Does GPU overclocking make a noticeable difference to you.

[overvolted]

What the hell? And you give yourself the nickname "overvolted"? LOL
Ofc overclocking MUST be done, its free performance! MOAR POWAHHH!

Yes, sometimes overclocking equates to free performance...other times not. Hell, sometimes it equates to a part you cant give away for free after you kill it. Ask me how I know.

I've been doing this now since it became a thing...probably when a lot of people on here were still putting out nothing more than shit diapers.
And now coming full circle, and seeing how little difference it makes in practical application, I spend a lot less time playing 3d-mark and a lot more time just enjoying games
and recording music on hardware that does things I never dreamed it would do back when I started...

Every year or so, when something comes out that appears to perform way better than I have, I buy that and I use it. But I no longer waste much time milking it for all I can get.

Besides, my video card overclocks itself, and my processor is 700mhz over where it came with just a few ticks of multiplier and no voltage increase...again something I never thought I'd see back when I started doing all this stuff...a lot of which did nothing but waste money and give me an expensive collection of paperweights. Keeping it simple is the smart way to go for me now.

Look at the responses to this thread... ^ there is a concensus here. If there is no noticeable difference, then why bother?
Lastly, you don't have to spend hours trying to squeeze out another frame per second, to be a hardware enthusiast.
You can simply enjoy the step in performance each generation brings and leave it at that.

There is a big difference between enjoying what your hardware can do, and doing your hardware.

 

[EarthDog]

Hard to call someone an enthusiast if they aren't tweaking anything and simply using it.

Seems like a PC user... like my mom.

An 'enthusiast' is defined as 'highly interested in a particular activity/subject'... can one be "HIGHLY" interested in PCs yet not tweak and overclock? I suppose, but, many would just call them a regular PC user.

 

[toyo]

Not really.

My somewhat generic 3xWindforce 1070ti from Gigabyte is not a great overclocker to be honest. Above 2050 MHz it starts to get unstable and the VRAM is from Micron and is not reliable above 350MHz or so either.

What I did like is that the OC Scanner was able to create a curve that increased the frequency on the top end (where it maters) by 60-70MHz while also keeping within the original 180W TDP. Now that was pretty impressive IMO from a technical perspective. But yeah, it's not like the fps would change a lot. I did gain 10 fps or so in some games (for example 70 fps vs 60 fps in more demanding GTA5 areas), and it's still within original power limits, so it's cool.

 

[Vayra86]

Hard to call someone an enthusiast if they aren't tweaking anything and simply using it.

Seems like a PC user... like my mom.

An 'enthusiast' is defined as 'highly interested in a particular activity/subject'... can one be "HIGHLY" interested in PCs yet not tweak and overclock? I suppose, but, many would just call them a regular PC user.

In all fairness, todays' overclocking is so basic, especially on GPUs, that you can easily call it 'regular use'. Its covered in warranty, and meticulously prepared for commercial use.

So I think its safe to say we can cut back on our perceived number of enthusiasts here...

 

[dirtyferret]

I, personally, would say anyone who feels passionately towards PCs would be an enthusiast. My wife can't make beef wellington but she is a cooking enthusiast (she watches food network, cooking channel, has subscriptions to their magazines). I may not drive a Porsche but I can be a car enthusiast by reading all the car review magazine, watching car shows, going to racing schools, etc.,

I would say someone who builds PCs, works on PCs, stays up to date on the current software, hardware, trends, news, etc., would be a PC enthusiast even if they don't OC.

 

[EarthDog]

I digress as toxic/OT posts (mine)... but my post really was in jest... sorry! There are different levels of enthusiasts...

 

[xkm1948]

2D monitor gaming, no
VR gaming, hell yes.

On my old FuryX there were no Async Reprojection support and if the frame rate dips below 90FPS it will default back to 45FPS rendering. 45FPS in VR will induce puking. Just by overclocking the FuryX a bit more I was able to maintain a higher proportion of rendering time over 90FPS. I did experiments. Without OC I can play max 2hrs of Serious Sam VR due to about 5% of the time FPS drops to 45FPS. With OC I can play until the controller battery runs out (about 6 hrs) since now only 1~2% of my playtime FPS drops to 45FPS.

Of course if the GPU has Async Reprojection I would not have such problems in the first place. Still for a "Overclocker's Nightmare" GPU it was worth it in that specific application.

 

[dirtyferret]

I digress as toxic/OT posts (mine)... but my post really was in jest... sorry! There are different levels of enthusiasts...

I think enthusiast is one of those words that can have multiple meanings to different people without there necessarily being a wrong definition .

 

[notb]

Hard to call someone an enthusiast if they aren't tweaking anything and simply using it.

Seems like a PC user... like my mom.

An 'enthusiast' is defined as 'highly interested in a particular activity/subject'... can one be "HIGHLY" interested in PCs yet not tweak and overclock? I suppose, but, many would just call them a regular PC user.

When exactly has being a "PC enthusiast" started to mean "tweaking with hardware" exclusively? Oh man... seriously? :-/

I feel sorry for people who aren't interested in anything their PC can do other than setting custom CPU frequencies...

 

[MrGenius]

Yeah it's safe because there's no headroom

Funny? Maybe. But not very.

True? Not so much(see bottom of post).

The fact is, both AMD and Nvidia are being real dicks lately with restricting their cards as far as overclocking. With Nvidia being slightly more restrictive in actuality. With AMD you can still uncap power limits through software(or rather registry hacks). And you don't hear about shunt mods on AMD cards for a reason. They aren't required. As opposed to recent Nvidia cards, with which they are(to uncap the power limits). You can also still do software volt mods(registry hack) with AMD cards. Not so with Nvidia(well...maybe with Afterburner...if the voltage regulator is supported). However, both AMD and Nvidia are getting real clever at making sure that there's really not very much(practically nothing in some cases) that you can do to bypass any of their performance restrictions. Even with hardware mods.

Which isn't REALLY as bad as it all sounds. Since, for the most part, what's going on is they're(AMD and Nvidia) releasing cards these days that are pushed much closer to their limits right out of the box. Which then ends up looking like they have no(or very little) OC headroom. More or less so depending on the card.

BTW, did you know Radeon VII is capable of 2000MHz+ on the stock cooler(and a repaste)? That's a healthy +250MHz OC. If that's not headroom...I don't know what is.

 

[Tatty_Two]

No, Besides, if you really have to overclock a video card, you should have bought the next better model.

You see for me, I see it different, whilst I agree with your comment (to a certain degree), I have to, it's a must for me, even if I don't need to for a specific game, I just like the idea of getting more, not just more but free performance, I also like the idea that with the right card you can sometimes (but I acknowledge it's becoming rarer) get close to the next highest card model for that lower price, something that gives me just a little pleasure knowing that I am near in performance for a fair bit less and all those millions of people out there who do not overclock and may have paid a fair bit more for the higher specced card in order to, like me play a particular game with a smooth framerate...… and yes I know I am shallow and perhaps in an odd minority these days.

 

[robot zombie]

GPU overclocking is boring to me with all of its power limits and what not. I'll probably never leave my CPU's and RAM alone, but I tend to pass on GPU overclocking unless some game is getting a little hitchy and I feel like the slight boost I'll see and maybe a small setting tweak can fix it. With the Strix 2060 I have now, it truly is pointless as right out of the box it boosts to 2ghz+ and goes right up to the power limit. And I mean, at that point it's already creeping up on a 2070... I could try to push it up maybe another 50-100mhz I suppose. But that's not very fun or meaningful!

I just keep running into two scenarios with GPU's. Either they're top-shelf models that boost all the way up to what the GPU's can do without mods, or they're lower/mid level models with much lower boost clocks, but no worthy cooler to speak of, so they throttle easily when pushed. And even though overclocking below the throttle point can lead to some decent gains, they're still pretty loud as room heaters. Obviously liquid cooling is always an option, but that's throwing the value side of OCing a value card out the window.

In some ways, it feels like they're phasing out overclocking and forcing you into buying the bells/whistles models to get the best performance. But on the other hand, when you buy one of those cards you are getting the absolute best performance guaranteed, no luck or trial and error involved. The value of that for someone who's versed is debatable. I could go either way with it.

Personally I think I'd prefer a more overclockable card but at this point its becoming neither here nor there. As much as I enjoy tinkering and overclocking, I've always found it strange that so many parts out there do not run at their full potential out of the box. You could take the whole concept of overclocking and flip it over to say that most things you buy are actually underclocked from factory. Obviously that's not entirely accurate. But it highlights this whole idea of working to get value that could've just been there from the start. Right or wrong, GPU's are working from that angle now, probably because higher advertised performance comes at a higher price point. Though to be fair, if they did it any other way, all of the partners would phase out their lower price point models. The factory overclocked model has to cost more to make sense. It's just unfortunate that this leaves us with few cards that can REALLY overclock, in any tier. Though I guess that nice, OC-friendly cooler has almost always made it cost more. I guess at the end of the day it amounts to a way of simplifying things. What you see is now what you get, with none of those sleeper value OC beasts of yesteryear. Bound to happen as a market becomes more mainstream and the less informed of that now much more visible market demand clearer options.

What that really means for enthusiasts truly is up for debate. I don't always know how I feel about it myself. I just look at the reality of it and choose the road that makes the most sense to me. I bought a badass factory OC'd card like a filthy casual. And I think it's great. Fortunately, overclocking isn't all there is to be a PC enthusiast. A big part of it is just being aware of the markets and knowing enough about what you're buying and what's available to build a better machine. I like to think that if you're doing it right, the machines you build are already better than what's typically available before tuning, and the tuning really just makes it that much better. Of course saving money on a good overclocker is part of that... I won't argue there. I'm more just suggesting that for an enthusiast, an overclock should not be the only thing elevating your build above the common standard. Picking parts that work well together to begin with is a real challenge, and that big picture sense of what a build is for and how everything can work together to make it better do that is something that not everybody has - it is rather something we cultivate through our longstanding, maintained interest in and dedication to PC building. Overclocking has little to do with that. Any fool can buy a CPU with a nice cooler, overclock it, and call themselves and enthusiast. But that doesn't make it so.

You see for me, I see it different, whilst I agree with your comment (to a certain degree), I have to, it's a must for me, even if I don't need to for a specific game, I just like the idea of getting more, not just more but free performance, I also like the idea that with the right card you can sometimes (but I acknowledge it's becoming rarer) get close to the next highest card model for that lower price, something that gives me just a little pleasure knowing that I am near in performance for a fair bit less and all those millions of people out there who do not overclock and may have paid a fair bit more for the higher specced card in order to, like me play a particular game with a smooth framerate...… and yes I know I am shallow and perhaps in an odd minority these days.

No, I think that is a very common sentiment among enthusiasts. The whole idea that our computers are better than your computer or your big brother's computer, even having the same parts, because we have the knowledge and skill to see the potential in them and pull it out.

 

[overvolted]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_true_Scotsman

You see for me, I see it different, whilst I agree with your comment (to a certain degree), I have to, it's a must for me, even if I don't need to for a specific game, I just like the idea of getting more, not just more but free performance, I also like the idea that with the right card you can sometimes (but I acknowledge it's becoming rarer) get close to the next highest card model for that lower price, something that gives me just a little pleasure knowing that I am near in performance for a fair bit less and all those millions of people out there who do not overclock and may have paid a fair bit more for the higher specced card in order to, like me play a particular game with a smooth framerate...… and yes I know I am shallow and perhaps in an odd minority these days.

Don't take me as some "elitist" or something. I own an ASUS strix RTX 2060 that I bought open box for 320 bucks.
But I bought it because my 1060 3gb was a piece of crap overclocked or not and couldnt play my games in a decent manner on my 34 inch 2560x1080 monitor The 2060 great without touching it.
Thing overclocks itself. But overclocked or not, it makes little difference. It's just perfect for my application.

Next year, when some game I like plays like crap on my 2060, I'll upgrade...from my own experience, overclocking a video card yields very little in practice.
Usually it causes it to degrade.

 

[EarthDog]

Usually it causes it to degrade.

Not really. With today's limitations in place from both companies, there is little reason not to overclock to stable limits. The card will last through it's useful lifespan. These cards are pretty handcuffed, sadly.

 

[phanbuey]

Not really. With today's limitations in place from both companies, there is little reason not to overclock to stable limits. The card will last through it's useful lifespan. These cards are pretty handcuffed, sadly.

Overclocking in the last 20 years of my PC experience building has always increased the useful span of the components my friends or I have used - while allegedly 'decreasing' the theoretical max life of components. I've never had a component fail because of overclocking; and my overclock are always in the 'yolo' category (as high as it can physically go without exotic cooling).

I've even sold/given handmedown rigs to friends and family and those are still going. I had a q6600 rig that was OC'd as high as it could go, gave it to my family and they just a year ago retired it. That chip ran OC'd to 3.6Ghz @ 1.52v for 11 years...

I get that it's an anecdotal example, and that degradation does occur, but I honestly would expect to see more hardware deaths in practice if degradation was as real of a risk as some people claim it is.

 

[lexluthermiester]

I could try to push it up maybe another 50-100mhz I suppose. But that's not very fun or meaningful!

I'm with you there, it's not like 10-15 years ago when GPU's could easily hit a 30% OC and sometimes even 50%+. Now it's generally impossible to OC to 30% unless you severely modify your card, which has it's risks.

that degradation does occur, but I honestly would expect to see more hardware deaths in practice if degradation was as real of a risk as some people claim it is.

It is exaggerated. Electron migration and migation is still a thing, but not nearly like it used to be. Everyone who makes IC's have engineered that problem out of the design of processors of all types.

 

[las]

Funny? Maybe. But not very.

True? Not so much(see bottom of post).

The fact is, both AMD and Nvidia are being real dicks lately with restricting their cards as far as overclocking. With Nvidia being slightly more restrictive in actuality. With AMD you can still uncap power limits through software(or rather registry hacks). And you don't hear about shunt mods on AMD cards for a reason. They aren't required. As opposed to recent Nvidia cards, with which they are(to uncap the power limits). You can also still do software volt mods(registry hack) with AMD cards. Not so with Nvidia(well...maybe with Afterburner...if the voltage regulator is supported). However, both AMD and Nvidia are getting real clever at making sure that there's really not very much(practically nothing in some cases) that you can do to bypass any of their performance restrictions. Even with hardware mods.

Which isn't REALLY as bad as it all sounds. Since, for the most part, what's going on is they're(AMD and Nvidia) releasing cards these days that are pushed much closer to their limits right out of the box. Which then ends up looking like they have no(or very little) OC headroom. More or less so depending on the card.

BTW, did you know Radeon VII is capable of 2000MHz+ on the stock cooler(and a repaste)? That's a healthy +250MHz OC. If that's not headroom...I don't know what is.

Yes I know - I also know that the card is hitting almost 50dB stock, with 3000+ RPM on all 3 fans. I've tried one. Reminded me of 290X reference, in terms of noise.

With watercooling, Radeon VII is probably nice. Still hoping for custom cards.

I was mainly speaking about Fury X and Vega 64 tho. Pretty much zero headroom and watt usage went up like crazy for 1-2 more fps.

 

[SoNic67]

My RX 580 accepted 5% of OC on GPU and 10% on memories. My GTX1080 accepted 6% on GPU and 10% on memories. This being absolutely stable and not crazy loud/hot.
Now, did they make a difference? Sure... 5% more FPS
Do I "feel" that? Absolutely not.

In fairness, both cards are already OC from factory.

 

[John Naylor]

When we talk about GPU OCing, have to make sure what we are talking about ....

A. When we say "I overclocked my core 20% and memory 10%", that might mean and fps increase of just 10%

B. When we say "I overclocked my core 20% and memory 10%", that's gong to mean very different things with a reference card, what level of AIB card or is this a tricked out card (Lightning, Classified or Matrix) ?

So for the sake of discussion, and kudos to the OP, it's always best to talk about % increase in fps ... and furthermore, if comparing models and manufacturers, % incrase over the reference card. TPUs charts just have reference cards for all but the card under review.

The discussion also will depend on what series and what manufacturer.... everything was pretty much comparable till the nVida 7xx / AMD 7xxx series. Then when AMD went to 2xx, everything chnaged; the cards were very aggressively OC'd in the box ... so when the 290x went up in single digits, the 780 would do up almost 30%. TPUs charts gave the 290x the win, but when both cards were at max OC, the 780 dominated across the board. We saw that again with the 9xx series ... with the 980 Ti, + 32% fps was attainable without difficulty where is the Fury X was mired in single digits.

With the 10xx series and Boost 3, things got more quirky and with 20xx, it seems nVidia seeking to negate the hit of RT, has gotten more aggressive in the "in the box" clocking. Right now most of the 20xx series is not all that impressive in this respect. The increase in fps from on the AIB 2080 Ti's in TPUs OC test ranged from 12% (over the reference) on the EVGA X Ultra to 22% for the MSI Lightning

And also... what is the overclock measurement ? Are we talking stock reference model.... vendor OC in the box or manual OC ? The 980 Ti reference hit 102 fps in TPUs OC test, some models were a hair under 140 fps. That's only an 11% OC when the AIB vendor is done with his factory OC but is 37% over reference. This has to be taken into account when one manufacturer's AIB partners are putting on 20+% Ocs in the box and the other is doing mostly single digits.

And yes, 30% is noticeable, more so than the difference in fps in and of itself. .... with say 70 fps avg, I might be inclined to leave G-Sync on ... but with ya average up 30% near 90 fps, I would definitely be turning G-Sync OFF and using ULMB.

With the 20xx series however, we are seeing much more modest OCs, with OCs ranging (over reference) from ...

2080 - 9% with the FE to 16% on the MSI Gaming X Trio
2080 Ti -11% with the FE to 17% on the MSI Gaming X Trio (22% w/ the $$$$$ Lightning)

In most cases that's going to be hard to detect at the low end and sometimes detectable, mostly when ya pass certain thresholds, at the high end.

Note that all these numbers are based upon % increases in FPS .... this is a fraction of what we are seeing in core / memory speeds

The default Boost Clock for the 2080Ti is 1545 MHz and the default memory speed is 1750 MHz . In TPUs OC test on the highest clocked AIB card ( MSI Gaming X Trio) that wasn't (Matrix, Lightning, Classified level of being tricked out) they managed a 2,085 boost clock, (+ 35 %) OC and a 2005 memory OC (+ 15 %) which netted only a 17% increase in fps. It also is important to note that the highest core / memory OC's never corresponss to the highest fps. The Trio's core OC was in 5th place among the 7 cards in the roup ... memory OC was a tied for 3rd place finish. The highest core OC (Zotac Amp 2,145) was a 4th place finish in fps; the highest memory OC (Asus Strix) was a 3rd place finish in fps.

 

[Mr_Headshot]

Since I have the Asus Strix GTX 1080 Ti OC edition, there's not much headroom for me to OC. I've successfully OC'd the card from its factory 1708mhz to 1747mhz and the memory from 11100 to 11135. Not much difference in this particular card. However, I always OC my graphics cards and watch the temperature closely. Because I use headphones I crank up the GPU fans to 100%, everything maxed out on Apex Legends and Blackout and highest temperature I've recorded is 63C. So to answer your question, OC ing a GPU can improve performance but you void the warranty and must watch temperature closely.

 

[ChristTheGreat]

I remember my old 6600, overlcocked from 300/550 to 510/615, that was a really nice OC

I would say my last card I had with a big OC that I was seeing a difference, was my 7950 and my 7970.

My R9 290, RX 570, GTX 1060, GTX 1070, I don't see that mmuch difference, because of the boost clock

 

[ArbitraryAffection]

I am extremely enthusiastic about PC hardware. I love the Processors. The CPUs and the GPUs, the logic and circuitry and I love to understand how all the billions of transistors switching on and off, taking those 0's and 1's togetther and giving us beautiful game worlds we can be immersed and lost in. That is my passion really.^^

I overclock a lot, but mainly to push the highest Scoar in benchmarks In gaming, i used to, until i realised the extra heat isnt really worth it, its not making a noticeable difference to games i am playing. But for benches?? Hell yeah I overclock the crap out of everything/ Every MHz counts

Now that I am crunching I have dropped CPU overclockign entirely, (again aside from benching). But with my 2700X it is so good at stock with PBO that manual OC on my cooler at least, is pointless.^-^

I love to think of myself as an enthusiast, but in my eyes the best way to get more FPS with a meaningful amount in gaming is to buy a better graphics card At least with the cards i am using. GTX 980 Ti is a huuuge exception to the rule for me, as this beast is 25%+ faster with OC. sometimes more, you can feel that. I have owned 5 GTX 980 Tis in my time. I am not kidding. Two ref, one Palit, one Giga, and one Zotac AMP Ex. the best was the Giga. She was a Windforce and I took her to 1560 Mhz rock solid in games. Over a stock 980 Ti boost average once heated of 1150 Mhz, this is a 35% increase in clock rate alone. Taking into consideration she also took her memory to 8000Gbps that is another 14% increase in bandwidht. over reference this card is ~35-40% faster. That is truly remarkable and I think 980 ti deserves title as the best overclocking GPU of all time

Sorry i loved my Giga windforce 980Ti. one of the best cards i owned. Up there with my Sapphire Nitro R9 390. I had to sell her though R.I.P my dear. i hope you are out there being run at 1560mhz in someone's rig~ you made me proud *cries tear of nostalgia*

Btw 980 Ti was objectively a superior card in every single respect to R9 Fury X. I think even if the cooling is TOP NOTCH, it was not accurate to call fury X an "overclocker's dream", because the core overclocekd like pants. I mean 50-100Mhz tops without serious voltage increase and instability.

It's like saying "this is the fastest car in the world, because it has the tyres to go super fast. But it's got a 1.4L fiat panda engine..." Well not quite. But you get the idea.

Fury X needed Ln2 to match overclocked best water 980 Ti results. This is hilarious honestly, and that is 1400mhz ln2 fury X vs 1600Mhz 980 Ti on water loop, i think even some cards did this on AIR, (980Ti can easily match GTX 1080 once OC, wish i kept mine).



Sorry for long post^^

 

[John Naylor]

I would say my last card I had with a big OC that I was seeing a difference, was my 7950 and my 7970.

My R9 290, RX 570, GTX 1060, GTX 1070, I don't see that mmuch difference, because of the boost clock

The 980 Ti did 32% ...that was quite a big deal ... and that was fps not clocks. ... the 780s and 560 Tis also did 27-28% in FPS when overclocked.

Starting the the 290 series, AMD started very agressively overclcoking their cards in the box so couldn't do much manually. Never understood why nVidia didn't follow suit other then with higher in Box Ocs, more RMAs. However with the 20xx series cards 1. nVidias OCs are not all that impressive. ... and certainly, 2. the increase in fps is far less then the OC on the cards and 3. highest clocks does not - highest fps.