Overclock help

[iMpactX]

Greetings,

I have a Nvidia GTX660, and I want to overclock it with MSI afterburner. I'm sure many of you are familiar with it. I understand that to overclock I need to increase "Core Clock" and "Memory Clock" in MSI, and I did. My question is, how far is it safe to raise these values? I raised both around +500, and even more, to play far cry 3, and the hottest my GPU got was 80C, which I understand is hot but under that load I feel it is acceptable. Thoughts? Should I stay away from pushing those clock speeds that high? Sorry if I left out any valuable information, thanks for your help.

 

[Butterz]

I use oc guru I would not mess around with memory clock speeds you only really touch gpu clock (core).
To know if it is stabile run a stress test on it like: CineBench, 3D Mark, FurMark, many others. always run a test after a change once you are done that happy gaming.
oh and I wouldn't mess with voltage.

GTX 660 Max Temp: 97C / Safe Temp: 75-80C
GPU Spec Sheet Click Here

 

[iMpactX]

Ok, this has helped a lot. Besides temperature of my card, are there any other dangers? Am I safe to overclock as high as I want as long as temps don't get too high? Or are there other dangers to OC that I don't know of? Thanks again.

 

[FinePrint]

Ok, this has helped a lot. Besides temperature of my card, are there any other dangers? Am I safe to overclock as high as I want as long as temps don't get too high? Or are there other dangers to OC that I don't know of? Thanks again.

yes the voltage. just because your temps are fine doesnt mean your card is safe to keep push it even furthur. That being said, every GPU and CPU are different, unique, your friend may have a 660 but not able to overclock as much as you. Basically you slowly overclock the core and memory speeds until your card starts to show visual errors. then you back it up a little, test again and so forth until you find a comfortable "overclock". Same goes for your voltage. increasing and decreasing the voltage can be done to supply more power. but usually more power will cause heat. I wouldnt suggest fiddling with the voltage unless you have researched some more about overlocking. So be cautious and as long as you dont keep it at a clock or voltage that keeps causing visual errors or too much heat, then you should be safe. Good luck!

 

[Butterz]

I think you should watch some youtube video's before you mess with things!!

 

[iMpactX]

I think you should watch some youtube video's before you mess with things!!

I have looked at a lot of videos, but those in the videos never overclock to +500 or more, which I have without a problem, I just wanted to know the risks of consistently doing so.

 

[kYuKi]

The obvious risk is frying your entire computer. 80C's is near the end point for me I would say, as I've DL'd Core Temp to see what my max is before it shuts down automatically to prevent damage.

If you can, buy a cheap internal fan and test it out, if not, try (yes) duck taping an external in there to help air flow. You want to try and keep it below 190F (90c's), more preferably 85C's.

If either of those don't work out on keeping the temp lower, don't try pushing it anymore. If you're not gaming on games like FC3 (which you said you needed it for) set it back down to default. If I'm correct (excuse me as I haven't messed with overclocking at all much, but have read up on it) there are different profiles you can select for clocking (under/over clocking).

PS: Once you overclock, any warranties will be void. The increase clocking on volt, etc, anything, can make your computer die sooner than expected. If you have had the GC or computer for more than 4 years, you may run into problems later down the road.

BTW, please post specs? Like:
Default clocking of the card.
How fast is your processor, dual, quad, etc?

Have you seen people with the same/sort of the same setup overclock the same card and computer?

 

[iMpactX]

I have an intel i5-4430 CPU @3.00GHz
8gigs of ram

Pretty positive its quad core. I've lowered the OC down signifcantly and have noticed zero decrease in performance, but while I run on average 50-65 fps, I still see what looks like a weird stutter, but not super noticeable. I think it has something to do with the game, because I ran BF4 on 60fps and it ran like butter. Thank you all for the advice, I'll be extra careful with my card, thats why I asked!

 

[Cloakedsphere]

Dont be afraid of frying your computer from over clocking a graphics card. There practically is no risk to doing so. You keep over clocking till you start seeing visual errors when running tests. (MSI afterburner installs another program that you can run the test with. I forgot the name of the program.) By visual errors you just look out for weird shapes, lines, cracking, breaking, and just areas that dont look normal to the surrounding image. If you end up over clocking past the visual error point to the point where you cant even fix it - Just shut your PC off and turn it back on. It will restore it to original clock speeds and you can try again.

The biggest risk to take when overclocking something would be the CPU. Those are damaged quite easily and cannot just be repaired by turning your PC off then back on.

 

[pillar]

Hey iMpactX, I hope you dont mind me adding an additional question about overclocking as well. I am planning on getting an i5-3570k. I currently have 2x4gb ddr3 1600 memory. My question is do I need to get 1866 memory in order to properly overclock my future i5 cpu? Ive only overclocked my previous cpu (core2duo), so im sure that the overclocking method is different seeing as how the bios is a different setup.

Any ideas/recommendations?

 

[Butterz]

Hey iMpactX, I hope you dont mind me adding an additional question about overclocking as well. I am planning on getting an i5-3570k. I currently have 2x4gb ddr3 1600 memory. My question is do I need to get 1866 memory in order to properly overclock my future i5 cpu? Ive only overclocked my previous cpu (core2duo), so im sure that the overclocking method is different seeing as how the bios is a different setup.

Any ideas/recommendations?

I would say yes only because the 1866 ram is rated for a higher speed so witch means data read speeds are greater. but 1600 is fine if you are fine with a lower data read speed I gave you this info already by the ram chart in your own post!!! you have to make the choice like I said before I wouldn't go with 1866 since its not that big of a jump up 2400 is way greater.

PS 1600 is base clock Ram vs 1866 Overclocked Ram (XMP Profiled)

that should help you make your choice.

 

[pillar]

Ok, so say that ill stay w/ my current 1600 ram. i5-3570k starts off at 3.4 Ghz. Using an aftermarket heatsink, what would you say the highest overclock that I can possibly get away with?

 

[Butterz]

I can't tell you that man every chip is different at what it can handle my i7 3770k can just make 4.9GHz at 100Mhz Bus speed.
what kind of cooler you thinking of going with a liquid cooler or air??
You should be able to hit 4.6ghz know problem with a liquid cooler (Corsair H100i or Corsair H105)
Air on the other hand it maybe are you reach I am not sure since I am a liquid cooler guy (Custom Loop)

Here is a very good link for you this will tell you everything you need to know about Overclocking.

Overclocking Guide Video:​

[ame]http://youtu.be/mBEeXajbG2o[/ame]

Here you will find the Overclocking guide: Click Here​

 

[Steve5451]

The advice I usually give with overclocking GPU's is to increase your core clock little by little, and once you reach the unstable point, lower it a bit and do the same with memory. Messing with these values aren't dangerous. The danger is in the voltage. Try not to touch that unless you really know what you're doing.