Advice for a newb

[Laffles]

Basically I want to OC my card (GTX580) but don't know if it would be a good idea... at stock it runs @ 85c in skyrim, with the fxaa injector my FPS drops into the low 50's more than I'd like.

I just need that extra kick but I've never overclocked a card before. it seems like it gets quite hot, could a little overclock kill the card if it gets so hot without an OC?

I'd really appreciate some advice Cheers

 

[LordVampyre]

when was the last time you cleaned out your system? dust bunnies are nasty

 

[kalvin37]

Or you could try OC without touching the voltage. Yes it'll still increase the temp, but only for a reasonable amount. Do the OC slowly and stop when you see an artifact

 

[Laffles]

It's clean as a whistle in there, fairly new rig.

So should I just do this in Nvidia inspector vamp?

 

[Ra'D'on]

Use rivatuner or msi afterburner...if you'd like to avoid voltages,go with rivatuner.

 

[Laffles]

Well, I had no idea what I was doing, most guids on google all have voltage I just bumped the sliders up slightly and would go ingame and run around in a section that usually brings me down to low 50fps/High40's

this was default

I noticed a 5-7 FPS increase just with these settings, seems the temps are not effected at all. think I should go higher?..

 

[kalvin37]

think I should go higher?..

Why not You could push it until seeing artifact. Without changing the voltage, you simply have less headroom to push.

 

[kontact]

What are you using to test the higher clocks for artifacting? Get Heaven Benchmark and test every OC with that and if it runs fine for an hour or so then the OC should be good. If it artifacts then back off the OC slightly until it doesn't. Of course you run the risk of damaging the card too.