Overclocking 560 (non ti)

[donsangha]

Hello. Could do with a bit of advice on my gpu setup. Currently have a Zotac 560 gtx 1GB (non ti) which I have owned for 6 months picked up for 100 GBP new off eBay. Great card that was the recommended for my budget at the time. Yesterday I purchased a new Gigabyte 560 1 GB gtx (non ti) for 130GBP as I couldn't be bothered to wait around for another bargain , should come by next week.

Now onto the meaty bit. I am happy with my rig and want to keep my graphics cards for three years (until i finish uni) before flogging them and upgrading. I am wondering whether it would be worth over clocking both of them and how far I am likely to be able to over clock it without a voltage increase and overall while being guaranteed they will last as long as a non over clocked pair in SLI i.e what is a definite safe voltage. My zotac at the moment idles at about 35 Degrees C and when playing demanding games temperature between 65 and 70 degress C with a fan profile of 60%

Also, considering my SLI setup and rig do you think it was worth the investment (230 GBP for 560 SLI) and from experience with older gen cards will these graphics cards be able to max out any game for the next three years considering I like to play the most demanding games but only at 1920X1080.

Sorry for the essay but in History revision mode at the moment. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Please feel free to comment on my rig and suggest any upgrades i might need to make in the next 3 years




Rig (altogether about 1000GBP)
NZXT pc case
AMD Phenom II 1090T (upgrading to I7 3770K @4.5GHZ next month) with Thermaltake Frio cpu cooler (giving AMD to brother)
16GB Gskill ripjaw X (1600MHZ)
1 GB 560 SLI zotac and gigabyte (as of next week)
master: OCZ vertex plus ssd 60 GB ( upgrading to ocz vertex 4 60 GB in autumn)
slave: 1TB seagate barracuda 7200 rpm
Samsung SH-B123L/BSBP blu ray drive
Asrock z68 extreme3 GEN3 motherboard

 

[amuffin]

Increase mhz by 15mhz while running furmark. Repeat until you get a stable overclock.

 

[donsangha]

Thanks. Do shader and memory clock offer much of a difference when increased e.g. in metro 2033 or should i just focus on core clock. Will increasing both of these lower the amount of core clock I can add with the same voltage?

 

[amuffin]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but shader and core clocks should be locked together.

Anyways, aim for the core, do not overclock the memory. Reasons? Overclocking memory can cause many stability issues. Most games don't benefit from memory overclocking, they benefit from core speeds!