This OC is safe?

Nicklas · Sep 23, 2014

I am OC'ing my GPU to maximise the chance of getting good FPS in Watch Dogs, so I searched around aliitle and it appears like OCing is totally safe for Nvidia cards (note, safe, not stable)

So I want to try this OC:

Is this "safe" for my GPU? Or is there any risk that it will..."blow up"?

Wolfshadw · Sep 23, 2014

There is always a risk of your card, "blowing up" when you OC. If the manufacturer of the card was 100% certain the card could run at that higher speed, it would be sold like a card running natively at that speed.

-Wolf sends

coozie7 · Sep 23, 2014

It's usually safe to push the frequencies, normally you'll get artifacts or just a plain crash if you set them too high but voltage is different, even small increases push the system much harder, and greatly increase the heat output.
Obviously, it's your choice but I'd suggest you leave the voltage alone, or at least make the smallest increases you can get away with to keep the OC stable.

Nicklas · Sep 23, 2014

I just OCd the MHz too around 500 each, and i went into the game again... It went black and then the screen got no signal, restarted fast as hell and its all normal now...

Is this a normal thing when OC goes bad?
Was 500HZ too high?

ADD:
Also, I just did the 500Mhz again, started upp the game and it crashed the game at main menu, and said that the drivers has been restored...

Really? is my card this shitty I cant even OC that?

17seconds · Sep 23, 2014

Hopefully you noticed that the values for your Core Clock and Memory Clock have a "+" next to them. That value does not represent the actual Core and Memory clock speeds, but rather how much is added to your standard clock speed. So you added a full 1000 MHz to your clock speeds! No wonder why it didn't work. That would have been a world record if it had.

Here are the settings they used at Guru3d for their overclock:

Power Target 106%
•Priority at Temperature target
•Temp Target 95 Degrees C
•GPU clock +150 MHz
•Mem clock +350 MHz
•Voltage 1200 Mv
http://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/geforce-gtx-780-review,28.html

Nicklas · Sep 23, 2014

17seconds :

Yeah, no clue how much 1000 Mhz really is though.

The voltage option is not the same as I have... You say 1200 MV, how much + is that from 0?

smeezekitty · Sep 23, 2014

1000MHz is INSANE. The stock clock is probably something like 900MHz so you would be more than doubling the clock

Simply impossible. You are probably very lucky to hit +200

Also, I would avoid cranking the voltage up so much

coozie7 · Sep 23, 2014

I don't want to sound nasty but a few words of advice given to me from an old, wrinkled, ex Navy mechanic during my apprenticeship spring to mind: "If you don't know what you're doing, leave it the f*** alone!"
That goes double for the voltage.

Nicklas · Sep 24, 2014

smeezekitty :

coozie7 :

Well then, why the hell do you think I am here asking?
You never learn if you dont do or ask about it....
So instead of frying my GPU, I ask about it here.
No need for such comments.

smeezekitty · Sep 24, 2014

The "All controls to the right" approach does not work for overclocking.

I recommend you keep the voltage stock for now. Increase the core clock about 50 MHz at time
until it crashes and then back it off.

Then start doing the same thing with the memory.

ad0 · Sep 24, 2014

Most of the time graphic cards ends up hurting your motherboard inof the Graphic card dying. It can depends on your motherboard

Nicklas · Sep 24, 2014

I have a MSI Z68A-GD55 (G3), does that say anything?

RobCrezz · Sep 24, 2014

You dont just start with a huge overclock like that, increase in small increments then test - like 50mhz or so, only do gpu or memory at a time, not both.

Nicklas · Sep 24, 2014

Question then, can I have the game running while doing this, just minimize, OC and then maximize, or do I have to start the game up for each time?

RobCrezz · Sep 24, 2014

Nicklas :

Yes you can on the fly, but it wont always show up instability right away.

I tend to make a change, then run unigine Valley to test - it puts the gpu under a good amount of stress and is repeatable.

RobCrezz · Sep 24, 2014

You can download it here:
https://unigine.com/products/valley/download/

Nicklas · Sep 24, 2014

So I get this straight now:

I tune up the Core clock 50+Mhz per time, then start up the benchmark and when it does some weird stuff or crashes, then I should tune it down again.
And then do the same thing for Memory clock?

RobCrezz · Sep 24, 2014

Nicklas :

Pretty much. Let it run for a while each time you adjust the settings.

Nicklas · Sep 24, 2014

Alright so I have gotten this far:

More than 250 core clock the benchmark crashes, then I continued with Memory clock, which currently is at 450 Mhz and no crash or artifacts anywhere.
Doing the max load I can do, max out rain and wind, and put it to dusk with alot of colors and then move around fast and freely, getting at lowest 45 FPS.

Should I crank up the Memory Clock even further?

RobCrezz · Sep 24, 2014

Max out the power limit also.

Yeah if you have found the core clock limit, then carry on with the memory clock until you get crash/artifacts/slowing down.

Nicklas · Sep 24, 2014

Oh shiet, alright so cranked the Power limit to full.

And then went on with the Memory clock, i did 500, went "in-game" and no problems.
Then i tried 550Mhz and my whole screen instantly turned light blue!

I was so afraid, I waited 5 seconds then i just hard-restarted the computer with the res button.

So, 500Mhz is the limit I should keep it to right?

RobCrezz · Sep 24, 2014

Nicklas :

Yeah you may find you can get somewhere between 500 and 550, but to be safe 500 should be fine. Save them setting and test further with some other games/benchmarks to just be 100% sure of stability. MSI kombuster can be good for that too (usually comes with afterburner).

17seconds · Sep 24, 2014

Nicklas :

That's great if you can maintain that setting in other games and applications. To fine tune your overclocking, Nvidia includes "Reasons". As you scroll down the list of graphs on the right hand side of Afterburner, you'll come across:

- Temp limit
- Power limit
- Voltage limit
- OV max limit

If you see a "1" in any of those graphs, it indicates that your overclock failed on that variable. To address that issue, you would increase the corresponding slider (unless its already maxed out). For the Temp limit, you can increase the slider or increase the fans. OV max limit is a general, "this is bad" warning and you should back off if you see that at "1" consistently. A zero in any of those graphs indicates that everything is okay in terms of that variable.

Nicklas · Sep 24, 2014

I just got a blue screen (not BSOD) when going into Kombustor, with 500Mhz memory clock, so i set it to 475.

Anyway, when appying the OC now, the Utilization limit goes to "1" instanty
And the Power Limit also goes to "1" when going into Kombustor.
All the others stay at zero

RobCrezz · Sep 24, 2014

Sounds good. Give it some more test just to be sure, and then you are good to go and save your profile.

After, you should set it back to stock, run the Valley benchmark, get the score, then run it again with your OC profile and see how much extra performance you have gotten

This OC is safe?

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