Is it worth to overclock this computer (GPU actually)?

[AuliX]

So well, my computer stands as follows:

E7300 2.66GHz BOX
GA-EP35-DS3
Palit XpertVision HD4850 512MB - the one with custom cooling, not referent, here's pic:

Spoiler

http://multimedia.agito.pl//obrazek/big/seria-hd-4000/palit-xpertvision-radeon-hd-4850-512mb-ddr3-pci-e-box/160356.agito.jpg

OCZ Platinum rev 2.0 2x1GB
Pentagram SF 460W
Antec 300

There is some more stuff inside like Creative's X-Fi gamer and X-540 speakers but these can't be overclocked and won't do anything for it really

Anyway, what I'm asking for, is it worth to overclock this computer? Is it safe actually, I mean, I want to overclock it so it works the most time, as far as I know the most thing which reduces life of a computer is making voltages higher, so I want to avoid it. I'm not a performance/graphics masturbator so I don't need to overclock every component to its limit.

What I've done so far was checking my temperatures and overclocking my C2D (thus overclocking memory, automatically coz of FSB), without raising voltages of course. FSB @ 300 and here we go. Since memories have cooling on them [pic]

Spoiler

http://www.komplett.ie/img/p/400/320721.jpg

I hope these won't overheat for real so I can overclock memory without worrying if they will burn, lol. The most important though are temps of my C2D, these are as follows (after overclocking to 3.0ghz, checked with CoreTemp): IDLE: 32C, STRESS: 37-39C. Stability's fine.

Now, I thought it is worth OCing the GPU, coz it has... 30C @ Idle and 37C @ stress! that's so low.

I've got Rivatuner running as I write but before I overclock I must know if its worth it (and safe! I don't need to push comp to its limits) and more important, what tool do I need to check overall computer's stability & performance before & after OC? I thought about 3dmarks, but there are many versions I don't know which one to choose.

Sorry for so much text, thanks.

 

[kds_119]

first off it is worth overclocking, to squeeze any little extra performance out of your pc. the best thing i can tell you to do for OC'ing the cpu is raise your BCLK by increments of 5-10 each time untill you blue screen. once you hit the bluescreen it's time to over volt, but as you said this is not what you want to do. you not gonna get much overclocking out of raising the BCLK, but it will def help you.

for your GPU 37c is awesome, most gpu's today idel around 70c lol.

also where are you getting your temp monitoring from, HWMonitor or some other program?

just another point to keep in mind, over volting will hurt your cpu (in the long run) but if you can keep your temps low and don't over volt too much you should not see any real problems from this.

Happy overclocking and let me know if what i said has helped at all and feel free to ask me to explain anything more indepth if need be.

 

[kds_119]

oh i forgot to note, these new GPU's like the 4850 you have are really bottle necked by your cpu, so if you overclock your cpu u will see a bit of an improvement in FPS in games and AA improvements too.

 

[flyin15sec]

for your GPU 37c is awesome, most gpu's today idel around 70c lol.

WHAT? Who told you that? I have 8800GTX - idle around 50s. GTX 260 idle around hi 40s. HD 4850, idle around mid 40s.

 

[kelfen]

If tempetures are in safe range might as well

 

[AuliX]

first off it is worth overclocking, to squeeze any little extra performance out of your pc. the best thing i can tell you to do for OC'ing the cpu is raise your BCLK by increments of 5-10 each time untill you blue screen. once you hit the bluescreen it's time to over volt, but as you said this is not what you want to do. you not gonna get much overclocking out of raising the BCLK, but it will def help you.

for your GPU 37c is awesome, most gpu's today idel around 70c lol.

also where are you getting your temp monitoring from, HWMonitor or some other program?

just another point to keep in mind, over volting will hurt your cpu (in the long run) but if you can keep your temps low and don't over volt too much you should not see any real problems from this.

Happy overclocking and let me know if what i said has helped at all and feel free to ask me to explain anything more indepth if need be.

Thanks mate. I'm mostly interested in OCing my graphics card, as my processor is already overclocked to 3.0GHz (I did, gave me most performance in GTA IV tho). My friend told me (and that was backed up by a popular and reliable polish PC forum) that my processor shouldn't bottleneck the graphics card since 2.8GHz. Anyway, let's say I have 2.8GHz processor that "fits" graphics card perfectly instead of my 3.0GHz now, what would happen if I overclocked graphics card now? Would it get bottlenecked by CPU? Or it is more hardware-specific, like, if I had a better graphics card downclocked to nominal HD4850's clocks, 2.8GHz would still bottleneck it coz of some shader units or whatever?

The thing I completely don't understand are timings - do they give much performance after being "overclocked", and how do I check it (the performance).

For BCLK you mean FSB, right? Maybe I try overclock even more, but you say I wouldn't get much out of it without raising voltage. For raising voltage, I was thinking about it and as long it's safe and won't reduce my CPU's lifecycle down to 1 year, I think it is fine.

I'm using CoreTemp for checking CPU's temperatures and GPU-Z for graphics card. I didn't know that HWMonitor even existed. Downloading now!

To flyin15sec - my friend has 8800GTX as well, he has 89C in stress and 66 idle. Propably varying on the case.

 

[AuliX]

PS: Which one is the real temperature? CPU or Core0 & Core1?

 

[AuliX]

So, I've tried using ATITool to OC my graphics card (0.27 beta 3), but I started that 3d window and the clocks were showing 0 (zero), so I've added up to 30 (core clock) and clicked set but it resetted back to 0. I'm kinda confused with it :S

 

[eclipseaudio4]

They are all "real temps" but the one you want to watch the "most" is the cpu just make sure that none of them go over the max safe. ie 74c for cpu and a lil higher for the cores