2013/11/01 01:15:41
loveordie
Hey guys i never really got into overclocking GPUs but I'm looking to push my card so i can get a solid 60+ FPS in BF4 on Max with my current rig, Any recommend overclocking settings i should be able to push to? thanks
2013/11/09 17:13:27
wastedyeti
I'd like to know too. I'd like to know what the relation between the gpu and memory overclock is as well. How do you decide what one to keep pushing? Is there a certain ratio you should keep?
 
Also to the OP: have you seen this thread?
http://forums.evga.com/tm.aspx?m=1975128
2013/11/09 18:36:13
trabe3
First thing to do would be to download and install Precision X software here on the EVGA website. Then download benchmark programs such as 3DMark or Unigine Valley or Heaven.

Once you have done that, open Precision X, then run those benchmarks. Record what your core clock boosts to. This will be your stock core boost. Your memory should be running at stocks settings. Note, that the value reported for memory clock is 1/2 since memory is DDR which is double data rate.

Now the overclocking fun begins. I would suggest setting a custom fan curve to help keep the temps down. The stock curve favors lower sound versus temps, so making a more aggressive curve will definitely help. Start with bumping the offset of the core by +20. I would also increase the power target to max as well as the temp target. After increasing the offset, run the benchmarks again, looking for artifacts or any other issues. If things go fine, go back to a Precision X and bump up the offset another +20 and run the benchmarks again. Keep repeating this process until you get a crash, which will be a black screen and warning will pop up saying nVidia drive recovered or something like that. This means the overclock is too much. Back the offset down a small amount and run the benchmarks again to see if it is stable. If it is, that is your max overclock offset.

The process for the memory is essentially the same. Don't do both at the same time though. Do core offset first then memory. You can apply a small overvolt of +38mV as well in Precision X to give a slightly higher overclock. One thing to note, sometimes certain games are more sensitive to overclocks so just because it worked perfectly fine in the benchmarks, it might be too much in game. If that happens just lower the offset slightly.

Hope this helped. Shoot me an PMs or post in this thread and would be happy to help. Good luck!
2013/11/09 18:59:40
trabe3
Just as a frame of reference my plain reference 780 was able to get +160 on the core and +200 on memory. This gives me 1201MZhz on the core and 6400MHz (3200*2) on memory. I had it up to 1254MHz on core but it wasn't 100% stable so had to back it down.
2013/11/10 07:23:00
EtonieE
Hi guys.
 
Never OC`d b4 n just wanna run these figures past u.
I`ve altered the card 2the following n want ur feedback as to these being ok and still within the warranty of the card. Is this small increase enough or would u push it more? It seems slightly smoother wiv this new setting and I`ve maxed out everything in the Nvidia set up menue. Any other suggestions please?
 
 
780 SC ACX with adjusted setting to........
Power Target 102%
GPU Clock Offset +50MHz
Memory Clock Offset +100MHz
 
GPU clock is now reading 1162MHz
Voltage clock is now reading 1161 Mv
 
Runs stable under load @ 53 deg c without k-boost and 62 deg c with it switched on
Idle @ 27 deg c without k-boost and a jumps to a whopping 43 deg c with it on
Can any of u tell me is this k-boost thingie worth switching on coz I`ve now had to increase my case fans upto 2000rpm to take out the heat n so it`s now noisy. So am I gaining anything from k-boost coz I`d rather it run cooler? 
 
So are these settings ok?? Please comment......
 
Thanks guys and I think this is a great site coz reading some of the other comments here there r other folk out there who r also also totally blind 2doing this type of thing........
 
2013/11/11 03:52:33
arbiter
If you back down AA to like 2x instead of 4x you should get 60+ most the game cept random times or even turn AA off completely. For me when you are playing online for example game is so fast paced you won't notice the edges being jagged. Truthfully i use high preset in the game instead of ultra.
 
my gtx780 acx
i have +50mhz gpu, +250 ram. atm havn't tried to push it anymore then that. it will top out 1175mhz with boost. With that said every gpu is different some overclock better then others, its kinda all about luck of the draw.
2013/11/11 07:26:31
magnusson
trabe3
First thing to do would be to download and install Precision X software here on the EVGA website. Then download benchmark programs such as 3DMark or Unigine Valley or Heaven.

Once you have done that, open Precision X, then run those benchmarks. Record what your core clock boosts to. This will be your stock core boost. Your memory should be running at stocks settings. Note, that the value reported for memory clock is 1/2 since memory is DDR which is double data rate.

Now the overclocking fun begins. I would suggest setting a custom fan curve to help keep the temps down. The stock curve favors lower sound versus temps, so making a more aggressive curve will definitely help. Start with bumping the offset of the core by +20. I would also increase the power target to max as well as the temp target. After increasing the offset, run the benchmarks again, looking for artifacts or any other issues. If things go fine, go back to a Precision X and bump up the offset another +20 and run the benchmarks again. Keep repeating this process until you get a crash, which will be a black screen and warning will pop up saying nVidia drive recovered or something like that. This means the overclock is too much. Back the offset down a small amount and run the benchmarks again to see if it is stable. If it is, that is your max overclock offset.

The process for the memory is essentially the same. Don't do both at the same time though. Do core offset first then memory. You can apply a small overvolt of +38mV as well in Precision X to give a slightly higher overclock. One thing to note, sometimes certain games are more sensitive to overclocks so just because it worked perfectly fine in the benchmarks, it might be too much in game. If that happens just lower the offset slightly.

Hope this helped. Shoot me an PMs or post in this thread and would be happy to help. Good luck!



Hi trabe3,
 
Some followup questions if you don't mind. I've been reading about overclocking and your description of the process matches what I've come across elsewhere. I just got a GTX 780 SC w/ ATX. I have an i5 3450, a 600W 80Plus Corsair PSU, 8 GB RAM, and a Fractal Core1000 microATX case.
 
My case is small and is definitely not an ideal cooling situation. It only came with one 120mm case fan, but it has mounts for another 120mm and 92mm fan, so I've ordered both of those and they should arrive tomorrow, which I hope will help. But I was playing around with OCing in the meantime, and getting crashes running the Heaven benchmark at much lower overclocks than what other people have described -- e.g. +50 MHz core and +60 MHz memory with +38mV. I set up a custom fan profile, but this still had the GPU hitting 80 degrees under load -- is it just crashing because of temp?
 
Also, what's the purpose of increasing the voltage to +38, which everyone seems to do? And lastly, it seems that when I was getting crashed in the benchmark I would always get a notification that the display driver had crashed. Then last night I was playing a game and the game crashed but I didn't get a display driver notification. Does that mean it was just a game crash, and not related to my card? Or could it have been my card that crashed and it just didn't give me the message?
 
And one last thing -- how do the memory clock numbers work? I understand that the memory is DDR, but my memory clock says 1502 MHz, and people are talking about mem clocks being 6000-7000, not 3000-4000, so where is that coming from?
2013/11/11 10:49:33
trabe3
Higher temps can hurt the stability, but I would think 80C, while quite high, wouldn't be high enough to affect the stability greatly.  Keep in mind, every card is different and will behave different during overclocking.  It could be just that your card isn't one of the best overclockers.  However, even the most horrible cards I would think would get more offset than you were able to get. 
 
Another thing to keep in mind, is that your power supply is most likely getting near its capacity.  Depending on your system draw, I could easily think you are pushing close to 500W which is over 80% of your rated usage.  This is getting outside the peak efficiency band of the power supply, which is typically in the middle of its rating, say between 40-70%, of course it varies between brands and quality of power supply.  Also, if you power supply is older, they tend to degrade and lose efficiency with age.  Unstable or inconsistent voltage supplied to your GPU would be more of a concern regarding stability.
 
The purpose of applying the additional +38mV is to help with the ability to overclock and remain stable.  As one pushes the clocks higher and higher, it requires more and more power to remain stable.  This additional overvolt feeds this need for more power.  With a custom BIOS, such as with Classified cards and the like, more voltage can be set, but with the standard BIOS we can only apply +38mV, which usually equates to 1.2V as that is the max voltage limit set by Nvidia.
 
I have had crashes too without getting the notification, so I don't know if it was there but it disappeared before I could see it, or it was due to other reasons.  I highly suspect that 99% of the crashes we experience when we have overclocked cards are due to the driver crashing.
 
Lastly, regarding the memory clock reading, is the 1502Mhz reading at idle or during load?  I assume you are seeing the value in Precision X?  If that value is at idle, check what it reads during load.  It should jump up to 3000 for our 780s as standard.
 
Hope I answered all your questions, but feel free to shoot me a PM or here and would be happy to help out more.
2013/11/11 11:02:56
magnusson
Thanks for the reply. I realize that cards vary in overclockability and I've seen a range of overclocks for 780s, but as you said they generally seem to be somewhat higher than what I was able to achieve, which makes me wonder if something isn't wrong.
 
My PSU is 1 year old. FWIW my CPU isn't OCed. Is there a way for me to verify whether the PSU is causing the issue?
 
Regarding the voltage, am I understanding correctly then that it's a good idea in my case to use the +38mV while trying to OC, since I'm running into issues with stability, and increasing voltage helps with stability?
 
As for the memory clock, I got 1502 MHz from GPU-Z. Come to think of it though I was seeing ~3000 on the PrecisionX graph during benchmarking, so that makes sense.
 
At this point I'm thinking I'm going to install the 2 additional case fans when they arrive tomorrow and then reattempt the OCing process from the beginning. Is there anything else I should try?
2013/11/12 16:58:30
magnusson
Update: I installed the 2 new case fans and they've made a big difference in temperature. I'm now reaching no more than 64 degrees under load.
 
I tried OCing again I've been able to reach a GPU clock offset of +90 with +25mV for a GPU clock of 1188 MHz. When I use +38mV it tends to be unstable, and whenever it recovers from a crash PrecisionX resets the voltage back to +0, leading me to believe there's an issue with the power draw.
 
However, as soon as I touch the mem clock offset at all, it starts crashing right away. Any ideas what could be going on?

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