what does boost clock mean?

ERIC J

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Jan 14, 2014
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With most cards they are two clock speeds in the spec of the card
what is the boost clock mean
example,
2304 CUDA Cores
980 MHz Base Clock
1033 MHz Boost Clock
 
The card will automatically boost the clock speed for you when you are using it in games to increase the performance slightly more. How much it increase depends on the temperature of the card and the gpu chip inside. Essentially it is overclocking the card for you.
 

DerpSheep89

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The Base Clock is the absolute minimum frequency the device will run at. The Boost Clock is the frequency that the card will "boost" up to when it is running at a suitable temperature. It is basically like a small overclock when available.
 

ERIC J

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Ok i understand, so say i OC it then the boost clock goes up higher?
 

DerpSheep89

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No, the system decides for you, as far as I know there is no way to control is other than overclocking it yourself.
 
Basically its a stupid restrictive system that downclocks the card when the card feels like it, you can get around it by maxing the temperature target (and prioritizing it) and power limit, and setting the maximum allowed voltage.
 

ERIC J

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Use afterburner and push the temp to max and power limit to my card's max voltage rating?
 

Yea, 'Core Voltage', 'Power Limit' and 'Temperature Limit' (prioritize this) should all be as high as they can go to avoid unnecessary underclocking. Obviously keep an eye on your temperatures as it is no longer limited by the core clock, anything under 90C is fine, but generally they wont increase that much, a few degrees at most.
 

ERIC J

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great thanks! the core voltage is locked on my card but i can adjust the temp and power limit
 

ERIC J

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got it thanks!