So, as a Canadian, video card prices are sort of insane right now - most 980 Tis sell for like $850, etc. I'd like to squeeze some more life out of my 3.5 year old cards...
I currently have a 2-way GTX 680 2GB setup. Both are reference cards running at stock clock speeds - 1006 MHz core, 1059 MHz boost, 1502 MHz memory. One of them is an EVGA and it lists BIOS version 80.04.09.00.90 (EVGA - 3842), while the other is a Sparkle and says BIOS 80.04.28.00.01 (NVIDIA -10DE).
I haven't the slightest idea where to start on overclocking these things. I think I need a tool called Afterburner and I know the general idea of overclocking (my i7-2600k is running @ 4.6 GHz turbo with almost no voltage boost), but how does SLI play into everything?
Is there any point in trying to do BIOS updates/mods or is that just a recipe for disaster? (I found a newer version of an EVGA reference card BIOS on TechPowerUp's GPU BIOS database, all the clocks are the same.) Should I just throw the software tools at it and see what I can get? Do the cards have to match clock speeds in SLI?
I'm hoping for a reliable performance boost here, not strangling the life out of them, fwiw.
System:
Asus P8Z68-V Pro, Core i7-2600k @4.6 GHz (+.005V)
16 GB RAM (4x4 GB)
Samsung 850 Pro SSD, 512 GB
750 watt Corsair HX power supply
Windows 10
I currently have a 2-way GTX 680 2GB setup. Both are reference cards running at stock clock speeds - 1006 MHz core, 1059 MHz boost, 1502 MHz memory. One of them is an EVGA and it lists BIOS version 80.04.09.00.90 (EVGA - 3842), while the other is a Sparkle and says BIOS 80.04.28.00.01 (NVIDIA -10DE).
I haven't the slightest idea where to start on overclocking these things. I think I need a tool called Afterburner and I know the general idea of overclocking (my i7-2600k is running @ 4.6 GHz turbo with almost no voltage boost), but how does SLI play into everything?
Is there any point in trying to do BIOS updates/mods or is that just a recipe for disaster? (I found a newer version of an EVGA reference card BIOS on TechPowerUp's GPU BIOS database, all the clocks are the same.) Should I just throw the software tools at it and see what I can get? Do the cards have to match clock speeds in SLI?
I'm hoping for a reliable performance boost here, not strangling the life out of them, fwiw.
System:
Asus P8Z68-V Pro, Core i7-2600k @4.6 GHz (+.005V)
16 GB RAM (4x4 GB)
Samsung 850 Pro SSD, 512 GB
750 watt Corsair HX power supply
Windows 10
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