Safely Using MSI Afterburner

[Rennn]

I've been attempting to overclock my 460 GC with MSI Afterburner. I say "attempting", because I'm not sure what's safe.

 

It's based on a version one GTX 460 768MB GDDR5, but from the factory it has a slightly overclocked core frequency and more heavily overclocked memory. I don't care much about overclocking the memory clock further, since it's already 100mhz higher than a first version stock 460. However, I'd like to overclock the core speed, which is overclocked a meager 25mhz. This brings the clock up from a stock 675, to 700mhz.

 

I've been testing and tweaking Afterburner, and it *appears* to be stable at 800mhz. That means I personally overclocked it 100mhz, with another 25mhz from the factory. Using 750mhz would be safest, ofc, but there's not much improvement so it'd be fairly pointless. However, my temps increase to 70c (too high) under load at 800mhz, unless I turn my fan above 40%, and that makes it more audible. The voltage is still locked at factory amounts, and I'm not sure it's safe or possible to unlock it. Without unlocking the voltage or increasing fan speed, I have confirmed freezes at 850mhz, but it seems to be stable at about 800mhz for a 5-8 fps gain.

 

Help?

Is it possible (and safe) to unlock my voltage, and would it increase performance?

What would be your recommended core speed?

Do I have anything to gain by increasing the memory clock? It's already at 1848mhz.

What's a safe temperature for a 460?

Edited January 6, 2013 by Rennn

[Rennn]

Okay, after increasing my fan speed, it's stable at 850mhz. That seems to be the average OC for my model online, so I think I'll stick with that.

[CommanderCrazy]

Just dont take it past about ~930 without voltage tweaks. I got a 470 stock up to 1110MHz with an aftermarket cooler and a hefty voltage up. Wasn't stable, so I just backed it to 990MHz and left it.

 

Note: this was at the very end of it's lifetime that decided to put it through it's paces like that. Wouldn't do something so stupid with a new card. For what it's worth, the 470 is still working, just superseded by newer hardware.

[Beriallord]

I highly recommend custom fan profiles at the very least for anyone doing crossfire/sli, because the stock fan profiles by the manufacturer are often inadequate for air cooling 2 GPUs, due to the top card sucking in hot air from the bottom. I got my fans running 80% at 80c, and a gradual incline in speeds relative to temperature. During heavy gaming the fans stay 80-100% fan speed. Its loud, but I usually wear headphones while gaming anyway, so I don't hear the fans.

[Dan3345]

IMO unless the temperature is getting above 80 degrees I wouldn't worry about heat too much.

 

Are you keeping the fan so low because you don't want to hear it?

[bben46]

The biggest danger is overheating. If you have the temps under control, the next thing to look at is stability. When it starts to get unstable back off a bit. Higher voltages, if you push them too much can cause damage. But you should start to see a temperature rise at the same time. Don't make big jumps, Stick with baby steps - voltage changes of .1v or less.

 

Then test with a testing program such as the FREE Furmark http://majorgeeks.com/FurMark_d4183.html

watch for instability and jumps in temperature. Again, when it gets unstable or hot back off

[blove]

I would recommend Heaven DX11 Benchmark over Furmark.

[Dan3345]

I would recommend Heaven DX11 Benchmark over Furmark.

I'll second this. Its a more realistic stress test. A crash from an overclock in furmark doesn't mean much because furmarks conditions are artificial. Heaven bench is as close to it gets for rendering an actual game and stressing it without playing a game and wasting time waiting for a crash,