How far can I overclock my 780?

[Crunchy Dragon]

Hi everyone,

 

I have a GTX 780 3Gb with the reference cooler and was wondering how far I can overclock it with a 550W PSU. Planning on getting a Core i3-8100 so I should have quite a bit of power to spare for the GPU.

[Theguywhobea]

All the way until it stops working.

[burnttoastnice]

If it's a reputable branded PSU you should be able to push it quite far, as long as the power supply top remains warm to the touch and not hot you're fine. I used to have my GPU overclocked but I've temporarily underclocked it as I'm not really gaming that often

[Crunchy Dragon]

Just now, burnttoastnice said:

If it's a reputable branded PSU you should be able to push it quite far, as long as the power supply top remains warm to the touch and not hot you're fine. I used to have my GPU overclocked but I've temporarily underclocked it as I'm not really gaming that often

It's a CX550M(50W under Nvidia's recommended power limit on their website)

[arielfall]

What ever you can do till it becomes unstable. Just start with a 50mhz boost and then 25mhz after that till it crashes and then back it down 25. Presto

 

Stress test inbetween

[burnttoastnice]

3 minutes ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

It's a CX550M(50W under Nvidia's recommended power limit on their website)

You should be fine then, if the power supply fan starts to get loud though then bring it down. Keep an eye on temps too! personally I try to keep my system components around 65°C at max load, hotter than that turns the room into a furnace.

[YedZed]

30 minutes ago, burnttoastnice said:

If it's a reputable branded PSU you should be able to push it quite far, as long as the power supply top remains warm to the touch and not hot you're fine. I used to have my GPU overclocked but I've temporarily underclocked it as I'm not really gaming that often

PSU'S NOT HOT

[Crunchy Dragon]

Just now, YedZed said:

PSU'S NOT HOT

PSU CAN NEVER BE HOT

 

[Mira Yurizaki]

Even if the power supply is fine, the power delivery circuitry on the video card may not be up to snuff. For instance, I can't push my EVGA GTX 1080 SC very hard compared to a EVGA GTX 1080 Classified Edition, because the Classified Edition has a more robust power delivery system. So I'm going to run into a power issue on the card before I could reach the GPU's "full" potential, assuming mine is on the high end of the silicon lottery.

[Mick Naughty]

Well it being Kepler it will be fine but that would need a bios to really push it. But with that cooler and fresh tim. Should be able to see 1100 easy. Would need max power which I think stops at 108 and max voltage, 1.212 I think. Just get a benchmark and go at it. Also increase by 13's on the core.

[Crunchy Dragon]

1 hour ago, Mick Naughty said:

Well it being Kepler it will be fine but that would need a bios to really push it. But with that cooler and fresh tim. Should be able to see 1100 easy. Would need max power which I think stops at 108 and max voltage, 1.212 I think. Just get a benchmark and go at it. Also increase by 13's on the core.

Thanks! I did replace the main TIM on the core, but not the VRAM or VRM modules(those are coming next). I'm still entertaining the idea of getting a Corsair HG10 and putting it on water.

[Mick Naughty]

6 minutes ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

Thanks! I did replace the main TIM on the core, but not the VRAM or VRM modules(those are coming next). I'm still entertaining the idea of getting a Corsair HG10 and putting it on water.

Well the pads should be fine. hg10 works pretty well for an aio setup. But the bios is still gonna hold you back quite a bit.

[Crunchy Dragon]

1 minute ago, Mick Naughty said:

Well the pads should be fine. hg10 works pretty well for an aio setup. But the bios is still gonna hold you back quite a bit.

The card BIOS, you mean? I was planning on doing it through Afterburner, but if it's better to flash the GPU BIOS or whatever I guess I could do that.

[Mick Naughty]

Just now, Crunchy Dragon said:

The card BIOS, you mean? I was planning on doing it through Afterburner, but if it's better to flash the GPU BIOS or whatever I guess I could do that.

If you don't youll be riding the power limit the whole time. Especially while still using the fan, as they draw a lot of power. Could get an acx cooler off ebay if you don't wonna go with the aio right away.

[Crunchy Dragon]

Just now, Mick Naughty said:

If you don't youll be riding the power limit the whole time. Especially while still using the fan, as they draw a lot of power. Could get an acx cooler off ebay if you don't wonna go with the aio right away.

Does the ACX cooler match the reference PCB holes? That thought hadn't occurred to me to buy an aftermarket cooler, but I guess that would be an option. I do prefer blower style coolers though, but I'll keep that in mind.

[Mick Naughty]

Just now, Crunchy Dragon said:

Does the ACX cooler match the reference PCB holes? That thought hadn't occurred to me to buy an aftermarket cooler, but I guess that would be an option. I do prefer blower style coolers though, but I'll keep that in mind.

acx is reference. the basic one always has even on the 10 series.

 

I prefer blower as well. I flashed the bios on all 5 of my titans, 2 of which were the black version(780ti's). Ran a single one at 1,150 with a bit of voltage and max power just because, still sat at 55c I think at 80% fan. Another thing the bios did was unlock the max fan speed as they were all locked to 80%. Idk if they did that to the 780's.

[Crunchy Dragon]

Just now, Mick Naughty said:

acx is reference. the basic one always has even on the 10 series.

 

I prefer blower as well. I flashed the bios on all 5 of my titans, 2 of which were the black version(780ti's). Ran a single one at 1,150 with a bit of voltage and max power just because, still sat at 55c I think at 80% fan. Another thing the bios did was unlock the max fan speed as they were all locked to 80%. Idk if they did that to the 780's.

Cool, thanks a lot for your help!

[Mick Naughty]

Granted mine is an unlocked chip, the locked ones overclock well. I have decent airflow in the case so the temps aren't bad at all for a blower. Prolly could run it at the same overclocks* I do on water and not crash.

 

Still use this old card on 1440p on bf1, high preset  and still get over 60fps. Just treat it right and it will do what ever you want.