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Overclocking and Stability Testing Guide
By: Leon
System Specifications- In Signature
Overclocking Software - RivaTuner v2.0
Download it HERE.
RivaTuner is easy to use and supports both ATi and Nvidia cards.
Using RivaTuner for overclocking:
1. At the main screen under Driver Settings, click on the little arrow to the right of the word "Customize...". A little menu with 5 icons in a row will pop up like in the image below.
2. Click on the 1st icon which is labeled "System Settings". A new screen will pop up.
3. Click on the checkbox at the top that is labeled "Enable driver-level hardware overclocking".
4. A message will pop up asking if you want to detect the clock frequencies now or reboot before detecting. I recommend that you select the reboot option for maximum stability.
5. After rebooting, run RivaTuner again and go to the overclocking screen again. On the drop down menu on the top right, select "Performance 3D". Notice how you may now slide the sliders around, but do not do so until finishing this guide.
6. Make sure that the "Apply overclocking at Windows startup" box is unticked. You will only want to tick this after you have found the maximum stable overclock
Stability Test
Before we move forward with overclocking, I would like to take a minute or two to explain how to test for stability using 3DMark06.
1. After installing 3DMark06, run it once at default settings without overclocking so you can get a feel for what's going on.
2. After each time you overclock, run it again and keep an eye out for abnormalities that may signify that your overclock speeds are too high.
3. When you have reached the maximum stable speeds, set 3DMark06 to loop for around 3-4 hours to see if your system still remains stable. If it does, keep it like that. If it doesn't keep reducing and testing.
Now that we already have RivaTuner and 3DMark06 set up, it is time for overclocking!
What we are going to do now is find the maximum stable overclock for the memory first, and then move on to find the max stable core speed.
Overclocking the Memory
The lower slider in the RivaTuner overclocking screen is the Memory clock. Move it to the right to increase clock speeds, and to the left to decrease clock speeds. Now, this is what you must do:
1. Increase the Memory clock by 10MHz at a time. After each increase, do a stability test.
2. Once you notice some slight graphical anomalies, reduce the speed by 10MHz and run 3DMark once more.
3. If everything is fine and running stable, then go play all your favorite games, especially the newer ones such as Crysis that stress the graphics card a lot. Check for any problems.
Overclocking the Core/GPU
The upper slider in the RivaTuner overclocking screen is the Core clock. Move it to the right to increase clock speeds, and to the left to decrease clock speeds.
Do exactly the same thing as the guidelines for Overclocking the Memory (above), the only difference is you move the Core clock slider instead.
Once you have achieved a stable speed, go back to the overclocking screen in RivaTuner and check "Apply overclocking at Windows startup".
Remember to always test!
Congratulations, you should now have a stable, overclocked graphics card!
Leon
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I pretty much do the same thing(when OCing) ,but I don`t run 3dmark06 after that.
And then again, I don`t OC since I don`t want to take any chances
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Bookmarked so I can link people here when they ask how to overclock
PS I think you should add a note to change settings for "Perfomance 3D" clocks ONLY. When I opened up RivaTuner for the first time, it showed me the clocks for 2D, which is NOT what people should change. -
lol i learned this in hard way, clocking 100's until it crashed and reboot
Anyway this guide would help us with less typing with this type of question.
P.S we should make a guide for maxium clocks for each graphics card :O -
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so Im guessing Vista 64 bit won't enforce driver signing for versions before 2.06? If thats the case, anyone have a version of RivaTuner before 2.06
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Overclocking and Stability Testing Guide
Discussion in 'Gaming (Software and Graphics Cards)' started by Leon, Feb 16, 2008.
