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Video card OCing guide?

A

Aelfgeft

2[H]4U
Joined
Jun 8, 2005
Messages
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I'm surprised not to find one here!

I personally haven't overclocked a video card since I put a case fan on my Voodoo 3 3k about 5 years ago. I've had comments made about how my video card could be overclocked, but I know I would need better than stock cooling. I don't know if I should use special thermal paste like Arctic Silver or not. I don't know how to get the old heat sink off.

This is just a general request for someone to make up a [H]ard Video [C]ard OCing guide and sticky it, or at least post it or link us.

I, and I imagine, many other newcomers, don't even know where to start! :confused:
 
Are you talking about OCing or changing the stock cooler? There aren't really the same thing at all...it varies a little from card to card, but in general it's not hard to get the stock heatsink/fan off, you put some thermal paste on your third party heatsink/fan and put it on...if you've got some specific questions shoot, but I'm not sure what you're looking for. Yay for runons!
 
Well, here are some general questions:

How is overclocking your video card different/the same as overclocking your CPU?

How does overclocking your video card affect overclocks in the rest of your system? (CPU, RAM, etc)

What software is most used to monitor and keep track of VC overclocks?

How do you keep track of temps on your video card?

Where do you start? What should you aim for?

Can OCing normally be done with stock cooling? If not, what should be used for cooling instead? How is it installed?

How can you test the stability of a VC overclock? How can you tell idle temps and load temps?

And any other issues I might not have addressed. :p
 
Here's my EZ guide for Nvidia cards -- it's easy and fun!

1) Download and install Coolbits (a tiny registry tweak, right click, save to desktop and run it there)

2) Open your Nvidia Driver control panel and choose the newly-enabled "Clock Frequency Settings" from the side panel

3) Agree that you're taking a risk and its your fault if you fuck the card up. Next we will find the highest memory speed and the highest core speed for the card.

4) Move the slider for the "Memory Clock Frequency" upwards in increments of 20 mhz and click "Test Changes" each time. Wait until the card fails the test and back off 10 mhz. Try running a game and scan for visual anomalies (flashing white dots, intermittent flashes of horizontal lines / bars, unusual stuttering or instability). Spend some time making sure there is nothing out of the ordinary. If there is, back off another 10 mhz and try again. Keep backing off until you have no issues. In my experience with several Nvidia cards, the sweet spot for memory is usually around 30 mhz below where the test fails. YMMV, and remember, it may take around forty five minutes to definitively know that the memory is at a good speed. You may have clear sailing for awhile and then all of a sudden a crash from overheating.

5) Next, do the same thing with the "Core clock frequency" slider, but go up in increments of 10 mhz. Wait till you fail the test and back off by around 15 or 20 mhz. Try running some games and scanning for anomalies. Be on the lookout for flashing textures, misplaced, discolored or random polygons, and weirdly connected vertices. A lot of times artifacts are very hard to notice and subtle. In my experience with several Nvidia cards, the best test for core artifacts is the 4th "Turtle" test in 3dMark03. That test is very sensitive to core overclocking, and you'll want to make sure you back off until you see no artifacts. Another good test is the introduction sequence to Half Life 2. The core is easy to find problems with because it tends to artifact before it overheats, so chances are it won't crash your system after a long time, unlike memory.

6) What's this? You've found your maximum core and memory speeds! Hooray. If you want, click "Apply these settings at startup" and ignore the warning box. Then you won't have to do it every time.

That's all there is to it. Do it at your own risk! :p
 
That's exactly the kind of thing I was talking about. Now if we could also get a comparative ATi guide, we could make a new thread and sticky it!

Also, as above, the sticky could include suggested GPU coolers.
 
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