Overclocking Gpus

[PwnageBot2000]

Hi guys, I currently have two SLI configurated 7900GS's in my computer. I've heard all about overclocking and how it improves performance if I'm not mistaken. If someone could explain to me further what overclocking is, how I can do it, and what benefits I get, that would be nice. I've also heard there are some consequences to it as well, and if someone could explain those to me. My goal is to run Medieval II total war WITH THE SHADOWS, along with the already high anti-aliasing.

Thanks. PwnageBot2000.

[Beirut]

The consequences are roasting your hardware. "KABOOM!"

One of our resident experts can define overclocking for you better than I.

You should mention exactly what CPU you have.

[PwnageBot2000]

AMD dual processor 4200
1 Gig RAM

[Xiahou]

I experimented with overclocking a couple of graphics cards... generally, I didn't find it to be worth the risks/drawbacks. I suppose if you wanted to take extraordinary cooling measures (3rd party heat sinks/fans), you might be able to get a noticeable, stable improvement- but otherwise, I doubt it's worth it.

In my experience, I was able to maybe pick up a frame or two tops... if I went higher, sometimes it would run ok for awhile and then start developing on screen artifacts/glitches and sometimes it would lock up altogether. Either way, I didn't think the risks of long-term damage was worth the small benefit.

[PwnageBot2000]

I have cooler master liquid cooling, will that help?

[Big King Sanctaphrax]

Liquid-cooling should allow you to significantly increase clock-speeds above what would be possible with air-cooling alone.

What are you looking to overclock? Your CPU, your RAM or your graphics cards? I would suggest that you read the wiki article on overclocking, and then, if you want to proceed, find a specialist overclocking site and ask for advice on getting started.

[Phatose]

Eh, it's an nVidia setup. Download coolbits and use the one overclocking utility built into nVidia's drivers that coolbits unhides.

Unless you're almost playable at those settings as is though, I wouldn't expect miracles. If you're getting 5 fps now, you ain't gonna overclock your way to 30.

[x-dANGEr]

Here are general articles about Overclocking!

http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/12/...t-1/index.html
http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/01/..._guide_part_2/

P.S. I don't think overcloking in GPUs is worth it.

[caravel]

Without some serious modding to the cooling on the graphics cards memory and gpus, overclocking is generally not worth it. If you're going to push for a few extra MHz core clock then you'll probably end up generating an end result of an extra 1fps, now and again, and alot of extra heat and expense. In my experience it's not worth it, and I've been modding and ocing Graphics cards since the old Voodoo days. I've given up on it long ago after seeing the error of my ways.

[TevashSzat]

Basically what overclocking is that all cpus are sold listed with a given speed, but that is misleading since technically any cpu can run at any speed. That given speed is what the cpu will be able to run at the very minimal settings in regard to power supplied and the cooling system in order for normal people without crazy liquid cooling systems and awesome power supplies to run their cpu as stable as possible. By overclocking, you are forcing the cpu to run at a higher speed than normal, but you better have a good power supply as well as very nice fans or even better, liquid cooling. Be warned though that overclocking it too much can burn out the cpu and lead to all sorts of bad thing, but on the other hand it can be awesome since i heard that some crazy japanese guy managed to boot windows xp at arount 7 gigahertz by overclocking.

[Husar]

Basically what overclocking is that all cpus are sold listed with a given speed, but that is misleading since technically any cpu can run at any speed. That given speed is what the cpu will be able to run at the very minimal settings in regard to power supplied and the cooling system in order for normal people without crazy liquid cooling systems and awesome power supplies to run their cpu as stable as possible. By overclocking, you are forcing the cpu to run at a higher speed than normal, but you better have a good power supply as well as very nice fans or even better, liquid cooling. Be warned though that overclocking it too much can burn out the cpu and lead to all sorts of bad thing, but on the other hand it can be awesome since i heard that some crazy japanese guy managed to boot windows xp at arount 7 gigahertz by overclocking.

That's all nice and dandy but such overclocking needs a lot of money and people who have that much cvan afford to always buy the newest hardware anyway. And what is the sense of breaking the guarantee to get 300 instead of 100 fps in Quake 4? If it burns, it costs you even more, I once forgot to remove the plastic cover underneath a new CPU cooler so I have made a painful experience which I don't want to repeat.

[caravel]

That's all nice and dandy but such overclocking needs a lot of money and people who have that much cvan afford to always buy the newest hardware anyway. And what is the sense of breaking the guarantee to get 300 instead of 100 fps in Quake 4? If it burns, it costs you even more, I once forgot to remove the plastic cover underneath a new CPU cooler so I have made a painful experience which I don't want to repeat.

Exactly. It is often cheaper to buy new hardware than it is to invest in all of the equipment necessary to OC your existing hardware. To be honest I think the days of OC are long gone. CPUs are no longer all about clockspeed, graphics card GPUs are going the same way. On the whole there is alot of myth and legend surrounding OCing. You will find plenty of reports of the successes but few about the failures. Also those that went through the process and spent the money to get an extra 10 fps for an hour before it crashed and they had to back the clock speed off again, will rarely tell you that. They set out to gain 2GHz or more from a 1.8GHz cpu but only got it up to 1.9GHz (+100Mhz). This is the reality of OCing not the tall tales of tripling or doubling the clock speed. The old Radeon 9xxx softmods were often worthwhile and back in the day some of the old celerons could be very substantially overclocked, the rest is a myth or a passtime for curious hobbyists.

[Phatose]

GPUs are one thing, CPUs are another. You won't always get 2ghz, but you can get quite respectable gains, especially out of the lower end processors.

[caravel]

I have no doubt you are right Phatose, though in my experience the time and money invested on the cooling equipment is rarely worthwhile. Overclocking is really a hobby for those that like to push their hardware beyond specification. And I can understand why they do it. They rarely do it based on a cost perspective, it's all about defying the limitations and squeezing that little bit more out of something. Expensive cases, Thermal compunds, epoxys, heatsinks and water cooling systems are often involved, none of which are cheap. My point is that in the end you may as well buy a newer motherboard and CPU and it'll probably work out cheaper in the long run. OC'ing with nothing more than a thermalright SI97 (K7) and some arctic silver compound, as I have done, is not going to give you any massive gains, and that is affordable overclocking.

[Phatose]

I disagree. A fair quantity of OCers, myself included, do so primarily for budgeting reasons, especially when it's become so simple with the cool running A64s and Core2s. The chipmakers have been running that exponential pricing scale for quite a while too - a 2.2Ghz chip will cost you $50 more then a 2.0 ghz, while a 2.8 will cost you $400 more then a 2.6er. You start factoring in that many of the lowest end chips will hit clockspeeds equivalent to a chip 2, maybe 3 rankings higher then it, there's a cost efficiency there.

For technically minded folks on a budget, it's an inviting option.

Even if you're using non stock cooling there are monetary advantages. Good air coolers can often be used on a chip you upgrade too later - my XP90 took my 3200+ to 2.5 Ghz, a respectable 25% gain for a $40 cooler. But later I switched to a dual core Opteron 165 and it took it from 1.8 to 2.5 - well, that was more like a $400 difference between models. If you start looking at water cooling, the re-use advantage is there again - even if sockets change, you typically have to change only a small part of your cooling system out. Once you start getting into compression coolers, yeah, you're getting into the pure performance at any cost crowd, but there's plenty of room on the lower end for the budget minded.

There's always some gambling involved - you probably aren't gonna fry a cpu unless you do something massively stupid like throwing major voltage at it, but it is a risk you take - and usually the worst you end up with is exactly what you paid for. Sometimes you get more then you paid for, and recently the odds have been pretty good.

[BDC]

CPU overclocking is different from GPU stuff. The slower chips are just the same as faster ones anyway, so speeding things up a bit is unlikely to completely break it. Besides the slowest chips are pretty cheap to replace if you break...

GPU overclocking is just messy and pointless. 10% speed gains, with artifacts. Woo.