I am a complete noob when it comes to overclocking (concerning the 485m)

Even though i'm pretty pc literate, i don't know anything about overclocking, my first pc was a Voodoo Banshee gpu (GL TEXTURE FILTERING BABY!! >__>), second pc that i am still using as of now is a crappy integrated gpu (Radeon Xpress 200) desktop.

Now that i'm getting the Sager NP8170 with GTX 485m, i am hearing that you can over clock it without raising the voltage? From what i know, increasing the voltage is what can potentially cause damage. So does that mean i can overclock the 485m without the need of special cooling?

Is there some sort of beginners guide to overclocking for a n00b such as myself? Will i run the risk of overheating my laptop in doing so?

 

You won't need to overclock for anything your playing, and any overclocking will decrease the lifespan of the GPU even if only slightly. The curve is pretty much every little bit you overclock decreases lifespan by a proportionally higher amount.

That said if you really want you you probably want to get used to the sound of the fans on max and if your OK with that, these cards come with enough thermal overhead that you can probably overclock a significant amount.

 

Like Windkull said, there's no need to overclock. But if you do want to there are a couple of user friendly programs out there. I'd suggest MSI Afterburner.

Here's a simple explaination:
You'll have 3 variables; core, shader, memory. Adjusting these three values will net you results (higher = faster + higher temps / lower = slower + lower temps). Increase these values by an incremental amount, not STRAIGHT up.

Find a game to test your settings on (I used Lost Planet 2). So in test B of LP2, the lizard monster comes out of the water. You'll know when to stop incrementing values when the screen goes haywire, artifacting appears and colours run out. For my case, I stopped once the lizard monster looks awful. Once you get your stable areas, check your temps after a session of gaming or testing and try the settings with different situations / games. Be sure to default clock it when you're idle / not doing anything other than gaming/benchmarking.

Correct me if I'm wrong haha.

 

Anyone wanna post some stable 485M clocks they've been using?

Is MSI's Afterburner good for OC'ing?

 

Hmm yea i definitely won't be overclocking anytime soon, maybe in a few years when i need more power. But if it lowers the life span of the gpu no matter what, i prolly won't bother.

Now say i lowered the clock speed, say...when i'm not playing games...would that increase battery life at all?

 

Well, the only thing that decreases lifespan is heat right? So technically even if you had some incredible overclock, but the temps stayed the same, then the life span would be the same right? I understand what your saying, but depending on how well the system is cooled, there can be a balance between overclocking and lifespan right?

Say my current system. Granted someone else will overclock it for me, I'm not planning to use those overclocks all the time, especially for the games I play now, but even if I did find a game when I needed the overclock fairly often, would that so drastically effect me that this laptop might not last the 4 years I want it to? even if the temps stayed pretty reasonable. The computer I have now and it gets way hotter then the temps I've seen on even overclocked 460m in the 100C range at sometime, and its lasted 2-3 years now, which no discernible signs of wear so far.

 

I'd probably sooner lower my resolution to get a performance boost than overclock...say Battlefield 3 comes out and lags at 1080p, i'd just play it at 720p, same with any other new games that come out...once i have to go below 720p for playable framerates, then i'll think about upgrading.

 

I don't think you should underestimate the 485m . It is actually a very good card; even without overclocking. Currently, I'm playing Crysis 2 on Extreme without a hitch on Multiplayer. FPS sits an average of 30-50FPS.

 

I've been overclocking every CPU, GPU, and RAM unit I possibly can for the last 10 years and have never had a part fail due to overclocking. I think the notion that you are decreasing the life of the part is silly, considering most of the time you would upgrade it well before the extra wear and tear would manifest itself into a problem.

I will be overclocking my 6970m from day 1 likely.

 

"and any overclocking will decrease the lifespan of the GPU even if only slightly"
now gpu refresh so quick, if no oc 10 years will die<<>>oc 5 years will die
you may already change brand new platform before it die.......lol

 

You're correct in your recent thoughts, no reason to overclock with your current rig. You might want to re-look into overclocking a couple of years from now when newerish games come out, but you should be able to run everything now pretty easily. For christ sakes you payed 500 bucks for that ability

 

True enough I haven't really OCed anything in years because 2 years in when it feels slow I start wanting to upgrade it all not just one component...

 

Yeah exactly.. In this laptop i'd probably just upgrade the gpu and CPU to ivy bridge since I'll have that option.. Then it depends on how the GPU's go. Once they switch to another slot type, I'll upgrade.

So basically I'll keep this thing as long as I can until I get tired of looking at it or it can't meet the needs of games through upgrade

 

Just download Nvidia System Tools. It adds the overclocking software to the Nvidia Control Panel.

 

If i downclocked the gpu would that increase the battery life?

 

Oops i forgot, running off the battery automatically downclocks the gpu.

 

Downclocking it further will get you more battery... however it might also give you BSOD...