i want to overclock my gtx 460 but i dont know how to interface with the computer to change the settings ,do i need some software.. afterburner......also how do i access the driver for my graphics card ,cant find any option in windoe#ws to access it ....coa before i install the latest drivers i want to un install the one i have got but cant find out how..
overclocking my gtx 460
- Thread starter greybing
- Start date
Gorman
Author Level
Msi afterburner is the utility to use.
If you dont know what you are doing you WILL damage your card and you will be on your own with it im afraid =[
Here is a quick run down of what you are up against, its talking about CPU, but the principles are the same.
Disadvantages
Many of the disadvantages of overclocking can be mitigated or reduced in severity by skilled overclockers. However, novice overclockers may make mistakes while overclocking which can introduce avoidable drawbacks and which are more likely to damage the overclocked components (as well as other components they might affect).
General
The lifespan of a processor may be reduced by higher operating frequencies, increased voltages and heat, although processors rapidly become obsolete in performance due to technological progress.
Increased clock rates and/or voltages result in higher power consumption.
While overclocked systems may be tested for stability before use using programs that "burn" the computer, these programs create an artificial strain that pushes individual or many components to their maximum (or beyond it). Some common stability programs are Prime 95, Super PI (32M), Intel TAT, LinX, PCMark, FurMark and OCCT. Stability problems may surface after prolonged usage due to new workloads or untested portions of the processor core. Aging effects previously discussed may also result in stability problems after a long period of time. Even when a computer appears to be working normally, problems may arise in the future. For example, Windows may appear to work with no problems, but when it is re-installed or upgraded, error messages may be received such as a “file copy error" during Windows Setup. Microsoft says this of errors in upgrading to Windows XP: "Your computer [may be] over-clocked. Because over-clocking is very memory-intensive, decoding errors may occur when files are extracted from the Windows XP CD-ROM".
High-performance fans used for extra cooling can be noisy. Older popular models of fans used by overclockers can produce 50 decibels or more. However, nowadays, manufacturers are overcoming this problem by designing fans with aerodynamically optimized blades for smoother airflow and minimal noise (around 20 decibels at approximately 1 metre). The noise is not always acceptable, and overclocked machines are often much noisier than stock machines. Noise can be reduced by utilizing strategically-placed larger fans, which are inherently less noisy than smaller fans; by using alternative cooling methods (such as liquid and phase-change cooling); by lining the chassis with foam insulation; and by installing a fan-controlling bus to adjust fan speed (and, as a result, noise) to suit the task at hand. Now that overclocking is of interest to a larger target audience, this is less of a concern as manufacturers have begun researching and producing high-performance fans that are no longer as loud as their predecessors. Similarly, mid- to high-end PC cases now implement larger fans (to provide better airflow with less noise) as well as being designed with cooling and airflow in mind.
Even with adequate CPU cooling, the excess heat produced by an overclocked processing unit increases the ambient air temperature of the system case; consequently, other components may be affected. Also, more heat will be expelled from the PC's vents, raising the temperature of the room the PC is in - sometimes to uncomfortable levels.
Overclocking has the potential to cause component failure ("heat death"). Most warranties do not cover damage caused by overclocking. Some motherboards offer safety measures that will stop this from happening (e.g. limitations on FSB increase) so that only voltage control alterations can cause such harm.
Some motherboards are designed to use the airflow from a standard cpu fan in order to cool other heatsinks, such as the northbridge. If the cpu heatsink is changed on such boards, other heatsinks may receive insufficient cooling.
Overclocking a PC component may void its warranty (depending on the conditions of sale).
Changing the Heatsink on a Graphics Card often voids its warranty
Incorrectly performed overclocking
Increasing the operation frequency of a component will usually increase its thermal output in a linear fashion, while an increase in voltage usually causes heat to increase quadratically. Excessive voltages or improper cooling may cause chip temperatures to rise almost instantaneously, causing the chip to be damaged or destroyed.
More common than hardware failure is functional incorrectness. Although the hardware is not permanently damaged, this is inconvenient and can lead to instability and data loss. In rare, extreme cases entire filesystem failure may occur, causing the loss of all data.
With poor placement of fans, turbulence and vortices may be created in the computer case, resulting in reduced cooling effectiveness and increased noise. In addition, improper fan mounting may cause rattling or vibration.
Improper installation of exotic cooling solutions like liquid cooling may result in failure of the cooling system, which may result in water damage.
With sub-zero cooling methods such as phase-change cooling or liquid nitrogen, extra precautions such as foam or spray insulation must be made to prevent water from condensing upon the PCB and other areas. This can cause the board to become "frosted" or covered in frost. While the water is frozen it is usually safe, however once it melts it can cause shorts and other malignant issues.
Sometimes products claim to be intended specifically for overclocking and may be just decoration. Novice buyers should be aware of the marketing hype surrounding some products. Examples include heat spreaders and heatsinks designed for chips which do not generate enough heat to benefit from these devices (capacitors, for example).
Limitations
The utility of overclocking is limited for a few reasons:
Personal computers are mostly used for tasks which are not computationally demanding, or which are performance-limited by bottlenecks outside of the local machine. For example, web browsing does not require a high performance computer, and the limiting factor will almost certainly be the bandwidth of the Internet connection of either the user or the server. Overclocking a processor will also do little to help increase application loading times as the limiting factor is reading data off the hard drive. Other general office tasks such as word processing and sending email are more dependent on the efficiency of the user than on the performance of the hardware. In these situations any performance increases through overclocking are unlikely to be noticeable.
It is generally accepted that, even for computationally-heavy tasks, clock rate increases of less than ten percent are difficult to discern. For example, when playing video games, it is difficult to discern an increase from 60 to 66 frames per second (FPS) without the aid of an on-screen frame counter. Overclocking of a processor will rarely improve gaming performance noticeably, as the frame rates achieved in most modern games are bound almost exclusively by the GPU at resolutions beyond 1024x768. One exception to this rule is when the overclocked component is the bottleneck of the system, in which case the most gains can be seen.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overclocking#Disadvantages
If you dont know what you are doing you WILL damage your card and you will be on your own with it im afraid =[
Here is a quick run down of what you are up against, its talking about CPU, but the principles are the same.
Disadvantages
Many of the disadvantages of overclocking can be mitigated or reduced in severity by skilled overclockers. However, novice overclockers may make mistakes while overclocking which can introduce avoidable drawbacks and which are more likely to damage the overclocked components (as well as other components they might affect).
General
The lifespan of a processor may be reduced by higher operating frequencies, increased voltages and heat, although processors rapidly become obsolete in performance due to technological progress.
Increased clock rates and/or voltages result in higher power consumption.
While overclocked systems may be tested for stability before use using programs that "burn" the computer, these programs create an artificial strain that pushes individual or many components to their maximum (or beyond it). Some common stability programs are Prime 95, Super PI (32M), Intel TAT, LinX, PCMark, FurMark and OCCT. Stability problems may surface after prolonged usage due to new workloads or untested portions of the processor core. Aging effects previously discussed may also result in stability problems after a long period of time. Even when a computer appears to be working normally, problems may arise in the future. For example, Windows may appear to work with no problems, but when it is re-installed or upgraded, error messages may be received such as a “file copy error" during Windows Setup. Microsoft says this of errors in upgrading to Windows XP: "Your computer [may be] over-clocked. Because over-clocking is very memory-intensive, decoding errors may occur when files are extracted from the Windows XP CD-ROM".
High-performance fans used for extra cooling can be noisy. Older popular models of fans used by overclockers can produce 50 decibels or more. However, nowadays, manufacturers are overcoming this problem by designing fans with aerodynamically optimized blades for smoother airflow and minimal noise (around 20 decibels at approximately 1 metre). The noise is not always acceptable, and overclocked machines are often much noisier than stock machines. Noise can be reduced by utilizing strategically-placed larger fans, which are inherently less noisy than smaller fans; by using alternative cooling methods (such as liquid and phase-change cooling); by lining the chassis with foam insulation; and by installing a fan-controlling bus to adjust fan speed (and, as a result, noise) to suit the task at hand. Now that overclocking is of interest to a larger target audience, this is less of a concern as manufacturers have begun researching and producing high-performance fans that are no longer as loud as their predecessors. Similarly, mid- to high-end PC cases now implement larger fans (to provide better airflow with less noise) as well as being designed with cooling and airflow in mind.
Even with adequate CPU cooling, the excess heat produced by an overclocked processing unit increases the ambient air temperature of the system case; consequently, other components may be affected. Also, more heat will be expelled from the PC's vents, raising the temperature of the room the PC is in - sometimes to uncomfortable levels.
Overclocking has the potential to cause component failure ("heat death"). Most warranties do not cover damage caused by overclocking. Some motherboards offer safety measures that will stop this from happening (e.g. limitations on FSB increase) so that only voltage control alterations can cause such harm.
Some motherboards are designed to use the airflow from a standard cpu fan in order to cool other heatsinks, such as the northbridge. If the cpu heatsink is changed on such boards, other heatsinks may receive insufficient cooling.
Overclocking a PC component may void its warranty (depending on the conditions of sale).
Changing the Heatsink on a Graphics Card often voids its warranty
Incorrectly performed overclocking
Increasing the operation frequency of a component will usually increase its thermal output in a linear fashion, while an increase in voltage usually causes heat to increase quadratically. Excessive voltages or improper cooling may cause chip temperatures to rise almost instantaneously, causing the chip to be damaged or destroyed.
More common than hardware failure is functional incorrectness. Although the hardware is not permanently damaged, this is inconvenient and can lead to instability and data loss. In rare, extreme cases entire filesystem failure may occur, causing the loss of all data.
With poor placement of fans, turbulence and vortices may be created in the computer case, resulting in reduced cooling effectiveness and increased noise. In addition, improper fan mounting may cause rattling or vibration.
Improper installation of exotic cooling solutions like liquid cooling may result in failure of the cooling system, which may result in water damage.
With sub-zero cooling methods such as phase-change cooling or liquid nitrogen, extra precautions such as foam or spray insulation must be made to prevent water from condensing upon the PCB and other areas. This can cause the board to become "frosted" or covered in frost. While the water is frozen it is usually safe, however once it melts it can cause shorts and other malignant issues.
Sometimes products claim to be intended specifically for overclocking and may be just decoration. Novice buyers should be aware of the marketing hype surrounding some products. Examples include heat spreaders and heatsinks designed for chips which do not generate enough heat to benefit from these devices (capacitors, for example).
Limitations
The utility of overclocking is limited for a few reasons:
Personal computers are mostly used for tasks which are not computationally demanding, or which are performance-limited by bottlenecks outside of the local machine. For example, web browsing does not require a high performance computer, and the limiting factor will almost certainly be the bandwidth of the Internet connection of either the user or the server. Overclocking a processor will also do little to help increase application loading times as the limiting factor is reading data off the hard drive. Other general office tasks such as word processing and sending email are more dependent on the efficiency of the user than on the performance of the hardware. In these situations any performance increases through overclocking are unlikely to be noticeable.
It is generally accepted that, even for computationally-heavy tasks, clock rate increases of less than ten percent are difficult to discern. For example, when playing video games, it is difficult to discern an increase from 60 to 66 frames per second (FPS) without the aid of an on-screen frame counter. Overclocking of a processor will rarely improve gaming performance noticeably, as the frame rates achieved in most modern games are bound almost exclusively by the GPU at resolutions beyond 1024x768. One exception to this rule is when the overclocked component is the bottleneck of the system, in which case the most gains can be seen.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overclocking#Disadvantages
Last edited:
crawlerbasher
Silver Level Poster
This reminds me of my PS3.
When I'm playing games on the PS3 for long peperiod raid of time during the winter, I don't need to have the central heating on as the PS3 produces so much heat that it can warm my room up.
For this reason I hate using it for long pearperiod id of time during the hot summers.
And is why I have it standing on the side to let the hot air raise straight up.
BTW that is brilliant peace of information.
I'd like to over clock my GPU but not got the guts to do it.
When I've over clocked my CPU I kept a very close eye on my temp and it never went past 50C.
over clocked the core clock in very small increments on the gpu,then after each small increase i put uni heaven on for a bit...ramped up the settings then went back to afterbrner to check the temp and such..no probs....though i did this i have reduced the settinggs to very close to factory settings for now.......though i felt ok doing this with the gpu ,im not gonna bother with the cpu,its not worth the small increase in power .....as i learn more ,i am going to experiment with the gpu ......everything seems fine at the moment though....i also used n monitor ........where can i find in windows the file with my gefgorce driver ,have not managed to find it .... when i install the latest drivers i want to un install the one im using now...
PaulH
Bright Spark
My 460s for benching run at 910 Core and 4200 memory, HOWEVER, i have flashed a custom BIOS onto them so i can take the voltage even higher, which I do not recommend unless your willing to pop your hand in the pocket when they pop (for reference they run daily at 0.987v 800 core) (again set by the custom flash)
But as said, charging the GFX cards up does void em
But as said, charging the GFX cards up does void em
My 460s for benching run at 910 Core and 4200 memory, HOWEVER, i have flashed a custom BIOS onto them so i can take the voltage even higher, which I do not recommend unless your willing to pop your hand in the pocket when they pop (for reference they run daily at 0.987v 800 core) (again set by the custom flash)
But as said, charging the GFX cards up does void em
which softwar shoul i use...i tried after- burner but it doesn't seem to tell you the current setting as you change them...it just has a max setting and the settings which it begins with,also how do you save settings........anyway ,i didn't like that a.b......so what is the best for beginner
so gorman are you saying dont overclock my g.card.........i need to find some overclocking software which tells you by what value you are increasing whatever cor,shader etc.....i am going to leave the voltage for know cos i have heard this is nost risky to mess with....but ,as i was saying ,in
a0burner it tells yo th max setting but not by how much you ar increasing. for eexample i want to get my gtx 460 running like paulh's but cant seem, to do that in after burner....
a0burner it tells yo th max setting but not by how much you ar increasing. for eexample i want to get my gtx 460 running like paulh's but cant seem, to do that in after burner....
My 460s for benching run at 910 Core and 4200 memory, HOWEVER, i have flashed a custom BIOS onto them so i can take the voltage even higher, which I do not recommend unless your willing to pop your hand in the pocket when they pop (for reference they run daily at 0.987v 800 core) (again set by the custom flash)
But as said, charging the GFX cards up does void em
what user friendly over clocking software dso yo recommend....one wher i will be able to tell i have myt core value[poss 9190] and memory value[poss 4200]...as i say,ill leave voltage for now or does that need to increase exponentially cos if you 're incrreasing other stuff it naturally follows that it woul;d need more power.
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2010/07/21/overclocking-nvidia-s-geforce-gtx-460/3 but i dunno if its the same for gtx 460 palit sonic.
i looked on n overclocking guide on bit tec ,specifically for the gtx 460,1gb-when it mentions they changed the core clock to 845mhz is that the same me changing the gpu core clock in nvidia inspector also to the same value,845 [is gpu clock another name for core clock] also it mentions they altered the stream processors to 1.960 [is the term stream processor another name for what nvdia inspector terms shader clock]-...in nvidia' s overclocking tool the first sliding scale is called gpu core clock, the second ,memory clock ,[which they said they changed to 1.050] and the third sliding scale is called the shader core clock.........so ,if bit tec's definitions are the same as my definitions.,,,,,will you's clarifythis for me .... and if they are could you offer advice.......bit tec said their overclock was stable and added a lot of performancer....obviously if i were to emulate bit tec i woul increase in small incremebts tahe stress test intermittently.........but it is important i clarify theirs and mine d efinitionc co i need to use the nvidia software ....tried after burner before but did not like it ....when you use sliding scale it does not tell tyou at waht value are at.....there is just a starting value and a max value [which ,incidentally alters as you move up the scae.....,i may be being mega dumb here so ,please any advics
Gorman
Author Level
Considering the other threads with all sorts of issues, i look at your "stable" claims with one raised eyebrow and a Jim Carrey "Reheheheeeeeaaallllllly?"
just thought i should say that thankfully my pc is working perfectly,dont know why but it is.So after it randoml;y started working i thought it best to reduce graphics card to factory sttings for general use though i have a few saved ,stable profiles which i have been using since the pc started behaving for a few resource heavy games and all is well....I would just like to thank anyone who has taken the time with me ,cheers all [especially sleinous,who went above and beyond the call of duty]
