One of the easiest options for overclocking is the software that the immensely popular manufacturers AMD and Nvidia offer themselves for any users that want to overclock their graphics cards. These apps are free, specifically designed for their GPU brands, and include a variety of helpful options for managing performance. Unless you really want to spend time tweaking exactly how your GPU runs, this is probably the best option to start with.
For Nvidia, you can download the GeForce Experience app. While it started as a game streaming app, Nvidia has added a wide variety of other features to experience over time, including overclocking tools (you may need to enable Experimental Features to download all the latest updates). Like Radeon Performance Tuning, it also offers a one-click tuning option that gamers may find useful.
Nvidia Overclock Tool
When it comes to third-party tools, MSI Afterburner is the ideal choice for most overclockers. The software allows for in-depth customization of GPU settings that are presented in an easy-to-understand manner. Gamers can use it to adjust clock frequency, voltage, and fan speed while monitoring key GPU performance indicators to watch for any problems.
Asus also brings a powerful overclocking app to the table. The UI for the GPU Tweak II is particularly friendly, dividing choices between an overclock mode, gaming mode, silent mode (for music and video performance without noisy fan), and a My Profile section for saving all your customizations.
In a new beta release of GeForce Experience, version 3.20.5 (opens in new tab), Nvidia has added a boatload of new features to the program, including one-click GPU overclocking and a fully-featured GPU monitoring tool, brining the company up to speed with some of the features enabled in AMD's Adrenalin suite. The update also includes support for 8K 30FPS HDR shadowplay recordings via the NVENC encoder on RTX 30 series GPUs.
To see all the new GPU monitoring and overclocking tools, head over to your GeForce Experience application and enable "Experimental Features" to get the update for yourself. Once the update is installed, press "alt+Z" or whatever key you have bound to open the GeForce Experience overlay. Next, head over to the "Performance" tab, and voila, you can access all the new monitoring + OC features.
The Performance Monitoring area shows off a ton of information regarding GPU specifications, like power consumption, fan speed, temperature GPU, clock speeds, etc. You also get other info like CPU utilization and a frame rate counter that measures average FPS and 1% lows. Moving on to the GPU overclocking area, it's really simple as it can be. Simply click on the slider next to "Enable Automatic Tuning," and this will automatically overclock your GPU for the best performance.
If we compare those results to my manual overclocking with MSI Afterburner, I can push the GPU core to a +100mhz core offset, and memory +500mhz at the very minimum. The OC is almost stable, the only issue I've encountered is one artifacting glitch in Rise of the Tomb Raider that never appeared again (strangely).
Moving on, the last part of the monitoring tools is an overlay you can enable with the keybinding "ALT+R." This option opens up an OSD with the same information as in the performance menu, but you can choose between a "basic" or "advanced" mode. The basic mode includes FPS, CPU, and GPU utilization data. But, if you switch over to advanced mode, the information extends to GPU power, GPU voltage, Fan Speed, GPU temperature, memory, and GPU clock speeds.
Overall I'm impressed with these new features from Nvidia; they work flawlessly (even in the beta), and you don't have to worry about using 3rd party OSDs anymore. Finally, Nvidia graphics card owners have a counterpart to AMD's Radeon OSD with its new adrenaline drivers. Again, if you want to grab this new update right now, head over to your GeForce Experience app and enable "Experimental Features." The new update supports GTX 900 series GPUs and higher, but the automatic overclocking utility is limited to RTX 20- and 30-series graphics cards.
GPU overclocking is the process of boosting your graphics card performance using third-party software. You can push your GPU to deliver better performance, though there is a fine line between boosting performance and potentially damaging your hardware.
It's a free piece of software with a range of features (mainly the GPU overclocking) and a custom fan profile for a perfect balance of performance and cooling. You'll also get real-time reports of voltage, GPU usage, temperatures, and clock speeds, both on your screen and available through the integrated hardware monitor.
RivaTuner is another popular GPU overclocking app. You can use RivaTuner to tweak and manage your system's RAM, fan speed, and performance, plus to overclock almost NVIDIA GPUs and a limited number of AMD graphics cards.
It may not be as visually appealing as MSI Afterburner or EVGA Precision, but it's a very capable and powerful GPU overclocking software that you can rely on that includes options to adjust core voltage, power limits, clock speeds, and more.
NVIDIA Inspector, as the name suggests, is designed solely to overclock NVIDIA GPUs. With it, you can overclock your GPU and check your graphics card info, as it tells you most of the technical information you need to know about your GPU.
Its simple user interface allows you to overclock your NVIDIA GPU with ease. On the home panel, you'll find information on your GPU. Selecting the Overclocking button at the bottom of the window reveals the NVIDIA Inspector overclocking options. From here, you'll find presets for performance levels, target performance for fan speeds, GPU voltage, power, and temperature, allowing you to overclock your GPU with relative ease.
Next up is EVGA's feature-rich GPU overclocking software, EVGA Precision X1. EVGA's GPU overclocking app has one of the more eye-catching overclocking user interfaces, which makes it look a little futuristic in design.
That said, it's still largely easy to use, with various sliders to overclock your graphics card and memory, along with other advanced features, including voltage adjustment, performance graph curves, fan control, automatic tuning, custom profiles, and hotkeys.
Regarding GPU overclocking, you'll find ASUS GPU Tweak a comprehensive tool. The tabs of the main page enable you to switch between the Default Mode, OC Mode, Silent Mode, and a personal User Mode. Each page has options to change voltages, set power targets, GPU frequency, fan controls, and much more.
The other feature that makes ASUS GPU Tweak is the Profile Connect, which enables you to set different overclock settings for specific apps. Build out a profile, then save it to load when you launch the specific application.
AMD's Radeon Software Auto Overclock is a handy one-click GPU overclock tool designed specifically for AMD hardware. It comes with a range of preset overclock options for AMD Radeon 6000-Series GPUs and will receive an update to support AMD's 7000-Series GPUs when they launch at the end of 2022.
Better still, Radeon Software Auto Overclock also includes some preset CPU overclock options, too, allowing you to boost performance on your AMD Ryzen CPU. The user interface is simple to use, and as AMD has opted for a one-click GPU overclock approach, it should make it a simple overclocking tool for most users.
Next up, we have ZOTAC Firestorm, an advanced one-click GPU overclocking tool primarily for Nvidia GPUs. It supports multiple graphics cards in SLI configuration, though with today's beefy RTX 3000 and RTX 4000 Series GPUs, that's not quite the draw it once was.
Still, the one-click GPU overclocking functionality is handy and makes ZOTAC Firestorm easy to use for almost everyone. You can also use ZOTAC Firestorm to adjust voltages, fan speed, clock speeds, and more, plus it also offers custom profiles, BIOS save, and hardware monitoring reports.
You can overclock your memory, adjust the fan speed, and see info about your GPU along with overclocking your graphics card. Additionally, you also get the option to monitor your hardware and control the voltage for a more precise GPU overclock.
TriXX Boost is an integrated FPS boost that reduces rendering resolution, then upscales the output image on your screen. Sounds familiar? That's because that's how tools like NVIDIA's Image Scaling work, boosting quality and resolution overall. Note this is not GPU overclocking, it's just a handy extra tool.
Gigabyte Xtreme Engine Utility supports both AMD and Nvidia GPUs, allowing you to overclock graphics cards, memory, control fan speed, set temperature limit, change the LED settings, and GPU voltage control.
It supports both NVIDIA and AMD GPUs, though support for both GPU manufacturers is limited. Plus, if you want to overclock a high-end GPU from Gigabyte's AORUS lineup, you'll need to download Gigabyte's AORUS Graphics Engine Software, which comes with a different set of GPU overclocking options.
GPU overclocking can increase your operating temperatures, putting more stress on your GPU. But, if that sounds worrisome, the worst that will happen is a crash, freeze, or a blue or black screen, easily fixable with a simple computer restart.
Please note that this is general advice and MakeUseOf is not responsible for any hardware damage that comes from overclocking. Always research your specific GPU specs and limits before overclocking.
Yes, GPU overclocking can give you a 10-15 percent gaming performance boost. But, it may not be stable at all times, and your GPU may throttle down because of the increased temperatures if you don't have a good GPU cooling system in place.
As with most things, it doesn't have to be, so long as you take your time and watch or read some tutorials first. The following video is a handy guide on the basics of overclocking. Give it a watch, then consider the tools listed above.
These are some of the best GPU overclocking tools on the market right now, covering both NVIDIA and AMD graphics processing units. Most GPUs from the latest generations, the NVIDIA 3000-Series and AMD 6000-Series, don't require overclocking. They're already incredibly powerful bits of hardware. And as for NVIDIA's RTX 4000-Series, well, there is no way you'd consider upping the ante with one of those. 2ff7e9595c
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