Overclocking the graphics card: the correct steps to do this and raise the performance of games

 

Playing video games on a computer is certainly great, but sometimes issues like stuttering or jittering occur while playing; Which leads to losing the fun of the game.

 

The traditional solution to these problems, which is recommended by even computer manufacturers, is to reduce the graphics settings of the game to match the capabilities of the device, especially the graphics card.

 

But this will also cause you to lose the fun of the game as long as you don't get the graphics in high definition. The ideal solution is to either invest some money in buying a professional external graphics card, or overclock the current graphics card without having to spend any penny on a new graphics card.

 

The matter is simply to raise the graphics card's frequencies and thus raise its performance to match the smooth running of games. Although this process takes a long time; However, it is easy and does not require any advanced skills, and this is because the process is based on software and not hardware so that you will not need to do anything with the graphics card except to change some numbers through a program on the computer.

 

If you intend to do that, you are in the right place. Here is the guide to breaking the speed of the screen card and improving the performance of games in a correct manner without causing any harm. We also provided you with a topic about overclocking the processor.

 

Important note: Any error may damage the graphics card or other components of the computer. Therefore, the application of any of the steps listed below is at your own risk, and we disclaim all responsibility for any damage that occurs. So, you should research and delve deeper into the subject along with the article that we will present to you

 

What you need to know before you overclock your graphics card

 

Before starting anything, there are a few things you should keep in mind before even thinking about overclocking your graphics card. The most important of these things is "heat". Since you are increasing the performance of the graphics card from the default limit; means that you will also need to raise the power consumed by the card used, and this results in a significant increase in temperature. So, make sure to provide proper ventilation for the graphics card so that it does not get damaged after overclocking. It is also important to know that not any graphics card can be overclocked, as the process is best on discrete graphics cards based on the PCI-Express port in desktop computers as they are advanced and more streamlined for overclocking. But we do not recommend doing this on laptop graphics cards, whether AMD or Nvidia and certainly overclocking the Intel graphics card is a fantasy.

 

We will also need some software to get this process right. The first program is Unigine Heaven, which will perform tests on the graphics card to see the level of performance, where we will make a Benchmark before and after overclocking to see if there is an actual change in performance or not. This program was specifically chosen because it displays important statistics and results such as the real speed of the card, temperature, number of frames per second...etc. It is also very easy to use. It is completely optional, as you can use any Benchmark program you wish.

 

The second program is MSI Afterburner, which is essential here as it controls the graphics card's settings and speeds it up. And don't be fooled by the name, it's aimed yes at the MSI graphics card but it works just as well on any other GPU-based graphics card from AMD or Nvidia. It is completely free and has a strange user interface that may seem complicated but it is easy as we will see. You may also need the GPU-Z tool to see real-time overclocking results, as it monitors any changes to the graphics card.

 

First: a quick Benchmark to see the actual performance

 

Now you know what any user should know before overclocking the graphics card, and if you are ready for that, you should first conduct a test to verify the actual performance of the graphics card currently so that we can make sure that there is a real change in the performance of the graphics card. And you can use the recommended Unigine Heaven program, which performs some 100% graphical CPU-resource-consuming reviews to see the maximum performance level reached. Only after running the program, press the "Benchmark" button at the top left or press F9 and wait about 5 or 10 minutes for the test to finish and the results will be displayed immediately. Save these results by clicking the "Save" button so that you compare them with the new results after overclocking.

 

Second: Start overclocking the graphics card via Afterburner

 

Let's move now to the most important part of this article, which is overclocking the graphics card. As indicated in the previous lines, we will adopt the MSI Afterburner program to complete this process and it is very simple to use, as you download and install it like any normal program, then run it to show you an interface divided into 3 parts, starting from the left you will find an interactive panel that displays the card speed and memory Consumed at the moment, then in the middle you will find the basic control options that we will change, and on the right is another interactive panel that displays the power that the graphics card is currently consuming in addition to the temperature.

 

Regardless of the chaos that the program's graphic interface looks like, there are only 3 changes that we will focus on: Core Clock, Memory Clock, and Core Voltage. This first represents the graphics processing speed in the card, the second represents the speed of VRAM in the graphics card, and the last controls the amount of power - in volts - that is withdrawn from the computer's power supply (power supply). Keep in mind that changing any of these values ​​incorrectly can make the graphics card and the computer in general unstable. So make sure to change these settings gently until you encounter a stability problem, after that you undo the last change made to reach the highest speed with a stable stability ratio. Knowing that by default MSI Afterburner does not allow you to change the amount of power (Core Voltage), but you can activate this by clicking on the "gear" icon and from the "MSI Afterburner properties" window, select the Unlock control control option and press Save.

 

To overclock, you have to change the value of the Core Clock first and the Memory Clock second, increasing both of them by 10MHz, and then pressing the "Right" sign to apply the settings in real life! If nothing happens like overheating or the device automatically shutting down, do the process again, go into the program and raise both values by another 10MHz.

 

After doing that a few times, run the GPU-Z program and note the new values for the graphics card's performance. After the changes made via Afterburner, it is assumed that you will find a difference between the value displayed in the Clock Default and the GPU Clock, where the first means the default speed of the GPU, and the second means the actual speed of the GPU after overclocking, it should be greater as shown in the image above. The difference does not affect the speed of the processor, but also the video memory, which should increase slightly. Now run Unigine Heaven for Benchmarking and you should notice an increase in FPS.

 

If things are going smoothly and there is no problem, then open Afterburner and upload the Core Clock and Memory Clock again, note the differences and changes in GPU-Z and test the performance. Continue on this until problems begin to occur in the computer, such as the failure of the graphics card to work, or the appearance of the blue screen, or noticing instability in performance when running the Benchmark. When this happens, you can revert to the last value you set for Core Clock and Memory Clock where performance was completely stable. Alternatively, you can raise the Core Voltage or the amount of power so that the graphics card is able to operate at higher frequencies. You can raise the Core Voltage in Afterburner by 5mV and then make a Benchmark, you should notice better stability in performance without suffering from any overclocking issues.

 

I want you to keep in mind that when you raise the Core Voltage, the temperature of the graphics card is also raised almost double. So keep an eye on the temperature via Afterburner itself or through Unigine Heaven. Knowing that you can increase the card's cooling fan speed via the Fan Speed control bar in Afterburner, but we don't recommend doing that - I leave it in "Auto" mode because the graphics card will increase the speed of its cooling fans automatically whenever it needs ventilation, as Built-in temperature sensors detect the need to do this.

 

Generally, after you reach the value of the Core Clock, Memory Clock, and Core Voltage, which is no longer accepted by the device, perhaps because the temperature is too high or because many problems and malfunctions have appeared, you can return to the last values where things were completely stable without Problems, and these are the final values for overclocking your computer's graphics card.

 

Third: Do a proficiency test and make sure everything is in order after overclocking

 

After you've completely patched your graphics card and found the best overclocking settings, we recommend running Unigine Heaven for a final Benchmark but just letting it run for an hour or two straight, this is the test that lets you see if the card's performance is stable and will stay that way with gaming sessions Long term or stability issues will arise. Once you have passed an hour or two without experiencing any problems, this ensures that you have successfully overclocked completely. our end !.

 

Fourth: Save these settings in Afterburner

 

Note that the settings and values you set in Afterburner will no longer be static or basic, but you can at any time return everything to its default and undo the overclock without any complications. To make things even easier, Afterburner provides Profiles, meaning that you save the selected overclocking settings, and you can enable or disable them with the click of a button. This is very useful to maintain the integrity of the graphics card. When you perform simple work, you do not need a graphics card to do heavy work, while when playing games, you can activate the overclocking settings to get better performance.

 

All you have to do is look at the bottom-right corner of the program's interface, and then make sure that the "lock" icon is activated. After that, click on the "Save" icon, which is in the form of a floppy disk, and you will notice the five profile icons flashing in red, click on the file number 2 to save the overclocking settings in it, then click on the file number 1 to be dedicated to the default settings. This way, you can easily click on file #1 to return the graphics card to its normal state, and click on file #2 to apply overclocking settings when you play.