Overclocking Your Graphics Card - What's Your Personal Style and Methology?

[Big.Wayne]

Hello all,

I am interested in different peoples methods of overclocking their graphics card, like which part do you start with (GPU, MEM, SHADERS?) how much do you increment at a time and what simple tests do you do to confirm stability?

I've only really clocked RADEON GPU's in the past and that was easy peasy using ATI Tool or similar (find max GPU etc).

I am currently using RivaTuner to adjust the speeds of an nVidia 8800GT and running 3DMark 06 loop and also the Crysis benchmark, I find that any bad overclocks cause either of these two tests to stall,fail, go up in flames etc, however its pretty slow going. . .

So any tips or methods to get to the max quickly or is it a slow process where you just increase everything a little then go and do some gaming etc

Also I am interested in things like BIOS flashing and more risky 'tweaks'? Have you found in your experience that this helps achieve a better overall clock?

Thanks in advance

 

[Big.Wayne]

As long as I can get mine to what other people are managing then I dont bother pushing it further

That puts a different perspective on the saying "Keeping up with the Jones"

So when you say 5MHz at a time, is that on everything (GPU/MEM/SHADER) all at the same time?

 

[Big.Wayne]

Thanks, so what quick tests do you guys do then after increasing the clocks? Is this something you do over the course of a day or do you chip away at it over a week etc?

Basically I am just trying to find out how different people approach the same subject kinda.

[edit] a quick stability test that gives a score would be cool, both 3DMark06 and Crysis Bench are a bit slow, also Crysis hardly shows any additional score, like percents of seconds, at least 3Dmark06 gives you some figures you can work with (shaders etc). Isn't there a cute little app that spits out a number?

 

[Big.Wayne]

In games you dont notice the difference (Same cant be said for clocking my X2 3800 from 2ghz to 2.8ghz)

I dunno about that, true enough if the difference is 135fps vs 170fps but if your really maxed out the difference between 30fps and 48fps would be more meaningful, thats the difference I had years back when playing Farcry, 30fps using a stock P4 and 9800Pro and 48fps when overclocking both CPU/GPU etc, really made all the difference.

That hasn't been the case recently though, these 8800GTs are really great cards right out the box!

Still we are overclockers and its hard to resist lol

[edit] still its interesting the feedback that has come in so far, seems people whack up to the big clocks straight away, I have been scratching my way up from stock!

 

[Big.Wayne]

It wont melt, all it will do is restart and be set to stock speeds again

Geeza, have you ever *borked* a graphics card when you overclocked it?

I guess not. . .