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Overclocking my gtx560

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natholas

Registered
Joined
Jun 19, 2012
Hey guys.. (sorry for posting so many threads lately)

I want to overclock my gpu. its a gtx 560 (non ti) and it was factory overclocked by asus and it came with their duel fan cooler on it.. (im asuming that I can get a bit more out of it..

here are my questions:
what program should i use to give the most accurate temp readings?
is there any way of overclocking it within the os? if not then how should i do it?

Thanks :)
 
You should use MSi Afterburner. There's no way to overclock it without using the OS (you could mod your BIOS but that's rather risky).

ASUS has "GPU Tweak", but, IMHO, the only Rivatuner-based program worth speaking of is MSi's Afterburner.
 
MSI Afterbruner.

You do not overclock video cards through the bios, it is only done in windows (essentially, you can change the GPU's bios with another program, but that isnt something a novice should be doing as you can easily end up with a paperweight).

That said its easy.

1. Give the card .05 - .1 more volts.
2. Push on the core 25Mhz, then test using 3dMark11, or Unigene Heaven (Hwbot version). If you do not see artifacts or the system doesnt freeze, rinse and repeat.
3. Once it freezes, or you see artificats, back it down 25Mhz. That is your limit on the core.
4. Memory time. Do the same thing, push 25Mhz at a time and test. Once you see artifacts, back it down 25Mhz.
 
MSI Afterbruner.

You do not overclock video cards through the bios, it is only done in windows (essentially, you can change the GPU's bios with another program, but that isnt something a novice should be doing as you can easily end up with a paperweight).

That said its easy.

1. Give the card .05 - .1 more volts.
2. Push on the core 25Mhz, then test using 3dMark11, or Unigene Heaven (Hwbot version). If you do not see artifacts or the system doesnt freeze, rinse and repeat.
3. Once it freezes, or you see artificats, back it down 25Mhz. That is your limit on the core.
4. Memory time. Do the same thing, push 25Mhz at a time and test. Once you see artifacts, back it down 25Mhz.

^This, though I'd extend it a little, for kicks and giggles.

1) Push core 25MHz.
2) Start Unigine Heaven with these settings. Run the benchmark (F5) once.
Code:
API - DirectX 11
Tessellation - Extreme
Shaders - High
Anisotropy - 16x
Stereo 3D - Disabled
Multi monitor - Disabled
Anti-aliasing - 8x
Full screen - Enabled
Resolution - System
3) Check for artifacts, driver crashes, freezes, BSODs, high temperatures, et caetera.
a) No artifacts / no high temperature -> Go back to 1. Write down these settings on a piece of paper.
b) Artifacts or driver crash without high temperature -> Raise voltage by one notch. Go back to 1.
c) Artifacts or driver crash, voltage maxed, or high temperature -> Lower clock by 5MHz. Go to 1.
4) When you have reached your top core frequency, save the settings to a MSi Afterburner profile.
5) Run Unigine overnight. Do not run the benchmark, just let the engine demo run.
6) If the system is still alive after the testing, go stock, and go to 7. Else, lower clock by 25MHz, and go to 5.
7) Raise memory by 25MHz.
8) Steps 2 and 3. Raise memory instead of core.
9) When you have reached your top memory frequency, save the settings to another profile. Load the previous profile.
10) Set the memory speed you found as top before.
11) Run the benchmark again (Step 2).
12) Check for artifacts, driver crashes, high temperatures, et caetera.
a) No artifacts / no high temperature -> Go to 13.
b) Artifacts or driver crash without high temperature -> Lower memory clock by 10MHz. Go to 11.
13) Run Unigine overnight with the same settings. Do not run the benchmark, just let the engine demo run.
14) If the system is still alive after the testing, congratulations, save the profile, set Afterburner to overclock on system startup, and enjoy!!
Else, lower memory clock by 25MHz, and go to 11.
15) (Optional) Run 3DMark11 Advanced Xtreme overnight (tests only and loop). Try all sorts of benchmarks for stability.
FurMark is NOT recommended, though you can run it if you want to, but it will probably trigger OCP.

You can unlock "extra voltages" by modding your BIOS, but that'd require some serious VRM cooling and GPU cooling.
 
Thanks for the replies.. ok i actually downloaded evga precision and without changing the voltage i got the gpu clock up to 950 before the screen froze for a few seconds and heaven crashed.. so I put it back down to 930 and its running fine at around 62C with 33% fan speed (i tried setting it to 100% manually and it literally gave me a fright! its loud! lol and i could feel the breeze from a meter away :p )

so should i add a little more voltage? it is 1038 right now (im not sure if this is normal because the card was already factory overclocked) again its a gtx 560 (non ti)

when that is done then i move on to the memory clock right?

thanks :D

EDIT: a question.. if i have the settings that I want do i have to enable "start evga precision with windows" for it to stay like that? because the gpu bios will otherwise tell it to run at stock right?
 
Last edited:
Ok i have made the following changes:
voltage is at 1.050
gpu clock is at 930
memory clock is at 2200

and it is stable and i was able to get P6426 on 3dmark11 (before it was p6027)

anyone recon I could increase this? i put the voltage all the way up to 1.075 but i could not even get to 950 without heaven crashing and settings resetting for some reason..

and btw what does memory clock do?
tnx
 
Yes you have to select "apply at start" for it use your settings when windows starts up. I also have an EVGA GTX 560 SC 2gb card and have gotten my clocks to 965mhz gpu clock and 2204mhz memory clock, all on the stock voltage of 1.038v. I tried to up my voltage and clocks higher, but was having issues with BF3, since then I dropped my clocks to the above settings and it has been great so far. It seems the 560 I got just likes stock voltage I guess.
 
Got a question, I have a 560 non TI from Asus, using MSI Afterburner to change settings & since my last card could not handle voltage settings this is new to me. But the card I have is already over clocked from factory @ 925. I have changed the voltages to 0.98 and I can play my main game fine but I have tried to lower the voltages even more to 0.97 but for some reason MSI afterburner will bring the voltages up to 0.98 after I press apply why is this?
 
Just a guess, but maybe that is the lowest voltage setting you can go with that card. My EVGA GTX 560SC 2 GB goes down to .875v though...... I don't use Afterburner either, I use Precision X.
 
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