First Time GPU Overclock....Have a few Questions. EVGA GeForce GTX780 SuperClocked w/EVGA ACX Cooler

[Troof2Troof]

Hi All,

Since I started my first build a few weeks ago, this site and the community has helped me a LOT and I really appreciate everyone taking time out of their day to help a stranger.

I'd like to mess with overclocking my GPU which is a EVGA GeForce GTX780 SuperClocked w/EVGA ACX Cooler. 967 MHz Base Clock and 1020 MHz Boost Clock. It's not that I'm unhappy with it, it's awesome but I wouldn't mind a little bump in the performance department

Can someone point me in the right direction for a good guide on how to go about doing it? I have EVGA PrecisionX.

Will there be a noticeable difference? Any cons of doing it besides heat?

Thanks!

 

[photonboy]

I don't recommend you overclock.

Overclocking doesn't work the way it used to, so you need to read further about GPU BOOST 2.

GPU's never used to be able to throttle but they could also crash if too hot. Now GPU's throttle by temperature. The problem is they can DOWN-THROTTLE too. Overclocking makes a GPU run hotter and give higher performance, but then that heat also causes the GPU to down-throttle reducing performance.

*So whether overclocking would benefit you or HAMPER you will depend on what game you are playing as well as temperature conditions (ambient room temp, case cooling etc).

Your GPU is already overclocked at the high end. You can try if you want, but remember it will also vary by the game.

(Another thing to remember is you might already be CPU-bottlenecked or more likely, be VSYNC'd to 60FPS with overclocking the GPU providing no benefit).

 

[Troof2Troof]

I don't recommend you overclock.

Overclocking doesn't work the way it used to, so you need to read further about GPU BOOST 2.

GPU's never used to be able to throttle but they could also crash if too hot. Now GPU's throttle by temperature. The problem is they can DOWN-THROTTLE too. Overclocking makes a GPU run hotter and give higher performance, but then that heat also causes the GPU to down-throttle reducing performance.

*So whether overclocking would benefit you or HAMPER you will depend on what game you are playing as well as temperature conditions (ambient room temp, case cooling etc).

Your GPU is already overclocked at the high end. You can try if you want, but remember it will also vary by the game.

(Another thing to remember is you might already be CPU-bottlenecked or more likely, be VSYNC'd to 60FPS with overclocking the GPU providing no benefit).

Thanks for the info. I just wanted to do something small, to test the waters. My GPU temp never gets above 65 at MOST when I game. My CPU is a 4770k OC'd to 4.5Ghz. I have good temps on my CPU and great airflow through my case. I only hit higher temps when benchmarking or stress testing. I'll check out the Boost 2 you mentioned.

Yea I only have a 60Hz monitor but I'm going to get one that will do 120.

Would overclocking the GPU create better fps? Sometimes in Battlefield 3 and Borderlands 2, the fps drops when theres a ton of stuff going on in the game.

 

[Deleted member 217926]

That card should overclock quite well and pretty much every review site on the internet has tested it and overclocked it.

http://www.legitreviews.com/evga-geforce-gtx-780-superclocked-acx-cooling-video-card-review_2206/15

http://www.overclockers.com/evga-gtx-780-classified-acx-graphics-card-review/

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/EVGA/GTX_780_SC_ACX_Cooler/29.html

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/61729-evga-geforce-gtx-780-acx-sc-review-8.html

Those should be of help. Overclocked the card beats the Titan very easily in most benchmarks.

 

[Troof2Troof]

That card should overclock quite well and pretty much every review site on the internet has tested it and overclocked it.

http://www.legitreviews.com/evga-geforce-gtx-780-superclocked-acx-cooling-video-card-review_2206/15

http://www.overclockers.com/evga-gtx-780-classified-acx-graphics-card-review/

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/EVGA/GTX_780_SC_ACX_Cooler/29.html

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/61729-evga-geforce-gtx-780-acx-sc-review-8.html

Those should be of help. Overclocked the card beats the Titan very easily in most benchmarks.

Nice! thanks a lot. I really appreciate it. I just need a guide to slowly boost the GPU clock offset and the Mem Clock offset... it's still a little confusing for me now. I used to be a console gamer my whole life so the PC world of gaming is so new to me. So far it's been awesome..... and expensive, lol

 

[Deleted member 217926]

Yep it's expensive! At least for high end gaming. I can't stand console controllers myself but I have been pretty much a PC exclusive gamer since the late 90s. I own a Wii but that's more for the kids. I only really use it for old NES and SNES games.

Use those articles as a base and as long as you understand your card will be similar but not identical and keep an eye on heat you will be fine.

I plan on doing some upgrades in November and will probably buy that same card. At least depending on the new AMD cards and how they perform. Hopefully the 780 will come down in price a bit.

 

[Troof2Troof]

Yep it's expensive! At least for high end gaming. I can't stand console controllers myself but I have been pretty much a PC exclusive gamer since the late 90s. I own a Wii but that's more for the kids. I only really use it for old NES and SNES games.

Use those articles as a base and as long as you understand your card will be similar but not identical and keep an eye on heat you will be fine.

I plan on doing some upgrades in November and will probably buy that same card. At least depending on the new AMD cards and how they perform. Hopefully the 780 will come down in price a bit.

LOL I use my 360 controller because I'm so terrible with the mouse and keyboard. I know people say it's dumb but I don't play multiplayer stuff so I don't need that edge and control, plus it's just what I like.

So far I really like this card, I play all my games on max settings and they look awesome. BF3, Borderlands 2, Tomb Raider, Crysis 2 (with the ultra directx 11 and hi res textures pack) and crysis 3.

I figure in a few years they will drop in price quite a bit then I'll just get another one in SLI, I'm sure more games will have more support for that in time.

Thanks again, much appreciated.

 

[Deleted member 217926]

Glad to help!

 

[photonboy]

It's pretty rare to get another card for SLI two year after the first one:
- card may not exist
- single-GPU setups tend to have less stuttering (that's improved a lot in last year though)
- newer, more efficient GPU much less noisy (with good cooler).

Lots of people "leapfrog" like this:
2013-> complete new PC and graphics card
2016-> new graphics card only
2019-> complete new PC and graphics card

So, new PC every SIX years and just updating the graphics card mid-way between (makes a $400 PS4 seem cheap, huh?).

 

[Troof2Troof]

It's pretty rare to get another card for SLI two year after the first one:
- card may not exist
- single-GPU setups tend to have less stuttering (that's improved a lot in last year though)
- newer, more efficient GPU much less noisy (with good cooler).

Lots of people "leapfrog" like this:
2013-> complete new PC and graphics card
2016-> new graphics card only
2019-> complete new PC and graphics card

So, new PC every SIX years and just updating the graphics card mid-way between (makes a $400 PS4 seem cheap, huh?).

hahahaha, ye for sure. I have always played on consoles but you really can't beat the pc graphics. I don't think its that rare to find the same card.... just look on Amazon at all the old cards they sell

 

[photonboy]

It's pretty rare to get another card for SLI two year after the first one:
- card may not exist
- single-GPU setups tend to have less stuttering (that's improved a lot in last year though)
- newer, more efficient GPU much less noisy (with good cooler).

Lots of people "leapfrog" like this:
2013-> complete new PC and graphics card
2016-> new graphics card only
2019-> complete new PC and graphics card

So, new PC every SIX years and just updating the graphics card mid-way between (makes a $400 PS4 seem cheap, huh?).

hahahaha, ye for sure. I have always played on consoles but you really can't beat the pc graphics. I don't think its that rare to find the same card.... just look on Amazon at all the old cards they sell

Old cards:
For curiosity, I looked up a GTX580 on both eBay and Amazon. Guess what I found?

$200 used bare minimum (didn't even look right) or versions from China only. I saw nothing that included shipping that seemed like a card I trusted for under $300.

Add in the fact that you could probably sell a used GTX 580 for a minimum of $200 and we're talking $500 to $600 you could have pooled for a new card.

A GTX770 is $400 and a GTX780 is $650.

That's older tech, 1.5GB VRAM (same for SLI) that would be noisier.

Sure, if you can find a second card fairly cheap but often when you crunch all the numbers it's not quite the deal you thought.

 

[Troof2Troof]

It's pretty rare to get another card for SLI two year after the first one:
- card may not exist
- single-GPU setups tend to have less stuttering (that's improved a lot in last year though)
- newer, more efficient GPU much less noisy (with good cooler).

Lots of people "leapfrog" like this:
2013-> complete new PC and graphics card
2016-> new graphics card only
2019-> complete new PC and graphics card

So, new PC every SIX years and just updating the graphics card mid-way between (makes a $400 PS4 seem cheap, huh?).

hahahaha, ye for sure. I have always played on consoles but you really can't beat the pc graphics. I don't think its that rare to find the same card.... just look on Amazon at all the old cards they sell

Old cards:
For curiosity, I looked up a GTX580 on both eBay and Amazon. Guess what I found?

$200 used bare minimum (didn't even look right) or versions from China only. I saw nothing that included shipping that seemed like a card I trusted for under $300.

Add in the fact that you could probably sell a used GTX 580 for a minimum of $200 and we're talking $500 to $600 you could have pooled for a new card.

A GTX770 is $400 and a GTX780 is $650.

That's older tech, 1.5GB VRAM (same for SLI) that would be noisier.

Sure, if you can find a second card fairly cheap but often when you crunch all the numbers it's not quite the deal you thought.

yea, ok... what's your point? you just looked up a bunch of cards.....

 

[Troof2Troof]

That card should overclock quite well and pretty much every review site on the internet has tested it and overclocked it.

http://www.legitreviews.com/evga-geforce-gtx-780-superclocked-acx-cooling-video-card-review_2206/15

http://www.overclockers.com/evga-gtx-780-classified-acx-graphics-card-review/

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/EVGA/GTX_780_SC_ACX_Cooler/29.html

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/61729-evga-geforce-gtx-780-acx-sc-review-8.html

Those should be of help. Overclocked the card beats the Titan very easily in most benchmarks.

Just another quick question. How do you go about testing for stability? Something like Heaven benchmark? or OCCT? Is there something newer?

 

[Deleted member 217926]

I would use the EVGA OC Scanner. It's very good. Use EVGA Precision or MSI Afterburner to overclock with. I have had good luck with EVGA Precision.

 

[photonboy]

It's pretty rare to get another card for SLI two year after the first one:
- card may not exist
- single-GPU setups tend to have less stuttering (that's improved a lot in last year though)
- newer, more efficient GPU much less noisy (with good cooler).

Lots of people "leapfrog" like this:
2013-> complete new PC and graphics card
2016-> new graphics card only
2019-> complete new PC and graphics card

So, new PC every SIX years and just updating the graphics card mid-way between (makes a $400 PS4 seem cheap, huh?).

hahahaha, ye for sure. I have always played on consoles but you really can't beat the pc graphics. I don't think its that rare to find the same card.... just look on Amazon at all the old cards they sell

Old cards:
For curiosity, I looked up a GTX580 on both eBay and Amazon. Guess what I found?

$200 used bare minimum (didn't even look right) or versions from China only. I saw nothing that included shipping that seemed like a card I trusted for under $300.

Add in the fact that you could probably sell a used GTX 580 for a minimum of $200 and we're talking $500 to $600 you could have pooled for a new card.

A GTX770 is $400 and a GTX780 is $650.

That's older tech, 1.5GB VRAM (same for SLI) that would be noisier.

Sure, if you can find a second card fairly cheap but often when you crunch all the numbers it's not quite the deal you thought.

yea, ok... what's your point? you just looked up a bunch of cards.....

??What's my point?

You just said "just look on Amazon at all the old cards they sell", then I did so.

I compared buying another 580 for SLI vs a new, single card to give an idea if it was practical to SLI after two or three years.