Don't overclock laptops?

I've just recently started to overclock my 3 month old Toshiba X505 with an i5 and GTX 460m, so I could get a perfect consistent framerate that would never drop below 30 fps in Battlefield Bad Company 2 with all graphical settings on high 4xaa 8xaf and HBAO on.

I've read an overclock guide on the ASUS forums from someone who also had a GTX 460m and followed his overclock which was 800/1600/1480 compared to the original clocks of 675/1350/1250 (core/shader/mem).

After having applied this overclock, I achieved my goal and the results were astounding, and Battlefield Bad Company 2 runs PERFECT on my system at the settings mentioned above.

Now the problem is I'm addicted to this game and I play hours on end. Sometimes 8 hours for a game session. lol I did more research online and searched about overclocking laptops and almost every overclocking forum or site has insisted to never overclock a laptop, because of heat issues. The only site I see that advocates overclocking a laptop is notebookreview forums community. This has made me worried and hesitant about overclocking.

My questions are how safe is it to overclock my system with the overclock settings I mentioned? Could I leave those clocks as default and continue to play hours on end without shortening the life of my computer? And who else has a GTX 460m and overclocks them on a daily basis? Hell, let's just say who else has any kind of overclocked laptop GPU that is set as a daily default and still working properly after 3 or more years without any problems?

I'd really like to know this since the overclocks makes my system run this game perfectly. Finally if anyone could link me to overclocking benchmarks and guides specifically for the GTX 460m mobile graphics card I'd appreciate it, since google would mostly find info of the 460 desktop version of the card. Thanks again.

 

I don't think any site would advocate overclocking laptops, although it can bring some useful performance gain. I don't think there's that strong of a "no, you should never overclock a notebook" sentiment either.

Heat is a nemesis of pretty much all electronics, so yes, more heat buildup is technically bad for the longevity of your laptop. Plus, if your fan will have to work harder to keep heat at a manageable level, you could shorten the life of your cooling fan (and you'll have to replace it later on).

That said, you may be okay, depending on what computer you have. Use HWMonitor (link in my signature) and tell us what peak temperatures you start hitting on CPU/GPU when you are overclocking and when you are not. Then, we'll probably be able to give you a more definitive statement of whether or not it's wise to OC your specific laptop.

In terms of keeping heat down, propping up the rear of your laptop and do wonders for air circulation, reducing overall operating temperatures.

 

Ok thanks MidnightSun. From the very beginning, I had a homemade cooler placed underneath my Toshiba X505. It's basically a small vornado house fan laid down on a table, inside a box with a hole cut out of it so the wind would blast the bottom of my notebook. I'm looking at Nvidia inspector and the temp read out of the GPU at idle is 37C.

When I play BFBC2 and alt+tab to see the temp reading and I get 56C. I know that's very good, but I wasn't consistently observing the temps lastnight when running the game overclocked. After posting this response I'll do some in game tests running overclock and make note of the temps I'm getting again, and I'll try and download that HWmonitor. Can it show me temps ingame?

 

Generally the damaging overclocks involve voltage mods, which I wouldn't do on a laptop. A higher voltage will result in the greatest increase in heat. Generally if your card isn't running all that hot it should be fine. My GPU doesn't run appreciably higher when overclocked and it is stable, so I don't really worry about it all that much. Chips nowadays are very robust when it comes to what they can tolerate.

 

ok thanks Mjolner, here's the situation. I'm now playing BFBC2 with the overclocks and I've turned off my homemade cooler to see what kind of temps I'll get just running the stock fans inside my notebook.

I've played 2 maps so far, and after each time I die I alt+tab to see the temp reading, this time with nvidia monitor. I'm getting 71C for GPU temps, which seems to be reasonable, right? but what's concerning me is the CPU temps 1 core show 77c and the other 78c. Are the CPU temps to high? What are temps that I should stay under and not to critical, for both CPU and GPU?

I've heard I have to stay under 90c for GPU, 80c is already pushing it. I don't know what temps the CPU should be under, but usually it's already about 60 just idle.

 

Don't alt tab, temps drop 5-7 as soon as you alt tab.

Run MSI Afterburner and use the on-screen display or have a logging file with GPU-Z or run HWMonitor and see what the max temp is.

 

what program lets me view temps in game? or how about nvidia monitor or nvidia inspector, do they have a logging file?

 

The 70C are good, relatively cool load temps. 80s are warm but acceptable. Over 90C is hot, and over 95C is dangerous. For my GPU, the max temp difference between OC and non-OC is only a few degrees(77 vs 80), Nvidia chips are a little different, but not that much. You really shouldn't have any problems as long as you don't overvolt, as Mjolner mentioned.

To determine max temps, download a GPU stress test like Furmark or OCCT. They will stress your GPU more that any game will, and have built-in on screen temperature display. Furmark will stress slightly more, resulting in higher max temps, but OCCT has built-in error detection (to help determine if your OC is too high). Both are good for your needs.

 

jacob808, it sounds like you know what you are doing. Keep up the good work. Also I recommend replacing the stock thermal paste.

 

I would like to do that, but I cringe just thinking of the abuse the GPU stess test programs might do to my fairly new notebook. And from what I read, aren't you suppose to run those programs for a few hours?

Also, do you keep your overclock as a default setting to run everyday? I mean how long have you been overclocking your system and how frequently do you keep the system overclocked?

 

Mine is a BIOS overclock, and I only changed the load clocks, so it is only overclocked when under high load. Most of the time it runs at stock low-load speeds (100 core / 150 mem / 0.9volts). I've had it like this for over 6 months with no issues.

If you're looking to truly stress your GPU, then you should run it for an hour or two, but realistically, 30-45 min should be more than enough. Don't worry, you won't break your laptop.

 

Overclocking is always a risk, mainly because not all GPUs are exactly the same, and some may be suceptible to damage over a very small overclock.

Of course, if you have been using your laptop for a while, overclocked and stable, then there isn't much to worry about, just keep the machine clean to avoid unnecesary heat buildup.

I personally use my machine heavily overclocked when gaming, and so far so good.

 

try out GPU-Z. or HWMonitor. both of those have the ability to save monitoring data and provide you with your max temps and min temps, as well as current temps.

GPU-Z shows more comprehensive data, including average temps and clock speeds as well. what i would do is at least play the game for about 30 minutes and check your temps after that. you can also set GPU-Z to record live data and you can see if your temps spike up temporarily or if it sustains a high temperature.

i would check out something like this to ensure you're not emitting fire from your GPU.

 

My Alienware M11x was designed to be able to be overclocked and is warrantied as such

 

+1

Indeed, to me a computer is a computer.. just keep in mind laptops have minimal cooling, but are usually throttled down for power reasons.. watch your heat like any computer and your fine, fan failure over time is inevitable on laptops, so overclock or not, dust will make a bigger difference no matter what you do..

 

Why in the hell would you research laptops on any other site than this? There isn't a single website on this planet other than NBR that knows and understands laptops like this community. That's like shopping for an enthusiast TV at Walmart.

 

I just found the option to log in nvidia system monitor, so I'll just use that. Thanks

So heat build up is the only thing that causes problems when overclocking? While doing research, I've read that sometimes heat won't be a problem. That temps will be fine and well under danger levels, but that the higher clock frequencies will do damage. Is this true? Also going back to heat issues, I've read that some people after overclocking their system and then going back to default , can't seem to bring back the default temps, but now it's always at the higher overclock tempertures.

-1 rep point or even 10.
With this statement you lose credibilty. It's more wise to get information from many resources, besides just one, no matter how reputable. Every site has a bias, along with misinformation, be it done on purpose or not. If you research many sites, articles and resources you can see what everyone agrees on and question other "facts". NBR seems to have a helpful community, but I doubt they have all the answers. sorry.

 

Well, I dont know about heat levels sticking after OC'ing, perhaps if the system was pushed to far you could bake the cheap thermal paste on a heatsink or something faster, or perhaps the power draw couldn't be supported if someone did a voltage mod and the 12v rail would start to fail causing fluxuations in voltage, but I have never experienced this. I have had plenty of systems over time just run hotter and hotter though..(dust, fans, and aging of crap stock thermal paste)

You probably know that CPU's are not usually different chips for different clock speeds (2.2, 2.5, etc), Intel or whoever just pushes the chip to a level until it starts to fail, then clocks it down, labels it.. etc. then they sell the most stable chips as the higher clock speed. If you are just overclocking your chip, and doing it in a manner that is within the specs of the CPU/GPU (dont OC' it 200%! try 10-15%) and have the appropriate cooling... there shouldn't be a problem.
As for damage to systems, I would put my money on poor custom heatsink installs and poorly thought out physical modifications before mild OC..

 

I seriously forgot the mathematical formula to find percentages. lol I'm thinking base divided by rate equals percent, right? So if my original clocks were 675/1350/1250 (core/shader/mem) and I increased it to 800/1600/1480 (core/shader/mem) what percentage increase did I overclock? I calculated 18%, correct?

Can you give me the correct answer and math formula? and is that to high of an overclock? also when I overclock do I HAVE TO increase by 10% increments, or can I just go straight to those overclocks by typing them in and hitting apply? what's the correct way, and why?

 

Well I just used 10% as a ball park figure, the real consideration is still heat, and many GPU's dont have thermal sensors on the memory, so that is what can start to cause artifacts and go bad.. Being that the memory on the GPU is integrated, you kill it and you kill the video entirely. Many of the crazy overclocking contests people do OC to incredibly high percentages, but they have cryogenics and other way out there cooling solutions to deal with the heat, plus a lot of thermal monitoring equipment.

equation? um, well how about
(1 - (Original clock speed/Overclock speed)) = % overclocked..

looks like your at 15.6% (.156)

but I dont think that really is a good example, I think you would be better off knowing the original clock speed and multiplier, then looking at the difference from the overclock multiplier/or MHz change..

AKA say your original clock speed was 400, then you increase it to 440, well then you can see thats 10% increase eh (40*10=400)? With a lot of the wacky powersaving functions, I dont know how they are clocking up and down the GPU..so base it on the change your making..

I know its rough using math outside of school..

 

I'm lazy, so get the HWM BlackBox. It will give you the percentage of your overclock as well as a bunch of other data similar to CPU-Z/GPU-Z