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Beginners Guide: Overclocking the Nvidia Videocard
How Overclocking a Videocard Works
Videocards have three main parameters that affect their performance, the GPU core speed, video memory speed and the bandwidth of the interface between the videocard and the rest of the system (ie. AGP or PCI Express x16). There's not much that can be done about the video interface, but the core and memory speeds can both be changed, just like a computer's processor and main memory.
The videocards graphics core (or GPU) handles the actual rendering of each 3D video frame. Overclocking it obviously helps the videocard push out polygons faster, increasing overall 3D performance.
The video memory acts to the GPU as the computer's main memory does to the processor, storing video data and feeding it to the core as needed. The faster the memory goes, the less waiting around the GPU has to do, so overclocking the VRAM also has a major effect on 3D performance.
As you might have guessed though, the most dramatic gains realized when overclocking come from pushing the core and memory together, since both facets compliment each other's performance as their speed increases.
Can Overclocking Damage a Video Card?
Yes it can, but the user would have to try really HARD to do some damage, and even then it would be unlikely... but not impossible. The only way to damage a modern video card through overclocking is to set the core and memory speeds WAY higher than stock and then attempt to run benchmarks. Since most recent cards from nVidia and ATI use thermal throttling to protect the GPU from damage, even this is unlikely to hurt a newer card. If the guidelines in this guide are followed, there's no need to worry about damaging hardware.
Updating Videocard Drivers
The first thing to do before overclocking a videocard is to acquire the most recent driver set for it. NVidia's ForceWare driver sets are universal, meaning they cover most of thel recent videocards made by their respective companies. All that needs to be done is to visit the website of the card's manufacturer and download the latest version of the drivers, then install them.
You can get all the Forcware drivers here!
And for modified drivers you can grab them here!
You ask what are the modified drivers?
Modified drivers simply means that the author takes official or beta drivers from the manufacturer and starts to tweak them for either better image quality and or performance. Please bare in mind that the driver manufacturer, in this case NVIDIA, does not support drivers like these.
Benchmarking and Overclocking
To get the best out of your nVidia videocard in terms of overclocking, a consistently repeatable 3D benchmark like FutureMark's 3DMark 2001SE or 3DMark05 is needed to test the new settings each time core or memory speeds change.
Since most modern videocards run at slower speeds when rendering a 2D image such as the Windows desktop, the fact that a card can render the desktop correctly when overclocked is not a real test of its stability. To truly test an overclocked card's stability, a full-screen 3D benchmark needs to be run completely and without error.
Install 3DMark and run the (non-overclocked) system through a round of the benchmark with everything at its default setting. Record the final score. This is the baseline for comparing the video card's performance before and after overclocking.
Nvidia Overclocking
There are a couple of ways to go about overclocking an nVidia-based videocard. The most basic is to use the 'Coolbits' registry tweak built into nVidia's video drivers. Essentially, the Coolbits tweak involves adding a single value to the Windows registry which then enables core and memory overclocking within the display control panel.
You can get the latest version of Coolbits here!
To enable Coolbits you will need to add them to your registry. To do that folow these steps. First download the file and then open it up.
How Overclocking a Videocard Works
Videocards have three main parameters that affect their performance, the GPU core speed, video memory speed and the bandwidth of the interface between the videocard and the rest of the system (ie. AGP or PCI Express x16). There's not much that can be done about the video interface, but the core and memory speeds can both be changed, just like a computer's processor and main memory.
The videocards graphics core (or GPU) handles the actual rendering of each 3D video frame. Overclocking it obviously helps the videocard push out polygons faster, increasing overall 3D performance.
The video memory acts to the GPU as the computer's main memory does to the processor, storing video data and feeding it to the core as needed. The faster the memory goes, the less waiting around the GPU has to do, so overclocking the VRAM also has a major effect on 3D performance.
As you might have guessed though, the most dramatic gains realized when overclocking come from pushing the core and memory together, since both facets compliment each other's performance as their speed increases.
Can Overclocking Damage a Video Card?
Yes it can, but the user would have to try really HARD to do some damage, and even then it would be unlikely... but not impossible. The only way to damage a modern video card through overclocking is to set the core and memory speeds WAY higher than stock and then attempt to run benchmarks. Since most recent cards from nVidia and ATI use thermal throttling to protect the GPU from damage, even this is unlikely to hurt a newer card. If the guidelines in this guide are followed, there's no need to worry about damaging hardware.
Updating Videocard Drivers
The first thing to do before overclocking a videocard is to acquire the most recent driver set for it. NVidia's ForceWare driver sets are universal, meaning they cover most of thel recent videocards made by their respective companies. All that needs to be done is to visit the website of the card's manufacturer and download the latest version of the drivers, then install them.
You can get all the Forcware drivers here!
And for modified drivers you can grab them here!
You ask what are the modified drivers?
Modified drivers simply means that the author takes official or beta drivers from the manufacturer and starts to tweak them for either better image quality and or performance. Please bare in mind that the driver manufacturer, in this case NVIDIA, does not support drivers like these.
Benchmarking and Overclocking
To get the best out of your nVidia videocard in terms of overclocking, a consistently repeatable 3D benchmark like FutureMark's 3DMark 2001SE or 3DMark05 is needed to test the new settings each time core or memory speeds change.
Since most modern videocards run at slower speeds when rendering a 2D image such as the Windows desktop, the fact that a card can render the desktop correctly when overclocked is not a real test of its stability. To truly test an overclocked card's stability, a full-screen 3D benchmark needs to be run completely and without error.
Install 3DMark and run the (non-overclocked) system through a round of the benchmark with everything at its default setting. Record the final score. This is the baseline for comparing the video card's performance before and after overclocking.
Nvidia Overclocking
There are a couple of ways to go about overclocking an nVidia-based videocard. The most basic is to use the 'Coolbits' registry tweak built into nVidia's video drivers. Essentially, the Coolbits tweak involves adding a single value to the Windows registry which then enables core and memory overclocking within the display control panel.
You can get the latest version of Coolbits here!
To enable Coolbits you will need to add them to your registry. To do that folow these steps. First download the file and then open it up.
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