increasing GTX260 overclock!!!

[xander89]

Hey guys as u can tell in my sig i have a gtx 260 pretty heavily overclocked. And well i wana see how much further i can push it. ( i dont know the exact settings that its at, i know the core is at 727 but the shader and memory clocks are a guess atm as i wont be able to get to my rig till tomorrow, ill update exact freq's when i get them)

But i cant seem to push my core clock any higher. The core and shader are unlinked but 727mhz seems like the top freq for the core. It seems unless i can increase my shader clock i cant push my core clock any higher even though they are unlinked. But if i increase my shader clock by just 1 mhz past what it is atm i get artifacts on ati tool straight away!:bang head

Would bumping up the voltage to the card somehow help?( although ive heard its a bit risky)

Also im still on the stock cooler but im still running at a cool 45 idle with it overclocked with the fan at about 80%

Any comments/ suggestions would be wikid :)

[pwnmachine]

Since you are on stock those are some mighty fine clocks. Have you adjusted any voltages?

I have the Hr-03 gtx and find it hard to crack 770/1260 without voltage tuning. Also as you mentioned voltage tuning is a bit risky but not if you know what to change and by how much, also aftermarket cooling is recommended. I currently have my 260 at 740/1250 and see no need to increase.

[xander89]

hey thanks mate.

Yer I've been pleasantly surprised at how good the stock cooler is on this EVGA! i havent touched any of the volts, tbh have no idea wt to change etc, ( i tink ive seen it in bios while ive been fiddling about, but i could be wrong).
Im just a bit of a power junkie and wnt to push my gear as far as it can go, but as u say an aftermarket cooler might be a must if i wna bump it up any higher, and as im getting a ati 5850 in a few weeks i may just sit pretty with the overclock i got atm. But thanks for the advice though. :D

[pwnmachine]

Yeah, the current clock you have is awesome. However if you feel the need you can fiddle around with evga volt tuner

http://www.evga.com/articles/00462/

It's a great starting point, and apparently really easy to use. But as I said above you still have to be very careful.

[xander89]

Yeah, the current clock you have is awesome. However if you feel the need you can fiddle around with evga volt tuner

http://www.evga.com/articles/00462/

It's a great starting point, and apparently really easy to use. But as I said above you still have to be very careful.

wikid oooo im tempted to give that a fiddle, but i really dont wna fry my card :P hehe. Im selling it to my housemate and should really keep it intact till then, but then again i do have a lifetime warranty.....hmmmmm.....*ponders* u know any decent guides or vids which run u thru how to use it safely?

[don'tknow]

Generally you need water cooling to keep decent temps after upping volts. That card seems more sensitive to temps the higher you go with clocks.

My 260 gets up to 756/1512 but it needs fan at 100% and a decently cool ambient temp... if my room temp is 'warm' then my GPU goes near 70C in games at those speeds and starts crashing. As long as I keep it below 65C it's stable though.

[col_sanders]

How old is your 260?
I have 2 gtx260s from evga (55nm versions) and they were getting pretty warm. A few days ago I opened up the cards, blasted out all the dust from the heat sink and fan, removed the chalky thermal compound that was on there and applied Tuniq-TX2 goop and buttoned it back up and have been getting much cooler temps and have overclocked higher than I was ever able to before.
I'm currently testing 735 for the core and 1620 for the shaders.
(side note: if you do this dont remove the gummy pads for the memory and stuff, just the compound on the gpu)

[EarthDog]

A couple of things....

EVGA voltage tuner does not work for the some 260s. It only works with select models (http://www.evga.com/articles/00462/).

Like dont know mentioned, it likes to be cool. Check out my thread on my conversion from air to water (http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=599249) and the different clocks I got from it...

[diaz]

I don't see much headroom on top of your current OC unless you change the voltage...

[xander89]

How old is your 260?
I have 2 gtx260s from evga (55nm versions) and they were getting pretty warm. A few days ago I opened up the cards, blasted out all the dust from the heat sink and fan, removed the chalky thermal compound that was on there and applied Tuniq-TX2 goop and buttoned it back up and have been getting much cooler temps and have overclocked higher than I was ever able to before.
I'm currently testing 735 for the core and 1620 for the shaders.
(side note: if you do this dont remove the gummy pads for the memory and stuff, just the compound on the gpu)

yer ive already replaced the cpu paste with some artic silver a while back, and my temps are pretty cool even at that clock running 24/7 on stock cooling, my gtx 260 is an old one the 192 core

and earthdog does the volt tuner not work for the old gtx 260s im guessing? Mine occasionally might hit 70 is i was playing crysis for like 4 hours or suming but i havent had a crash due to my gfx card for about 6 months at least. I would love to go watercooling when i get my 5850 would be really sweet but a decent self made watercooling setup would just set me back too much, im afraid air is the only real option for me as im a poor student :(

[EarthDog]

It may work...check the link to see if your model number matches with the link I provided.

[jason4207]

It's the older 65nm cards (GTX280 and older GTX260's) that work w/ voltage Tuner. Your 192-core should work with it, but check the model number to be sure.

I actually had slightly better results on my GTX280 by turning the voltage down 1 tick from the stock voltage of 1.1875v down to 1.175v.

You can safely go up 1 or 2 ticks, but definitely try going down a bit as that is even more safe than running stock!

Also, you mentioned going up 1MHz on the shader. The shader clock (well all 3 clocks) is based on a multiplier, and you can't really just go up 1 or 2MHz. It goes in steps of 54MHz. 1350, 1404, 1458, 1512, 1566 are examples of what is actually being applied.

Use a program like eVGA Presicion to OC, and if you watch the graph monitor you can see the actual clocks applied. Do not trust what the slider says as not every frequency can be applied.

And you will also be limited by the 1/2 shader clock rule. The card cannot run unless the core is 1/2 or less of the shader clock. If 1458 is your max shader clock then even if your core has the ability to go faster than 729 you won't be able to find out.