Sign in with
Sign up | Sign in
Your question

Should I clock?

Tags:
  • Gtx
  • DDR3
  • Overclocking
  • Intel i7
  • EVGA
Last response: in Overclocking
Share
October 9, 2014 9:09:07 PM

This is my rig:
HyperX Fury DDR3 1600MHz 16GB Black
Intel i7 4820k w/ boxed Intel Air Cooling
EVGA GTX 780 TI Superclocked
ASUS P9X79 LE, Socket-2011
AOC 1920x1080 144hz monitor

Sorry if I left anything important out. I play at 1920x1080 and feel like I don't have as much FPS in games like Metro: Last Light Redux and Borderlands 2 (Disabling PhysX increased my performance a lot in BL2, and many people seem to have that issue)

I don't care all that much for PhysX though, so it's fine. I aim for 60 FPS, and while i'm okay with not having ubersampling in the witcher 2 etc, I wish it would at least be at a steady 50 fps. It usually varies between 33-60 I'd say.

Basically in Metro, which is the one that's been bothering me, I get 40-60, but that's after disabling PhyX and toning down AA to 2x. I guess 45-50 would be pretty fine, but it's the uneven framerate that bothers me. V-sync doesn't seem to change any of that.

TL;DR: Should I clock my CPU and/or GPU? How much? Is it risky business?

Thanks in advance.

More about : clock

October 9, 2014 9:31:42 PM

No, not on a stock cooler.
Your cpu wont affect your frame rate much if you were to overclock. At stock, it is currently no issue for bottlenecking.
Yes, you can overclock you card. It's not risky at all if you stay within the safe overclocking limits.

Your frame rates in metro "redux" aren't anything bad at all considering you're playing at maxed settings. This game is pretty graphic intensive especially when you turn AA on.

What power supply do you have?
October 9, 2014 9:59:51 PM

Corsair CX 750M, 750W PSU

And regarding Metro, i'm not playing on max. I have AA on 2x, where max is 4x, and I also have PhysX disabled. How would i go about overclocking my card? I have PrecisionX, but I don't know how much I should clock it with, nor what is the desired temperature.
October 9, 2014 10:50:42 PM

wikre said:
Corsair CX 750M, 750W PSU

And regarding Metro, i'm not playing on max. I have AA on 2x, where max is 4x, and I also have PhysX disabled. How would i go about overclocking my card? I have PrecisionX, but I don't know how much I should clock it with, nor what is the desired temperature.


I'm talking max settings (ultra), not referring to your AA settings. 2x is very demanding in itself...4x on metro redux can only be played by the highest end systems at the frames which you wish to achieve.

Evga precicion X is a great program and it's what I use to overclock my cards.



Now your goal when overclocking a card is to increase your core clock and memory clock speeds to their highest STABLE speeds while keeping your GPU at a safe temperature. To monitor this, you can use this program; https://unigine.com/products/heaven/

Slowly increase your gpu offset and memory clock speeds by 50Mhz and run the heaven benchmark. While benchmarking, you want to monitor your gpu's temperature in the top left corner as well as looking at the screen for any visual deffects. If your gpu passes the benchmark without stutters or screen tearing and your temperatures are within the safe zone, bump the gpu clock offset and memory clock by another 50 and benchmark again. Once you start seeing visual defects, bump the clock back a tiny bit (say 25mhz) and benchmark till they are smooth. This will be your maximum memory and clock speeds at stock voltages. This would be considered a basic overclock.

To step into the more intermediate realms, you're going to want to play with your gpu's voltage settings. This will allow you to further bump up your core and mem clocks.This is also where you're going to start to see a significant increase in temperatures.

To increase your GPU's voltage, you will see a slider to the right hand side of precision X. Make sure overvoltage is turned on. This will enable you to slide the slider to increase the amount of voltage your gpu will utilize. Don't be afraid, voltages were often an issue with older cards...these days, cards are voltage locked and the maximum amount evga precision X will allow you (37mV) wont damage your card. Concentrate more on keeping your card at a safe temperature. Temperature is the only thing that will damage your card.

You will also see a slider on the left called "fan curve". By default this will be set to auto. If you click on "auto" to grey it out and turn it off, you can then click on "fan curve" to manually set the speed of your fan at certai temperatures. This can also be played around with to decrease gpu temperates (but increase noise) to further overclock your card.

I'm not going to go into too much detail on the various settings etc but the above is the basic knowledge you will need to overclock your card. It's very simple. If you require further instructions on how to use the program, I'd suggest you search for yourtube videos of people talking you through the various features.

Based on your card, you can expect to see the following setting to give a reasonable overclock and work. Don't jump straight to these settings, work your way there first. These settings were also done by someone who has the ACX cooler on their card. If you have the stock cooler, expect to see smaller results.

Power Target 106%
Priority at Temperature target
Temp Target 90 Degrees C
CPU clock +115 MHz
Mem clock +275 MHz
Voltage +37 Mv






!