Can I Overclock my GPU Safetly?

[AlgaeEater]

I have a custom built computer with a GTX970 / i5 6600k with nothing overclocked.  It's my first ever built from about a year ago.  I've been reading a bit on how to overclock and on what means what, etc.  I'm obviously not going to go in and overclock it without knowing where to start though.

 

For a beginner question, Can I overclock this GPU?  It's an MSI GTX970.  Using the Heaven benchmark for about a minute, Msi AFTERBURNER showed the card reaching a Core of 1330.  With temps of around 65c-68c.  The GPU Usage is also 99%.  Common sense would say no, but then again I know nothing about overclocking.

[TheRandomness]

Any GPU can be overclocked. What you're seeing is GPU boost making your card run faster than stock if thermals and power draw allows for it. If you want to overclock, start by adding small amounts of core clock, maybe 20MHz at step and then see if there are any artifacts in testing programs. If there aren't, keep adding and testing until there're artifacts and step back down a step. Then test for like 20 minutes to make sure it's absolutely stable.

[AlgaeEater]

1 minute ago, TheRandomness said:

Any GPU can be overclocked. What you're seeing is GPU boost making your card run faster than stock if thermals and power draw allows for it. If you want to overclock, start by adding small amounts of core clock, maybe 20MHz at step and then see if there are any artifacts in testing programs. If there aren't, keep adding and testing until there're artifacts and step back down a step. Then test for like 20 minutes to make sure it's absolutely stable.

Thx for the reply!  I just assumed that since it was already at 99% and pulling near 70c, that overclocking would be too much for my setup unless I had better cooling.  (I feel my cooling is good enough though).

 

Whats the difference between the GPU boost and overclocking though? 

[typographie]

2 minutes ago, AlgaeEater said:

Thx for the reply!  I just assumed that since it was already at 99% and pulling near 70c, that overclocking would be too much for my setup unless I had better cooling.  (I feel my cooling is good enough though).

 

Whats the difference between the GPU boost and overclocking though? 

99% GPU usage just means the card is working as hard as it can because you're running Heaven. Anytime you're running a game or GPU benchmark like Heaven, you want to see your GPU usage right up there in the 95-100% range. If its less, that indicates something else is limiting performance before your GPU is. Overclocking just means your card will be faster at the same usage %.

 

70*C isn't bad for a video card under max load. Plus, you may find that your temperatures don't really increase that much when you overclock. Some cards may heat up more than others depending on the type/design of cooler they use, but MSI Afterburner doesn't really give you the freedom to go totally crazy with the core voltage. In my experience, I rarely see more than a few degrees increase with the cards I've used.

 

GPU Boost is a technology that varies the card's clock speed based on a couple of factors. Basically it will run as fast as it can within some boundaries, until it hits a temperature limit (typically 80*C), it's maximum rated wattage, or a voltage limit. Yours is running Heaven at 1330 MHz because it's hitting some limit at 1330. The first and simplest thing to try is to max out the Power Limit slider in Afterburner. It just lets the card draw about 112% of its normal wattage, so you may see your clock speed creep up a bit higher just by letting GPU Boost do its job.

[AlgaeEater]

3 hours ago, typographie said:

99% GPU usage just means the card is working as hard as it can because you're running Heaven. Anytime you're running a game or GPU benchmark like Heaven, you want to see your GPU usage right up there in the 95-100% range. If its less, that indicates something else is limiting performance before your GPU is. Overclocking just means your card will be faster at the same usage %.

 

70*C isn't bad for a video card under max load. Plus, you may find that your temperatures don't really increase that much when you overclock. Some cards may heat up more than others depending on the type/design of cooler they use, but MSI Afterburner doesn't really give you the freedom to go totally crazy with the core voltage. In my experience, I rarely see more than a few degrees increase with the cards I've used.

 

GPU Boost is a technology that varies the card's clock speed based on a couple of factors. Basically it will run as fast as it can within some boundaries, until it hits a temperature limit (typically 80*C), it's maximum rated wattage, or a voltage limit. Yours is running Heaven at 1330 MHz because it's hitting some limit at 1330. The first and simplest thing to try is to max out the Power Limit slider in Afterburner. It just lets the card draw about 112% of its normal wattage, so you may see your clock speed creep up a bit higher just by letting GPU Boost do its job.

Thanks for the tips, they really help! :).  I assume I have to unlock and raise the voltage too (just assuming from watching a few linus and jays2cent videos)

[typographie]

1 hour ago, AlgaeEater said:

Thanks for the tips, they really help! :).  I assume I have to unlock and raise the voltage too (just assuming from watching a few linus and jays2cent videos)

Ideally you only want to raise the voltage to fix instability. Get as far as you can at stock voltage until you find artifacts or crashes, then increase the voltage a bit if you want to keep going. Most video cards (CPUs too) can overclock at least a little at stock voltage.