Beginner's Guide to Overclocking Video Cards Using ATI Tools and RivaTuner
Needed to create a simple how-to guide for overclocking video memory cards since today's newer cards are fully capable of unpretentious overclocking without damaging them, thus giving you a free general performance upgrade. However is extremely important to note; overclocking technically voids a large number of manufacturer's warranties and can cause damage to or even ruin your training video card if a high level of precaution is not taken. Information is for using overclocking utilities: ATI Tools and RivaTuner, and we will benchmarking with 3DMark06.
RivaTuner is a utility helpful to adjust GPU core voltage and memory clock connections. ATI Tools is a program for checking performance security and core temperature levels. Once you have downloaded and hooked up both utilities you will want to start with RivaTuner first. (If you should install and run 3DMark06 to test your video note cards performance prior to overclocking to see how much improvement was made please do that now. ) Timer.Live is an online countdown timer which will count for every second and notify you after the end of your preset timing.
Don't run any other applications just in case you just booted up let it process all the startup services and come back to idle Go ahead and open the RivaTuner approval. In the Target Adapter section, find the Customize arrow. Press that and then go-to Hardware Monitoring, to see what your up-to-date core temperature(s) are at and write them down. Upon getting that go ahead and open up your ATI Tools. Click Diagnose Artifacts. Let this process run for a few minutes and watch your new core temperatures in RivaTools to determine your heat range threshold and write it down under your idle core environment. Stop the artifact scan in ATI tools and also go back to RivaTuner. (If you are liquid cooled, ignore the right after step): Click Customize Driver Settings, click System Configuration settings, click the Fan tab, and then click Direct Fan Regulate. Move the slider to 100% and click Fill out an application. If the fan becomes too loud, reduce the fan quickness in small increments until you find a speed that you're accustomed to. When that's done, click Save, and name the very profile.
Next, in RivaTuner under Driver Settings click the Customize arrow then click System Settings. Click on the Overclocking tab, and click on Enable Driver-Level Overclocking. Click Save you, and name the profile.
You'll begin the overclocking by increasing the Core Clock slider 10Mhz along with click Apply, go back to your ATI Tools and press Scan for Artifacts again. If no artifacts appear from minute go back to RivaTuner and move it up another 10Mhz. Click Apply and go back to your ATI Tools in addition to click Scan for Artifacts. If no artifacts appear just as before, repeat this process until your are satisfied or until you conduct start to see artifacts. If artifacts start to appear, to come back it down 20-30Mhz wait 2 minutes and bring back to ATI Tools and click Scan for Artifacts again. Bring back to RivaTuner and check your current core temperature against your company previous temperature threshold.
Now you will want to install 3DMark06 (if you haven't already), which is benchmarking utility (used for a test run 3D graphic performance). Go ahead install and run the course, and look carefully for artifacts and instabilities. Lagging is normal and will probably always do that at some point (based on individual hardware).
If everything appears stable and no artifacts are present bring back to RivaTuner and proceed to overclocking the Memory Clock transfers. You will perform the same exact process as you did overclocking the Core Clock increasing only 10MHz at a time a better for artifacts after every increase. It is good practice to run a good 3DMark06 test every 2-3 increases to check for solidity issues. (Don't worry its OK if it crashes). As you get to a stable clock speed with no artifacts and no having an accident you will want to create a launcher. A launcher is simply a button to vary from standard clock speeds to your newly created overclocking profile.
Click on the launcher tab of Rivatuner and mouse click Add New Item (it's a green plus sign). Mouse click OK on Regular Item. Type in a name (e. g. overclock1), and then click the check boxes for That comes overclocking profile and Fan profile. In the drop down folders click for both, click both profiles you have built. Click OK to finish creating your launcher. You will use your new launcher to activate your overclocking. There is an option to apply the launcher at startup if preferred.
