How safe is overclocking on notebook?

Hi,

i am not familiar with overclocking on notebooks.

On my desktop i done it and i also added few more funs and everything is ok. But on notebook u cant just add extra fan.

So how safe is to overclock my graphic/cpu on notebook?

 

Hi stitch,

I did quite a lot of articles on it, and I can say that if you know what are you doing - you can safely overclock CPU/GPU and get from 5 to 25% gaming performance increase at even lower temperatures than on default. In my case it is from 2170 to 3195 3dmark05. (synthetic bench) FEAR goes up by 10 fps on 800x600 and all settings on max.

GPU is easier to overclock and it is the fastest way to get more fps. CPU is much harder - all of the tools are in fact FSB overclock tools that raise the FSB speed by 5-15% giving you higher end CPU freqs. ClockGen is one of them. The problem is finding the right one that works with your platform. I successfully did it on Asus M6N (1,6 GHz Banias was faster than 2,0 GHz at the time), and I know people are overclocking Acers, but I haven't found any for my current comp. On the other hand My BIOS has OC ability and I can overclock for 5%, and temp is not a issue at all.

I also covered heat and instability - and found that undervolting can help a lot in getting much cooler gaming temps - in my case from 76 or 80 down to 67. Ati x700 doesn't show almost any heat increase while OC'd and undervolted CPU at 5% overclock is cooler than on default speed and voltage. The new Ati tray tools will have volting ability for ati x1xxx series.

Undervolting of Pentium M can be done in Notebook Hardware Control. (along other things) so NHC is probably the best software for Pentium M/Ati platform.

Overclocking ATi for me is best in Ati tray tools - because you can play with latencies and get even better results, than normal OC.

Check my sig, and if you have any questions I'll be glad to help if I can.

Some links:
http://www.thegamebooks.com/how-overclocking-your-gpu-heats-up-your-notebook-t15.html
http://www.thegamebooks.com/the-true-performance-gain-overclockers-get!-t18.html


Cheers,

Ivan

 

At least one person on this forum has recorded being unable to overclock his GPU at all without losing stability.

As for the "safely" part?
Well, it's *usually* safe, but there's no guarantee.
I doubt you'll actually damage your hardware, but if you're not careful, you might have a *really* difficult time resetting your GPU to its stock temp. If it gets too unstable, you won't be able to boot, meaning you won't be able to reset it.

 

I’ve run a mild GPU over clock for the last 5 months with no problems yet, knock on magnesium. The CPU is stock and I plan to keep it that, it's plenty fast enough for a notebook. And as Jalf pointed out, there are less success stories when cranking up the CPU.

In any case a good program to monitor your OC temperatures is your friend if your going to give it a go.

 

Hi Jalf,

I just wanted to compare "easyness" of overclocking GPU and CPU. I am aware some people cannot overclock anything (I cannot overclock my GMA900 on my notebook - luckily I have x700 in the same notebook too ). Good point.

Yes - autoloading of the OC values can make your life difficult - but Safe mode usually gets you out of it. I did OC many times (more than 100) on many notebooks. Resets are things to expect (ATT actually determines the max OC combo by overclocking up until it resets. ) System (ati restore) and OC app usually go back to the stock values in case of a problem, but as you said - you never know.

That is why people should read and learn BEFORE they start overclocking.

Cheers,

Ivan

 

thanks a lot guys

so nice respondes /CHEER

 

With proper cooling, it is relitively safe. Just make sure you do a stability test with Prime95 (balanced torture test for at least an hour) and you monitor temps With MobileMeter for a couple of days after you first raise the speed. Also, get RAM thats meant to run at speeds faster than your memory bus. So if your notebook takes DDR333 RAM, get DDR400.

I have Overclocked My CPU by 11% and have noticed a nice increase in performance when editing sound files and doing MP3 encoding which requires a lot of CPU work. With a Bytecc cooling pad, my CPU idles at 34 degrees (c) and maxes out between 42 and 46 degrees. Here is the OC info:

CPU: 1.8 GHz (200 MHz x 9) >>> 2.0 GHz (222 MHz x 9)
FSB: 1600 MHz (800 MHz x 2) >>> 1780 MHz (889 MHz x 2)
RAM: 333 MHz (166 MHz x 2) >>> 370 MHz (184 MHz x 2)

These are approximate values.

MobileMeter: http://www.geocities.co.jp/SiliconValley-Oakland/8259
Prime95: http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft.htm