Overclocking sounds scary, but you might be surprised at how simple and safe the process is. No, your PC will not explode. Instead, it can help you get more FPS in games and other graphics-intensive applications.
Have you considered overclocking your graphics card before? If you’re not sure where to start, read on as we’ll teach you how to overclock your GPU in Windows.
What is overclocking?
The term “overclock” refers to the ability of a PC to increase the clock speed of a component above its default or standard speed.
Components such as the Central Processing Unit (CPU) and Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) operate at a certain clock speed. Clock speed is a specification that indicates how fast such components can perform various tasks, and is typically measured in megahertz (MHz).
Overclocking your computer means manually changing the clock speeds of the CPU and GPU to achieve higher performance. It’s generally safe to do so as long as you follow the proper steps and don’t exceed the clock speed limits too much.
Before moving on to the actual steps for overclocking, here are some technical terms you should be familiar with:
- Central Clock (CC): Determines the speed at which 3D objects are rendered in games. The higher the core clock, the better the GPU will perform in tasks that require a lot of processing power, such as gaming or playing videos.
- Memory Clock (MC): The GPU stores some data, such as textures and graphic details, in its memory. And the memory clock measures the speed at which the GPU accesses said data from its memory.
- core voltage: Core voltage measures the power allocated to the CPU or GPU. Increasing the core voltage can help stabilize and improve the performance of a component, but it can also cause it to generate more heat.
Now that you know some technical terms related to overclocking, you are ready to overclock the graphics card in your PC.
Step 1 – Choose an overclocking program
You need a special program to overclock your computer correctly. There are many different utilities on the Internet for overclocking, each with its own capabilities and features.
We will be using MSI Afterburner for this guide as it supports almost all AMD and NVIDIA GPUs. Afterburner has a user-friendly interface and is stable when it comes to overclocking.
Before we continue, there are a few things to remember. First of all, if your GPU is stuffed into a small case and the fan speed settings are not set, overclocking it will cause it to overheat, eventually causing your PC to shut down. Second, when you run Afterburner, you should regularly check your GPU temperature to make sure it’s in an optimal zone.
Discharge: MSI Afterburner (Free)
Step 2 – Stress tests ensure the overclocking stability of your GPU
Stress tests ensure the overclocking stability of your GPU. If your overclocking is not stable, your PC will encounter a variety of graphics problems.
MSI Kombustor is one such program that you can use to test the stability of your overclock setup. Offers benchmarking and stress test options. Additionally, it provides a comprehensive FPS and benchmark score to measure your GPU performance.
We strongly recommend taking proper precautions, such as preventing your computer from overheating, before overclocking its components.
Discharge: MSI Kombustor (Free)
Step 3: Overclock your GPU using MSI Afterburner
Now that you’ve selected an overclocking program and a benchmarking or stress test tool, it’s time to start overclocking your GPU.
We recommend creating a restore point in Windows before overclocking to be extra safe if things go wrong. A restore point allows you to undo any changes you’ve made to your system in case of problems while overclocking.
This is how you can overclock with MSI Afterburner:
- Open MSI Afterburner and navigate to your Settings tab (indicated by a gear icon).
- Under the General window, check the boxes next to Unlock voltage control Y Unlock Voltage Supervision.
- Click Request Y okay to save the changes. After this, MSI Afterburner will restart.
- Click on the A Button to disable automatic control. Get into 70 in the text box next to Fan speed (%).
- increase the Core Clock (MHz) slider by a small amount (for example, +20). Similarly, increase the Memory Clock (MHz) slider by +10.
- Click the check or check button at the bottom of MSI Afterburner to apply the changes.
You’re not done yet. You should know how to run a stress test or benchmark to see if the changes are stable.
You can try increasing the limits if the test passes without any problems. However, if the test fails or the GPU crashes, lower the clock speed and try again.
If you want to give more power to the CPU and GPU to slightly increase performance, increase the default value Core voltage (%) by +5 or +10 only.
Overclocking is mostly a trial and error process that requires a lot of time and patience. You should gradually increase the Core and Memory Clock settings after testing system stability after each step.
Step 4 – Stress test your GPU
Stress tests allow you to determine the stability of your GPU at the new clock speed and ensure that it does not exceed its limits.
Follow these steps to stress test your GPU:
- Open MSI Kombustor and change the Resolution field to match the resolution of your monitor.
- Click RUN stress test and let the test run for at least 5 minutes.
- Monitor GPU temperature during stress test. Your GPU temperature should not exceed 90C.
While the test is running, open MSI Afterburner and start uploading the Core Clock (MHz) by +20 after each test. So if the previous value in the Core Clock box was 20, it should now be +40.
Do the same with Memory Clock (MHz) too. You must add +10 MHz to the existing value. Once you have tuned both the core clock and the memory clock, run the stress test again to verify any performance gains.
If you start experiencing lag and image glitches, don’t panic because it’s completely normal. It means that the current values ​​in MSI Afterburner are too high, so you should lower both values ​​to a safe level and save the changes.
If you encounter issues like shutdowns or BSOD, you should restart your PC and reduce overclock settings. PC crashes due to overclocking do not imply a serious failure of the PC or GPU; you can quickly solve this problem by changing the overclock settings.
Step 5: Run a benchmarking test
Benchmarking is slightly different from stress testing. Benchmarking allows you to measure the performance of your GPU by running a series of tests and providing a score. On the other hand, stress testing tools put your GPU under a heavy load to see how it performs under such conditions.
Once you’ve tested your GPU and made sure it’s stable at the new clock speed, you can run a benchmark test to see the performance improvements.
This is how you can compare with MSI Kombustor:
- Open MSI Kombustor on your PC.
- Check the checkbox next to Fullscreen.
- Choose the benchmarking option that matches your screen resolution. Click REFERENCE POINT to start benchmarking.
Remember to monitor your GPU’s temperature during the overclocking process and make sure it doesn’t exceed its maximum temperature rating.
Apart from MSI Kombustor, there are also many other useful benchmarking tools. Therefore, be sure to try one of them on your PC.
Step 6 – Save your overclocking settings to a profile
Now that you know the best settings for your GPU, it’s time to save your settings so that MSI Afterburner can apply them on boot.
The settings are very easy to save as profiles, and you can use them to put your GPU into an overclocked state with a single click.
To save a configuration preference, click the Save (indicated by a floppy disk in MSI Afterburner) and select a number. To load that same configuration, click on the number and press the Request button.
Overclock your GPU for better frame rates
Overclocking may seem like a dangerous way to squeeze more juice out of your graphics card. But if you followed our instructions correctly, you’ll know that it’s a safe procedure for the most part.
Overclocking your GPU is a right, and those who bother to learn about graphics card overclocking can stretch their GPUs further than ever before.