I'm afraid to overclock

[kelvinhall05]

So, I want to squeeze some extra performance out of my current GPU (full specs in my signature), but I'm afraid of overclocking. "Why?" you may ask. Well, last time I overclocked, it killed my 7950 (or at least made it artifact on EVERYTHING and be SUPER unstable). Either it was a failed overclock, or it was the worst timing ever. Anyways, I've got two questions:

1. Should I overclock?

2. How do I do it? The way I did it before was go in MSI Afterburner, crank the power limit to max, and keep turning up the sliders for the clocks and running stress tests periodically to see if it was stable.

Thanks!

[Howitz]

just don't unless your components are at the end of their use life, just to squeeze that extra performance before you get new stuff. 

 

I mean, it's useless to overclock if you get perfect performances without overclock.

[Jurrunio]

Don't touch the voltage if you are that scared (though I push that up high all the time). If overclocking caused glitches, just revert to stock settings.

[hammer3339]

It's very very hard to kill a GPU by overclocking these days, by default manual over volting etc are locked in msi afterburner. many tutorials available on youtube, I recommend Jayztwocents overclocking tutorial.

 

Sliders are generally harmless, just use the power slider, set to max, set gpu temp target as the preferred limiting factor, increase clock incrementally until you begin to see instability/ glitches such as artifacting or stuttering then dial it back slowly in increments of 5mhz until it settles down. pretty easy and safe my friend

 

edit: if you're paranoid dont touch the voltage offset

[CharminUltraStrong]

7 minutes ago, kelvinhall05 said:

So, I want to squeeze some extra performance out of my current GPU (full specs in my signature), but I'm afraid of overclocking. "Why?" you may ask. Well, last time I overclocked, it killed my 7950 (or at least made it artifact on EVERYTHING and be SUPER unstable). Either it was a failed overclock, or it was the worst timing ever. Anyways, I've got two questions:

1. Should I overclock?

2. How do I do it? The way I did it before was go in MSI Afterburner, crank the power limit to max, and keep turning up the sliders for the clocks and running stress tests periodically to see if it was stable.

Thanks!

I mean the only thing you could do differently is gradually OC? boost it a little, then a little again and a little again?

 

By the way, your profile matches the post hilariously well.

[hammer3339]

worst comes to worst just return to default settings.

 

as your card is old i would clean the heatsink of dust and most likely replace the thermal compound as well

 

make sure that until you're stable you do not set it to retain the clocks on system startup just to make life easier if you're getting system crashes requiring restarts

[Ashleyyyy]

if you still get enough fps (if you have a 60hz monitor, any higher then 60fps is unnecessary) don't. just don't....

[Cookybiscuit]

HD 8490 and you want to overclock it? Sounds pretty pointless, 10% on-top of deathly-slow is still deathly-slow.

[hammer3339]

1 minute ago, Cookybiscuit said:

HD 8490 and you want to overclock it? Sounds pretty pointless, 10% on-top of deathly-slow is still deathly-slow.

free performance is still free performance, shrugs. also a bit of fun to tinker

[Cookybiscuit]

30 minutes ago, hammer3339 said:

free performance is still free performance, shrugs. also a bit of fun to tinker

I guess so. The point I was making is that if it isn't up to the performance needs of what you want from it, overclocking it isn't going to help.

 

Shame about having to go from a 7950 to that.

[hammer3339]

Just now, Cookybiscuit said:

I guess so. The point I was making is that if it isn't up to the performance needs of what you want from it, overclocking it isn't going to help.

 

Shame about having to go from a 7950 to that.

indeed, even a 750ti would be a boon to performance

[kelvinhall05]

10 hours ago, CharminUltraStrong said:

By the way, your profile matches the post hilariously well.

How?

[kelvinhall05]

9 hours ago, Cookybiscuit said:

HD 8490 and you want to overclock it? Sounds pretty pointless, 10% on-top of deathly-slow is still deathly-slow.

Damn, forgot to change that. It's supposed to say a 5870 

[kelvinhall05]

9 hours ago, hammer3339 said:

indeed, even a 750ti would be a boon to performance

Yeah, I wish I knew how to fix it. Then I could actually play PUBG

[kelvinhall05]

9 hours ago, Cookybiscuit said:

I guess so. The point I was making is that if it isn't up to the performance needs of what you want from it, overclocking it isn't going to help.

 

Shame about having to go from a 7950 to that.

Typo. Supposed to say 5870.

[kelvinhall05]

10 hours ago, CharminUltraStrong said:

I mean the only thing you could do differently is gradually OC? boost it a little, then a little again and a little again?

 

By the way, your profile matches the post hilariously well.

Sorry, it's supposed to be a 5870.

[hammer3339]

12 hours ago, kelvinhall05 said:

Sorry, it's supposed to be a 5870.

See if you can get a cheap 750ti/760 (probably wouldn't go higher than that on an original i5) in your area, wherever you are. run DDU to wipe your drivers, chuck it it and away you go. GPU replacements are probably the easiest thing to do next to ram. 

 

If possible, see if you can find a cheap ex government/ school i7 3770 rig or something, might be able to pick one up for free or a hundred bucks or so and that would give you a large improvement in performance paired with a cheap gpu

 

Sorry if it feels i'm being patronizing, I don't know your level of experience with PCs. 

[kelvinhall05]

11 hours ago, hammer3339 said:

See if you can get a cheap 750ti/760 (probably wouldn't go higher than that on an original i5) in your area, wherever you are. run DDU to wipe your drivers, chuck it it and away you go. GPU replacements are probably the easiest thing to do next to ram. 

 

If possible, see if you can find a cheap ex government/ school i7 3770 rig or something, might be able to pick one up for free or a hundred bucks or so and that would give you a large improvement in performance paired with a cheap gpu

 

Sorry if it feels i'm being patronizing, I don't know your level of experience with PCs. 

Not to brag, but I'd say I've got quite a high experience level with PCs

I don't really have any more money to buy another GPU, and I would've bought a 750ti if they weren't overpriced in my area. I've also tried contacting scrapyards for PCs, but most of them said they don't have any.