What are safe GPU overclocks?

What would you say is a safe and reasonable overclock for a 9300M GS GPU?

Default:
Clock: 580
Memory: 702
Shader: 1450

I was told this was a safe overclock...

Clock: 700
Memory: 702
Shader: 1800

That's like a 17% increase on the regular clock and a 19% increase on the shader clock....safe?

I was under the impression that a person shouldn't overclock more than 10% or something? Is that true?

 

It's safe.

You can overclock as much as you want, the only limit is the temp.

Just keep it cool

 

Yeah, for real.

 

As long as you don't artifact and you don't turn your laptop into a fireball, any overclock is good.

 

You can overclock to as far the cards tolerances will allow, or until you push it to a temperature which you deem as the limit. There are no points in overclocking where you should just stop unless the temperature is at that point or the card starts artifacting. So pretty much, push it as far as you can without the temps getting too high, or it artifacts.

I have (had) my 3650 at 725Mhz on the core, from the default 600Mhz, and my memory at 580Mhz up from the default 500Mhz (DDR2 VRAM sucks for overclocking). I found if I pushed it any futher than that it would artifact and crash. I found that i could push my card to it's tolerances because it ran insanely cool for a 15.4" laptop. However, if it ran hotter, Eg. It ran at 85C stock, I wouldn't push it so far, as it would most likely overheat if the cards clocks were too high.

There is no golden rule when it comes to how far you overclock, just raise it to the point you see fit.

Good luck.

 

Careful about the Memory Clock. Increase of Memory Clock can improve the performance harshly. However, Memory Clock does not have Temperature Sensor like Core Clock. So, we don't know how much it will heat-up when we OC it. Shader Clock doesn't do much on performance. Only Core and Memory have larger impact.

Core Clock are easy to manage because it has Temperature Sensor. But, not Memory Clock.

Friendly advise, OC is about Temperature. Low Temperature means you're safe.
Generally, 70-90C(recommended below 80C) should be safe. Over 90C would be very dangerous.

You can check my Signature on how I OC my Geforce 9500M GS 512MB DDR2.

 

Almost everyone that has OC"d their G73 beyond 850 core have had to RMA it. They all claim it has nothing to do with OCing, but I don't think it's coincidence they have this in common.

Just be careful.

 

I have no idea why so many suggest that the overclock doesn't matter as long as your temps are ok because that is not true at all and is potentially very dangerous advice for some one who may be new to overclocking or the forum in general. Very sensible advice from DarkSilver regarding the memory clock. They pretty much covered what you need to be careful about.

 

I think you've just contradicted yourself.

First you say that it's not just about temps, but then you say DarkSilver is right when all he said was that the mem doesn't have a temp sensor, so now we are back to the heat issue...

 

There are no hard set limits for a safe overclock since every card is different. Just go up slowly, keep testing it thoroughly for artifacts, and monitor temps.

 

well if i were you id ask someone with your notebook model for the safest, stablest overclock.
that could be your baseline and start maybe 10-20mhz below tgis baseline for core/shader/memory just to be sure.
do some stress tests and if they are ok at these settings worj your way slowly up by 10mhz.
there is usually a max memory o/c that people are comfortable with. find out what that value is for your nb model and dont go past it, unless your comfy with o/c and its possible consequences.

 

As stated before, GPU memory overclocking should be treated very carefully, if one overclocks at all due to the lack of a thermistor to measure its temps.

 

For some one new to overclocking, the temps they will look at are those that have a sensor that can be seen by various software.

If they don't realise that the memory has no temp sensors then they could cause damage. So unless you are specific about being careful of that then it can be misleading. This is why what Darksilver said was so important.

So it is not just about temps, it is also about what components can be easily monitored and what method to use to do so.

 

The thing is though that the memory will cause artifacting and eventually crash the 3D program before it can get hot enough to do any damage.

 

10% is a safe clock since it is a rule of thumb for engineers to have a 10% margin of error (thus GPU´s may follow the same rule and the clocks are 10% lower). Also remember that in the long run heavy overclocking can damage your graphics card due to excess heat (the v-RAM has no temperature sensor).

 

I plan to pump my Memory Clock from 400Mhz to 500Mhz and Core Clock from 475Mhz to 650Mhz(I saw a lot users here can do it). However, it seems the GPU won't take it. Sad for my Geforce 9500M GS(it's not a gem even it's temperature is very low). I think I will try and test again next time. Hope I can success with it.

Another KEY of OCing is BRAVERY. You don't have BRAVERY means you don't OC. OC carries risks as always.
OC will shorten the Hardware lifespan. However, GPU can last many years(until you want to throw it away). So, you can shorten their life recklessly.
As for the CPU, it can last 10-20years(overly long) normally. OCing(for better performance) and shorten it's lifespan is a WISE choice because it can last too long.

 

So I did a 15% overclock on both the clock and shader, I left memory alone,...temps went up 1 degree after a 1hr MW2 gaming session.

Scared...the last notebook I had, had the dreaded nVidia soldering problem, and I killed it with overclocking LOL