Some Questions About Overclocking the GPU

[jippa_lippa]

Hello.

I own a Gigabyte GTX 980 Gaming G1 GPU in my system, paired with 32GB of Ram at 2333 MHz, an i7 4790K 4.0 GHz (stock clock) and a MSI Z97 Gaming 5; I was thinking about overclocking my GPU a bit, but i have some questions regarding the procedure:

 

1- Is there a way to easily make an overclock? (without being experienced with it)

2- Is the overclock linked to an operative system? Because i run multiple OSs on my machine.

3- How much overclock will be enough to keep stuff stable while having some visible improvements in games? (don't want to push things too hard)

4- Once on overclocking is successful is the card less stable?

 

My computer has some very good cooling, so temperatures won't be an issue. (i also live in a cold country)

 

Here's my card web page: http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=5208#ov

Thank you SO MUCH.

[ben dover kid]

1. yes. msi afterburner. you can even google tutorials.

2. msi afterburner loads the oc when you boot up. soo.. might not work on different os. depends

3. cant tell. oc as much u want or need.

4. depends. stable oc is stable

[jippa_lippa]

4 minutes ago, ben dover kid said:

2. msi afterburner loads the oc when you boot up. soo.. might not work on different os. depends

3. cant tell. oc as much u want or need.

Thanks for the reply.

About the OC being loaded; i don't mind having the GPU performing on stock on the other OSs, i just want to be sure nothing brakes or glitches. (only my Windows 10 installation is for gaming)

About the amount of OC, i'd like to know if you have some suggestions, based on my GPU's stats.

 

Thanks again.

[aisle9]

1. Afterburner or PrecisionX are your friends. So are all the videos on YouTube entitled "how to overclock your graphics card". It's not hard at all, far simpler even than overclocking a CPU, just be careful, watch your temps and take small steps forward and don't puke voltage into your card in large increments.

 

2. No. The OC is bound to the card, but dependent upon whatever software you use to manage it. So I guess if you use Afterburner on Windows then boot into Linux, yeah, you're going to lose your OC, but it won't hurt your system and your OC will still be there when you switch back to Windows.

 

3. That's for you to find out, because every card is different. If you google it and look around a few forums, you might find some OC results for your card that you can use as a general guide for what to expect, but your GPU is still not the same as any other out there, even among the same model.

 

4. Stress test it. If you can handle the Fuzzy PQTorus in Kombustor for 10 minutes or so without temps going too high, driver crashes, system freezes or artifacts being created, move on to Heaven or Valley and let that program run at a setting level which will keep them around a stable FPS (ideally 60, in my experience) for about an hour. Watch the first few runs to see if there's artifacting. If there's not and your temps are low, you're free to walk away for a while, then come back for the last couple of runs to check for artifacting again. If everything's clear, you're probably stable and can go game for a while to figure it out.

 

A slightly more extreme use for Heaven or Valley that I've seen involves running it for as long as you expect your longer gaming sessions to be, sometimes up to eight hours. I don't really think it's necessary, but hey, if you want to be positive that your OC is stable, that's the overkill way to do it.

Edited March 12, 2016 by aisle9
I need to proofread

[ben dover kid]

Just now, jippa_lippa said:

Thanks for the reply.

About the OC being loaded; i don't mind having the GPU performing on stock on the other OSs, i just want to be sure nothing brakes or glitches.

About the amount, i'd like to know if you have some suggestions, based on my GPU's stats.

 

Thanks again.

no glitches and nothing will break. gtx 980 is high end card, it performs very well in all games. the amount... cant really say. if you dont want to increase voltage, oc as much as you can with that, its free performance. increasing voltage allows higher oc's, and doesnt really make it break sooner, only problem is higher temperatures. oc as much as you need/want. i cant say something like "5%"

[astranger200]

5 minutes ago, jippa_lippa said:

Thanks for the reply.

About the OC being loaded; i don't mind having the GPU performing on stock on the other OSs, i just want to be sure nothing brakes or glitches. (only my Windows 10 installation is for gaming)

About the amount of OC, i'd like to know if you have some suggestions, based on my GPU's stats.

 

Thanks again.

basically overclocking your gpu wont hurt it if you dont get the temps above 80.... so go up in 20mhz bumps on the clock and stress test for 5 ish minutes on each. repeat until it becomes unstable. add 10mv an repeat the first steps. do this until you get to the max temperature you feel safe with (mine is 72, which leaves a buffer of 18c)

[Moonzy]

14 minutes ago, jippa_lippa said:

1- Is there a way to easily make an overclock? (without being experienced with it)

2- Is the overclock linked to an operative system? Because i run multiple OSs on my machine.

3- How much overclock will be enough to keep stuff stable while having some visible improvements in games? (don't want to push things too hard)

4- Once on overclocking is successful is the card less stable?

1. msi afterburner is what i personally use and its very simple, i started overclocking with this without looking at any guides and i manage to learn by myself

2. OC is not linked to the OS, but dont quote me on this

3. well if you push 10% overclock, you will see about 8~9% improvement, assuming your cpu isnt a bottleneck by then

how much overclock can you achieve depends on your luck in the silicon lottery, but averagely you can atleast do 10%-ish

4. a successful overclock means its a clockspeed that the gpu is stable at, so your question is answering itself

[Godlygamer23]

6 minutes ago, aisle9 said:

2. No. The OS is bound to the card, but dependent upon whatever software you use to manage it.

The OS is not bound to the card.

[Godlygamer23]

4 minutes ago, astranger200 said:

basically overclocking your gpu wont hurt it if you dont get the temps above 80...

I disagree with this. Temperatures can be low, but if your voltage is too high, that will cause degradation on the GPU, and if you apply enough voltage, you will destroy the circuits.

[aisle9]

1 minute ago, Godlygamer23 said:

The OS is not bound to the card.

I need to start proofreading. I meant OC.

[ben dover kid]

1 minute ago, Godlygamer23 said:

I disagree with this. Temperatures can be low, but if your voltage is too high, that will cause degradation on the GPU, and if you apply enough voltage, you will destroy the circuits.

yes TOO high, stupid high. but "recommended" high is no problem. yes even that causes degradation but nothing that will ever matter

[Godlygamer23]

Just now, ben dover kid said:

yes TOO high, stupid high. but "recommended" high is no problem. yes even that causes degradation but nothing that will ever matter

People need to be careful with the words that they choose. It could be taken out of context at a later point, and now you have an issue to deal with.

[jippa_lippa]

Thanks for the answers.

I'll surely start to check some tutorials on the web.

Is it true that overclocking has become easier? I remember my brothers telling me about overclocking in the mid 2000s and they told me it was harder.

 

By the way i have afterburner installed but i didn't install the Riva Tuner tools. Should i? Thanks

[ben dover kid]

12 minutes ago, Godlygamer23 said:

People need to be careful with the words that they choose. It could be taken out of context at a later point, and now you have an issue to deal with.

i dont have a keyboard atm, using on screen keyboard. i choose to write more compactly, even when some "data" is lost. i am aware of the problem you mentioned, but i didnt and dont think it is so significant that i would need to type excess for that with this stupid on screen keyboard

[ben dover kid]

13 minutes ago, jippa_lippa said:

Thanks for the answers.

I'll surely start to check some tutorials on the web.

Is it true that overclocking has become easier? I remember my brothers telling me about overclocking in the mid 2000s and they told me it was harder.

 

By the way i have afterburner installed but i didn't install the Riva Tuner tools. Should i? Thanks

oc has became very easy. riva can be used to record the hardware monitor chart for diagnostics and etc

edit: install it if you need it. there is no harm in installing it just because you can. it doesn't even take much space

[astranger200]

57 minutes ago, Godlygamer23 said:

I disagree with this. Temperatures can be low, but if your voltage is too high, that will cause degradation on the GPU, and if you apply enough voltage, you will destroy the circuits.

generally by that point it will be hot or will hit the end of msy's slide

[Godlygamer23]

9 minutes ago, astranger200 said:

generally by that point it will be hot or will hit the end of msy's slide

Unless you unlock voltage control through flashing a modded BIOS. 

[astranger200]

Just now, Godlygamer23 said:

Unless you unlock voltage control through flashing a modded BIOS. 

as he is going for a moderate overclock I kind doubt that

[Godlygamer23]

Just now, astranger200 said:

as he is going for a moderate overclock I kind doubt that

That's not my point. 

 

Someone could take your comment out of context. 

[astranger200]

Just now, Godlygamer23 said:

That's not my point. 

 

Someone could take your comment out of context. 

fair enough