thoughts about overclocking the videocard.

[faye]

Hi,

Just had a dead videocard.. mod from R9800 pro to R9800xt..
max i got 10fps.

But actually i didn't see much of a difference during the games...
Sometimes I push the card really/too hard to get 5 to 10 fps boost, however, I didn't see much during games... but the card is already at its max. shortening the lifespan..

may be people should just get a mid to high end card and leave it as is.. and no reason to OC a low end card to reach a higher level because it will never hit the way a high end card will perform.

 

[Amplifier]

Overclocking is just a fun thing I do on the side, I'm not sure if I ever noticed a difference in a game.

 

[faye]

oh, i thought i am the only one seeing this..

ya, overclocking is fun..
Overclocking a CPU will give you bigger visual difference than videocard... i think..

 

[ScrewFace]

Originally posted by: faye
oh, i thought i am the only one seeing this..

ya, overclocking is fun..
Overclocking a CPU will give you bigger visual difference than videocard... i think..

I'm afraid you're wrong. The CPU has nothing to do with IQ. It's all up to your GPU.

 

[imported_DaveA]

only overclock you video card if you have the money to replace it.

 

[faye]

Originally posted by: ScrewFace

Originally posted by: faye
oh, i thought i am the only one seeing this..

ya, overclocking is fun..
Overclocking a CPU will give you bigger visual difference than videocard... i think..

I'm afraid you're wrong. The CPU has nothing to do with IQ. It's all up to your GPU.

I mean you can see the notice more clearly

 

[Munky]

Well, I think if the cooling is adequate, then it's ok to OC the card as long as it's not getting artifacts. I slapped a zalman vf700cu on my 9800p, and I oc'd the core to 450, stock is 380. It gets artifacts when you go to like 460, and I also had to bump up the agp voltage to 1.6 to keep it "stable" at 450. Anyway, if it blows up, I have money to replace it, but I like the way this card runs my games, and we'll see how long it lasts. If it burns out, I'll be sure to post about it.

 

[49erinnc]

I overclock everything that is capable of being overclocked. Never had a problem other than occasionally reaching a limitation but then just backing off to a safer number. As long as you're careful and have proper cooling, OC'ing shouldn't be a problem other than maybe decreasing the life of the hardware. But I've yet to have any hardware go bad on me as a result of OC'ing by the time I'm ready to upgrade to something better/faster.

But I agree that you're probably going to notice the improvement more in CPU overclocking than with your vid card.

 

[JBT]

Overclocking my Old 6800GT to Ultra OC speeds was pretty noticible for me. It wasn't that the card got much highier fram rate and even the average wasn't that different. The thing I noticed the most were my low FPS. They did go up about 5-10 in some instances and that is noticible if your floating around in the 30's then being in the 40's instead.

 

[islandtechengineers]

Originally posted by: DaveA
only overclock you video card if you have the money to replace it.

and / or if you have the spare parts laying around! :thumbsup:

 

[PrayForDeath]

Overclocking does increase your gaming performance, even if you can't see it in numbers. JBT's experience is a great example. But you have to keep in mind that overclocking won't do you any good if you have a bottleneck in your system other than the video card. I mean if you have a CPU bottleneck, even if you buy a 600$ video card you won't game any faster. Same goes for RAM. So you should check those before overclocking and make sure that your video card is the part that's causing slowdown.

 

[Minotar]

I consider myself an amateur overclocker, yet I have overclocked almost every video card I ever owned, and never had a problem with breaking them. In addition, I will say that OCing IS worth the effort. 10fps more may seem like nothing, but if your minimum frames is 10fps more, then the difference is VERY noticeable. For instance if your average framerate in a game is 35fps and the low was 20, high 50... then you OCed... Even if you only got your minimum frames up to 30, there is a HUGE difference between 20 and 30fps!!!!! So, when you see your bench results, always look at the whole picture, not just the average fps! The lowest frames you get are times when your video card are under the most stress. In many cases, OCing can mean the difference between chop-city and just a slight slow down. It makes a big difference for sure!

 

[MegaWorks]

I don't know why but I find that overclocking a video card to be pointless.

EDIT: I really don't know why I said that.

 

[PrayForDeath]

Originally posted by: Minotar
I consider myself an amateur overclocker, yet I have overclocked almost every video card I ever owned, and never had a problem with breaking them. In addition, I will say that OCing IS worth the effort. 10fps more may seem like nothing, but if your minimum frames is 10fps more, then the difference is VERY noticeable. For instance if your average framerate in a game is 35fps and the low was 20, high 50... then you OCed... Even if you only got your minimum frames up to 30, there is a HUGE difference between 20 and 30fps!!!!! So, when you see your bench results, always look at the whole picture, not just the average fps! The lowest frames you get are times when your video card are under the most stress. In many cases, OCing can mean the difference between chop-city and just a slight slow down. It makes a big difference for sure!

Not just that, but the lowest fps are the noticable fps. You don't notice the average or the high as much as the low. For instance, you can have two setups running Doom 3 at 60FPS. One ranging from 50-70, and one ranging from 20-100. Which one would you rather get?