]

Your GPU be crashing within its thermal and power limits...

 

wtf

 

[Minsekt]

1) no theres no harm if youre not overvolting, the crashes are normal and nothing to worry about.

2) because youll need more voltage, if your card crashes and you still have some space for temperature, go for it.

3) increasing voltage

 

you can absolutely up the voltage to max in precision x, theres no harm in upping voltage using utilities, your voltage is capped in the cards bios. it can be dangerous if youre using a custom bios and dont know what youre doing, but the software stuff is totally safe, set it to max and see what you can get. once you found something stable you can lower the voltage again until it crashes.

[r1Ns3]

Just ramp up the power target to like 125%, power target is the safest thing to help you get a higher overclock. 

 

As long as you aren't roasting your card of course and your power supply can support it.

[J4NdRo]

1) no theres no harm if youre not overvolting, the crashes are normal and nothing to worry about.

2) because youll need more voltage, if your card crashes and you still have some space for temperature, go for it.

3) increasing voltage

 

you can absolutely up the voltage to max in precision x, theres no harm in upping voltage using utilities, your voltage is capped in the cards bios. id can be dangerous if youre using a custom bios and dont know what youre doing, but the software stuff is totally safe, set it to max and see what you can get. once you found something stable you can lower the voltage again until it crashes.

Alright sounds awesome. One thing though. PrecisionX only goes from +0mV to +12mV. So I'll go to max and it'll be good but how would I be able to lower it?

[Minsekt]

Alright sounds awesome. One thing though. PrecisionX only goes from +0mV to +12mV. So I'll go to max and it'll be good but how would I be able to lower it?

 

well tbh +12mv is nothing, just let it run at that all the time.

[J4NdRo]

Just ramp up the power target to like 125%, power target is the safest thing to help you get a higher overclock. 

 

As long as you aren't roasting your card of course and your power supply can support it.

My PrecisionX only goes to 115% so I'l put it at that. I'll also take Minsekt's advice for voltage so that i can achieve higher overclocks. Good thing my PSU is Gold and double my system's wattage.

[J4NdRo]

Thanks guys!

[Minsekt]

My PrecisionX only goes to 115% so I'l put it at that. I'll also take Minsekt's advice for voltage so that i can achieve higher overclocks. Good thing my PSU is Gold and double my system's wattage.

 

id prefer msi afterburner over precisionx. also dont use msi kombustor, thats crap. its only good to check if your boost is loading etc because the overlays from msi afterburner/precisionx will show in windowed mode too. 

 

here are some good benchmarks:

 

Heaven Benchmark

FFXI Heavensward Benchmark

Valley Benchmark

3D Mark Firestrike

 

if you can pass these like 2-3 times each, youre good