How to Overclock Your Graphics Card

Overclocking of graphics card is the process to increase the speed of GPU or Graphics Card, in which it functions! So, the performance of the graphics card can improve. All graphics cards are set to operate at a certain speed, known as the base clock, but most of the card has the potential to surpass the manufacturers’ speed. Here we will see How to Overclock Your Graphics Card!

When you are overclocking any component, it means you are increasing its clock rate. The overclocking usually applies to CPU and GPU, but you can overclock some other components also. When you increase the clock rate of any component, it will emit additional heat, but you can get more performance out of your component, just you need additional cooling and care.

Here we have composed step by step instruction to overclock your graphics card. By the end of these steps, you will be confident to overrate your graphics card and safely perform it.

Steps to Overclock Your Graphics Card

Before starting the overclocking process, you should understand what exactly overclocking do to your graphics card! Overclocking will increase the performance by boosting the speed of the graphical processor.

Every graphic card is different; some of the cards may be overclocked to a higher speed than some other cards safely. It is necessary to test your overclocking speed to find the sweet spot. Never try to push too hard with overclocking software, as it can result in graphical glitches, or even your computer may crash.

But you can set your clock speed down to a safe level if this happens. It is always best to start steadily and slowly and make your way until you notice any issues. So, let’s move to steps to overclock your graphics card with MSI afterburner:

Step 1. Prepare Your Overlocking Software

You will find a few sets of software to overclock your graphics card. First of all, you need software that can be used to overclock the card, and secondly, you will need software to perform a stress test to your system so that you can check the new settings you have set are stable.

In some cases, you may also need one more software that can monitor your card temperature. The MSI afterburner already does this, but it is advisable to have the external software minimize the system tray. So, prepare your software:

• • Overlocking Software – Download MSI afterburner from MSI.com.
• • Stress Testing Software – You can download Heaven Benchmark.
• • Temperature & Voltage Monitoring Software – You can download GPU temp.

Step 2. Getting Started to Overlock Your Graphics Card

Open up your MSI Afterburner, and there are many afterburner elements that you need to take care of while performing the overclocking. Here are the main components of afterburner:

• • Core Clock Speed – It is the speed you are overclocking.
• • Memory Clock Speed – This can be overclocked after testing the core clock.
• • Control Panel – It provides the interface to overclock your graphics card core clock, memory clock, and fan speed.
• • Temperate Meter – Here, you will find the temperature of your GPU.

Run a base test

Now, it’s time to open up Heaven stress testing software, and you can run a base test to check how your graphics card performs on default settings. And follow these steps:

1. Install Heaven stress testing software, and run Heaven Benchmark latest version from your Start Menu.
2. When you get into Heaven Benchmark, click Run.
3. Click on the Benchmark Button on Top Left to start the process of the benchmark.
4. Series of tests will run, and you will get to see the temperatures, frames, graphics clock, and memory clock during the trial.
5. Your GPU temperature will reach a specific temperature and will stay at that temperature during the test. Please note it, as this information is essential as it provides insight into how much room for overclocking you have.
6. The test will run for ten minutes approx and pay close attention to the stats during the trial.
7. Take the note of the following:

• • Temperature during test
• • FPS at the end of the test
• • Score at the end of the test

Step 3. Start Overclocking Your Graphics Card

You have done a few tests, and you have got the base score and insight of a few things. Its time to overclock your graphics card.

1. Open up MSI Afterburner and click on the Settings Icon.
2. You may be needed to restart your computer, so bookmark it so you can quickly come back to it.
3. Click on the General Tab, in MSI Afterburner and tick – Unlock Voltage Control, Unlock Voltage Monitoring, & Force Constant Voltage.
4. Apply the setting and click OK, you will be notified to restart the PC, Click OK.
5. After your PC has restarted, come back to MSI Afterburner and Heaven again.
6. And perform these things:

• • Slide your temperature limit to 87%, and your power limit percentages will also go up.
• • Set core voltage slider to extreme right. The percentage you get will vary as per your graphics card.
• • And, click the Check Button, below the sliders.

These settings will ensure that you have the highest clock speed, and at the same time, you will stay within the safe temperature range.

Step 4. Perform Stress Test of Your Graphics Card

1. Once you have got Optimal MSI Afterburner settings, move the core clock slider to the right. Add +23 to the original number and click Check Button.
2. Now run Benchmark and click the Benchmark button again & go through the test results again. You will observe your score improves slightly as compared to last time.
3. You will observe the 1-2 degrees of improvement in temperature during the test.
4. Now, you will have to push your graphics card to the limit and apply the steps below to overrate your graphics card to full potential:

• • You can add 20-30 to your clock speed.
• • Rerun your Benchmark, click the Benchmark, and complete all scenes.
• • In case your computer doesn’t crash, and there are no graphical glitches, it is the time to repeat it from step 1.

In case your system crashes, or you observe some other problems, that is entirely normal. Just open your MSI Afterburner and lower the clock speed by 30. This can be your optimal clock speed.

Step 5. Final Step to Overclock Your Graphics Card

1. Now you have almost completed overlocking your card. You can follow the steps above for your memory card as well. Most of the graphics cards have enough memory to perform this operation.
2. When you have completed overclocking, click the Save icon in MSI Afterburner, and using the numbers to that slot to save your settings.
3. You can now automatically load these settings while performing any task requiring high graphics resolutions, like playing games.
4. You can now try out your overclocked graphics card for games, or any other operation requiring high graphical resolution. In case you observe any glitches or experience crashes, click the Reset Button and set back Default Settings.

You have learned how to overclock your graphics card for improved performance, and now we will see various other benefits of overclocking the graphics card. We will also go through the downside of the overclocking.

The Final Words!

We have composed the complete step by step instructions to overclock your graphics card. If you follow these well-explained steps, you can easily able to overclock your graphics card for improved performance.

Overclocking is the process of improving your graphics card’s performance, but at the same time, there is some downside related to it. Although these not that serious and you can quickly restore the default settings. What you are waiting for! Start overclocking your graphics card and see the difference.