Question My first GPU overclock, need a quick check that I havn't missed anything Plz

[lunchie12]

Hey all ill keep this brief. (as I can)

I have a 6700 i7 sys with 16gb ram and ssd bla bla running a Gigabyte 1060 G1 (6gb ed).

I have recently started to get into witcher 3 and as such am wanting to egg out every last detail in Yennefer's expertly rendered.................................................................face.

I read a ton of threads about how to go about a GPU overclock and also several proper guides from the experts on here.

With that in mind I have done the following:

Raised the temp limit to 90 (it made me do this when I increased the power %)
Raised the power limit to 111%
Increased the core clock by 96mhz (through 20mhz increments)
Increased the memory clock by 600mhz (through 50mhz increments)
Stock voltages etc

Tested this through Unigen valley on Ultra, 8aa, 1080p etc (this resulted in avg fps around 60-70 with temps holding steady between 63c-65c

During these tests I noticed that my fan utilization seemed very low so I checked it and it was still on stock "gaming mode" from gigabyte which seemed to produce a matched temp to % so from 50c and 50% fan speed all the way up to 100c i.e. 55 degrees temp would be matched with 55% fan speed, and 65c would be 65% fan speed etc etc. This seemed like a silly way to approach heat management, basically like waiting until the horse has bolted before you close the gate.

I changed this so that as soon as the Gpu hits 40degrees c the fan speed ramps up much quicker. Now at 55c temp the fan speed is at 70% and by 62c its sitting around 85% fan speed and finally by 68c the fan is at 100% max speed. (this is down to my understanding that anything above 70c for a GPU is bad news bears (over a long period at least)

I ran the Unigen valley tests again on ultra and got a gain from 60-70fps average up to 68-81fps average and the temp didn't pass 58c. (vs 63c-65c on stock fan profile)


Does all this sound okay to you guys? I just wanted to make sure I haven't overlooked something as this is the first time iv overclocked a Gpu and while iv checked and rechecked against toms guides...... you know how something small can still sometimes be overlooked.



Mainly I just wanted to make sure that those temps (max Gpu around 55-60c) and that the substantial increase in fan speed wont burn out my Gpu/fan super fast or something. I mean I don't care if I have to replace it in 4 years rather than 5 but I just don't want to nuke a component needlessly you know lol?


Thank you kindly for any and all replies. I hope to be able to start contributing to this community in return now that I have a stable base once again.

 

[QwerkyPengwen]

You have the right idea. but do this instead.
It sounds like you are using the Gigabyte software for overclocking. don't bother. get MSI Afterburner.

Get Unigine Valley Benchmark

make sure you close out and stop the task for your Gigabyte OC software if it is running and make sure to disable it from loading up when windows starts. In fact, you can just uninstall it all together.

after getting MSI Aftrerburner open it up.

Next, go into settings and check mark the two boxes for unlock voltage and unlock voltage monitoring.

slide the voltage meter to max and then do the same for power and temp. when you slide the power to max it doesn't put the temp to max so you need to slide that one as well.

from here, the best way to test for crashes in games is to load up a fairly demanding title. Witcher 3 will do fine as long as you can run it in borderless mode. If you have Ghost Recon Wildlands I recommend this one on the Very High preset since it is extremely responsive to clock speeds and crashes quickly and easily.

while you are in game in the open world make sure you set the graphic settings to a pretty high level, like very high (no need to for ultra) so that you are putting your GPU under load for everything from simple textures to shaders to full blown physx stuff. make sure to turn on the special hair.

while the game is running in the open world, ALT+TAB to get to MSI Afterburner.

where the fan speed slider is click on the part that says auto and then put them to max 100%

Start from stock defaults on the core clock and memory clock and start bumping up your core clock until the game crashes. Start with a bump of 100Mhz on the core and keep that for 5min to test it. If you are good to go then start to move up in increments of 10Mhz at a time until the game crashes usually by way of freezing up.
(BTW, you need to click the checkmark button after changing something to apply it. you can click the number next to the sliders to input a specific number.)

once you've crashed back off by 1Mhz at a time until you don't crash anymore. From here, look at your clock speeds and adjust down 1Mhz at a time until your clock speed lowers by 13Mhz. once this happens bring it up by 1Mhz again to get that 13Mhz back. From here, play the game for a little over an hour. if you can make it for more than hour you are good.

CONGRATULATIONS!!!! You have found your max stable overclock for your core.

Now on to the memory.
quite playing the game.
Load up Unigine Valley Benchmark and run it in windowed mode at your native resolution with max graphic settings.
Start with a bump of 400Mhz and move up in increments of 50Mhz at a time waiting for 5min after each change until you notice graphic glitches such as triangles, missing textures, weird shadow streaks and most importantly of all, little red/blue/purple dots that flash onto the screen. This last one won't usually show up until you've been playing for a little while so be on the lookout. When you notice any glitches back off by 50Mhz to the last clock that didn't have any issues and continue running the benchmark on a loop for an hour. be on the lookout for glitches for sure but what you really want to see is if you end up getting those little dots I mentioned. If so, immediately back off the clock by another 50Mhz and continue testing until you don't see them anymore.

Congratulations again! you've found your memory overclock.

Now load up your favorite demanding title and play for an hour. If you can make it through an hour without the glitches and dots described above then you are golden.

From here you can lower your fan speeds until the noise is at a level that is bearable. Keeping the fans as high as possible will result in lower temps and the lower the temps the higher your clock speeds will be because GPU Boost 3.0 will automatically adjust your clocks in increments of 13Mhz based on predefined temp thresholds.

And that's it! Enjoy your you new max level of performance that your GPU can provide.