G51 GPU Overclock

I have a G51VX-RX05 with the GTX 260M. What is the maximum overclock I can use without cooking my system or getting artifacts. I was just wondering what others have had experience with.

 

Each GPU, even if they are the same model will have different stable overclocked frequencies. Your best bet is to test them yourself, going up in 5-10Mhz increments.

 

^ This.

I have a particularly mediocre one it seems. It only goes up to 585/1463/950 stably. It occasionally crashes at 600/1500/900 MHz after an hour or two of gaming. And its not because of temperature either (it gets hotter at stock with Furmark than at OC speeds with Crysis).

 

wow,,that is really high freq...

 

Since the 260M GTX is downclocked from its original settings of 550/1375/950, to 500/1200/850 ,
is it safe to overclock it to its original setting without overheat? and is it really worth it performance wise?

 

Not unless you got some cooling solution (I.E. Copper blocks, notebook cooler etc) or your 260 is from a very good batch. I wouldn't risk putting it back to nvidia's stock clocks if it means going over 95C+

 

The GTX 260M on the G51 is downclocked from Nvidia's reference clocks of 550/1375/950 @ 1v to 500/1250/800 @ 0.95v. It is safe to overclock it as long as you keep the heat under control. Each card is different in quality so that is up to you to find out. Let me put it this way, overclocking the core/shader from 500/1250 to 550/1375 is a straight 10% increase. Using 30fps as a reference base, a 10% overclock would mean 33fps. At 60fps, it would be 66fps. Raising the memory would also help in high resolutions and with games and applications that take up a large memory footprint.

 

but don't you think that the stock settings should be fine,
I just read that jenesuispasbavard was able to overclock it safely to 585/1463/950?

 

are you saying that that overclocking the memory to the stock settings will only help in higher resolutions?

 

Again, if you read what I said, it is up to you to find out if it is safe on your notebook.

Statistically, if the majority of the G51 users that have not modded are getting good temps at reference 550/1375/950, then it would be safe for you to slowly approach it.

 

A lot of the G51's, especially the Worst Buy variants, have a native screen resolution of 1366x768. In most games, the GPU is not going to be using that much memory bandwidth at that resolution so increasing the memory frequency won't have as much of a benefit. Going from 800MHz to 950MHz will still yield improvement, but just not as much as if you were using those clocks with a higher resolution.

 

Ouch, that sucks. I am game stable @ 600/1600/1000... around 1610 I start to artifact on my shaders, and 620 softlocks the game/3dmarks. I never tried memory over 1000 (and don't really intend to), so I now I run my games at 575/1575/975.

Temps aren't any different though between 600/1600/1000 and 575/1575/975.

 

I have the 1920x1080 screen so i might need some memory when gaming at this resolution
anyways, thanks Soviet Sunrise for the info man, i was a bit confused to whether i needed to overclock or not

 

woow, dude that is a very good frequency, i wish i can overclock it this high and still not get go overheat or be unstable : )

 

Sure, no problem. I look forward to seeing your results.

 

Every 260m gtx should be able to handle 550/1375/950 as long as you have good temperature.

 

man that is awesome, how did you get it to be stable at this frequency, are you using a notebook cooler? or thermal compound?

 

Does anyone know whether overclocking the GPU using Nvidia software
will void the warranty or not even if it's to the stock settings?

 

Using NST to overclock will not void your warranty because there is no way to tell if your card was overclocked because once you turn off your notebook, the clock set reverts back to default. Don't ask don't tell, soldier.

 

lool, good to hear,
nice profile pic by the way : )

 

The very best

 

do you know what is the maximum safe temperature allowed for the 260M GTX so that i don't exceed it or at least stay at it when overclocking?

and also how can I test for stability when overclocking so that I stop at the highest potential of my 260M GTX?

 

Furmark takes my GPU to 98C at 585/1463/950, and Crysis takes it to 93C.

To test for stability I just play a game for a few hours (Crysis works well, so does Dragon Age). If it's going to crash, it will pretty quickly.

 

oh you said 98C, is that a safe temperature for the gpu?

 

No. 10char

 

No, but it only happens during Furmark. With SETI@Home running for hours, it "only" goes to 88C.

 

I think an Alienware will yield better luck.

 

but NST won't change the GPU voltage which will limit the maximum stable overclocking frequencies right?
if so, then can you tell me where to look in order to learn more about GPU overclocking and the corresponding voltages to the overclocked frequencies?
I already read through http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=401345 ,
but it didn't say anything about what voltage the GPU should be set to when overclocked to certain frequencies?

 

It doesn't say anything because nobody but me has tried overvolting the G51 (at least that I know who has posted on NBR) and overclocking. When overvolted from .95v to 1v flat, I received absolutely zero benefit in overclocking- I was limited to the same specifications, which leads me to believe that voltage to the GPU is not an issue, but stability of the GPU when pulling heavily AT those voltages is, due to the lack of the HE tab.

 

thanks man for clearing that up, i was really confused about this inceasing gpu voltage thing.