NeedHelp Overlocking VideoCard

First tip: Make sure you know the stock clock speeds BEFORE doing any tweaking so you have a baseline to work from.

Second tip: Search for info on overclock attempts for the specific model of card you have. Usually sites like HardOCP or Tom's Hardware will have something, but you'll have to dig. If you can find out how far others have (safely) pushed their cards, it'll give you a ballpark on what you can expect before you try it yourself.

Third tip: When you actually do overclock, test in small increments. Don't expect to be able to throttle the thing up to twice it's normal speed. If you can find info from other OC attempts, start a little below what you've seen people OC the cards to and increment up from there. If not, start small, and work toward your highest stable speed. If you start encountering instability (visual artifacts, or at worst, system freezes) then back off a few steps below that.

Fourth tip: Stable at idle is NOT the same as stable under load. When you test a clock frequency, you want to throw as much at the card as you can. Load the nastiest, most visually intensive program (Doom 3 comes to mind) you have and make it cry in pain. If it's stable under that, you're good.

Fifth tip: Cooling. You can't have enough of it. The cooler the card is, the better it will run. If your case isn't adequately cooled OR you're in a warm environment or both, you're screwed. Make sure the ambient air temperature is under 75(F) degrees max, and make sure your case stays nice and cool and has plenty of airflow.

Sixth tip: Power. Make sure you have enough of it. If you have a wimpy whiner Dell or Gateway of a system with an inadequate power supply, don't even try. You need the extra overhead on the PSU to ensure clean power. Less ripple = higher stable speeds. Overclocking with dirty DC from the PSU is going to lock the system up.

Remember too that overclocking the memory and overclocking the GPU are different. You might get, say, a 5% increase on the memory clock, and only a 2% increase on the GPU (or vice-versa). Each card is different, so clock them independently first. Sometimes the highest GPU and highest memory speeds can't be used together, so find out which will give you greater benefit and prioritize that one over the other, and see what your best match is. Overclocking is tricky business, and it involves a lot of patience, experimentation, and a little risk. Just be sane about it. If you go pumping up the clock by 150MHz from the getgo you're asking to buy a new video card. If you treat it gently you're not very likely to fry anything.

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