Skinnny101
New Member
I wrote this tutorial on how to overclock a graphics card a few hours ago, tell me what you think of it.
Heres it's original post by me:
http://www.theflywire.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=35
How to overclock your graphics card
This is my guide to overclock a graphics card, this may be different to the methods used by other people. I take no responsibility for any damage you cause as you should understand the risks stated below before beginning. Also, this looks way longer than it actually is. The pictures make it look like this article is super long but its not
Risks
Overclocking a video card will void your warranty, unless your warranty specifically says that overclocking is covered. There are a few who do cover overclocking on their warranties, to find out if yours does look at your users manual and it should be somewhere in there In overclocking temperatures will be expected to increase so good airflow through your case will help, also Google your graphics card's max temperature so that you know when to stop. Exceeding your max temp may cause damage or even fry the chip. Overclocking (even if you stay within safe temperatures) will shorten the life of your Video card. Risk on most new video cards however isn't so bad since they have temperature monitors on the processing chip so if it gets too hot it will turn off, but the memory doesn't so if you wanna take your memory to high levels make sure that you have a case with good airflow. Make sure you have a good high quality PSU, better PSUs are able to overclock higher.
NOTE: You should only overclock your card when you are about to play a game or something which will be demanding on your graphics card. When not needing that extra power set it back to stock clock speeds to save electricity and prolong the life of your card.
What you will need - I suggest you download the latest versions
Riva Tuner - http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=163
ATI Tool (works even with nvidia cards) - http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=725
Step 1 - Setting up fans and monitoring temperatures
Note: You might not have to do this as most graphics cards will turn the speed up automaticaly, but some cards don't. Or if you wanna get a bit more stability then you should turn them up. Also in turning the fan speed up to 100% you may damage the fan (not on all video cards but some) so an amount more like 80% or 90% would be better, but even then the fan life is shortened so beware.
1. Open RIva Tuner and click the icon with a red box around it.
2. Now check the box saying "Enable low-fan control and click fixed, and then slide the fan speed to 100%. You should end up with your screen looking like below:
3. to monitor The core temperature click that button with a red square around it below:
Step 2 - How to overclock
1. Open riva tuner and click the button which has a red square around it in the image below.
2. This should be your screen, check the box saying "enable driver level hardware overclocking" and then check the "link clocks" check box. From here you can change the "core clock" and the "memory clock" of your graphics card (and shader clock but that is linked to your core clock so don't worry about it).
3. OK, lets overclock. Basically you move the sliders across to your left to turn up the speed. I usually go up in a larger jump to start with and then go up in smaller amounts. Try moving yours up by about 70Mhz on the Core and memory clocks, Then test stability using ATI Tool (next section will show you how there), if that is stable then go up by smaller amount of about 20Mhz'ish. Really it is up to you how high you want to go. Pretty much trial and error, if you take a really big jump and it's unstable instantly after testing (next section) then try a smaller step. Every Graphics card is different so it's kinda hard to suggest how big of jumps to go up. I also suggest that you Google your graphics card and what most people overclock theirs to. That usually give me an idea of where to start.
Step 3 - Stability testing and reaching max temp
After overclocking your video card you want to know if it's stable and if it will stay within safe temperatures while under stress, to find out run ATI Tool. If it doesn't have a window with a box spinning around in circles click "Show 3D view". This box doesn't look very stressful but it puts a lot of stress on your card, and will stress it more than any game would. Click "Scan For Artifacts", while it does that go and open riva tuner and monitor the Core Temperature as shown in Step 1. If it goes over whatever the max temp for your video card is (Google it) stop the test and turn down the clocks, then test again. If your screen is having artifacts show up or yellow spots etc (screen is screwing up) or you get a black screen or your computer restarts your graphics card is unstable at those clocks so you obviously need to turn them down, do that and then repeat the test. I suggest you run the artifact test for an hour or two before you can say it is stable. The ultimate test is when you are playing a game for a few hours straight, if my graphics card was to start showing artifacts after 4 hours of artifact testing i wouldn't be worried, i wouldn't play for 4 hours straight so it wouldn't affect me and besides if it can go for 4 hours of stress testing by ATI Tool it should be able to go for 6 hours or more of normal gaming.
-Hope you enjoy, good luck
And if you found this useful maybe you could find my forum useful:
www.TheFlywire.net
Heres it's original post by me:
http://www.theflywire.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=35
How to overclock your graphics card
This is my guide to overclock a graphics card, this may be different to the methods used by other people. I take no responsibility for any damage you cause as you should understand the risks stated below before beginning. Also, this looks way longer than it actually is. The pictures make it look like this article is super long but its not
Risks
Overclocking a video card will void your warranty, unless your warranty specifically says that overclocking is covered. There are a few who do cover overclocking on their warranties, to find out if yours does look at your users manual and it should be somewhere in there
In overclocking temperatures will be expected to increase so good airflow through your case will help, also Google your graphics card's max temperature so that you know when to stop. Exceeding your max temp may cause damage or even fry the chip. Overclocking (even if you stay within safe temperatures) will shorten the life of your Video card. Risk on most new video cards however isn't so bad since they have temperature monitors on the processing chip so if it gets too hot it will turn off, but the memory doesn't so if you wanna take your memory to high levels make sure that you have a case with good airflow. Make sure you have a good high quality PSU, better PSUs are able to overclock higher.NOTE: You should only overclock your card when you are about to play a game or something which will be demanding on your graphics card. When not needing that extra power set it back to stock clock speeds to save electricity and prolong the life of your card.
What you will need - I suggest you download the latest versions
Riva Tuner - http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=163
ATI Tool (works even with nvidia cards) - http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=725
Step 1 - Setting up fans and monitoring temperatures
Note: You might not have to do this as most graphics cards will turn the speed up automaticaly, but some cards don't. Or if you wanna get a bit more stability then you should turn them up. Also in turning the fan speed up to 100% you may damage the fan (not on all video cards but some) so an amount more like 80% or 90% would be better, but even then the fan life is shortened so beware.
1. Open RIva Tuner and click the icon with a red box around it.
2. Now check the box saying "Enable low-fan control and click fixed, and then slide the fan speed to 100%. You should end up with your screen looking like below:
3. to monitor The core temperature click that button with a red square around it below:
Step 2 - How to overclock
1. Open riva tuner and click the button which has a red square around it in the image below.
2. This should be your screen, check the box saying "enable driver level hardware overclocking" and then check the "link clocks" check box. From here you can change the "core clock" and the "memory clock" of your graphics card (and shader clock but that is linked to your core clock so don't worry about it).
3. OK, lets overclock. Basically you move the sliders across to your left to turn up the speed. I usually go up in a larger jump to start with and then go up in smaller amounts. Try moving yours up by about 70Mhz on the Core and memory clocks, Then test stability using ATI Tool (next section will show you how there), if that is stable then go up by smaller amount of about 20Mhz'ish. Really it is up to you how high you want to go. Pretty much trial and error, if you take a really big jump and it's unstable instantly after testing (next section) then try a smaller step. Every Graphics card is different so it's kinda hard to suggest how big of jumps to go up. I also suggest that you Google your graphics card and what most people overclock theirs to. That usually give me an idea of where to start.
Step 3 - Stability testing and reaching max temp
After overclocking your video card you want to know if it's stable and if it will stay within safe temperatures while under stress, to find out run ATI Tool. If it doesn't have a window with a box spinning around in circles click "Show 3D view". This box doesn't look very stressful but it puts a lot of stress on your card, and will stress it more than any game would. Click "Scan For Artifacts", while it does that go and open riva tuner and monitor the Core Temperature as shown in Step 1. If it goes over whatever the max temp for your video card is (Google it) stop the test and turn down the clocks, then test again. If your screen is having artifacts show up or yellow spots etc (screen is screwing up) or you get a black screen or your computer restarts your graphics card is unstable at those clocks so you obviously need to turn them down, do that and then repeat the test. I suggest you run the artifact test for an hour or two before you can say it is stable. The ultimate test is when you are playing a game for a few hours straight, if my graphics card was to start showing artifacts after 4 hours of artifact testing i wouldn't be worried, i wouldn't play for 4 hours straight so it wouldn't affect me and besides if it can go for 4 hours of stress testing by ATI Tool it should be able to go for 6 hours or more of normal gaming.
-Hope you enjoy, good luck
And if you found this useful maybe you could find my forum useful:
www.TheFlywire.net
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