Written by Vasilis Zafiridis

Do you want to get the best return on your favorite games without having to spend money on a new graphics card? Then overclocking your graphics card can help you, but there are always some serious risks that may occur. Whenever you overclocking, you run the risk of harming the card. But if you do it with caution, patience and persistence you will be able to manage it safely without any problems. In this article I will show you, how you can overclock your card carefully. So we have:

First Part

Preparation

1. Update the video card drivers.

Before you start overclocking, you must make sure, that you are running the latest drivers for your graphics card. You can download the latest drivers from the site of Nvidia or AMD, depending on the manufacturer of the card you have. Having the latest drivers will ensure that your card works as stable as possible. Newer programs often increase of the overclocking performance .

2. Download some useful tools.

To overclock, you will need some programs, which are available for free. These programs contain performance indicators, which allow you to adjust the timing of your card, voltage and temperature.

• Download a reporting program. There are several available, but one of the best, in my opinion (as always), is Heaven. It is available for free from Unigine. Another quite popular program is 3DMark.

• Download an overclocking program. While Nvidia and AMD have their own overclocking programs, however, MSI Afterburner is one of the most popular and widely used programs. Despite the strange name, it will work with almost every graphics card.

• Download a monitoring program. Because overclocking will affect the temperature and  the speed of the card , it is helpful to have an extra screen to make sure that all the settings you do won't create any problems. GPU-Z is a light program that will monitor the temperature, clock speed, memory speed, and any other aspect of the graphics card.

3. Get inform about your card.

By overclocking without having previously be informed, it can cost you a lot of time and may cause you problems later. You should find the clock settings from the experience of other users with exactly the same card with you and have done tests. You should also find out which is the highest safe voltage for your card. Do not apply immediately these numbers on your card, but gradually. Each card is different, so you don't know what will happen if you enter wrong numbers. Instead, use them as a guide during overclocking and see the results. Indulge in various forums and find other overclockers who have the same card as you. GPU Overclocking on a laptop is not recommended. Laptops have very different heat diffusion time and overclocking and can quickly lead to dangerous temperatures.

Second Part

Benchmarking your card

1. Open the program.

You need to install it after downloading. Most users won't change the default settings during installation. Once your program is installed, open it to start the benchmarking process.

2. Customize the report settings.

Before you start benchmarking, you will be able to customize the graphics settings. Adjust as you want, and make sure that the resolution is set to "Desktop". If the registration program is not performing well with the settings you selected, you can change it later.

3. Click the "Run" button.

The reference program will start playing on your screen. If the performance is poor, you can lower your settings, but this is not necessary. During the overclocking process, you can improve the performance without having to adjust settings.

4. Click the "Benchmark" button.

Once the scenes start to play, you will see a row of buttons at the top of the screen. Click the "Benchmark" button to start the reporting process. Heaven  will run through 26 different stages, and will take several minutes to complete. After the process is complete, you will be given a score based on the performance of the graphics card.

5. Record your score.

Mark each time the score you get. This will help you to easily compare the results, such as whether you can increase the speed of your card.

Third Part

Raising the Core Clock Speed

1. Open the MSI Afterburner.

You will see a list of configuration options on the left side of the program and a hardware screen to the right. You also run GPU-Z to an additional monitor to verify the changes.

2. Find the ''Core Clock (MHz)" setting.

This setting controls the core speed of the graphics card clock. If your card is set to "Shader Clock", make sure it is connected with the "Core Clock" setting. You'll see a link icon between the two,  if they are linked.

3. Increase the Core Clock speed of about 10MHz.

When you make changes to your clock speed for the first time, it is always advisable to do with small values, such as 10MHz. This allows you to see improvements, without any problems.

4. Click the "Apply" button.

The changes will take effect immediately. Observe GPU-Z to verify that the new speed appears.

5. Run the reporting program.

Once you have made your first adjustment, it's time to re-run the reference program and see your new rating. When the reference program isrunning, notice if the picture's quality or frame rate (fps) is significantly improved from the first time. If the program runs without any problems, you can continue overclocking. 

6. Repeat the above procedure.

Continue increasing your speed by 10MHz at a time, checking the reference program results every time. Sooner or later, you will see some volatility as black screens, graphical glitches, bad colors, spots and more.

7. Decide how to proceed.

After showing an instability, you can either restore your settings to the last speed that your card works well or you can try to increase the voltage. If you have seen significant improvements or you don't  want to risk harming your card because of the increase of the current flow, then stop the overclocking here. But if you want to continue ( as I did ), leave the speed as it is and go to the next step.

Fourth Part

Raising the voltage of the core

1. Click the "Settings" button on the MSI Afterburner.

The core voltage is locked by default to prevent your card damage. Check the box "Unlock voltage control" in the "General" tab, and then click OK.

2. Increase the voltage.

Increase the voltage to select "Core Voltage (mV)" by about 10mV. You may be forced to choose just 10mV, if the options are specified at certain intervals. Then click the "Apply" button.

3. Run the benchmarking program.

As soon as you increase the voltage, run the benchmarking program to see if the overclock is stable. Also remember that you left your settings with a speed that was unstable, so if is stable now, after increasing the voltage, you can increase even further the speed of your clock .

4. Repeat the Third Part. 

If your overclock is stable at this stage, then raise the clock speed by 10MHz at a time, running benchmark every time. Repeat this process until the next instability.

5. Watch the temperature.

As the voltage increases, the GPU temperature will begin to rise. Observe the temperature in GPU- Z. It is recommended that the temperature is below 90 ° C (194 ° F). Cooling the card can help you increase the potential of overclocking, but it may be expensive and a time consuming process.

6. Increase again the voltage.

Once all is good by now, increase the core voltage 10mV again, run Benchmarks, and then repeat the process. Remember to monitor your temperature, as this is one of the most limiting factors in how far you can reach overclock. 

7. Do not exceed the safe pressure limit.

Make sure you do not exceed the safe pressure limit for your card when making your settings.

8. Know when to stop.

Overclocking will eventually stop being effective. You may have reached the temperature limit, the maximum voltage or the speed of your clock may simply not be constant regardless of how you increase the voltage. If so, then you can proceed to the next step.

9. Repeat the process by selecting "Memory Clock" (MHz) ".

When you've reached the limit of your Core Clock, then you should do the same with the memory clock. Repeat this process by raising the memory clock at 10MHz intervals, increasing the voltage when hit instabilities (if you have not reached the safe voltage threshold or temperature yet). Always be sure to run benchmarks after each setting. Raising the memory clock may lead you to increase, but after that it will  decrease the yield. Pay attention to the results of the benchmarks.

10. Overclock in SLI cards.

The overclocking process for SLI cards is pretty much the same as a single card. Each card should be overclocked separately. Follow these steps to overclock on each card.

Fifth Part

Stability testing

1. Start stress test.

If you want to perform a stress test make sure you won't use your computer for the next few hours. It is a time consuming process, but is necessary to evaluate the performance.

2. Click the "Run" button.

Instead of starting the "Benchmark" process, in Heaven click "Run" and let it do its job.

3. Watch for errors. 

During the test observe whether there are any malfunctions. If this happens then overclocking is unstable and you should go back to the settings. If the stress test hasn't any problem for 4-5 hours, then it is about time for videogames. 

So these are from me for now!!! Until next time... enjoy your gaming!!