GT 730 OverClock

[Shadowex99]

Hello. I'm planning to get a GT 730 2GB GDDR5 64Bit and I'm just wondering if this GPU can be overclocked and if so please tell me your highest clocks.

 

[drumminandstuff93]

Why a 730? I would strongly suggest investing a bit more money and going with a 750 or 750ti.

 

[i7Baby]

If you want to get more performance, buy a better card.

 

[Shadowex99]

I wanted to get this because i have a pretty low budget and this would do fine for the light gaming that i do. I just wanted to know how much you can overclock this. Goodness. Just a simple question.

 

[kunthakenthe]

you can try msi afterburner though this gpu is not meant really for gaming and overclocking can only help so much.

 

[Shadowex99]

Overclocked to 1071 Core Clock to be on par with the Radeon 7770. (+175) So far it's the most stable. I might keep putting it up.

 

[kunthakenthe]

ok keep doing that.

 

[Shadowex99]

I was able to hit 1200 Core Clock which is slightly better than the 7770. That's the highest it goes before it gets unstable.

 

[kunthakenthe]

is it providing the same/better results than your 7770 because this card really isnt for gamers and i dont know if just bumping up clock speed is going to help much.

 

[Shadowex99]

i think so. It's either that or im bottlenecking because i can play on the Radeon 7770 at Medium to High on BF3 and my GT 730 can play from medium to high on bf3 as well. So i guess it's getting the same if not a little better. My current system is the GT 730, Q8300 Intel Core Quad, and 6gb of ancient ram.

 

[DS_773]

i hate it when people tell others just to buy a better card rather than try to overclock. obviously if he could afford a better card don't you think that he would buy it and then overclock it. don't be so ignorant cause not everyone has lots of money to spend on a pc.

 

[drumminandstuff93]

i hate it when people tell others just to buy a better card rather than try to overclock. obviously if he could afford a better card don't you think that he would buy it and then overclock it. don't be so ignorant cause not everyone has lots of money to spend on a pc.

An overclock isn't something guaranteed, and you don't want to rely on it. It's best practice to buy a card that will meet your needs, and if it's a good overclocker, great, but if not you'll have a card capable of handling your workload. Also, the main reason I suggested something else is because 730s are not designed for overclocking, and many have inferior cooling designs. We were simply trying to provide the OP with some other alternatives that have a good price to performance ratio, without breaking the bank.

 

[DS_773]

i hate it when people tell others just to buy a better card rather than try to overclock. obviously if he could afford a better card don't you think that he would buy it and then overclock it. don't be so ignorant cause not everyone has lots of money to spend on a pc.

An overclock isn't something guaranteed, and you don't want to rely on it. It's best practice to buy a card that will meet your needs, and if it's a good overclocker, great, but if not you'll have a card capable of handling your workload. Also, the main reason I suggested something else is because 730s are not designed for overclocking, and many have inferior cooling designs. We were simply trying to provide the OP with some other alternatives that have a good price to performance ratio, without breaking the bank.

i have taken notice of the bad cooler designs for these cards but also some of them such as the Gainward one with a fan that i have got could be overclocked past 1ghz without overheating and you can play games such as bf4 at low at 720p with over 50fps.

 

[SKIPPY PB]

i hate it when people tell others just to buy a better card rather than try to overclock. obviously if he could afford a better card don't you think that he would buy it and then overclock it. don't be so ignorant cause not everyone has lots of money to spend on a pc.

An overclock isn't something guaranteed, and you don't want to rely on it. It's best practice to buy a card that will meet your needs, and if it's a good overclocker, great, but if not you'll have a card capable of handling your workload. Also, the main reason I suggested something else is because 730s are not designed for overclocking, and many have inferior cooling designs. We were simply trying to provide the OP with some other alternatives that have a good price to performance ratio, without breaking the bank.

I understand both your points, I do believe when people ask questions such as this one they should point out the best approach even if it is obvious. It is well documented on this forum and else where that that is the best solution. Now my problem here is that other, not you two I am qouting, seem to state opinions without backing it up with facts. Here you explained why that is the best solution and what the problems are with the card he has given what his end goal is. My problem is there are plenty of members who seem to contribute nothing to the forum by just state oh by a better card because it is the easy way out. The concept of overclocking is about pushing the boundries.

I too have a GT 730. The reason I purchased the 730 is because it is the best I can get for my set up. I built a small form factor mini-ITX case and there is no other card that I have found that is low profile and small enough to fit. Money is not the object here. If I find something better I will get it, HOWEVER, I still would like to see how much performance can be squeezed out of this guy regardless. I am getting a GTX for by bigger build but I still think it is useful to the community to have information like this documented. As the more capable cards take up much more realestate and this is useful for those building HTPC and small form factor builds.


Furthermore I have the PNY 1GB DDR5 version and am using after burner. Running afterburner, having the fan at 55 is quiet (not silent), 30 is stock (silent), and 70 is noticable however if you are gaming or something of the sort and the volume is up I dont think it should bother you. Doesn't sound as if the fan is spinning out of control or near the limit given its size.

Also increased core clock +175 like OP reported. No problems thus far with fan speed cranked at 55 & 70, temps haven't gone above 62 celcius

 

[Ermerins]

I too have a limited budget and a small power supply. I chose the GT 730 because of low power consumption and performance on par with my expectations. I am able to get a stable overclock of +300mhz on the GPU and +100mhz on the memory. Benchmarks with Unigen Heaven and Valley are in the low 50's on low settings. I can play BF4 on a mix of medium and high settings with no lag or stutter. I am running an EVGA GT730 with 2gb of GDDR5 on a 64bit bus, and my model has a fan. My temps never get above 70c. My computer is a Lenovo TS-140 with a Core i3 (3.4Ghz) and 8 gigs of memory. My display is an ancient Dell 1280 X 1024. This combination works very well for my needs (light gaming and general use).

 

[SKIPPY PB]

I too have a limited budget and a small power supply. I chose the GT 730 because of low power consumption and performance on par with my expectations. I am able to get a stable overclock of +300mhz on the GPU and +100mhz on the memory. Benchmarks with Unigen Heaven and Valley are in the low 50's on low settings. I can play BF4 on a mix of medium and high settings with no lag or stutter. I am running an EVGA GT730 with 2gb of GDDR5 on a 64bit bus, and my model has a fan. My temps never get above 70c. My computer is a Lenovo TS-140 with a Core i3 (3.4Ghz) and 8 gigs of memory. My display is an ancient Dell 1280 X 1024. This combination works very well for my needs (light gaming and general use).

Damn, I wish I had more real estate, I think my PNY version is stuttering moderately with anything north of 200 mhz core clock. I haven't really pushed the memory though. I'll give it a go. Oh any by the way I am running a 1920x1080 & a 1280x1024 ancient dell at the same time, lol. I keep the fan cranked a 77% usually. And for a quiet setting 55%. I'll push the memory and see if I can find the sweet spot.

 

[AdTheGeek]

i hate it when people tell others just to buy a better card rather than try to overclock. obviously if he could afford a better card don't you think that he would buy it and then overclock it. don't be so ignorant cause not everyone has lots of money to spend on a pc.

An overclock isn't something guaranteed, and you don't want to rely on it. It's best practice to buy a card that will meet your needs, and if it's a good overclocker, great, but if not you'll have a card capable of handling your workload. Also, the main reason I suggested something else is because 730s are not designed for overclocking, and many have inferior cooling designs. We were simply trying to provide the OP with some other alternatives that have a good price to performance ratio, without breaking the bank.

I understand what you're saying but breaking your 'bank' is different from breaking someone else's 'bank'. The Op is asking for OC on this particular card. If you don't have anything constructive to say, say nothing. Tell them to spend more is a BS reply IMO.

 

[zannu]

I must say I find it entertaining when everyone else is saying it is not meant for overclocking, which sure it is not, however I have the 2GB GDDR5 version and it is stable at 1302MHz, 400MHz above stock, almost 1 and a half times the original, and it still works(just remember to increase voltage to max which is 1.163v, temperatures only got to 57 c at max). In Dirt rally it increased my average fps from 42.52 up to an incredible 57.86. I know that does not sound very impressive, but this card cost around £60 for me, and it is performing adequately in my gaming rig. I know everyone will say to get a better card, however I am a teenager, and have other expensive hobbies so I can't, also why would I when I can get performance like this, at lower graphical settings, yes, but I am happy with it so who else should care. So anyone who says this card can not be overclocked, it can.

 

[AdTheGeek]

I must say I find it entertaining when everyone else is saying it is not meant for overclocking, which sure it is not, however I have the 2GB GDDR5 version and it is stable at 1302MHz, 400MHz above stock, almost 1 and a half times the original, and it still works(just remember to increase voltage to max which is 1.163v, temperatures only got to 57 c at max). In Dirt rally it increased my average fps from 42.52 up to an incredible 57.86. I know that does not sound very impressive, but this card cost around £60 for me, and it is performing adequately in my gaming rig. I know everyone will say to get a better card, however I am a teenager, and have other expensive hobbies so I can't, also why would I when I can get performance like this, at lower graphical settings, yes, but I am happy with it so who else should care. So anyone who says this card can not be overclocked, it can.

Great news. Can you say which OC software you used? OC Guru II doesn't seem to be able to do anything and is limited as to how much it can OC.

 

[SKIPPY PB]

Don't know what he uses but MSI afterburner is pretty good.

 

[zannu]

I must say I find it entertaining when everyone else is saying it is not meant for overclocking, which sure it is not, however I have the 2GB GDDR5 version and it is stable at 1302MHz, 400MHz above stock, almost 1 and a half times the original, and it still works(just remember to increase voltage to max which is 1.163v, temperatures only got to 57 c at max). In Dirt rally it increased my average fps from 42.52 up to an incredible 57.86. I know that does not sound very impressive, but this card cost around £60 for me, and it is performing adequately in my gaming rig. I know everyone will say to get a better card, however I am a teenager, and have other expensive hobbies so I can't, also why would I when I can get performance like this, at lower graphical settings, yes, but I am happy with it so who else should care. So anyone who says this card can not be overclocked, it can.

Great news. Can you say which OC software you used? OC Guru II doesn't seem to be able to do anything and is limited as to how much it can OC.

I used OC guru, I turned up the voltage as far as it could go (+0.3V) and then ramped up the clock and that was were I got. With more voltage I am sure you could get it higher but OC guru does not allow that, also I only went up in +500MHz, so whilst I have had it stable at 1302MHz, and it was unstable at 1352MHz, I don't know about hoo high you could get it between the 2. Temps are around 50 under load so still very good and I picked up around 15fps(from 42 at stock to 58 overclocked). I have not tried any other software or overclocking the ram at all, so there is probably even more performance than that.

 

[Giskard80]

I have the Zotac version of this card, the one with passive cooling. I bought the pc pre-assembled, I opened the case and took the gt 730 out, and used a small drill to make a hole between two of the fins on the heatsink. Than I used a small screw and hooked a cpu fan to the end of the heat sink on the gpu. This plugs into my system fan header on the motherboard, and in my case the fan is controlled in the bios as far as speed %. I just wanted to make sure I mentioned this, as I have done a small modification that helps the card get rid of heat more efficiently. So don't try this if you have a passive cooling card, unless you work out some better cooling solution.
I also shy away from using voltage overclocks. they shorten the life of your card. I perefer to get what I can from the card without damaging it.
Using MSI Afterburner I began progressive benchmarks, starting with the CORE CLOCK. I bumped this up in 20 mhz increments until it became unstable, then backed off. Then, I did the same for the MEMORY CLOCK. My final numbers in Msi Afterburner were, +325 Core Clock +300 Memory Clock. This resulted in a Unigine Heaven Benchmarks of 22fps, score 554, 10.5 min. fps, 52.9 max fps, min temp of 30 C and max temp of 47C. Around a 25% increase from the original stock bench of 16 fps, score 403, 7.7 min fps 39 max fps.
FINAL NUMBERS +325 core clock +300 Mem clock Seems stable, furmark burn in test passed at max temp 48C

Hope this helps.

 

[zannu]

I know that upping the voltage shortens the lifespan of the card, but because I use my rig for gaming but I am young so have not got lots of money to throw at my system, This is why I have decided to overclock, who moans at free performance. As a result I accept that by overclocking I may break the card sooner however I now have a paper round so if it breaks I can use the on board graphics for a while and then within 2 months get a GTX 950, however for now I have other things that if I want to spend that money on.

 

[SKIPPY PB]

However on the contrary this card is getting old fast. I paid about $70 for mine BNIB from newegg about 6-7 months ago. Right now there are GTX 750's on sale for around $80-100. If you have the real estate available and are looking to make a purchase there are plenty of other options. I used mine in an InWin BP-655 case which doesn't allow me to fit a bigger card. It is not entirely free performance. It just is free in terms of how you are looking at the situation. If it is your only computer and you have important documents on it for either school, taxes, work, etc. That is where it comes into play. I don't have those worries so I push mine to limit until it explodes.

I would really like to see graphics cards in this size become way more potent. It would allow us to start making tiny HTPC / Alienware alpha style builds.

 

[zannu]

However on the contrary this card is getting old fast. I paid about $70 for mine BNIB from newegg about 6-7 months ago. Right now there are GTX 750's on sale for around $80-100. If you have the real estate available and are looking to make a purchase there are plenty of other options. I used mine in an InWin BP-655 case which doesn't allow me to fit a bigger card. It is not entirely free performance. It just is free in terms of how you are looking at the situation. If it is your only computer and you have important documents on it for either school, taxes, work, etc. That is where it comes into play. I don't have those worries so I push mine to limit until it explodes.

I would really like to see graphics cards in this size become way more potent. It would allow us to start making tiny HTPC / Alienware alpha style builds.

The thing is I know that I have a backup of all my data, and if the card dies then I have the on-board graphics of my motherboard so my computer will still work, just not as well. And I do not have the money to get a better one, else I would. There are some small graphics card options but they are fairly limited.