Overclocking

To find the maximum overclock of our card we used a combination of GPUTool and our benchmarking suite.
The overclocks listed in this section were achieved with the default fan and voltage settings as defined in the VGA BIOS. Please note that every single sample overclocks differently, that's why our results here can only serve as a guideline for what you can expect from your card.



The overclocks of our card are 835 MHz core (2% overclock) and 1035 MHz Memory (9% overclock). Given the high out of the box clock speed of the GTX 480 Super OC it comes at no surprise that the additional overclocking potential is reduced. Compared to other GTX 480 cards, maximum clocks are well increased (GTX 480 reference: 770 MHz, ZOTAC GTX 480 Amp!: 797 MHz, MSI GTX 480 Lightning: 825 MHz).

Overclocked Performance

Using these clock frequencies we ran a quick test of Call of Duty 4 to evaluate the gains from overclocking.


The actual 3D performance gained from overclocking is 2.3%.

Temperatures

Temperatures are looking very nice for a GF100 based card. Especially the lower load temperature can help with power consumption.

Voltage Tuning

It has been a long known fact that overclocking headroom increases as soon as you increase the operating voltage. Until recently, software voltage control on VGA cards has been the exception and most users were not willing to risk their warranty by performing a soldering voltmod. Nowadays almost all current graphics cards have voltage control in order to achieve low power consumption by lowering voltage when in idle or slightly loaded.
In this section we will increase the GPU operating voltage step by step and record the maximum clock speed possible. Voltage is listed as the value that the voltage regulator reports via software, not actual measured voltage. The card was installed in-case, with fan settings at the default, memory will not be overclocked either. If a card has thermal throttling we will reduce the operating frequency to keep performance at maximum for a given voltage. Please note that the fan profile will have an effect on observed temperatures: if the card gets hotter the fan will ramp up to reduce temperatures or keep them from rising fast.

The following graph shows the overclocking potential we saw on our sample. GPU clock is represented by the blue line, which uses the vertical clock scale on the left. The scale starts at the default clock to give a feel for the overclocking potential over the base clock. Temperature is plotted in red using the °C scale on the right side of the graph. An additional graph shows the full system power draw in orange measured at the wall socket when running at the given voltage, clock & temperature.



Increasing GPU voltage help scale the maximum clock nicely, but temperatures rose quickly. Beyond 1.2 V the card runs at more than 100°C which is a clear sign that at this point you should start thinking about other forms of cooling.


Gigabyte's own overclocking software OC Guru allows voltage changes up to 1.4 V which should be sufficient for everyone. The software also lets you control the clocks, fan speed, and monitor sensors.

Clock Profiles

Modern graphics cards have several clock profiles that are selected to balance power draw and performance requirements.
The following table lists the clock settings for major performance scenarios and the GPU voltage that we measured. We measure on the pins of a coil or capacitor near the GPU voltage regulator.