Overclocking GPU causes games to crash

[poodude28]

So once I go past a certain point in overclocking with MSI Afterburner (+100 MHz) My temperatures are fine and all, GPU is at 35 deg, and cpu is at 40 deg, but once I go past that certain point in MHz on MSI the game crashes, here's my system : GTX 750 TI, i5 3470, 12 gb of ram, and windows 7. I don't know if you need anything else so thanks for the help!

EDIT

Just tried overclocking to 300 MHz, got a BSOD. It happened after tabbing back into my game with the overclock enabled, everything was fine while alt tabbed, game was working okay at 200 MHz, it was when I alt tabbed, pushed it to 300 and then BSOD when tabbed back in. Any ideas how I can fix this? my temperatures still remained completely fine so I don't know what is causing this.

Also I did stress tests with Intel Burn Test and everything was stable.

Oh and my friend with the exact same gpu has the same problem, once you overclock over a certain point it causes games to get unstable..So maybe the GPU just doesn't like it.

 

[-CJF-]

I'm new to overclocking myself so take what I say with a grain of salt, but I think I can answer this from my own recent experience of overclocking my card. There is a certain point when you just can't overclock any further on stock voltage. Usually you will see artifacts before crashing occurs but it can happen in either order. Once you reach that point you either need to back down the overclock to the last stable setting or look into what voltages are safe for your card and up the voltage a bit.

The temperature of my card didn't go up at all and I have a +190 MHz OC on core and +500 MHz OC on memory, but I'm using stock voltage. I think the temperature won't go up much unless you increase the voltage.

 

[poodude28]

I'm new to overclocking myself so take what I say with a grain of salt, but I think I can answer this from my own recent experience of overclocking my card. There is a certain point when you just can't overclock any further on stock voltage. Usually you will see artifacts before crashing occurs but it can happen in either order. Once you reach that point you either need to back down the overclock to the last stable setting or look into what voltages are safe for your card and up the voltage a bit.

The temperature of my card didn't go up at all and I have a +190 MHz OC on core and +500 MHz OC on memory, but I'm using stock voltage. I think the temperature won't go up much unless you increase the voltage.

Maybe I just won't OC over 200 MHz then, because usually if I go higher than that games crash. I would increase my stock voltage but I am unsure how and it seems pretty unsafe in my opinion. Maybe I'll look it up

 

[mamasan2000]

With increased overclock, you need to increase voltage. And with increased voltage comes increased heat. And if you go over a certain limit with the voltage, things go boom.
I'm not sure on the voltage regulator on your card, Nvidia has been pretty tight on allowing raising voltage.
The new GTX 970/980 allow a bit more room in that department. Which is why they also overclock so well.

My point is, find out the safe voltage limit, stay on it or slightly below. Only overclock by 10-20 Mhz at a time. Once you crash, go back 10-20 Mhz. Now do some longer testing, a few days perhaps. Gaming and all that jazz. If it's stable, stick to that overclock. Otherwise, come down another 10-20 Mhz. Til it's stable.

 

[poodude28]

With increased overclock, you need to increase voltage. And with increased voltage comes increased heat. And if you go over a certain limit with the voltage, things go boom.
I'm not sure on the voltage regulator on your card, Nvidia has been pretty tight on allowing raising voltage.
The new GTX 970/980 allow a bit more room in that department. Which is why they also overclock so well.

My point is, find out the safe voltage limit, stay on it or slightly below. Only overclock by 10-20 Mhz at a time. Once you crash, go back 10-20 Mhz. Now do some longer testing, a few days perhaps. Gaming and all that jazz. If it's stable, stick to that overclock. Otherwise, come down another 10-20 Mhz.

Where do I check the safe voltage limit at?

 

[mamasan2000]

With increased overclock, you need to increase voltage. And with increased voltage comes increased heat. And if you go over a certain limit with the voltage, things go boom.
I'm not sure on the voltage regulator on your card, Nvidia has been pretty tight on allowing raising voltage.
The new GTX 970/980 allow a bit more room in that department. Which is why they also overclock so well.

My point is, find out the safe voltage limit, stay on it or slightly below. Only overclock by 10-20 Mhz at a time. Once you crash, go back 10-20 Mhz. Now do some longer testing, a few days perhaps. Gaming and all that jazz. If it's stable, stick to that overclock. Otherwise, come down another 10-20 Mhz.

Where do I check the safe voltage limit at?

It seems the max is 1.18v
That's probably a safe limit.
http://www.overclockers.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-746630.html

Another link that can be useful
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2014/09/15/asus_strix_gtx_750_ti_oc_edition_video_card_review/3

Check around forums where people who OC your card hangs out and hardware review sites, they usually overclock and write what their settings were. Don't expect to get exact same results, it is a silicon lottery after all.

This place is probably the best
http://www.overclock.net/t/1469814/nvidia-gtx-750ti-750-maxwell-owners-club

I had an OCed GTX 760 and read a lot of useful tips on that site.

 

[poodude28]

With increased overclock, you need to increase voltage. And with increased voltage comes increased heat. And if you go over a certain limit with the voltage, things go boom.
I'm not sure on the voltage regulator on your card, Nvidia has been pretty tight on allowing raising voltage.
The new GTX 970/980 allow a bit more room in that department. Which is why they also overclock so well.

My point is, find out the safe voltage limit, stay on it or slightly below. Only overclock by 10-20 Mhz at a time. Once you crash, go back 10-20 Mhz. Now do some longer testing, a few days perhaps. Gaming and all that jazz. If it's stable, stick to that overclock. Otherwise, come down another 10-20 Mhz.

Where do I check the safe voltage limit at?

It seems the max is 1.18v
That's probably a safe limit.
http://www.overclockers.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-746630.html

Another link that can be useful
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2014/09/15/asus_strix_gtx_750_ti_oc_edition_video_card_review/3

Check around forums where people who OC your card hangs out and hardware review sites, they usually overclock and write what their settings were. Don't expect to get exact same results, it is a silicon lottery after all.

Do I have to worry about any parts breaking as long as the temperatures are normal?

 

[mamasan2000]

Nah, shouldn't be an issue. Only if you decide to do a hardware mod that raises voltage past 1.18 would I worry about anything breaking.

But if you intend to flash your GPUs BIOS, make sure you have a backup plan if it fails.
Either onboard graphics or another card you can stick in your machine next to your gtx750ti while you reflash it. Otherwise you will have to learn how to do it blind cause your card will not display anything. A word of warning!
Also, test overclock rigorously if you intend to burn those settings to the GPU BIOS.
Another thing is to not use BIOSes others have posted. Because it has to be the exact same model, same revision, same hardware etc. Better to download their BIOS, open it up in some BIOS editor program and incorporate the changes to your own GPU BIOS-file.
I'm not sure if KeplerBiosTweaker works for your card but that is what I used.
Theres also an Nvidia GPU BIOS flash program for Windows, works good.
NVflash for Windows, if you are interested. http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/2258/nvflash-5-142-for-windows/mirrors

Heres another possibly helpful link
http://cryptomining-blog.com/1014-how-to-increase-the-geforce-gtx-750-ti-power-target-limit/

Now, why would you do this? When you can do the same with MSI Afterburner?
Well, let's say you boot into Linux...now what? =) Can't run MSI AB.
Basicly, BIOS flashing is for making the overclock permanent, don't have to rely on any programs.

If you feel nervous or uncomfortable with flashing the BIOS, don't do it. Just mentioning it as an option and hopefully some insight and tips.

 

[poodude28]

Nah, shouldn't be an issue. Only if you decide to do a hardware mod that raises voltage past 1.18 would I worry about anything breaking.

But if you intend to flash your GPUs BIOS, make sure you have a backup plan if it fails.
Either onboard graphics or another card you can stick in your machine next to your gtx750ti while you reflash it. Otherwise you will have to learn how to do it blind cause your card will not display anything. A word of warning!
Also, test overclock rigorously if you intend to burn those settings to the GPU BIOS.
Another thing is to not use BIOSes others have posted. Because it has to be the exact same model, same revision, same hardware etc. Better to download their BIOS, open it up in some BIOS editor program and incorporate the changes to your own GPU BIOS-file.
I'm not sure if KeplerBiosTweaker works for your card but that is what I used.
Theres also an Nvidia GPU BIOS flash program for Windows, works good.
NVflash for Windows, if you are interested. http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/2258/nvflash-5-142-for-windows/mirrors

Heres another possibly helpful link
http://cryptomining-blog.com/1014-how-to-increase-the-geforce-gtx-750-ti-power-target-limit/

Now, why would you do this? When you can do the same with MSI Afterburner?
Well, let's say you boot into Linux...now what? =) Can't run MSI AB.
Basicly, BIOS flashing is for making the overclock permanent, don't have to rely on any programs.

If you feel nervous or uncomfortable with flashing the BIOS, don't do it. Just mentioning it as an option and hopefully some insight and tips.

Won't be flashing anything, I need to find a good tutorial for raising voltage though.