How to Overclock GPU for a Beginner. GTX 780.

[USAmaverick]

Trying to Overclock my EVGA gtx 780 SC, 750 watts, I7-4770K and I am completely lost on where to start and what to do to actually get any performance increase.

The softwares I've downloaded, but don't really know what I'm doing with.
*EVGA Precision X
*MSI Afterburner
*Heavens Benchmark
*MSI Kombuster
*CPU-Z
*CPU-ID

I try following videos that increase power target to like 120%, but mine only goes up to 106%. Also I don't know how to use the Voltage, Boost Kboost or anything related to voltage at all. I did figure out how to change the fan curve to my liking, but that is literally it! I turned up my gpu clock offset by 50 MHz and also my memory clock offset by 200 MHz. And whenever I run a benchmark on Konsumption it doesn't seem to work right, Because I get absolutely no increase in performance. I need a step by step for a overclocking idiot in order to figure this out I think.

 

[IInuyasha74]

Alright alright hold up on the videos. You got a bit too much and are being a bit dangerous playing with voltage so much without knowing for sure what is happening.

First, you don't really need EVGA Precision X, CPU-Z, or CPU-ID. You could probably get by without MSI Kombuster too but you already have it so you might as well keep it.

Go into MSI Afterburner, and first make sure everything is set to default. You said you increased clock speed by 50Mhz, sounds like on that part you did it how you are supposed to. You just increase clock speed, but don't expect to see huge jumps in performance really. If you do a really great job you might end up seeing 20% more frames per second than you did. Meaning if you are only getting 40 FPS, you might get 48 FPS overall. Not sure what the stock clock is on your card, but 50Mhz is probably only 2-5% overclock and so that would only see maybe at most 2FPS, but possible no visible increase at all.

 

[USAmaverick]

Alright alright hold up on the videos. You got a bit too much and are being a bit dangerous playing with voltage so much without knowing for sure what is happening.

First, you don't really need EVGA Precision X, CPU-Z, or CPU-ID. You could probably get by without MSI Kombuster too but you already have it so you might as well keep it.

Go into MSI Afterburner, and first make sure everything is set to default. You said you increased clock speed by 50Mhz, sounds like on that part you did it how you are supposed to. You just increase clock speed, but don't expect to see huge jumps in performance really. If you do a really great job you might end up seeing 20% more frames per second than you did. Meaning if you are only getting 40 FPS, you might get 48 FPS overall. Not sure what the stock clock is on your card, but 50Mhz is probably only 2-5% overclock and so that would only see maybe at most 2FPS, but possible no visible increase at all.

So what Am I supposed to do? Am I supposed to keep going by 50's just on the gpu clock? do I mess with the memory clock? Do I never touch the voltage at all? I'm literally looking for a step by step guide completely for an idiot lol. I don't really know what all I would be looking for entirely.

 

[IInuyasha74]

Yes basically. Increase by 50 on the GPU Clock until you have a problem. Then drop down by 25 until no longer has problems.

Then do the same with the RAM. Though the RAM has a much smaller effect on performance.

For voltage I tend to think it best you don't touch it if you are just learning. Honestly I tend to not find it so helpful to adjust it. For example my default clock is 920Mhz I got to 1150Mhz, and increased voltage all of 0.02v. Increasing voltage more did not help make it more stable at any higher clocks.

Same thing happened with my brothers GPU, same model. His default clock is 860Mhz and he just can do 1000Mhz without increase voltage. With like +0.02v he can get 1050Mhz, but after that it doesn't matter how much voltage he adds he cannot really go up. SO I tend to think voltage not help much.

 

[USAmaverick]

Yes basically. Increase by 50 on the GPU Clock until you have a problem. Then drop down by 25 until no longer has problems.

Then do the same with the RAM. Though the RAM has a much smaller effect on performance.

For voltage I tend to think it best you don't touch it if you are just learning. Honestly I tend to not find it so helpful to adjust it. For example my default clock is 920Mhz I got to 1150Mhz, and increased voltage all of 0.02v. Increasing voltage more did not help make it more stable at any higher clocks.

Same thing happened with my brothers GPU, same model. His default clock is 860Mhz and he just can do 1000Mhz without increase voltage. With like +0.02v he can get 1050Mhz, but after that it doesn't matter how much voltage he adds he cannot really go up. SO I tend to think voltage not help much.

How would I ever get a 20% increase ever then? if it will only give me like a 2 fps increase?

 

[IInuyasha74]

From 50Mhz. You increase clock speed more and then you get a real increase. Do exactly like I said and say you get 200Mhz increase you could see a significant increase.

 

[USAmaverick]

From 50Mhz. You increase clock speed more and then you get a real increase. Do exactly like I said and say you get 200Mhz increase you could see a significant increase.

Ok thanks I get that, but every time I even get past 150 it says Nvidia failed something and is restoring, so should I be increasing voltage or something?