Video Card Overclocking Offers Amazing Results

Video Card Overclocking Offers Amazing Results

Many gamers tend to overlook the basic facts when it comes to playing a game on the highest settings.  The fastest and biggest video card is going to offer the best visuals at the highest framerates.  Sure a fast processor is going to help get those framerates up, but there is a point where a faster processor will not help the visuals.  The bottleneck can easily be at the video card and there is an easy solution to get extra performance without breaking the bank.

Overclocking the video card is one of the best ways to get extra performance from a video card other than upgrading to a new card.  It does not cost anything to do and with the tools available today, it is even easier than before.  The best thing now is that AVADirect now offers this as an upgrade option to all our gaming computers.  We offer a full warranty on our video cards and test the setup for stability.  We take the guesswork out from doing it yourself.

Before we get into this, let me share how overclocking is possible with a video card.  Think of a video card as a small computer.  It has both a small processor and memory that run at different frequencies.  Just like the processor and memory inside a normal computer, it is possible to overclock these components.  However, there is a breaking point where it causes failures and system shutdown.  We overclock till we hit this breakdown and then lower the overclock from there to a safe and stable operating condition.

To show you just how much an overclock can raise your performance., we put together a small test to showcase the results.  Here are the specs on our testing rig.

By the specs above, this is a decent gaming system.  Pretty good processor and video card setup we have here.  Lets see what kind of performance numbers we see from this stock configuration.

Default Configuration

Processor Clock:	675 MHz
Memory Clock:	2200 MHz
		This is actually a really good score for 3D Mark.  I have seen computers with much better hardware not come close to this type of score.  What gave this system such a good score is that all the components match each other in speed and performance.  Not one piece of hardware is overly big on performance nor is one piece lacking in it either.  Lets see what we can do when we push this system.

Overclock 1

Processor Clock:	695 MHz	Percent Increase:	2.96%
Memory Clock:	2240 MHz	Percent Increase	1.81%
		A jump of about 200 3DMarks is considerable.  My computer running with onboard graphics had a 3DMark score of only 218.  Just by increasing the clock frequencies a small bit within normal operating ranges, we have increased our total performance by 1.5%.  While it may seem like not a big deal, that increase may add 2-3 FPS during gaming.  Lets move on. 1.5% increase in 3DMark score.

Overclock 2

Processor Clock:	710 MHz	Percent Increase:	5.18%
Memory Clock:	2280 MHz	Percent Increase	3.63%
		Now we have jumped almost 400 3DMarks over stock.  Most people would stop here and call it a day.  Not AVADirect, we continue to overclock this rig to see what we can really do. 2.71% increase in 3DMark score.

Overclock 3

Processor Clock:	730 MHz	Percent Increase:	8.15%
Memory Clock:	2320 MHz	Percent Increase	5.45%
		Up to a 500 3DMark increase and we are still going. 3.45% increase in 3DMark score.

Overclock 4

Processor Clock:	750 MHz	Percent Increase:	11.11%
Memory Clock:	2360 MHz	Percent Increase	7.27%
		We hit the 15000 mark with this system.  Can we still push it? 6.28% increase in 3DMark score.

Overclock 5

Processor Clock:	770 MHz	Percent Increase:	14.07%
Memory Clock:	2400 MHz	Percent Increase	9.09%
		As much as I like to see us keep this score, this was the limit of the video card.  It unfortunately became unstable at this point and would not pass our stability control program.  So we had to downgrade the performance to stay stable. 8.47% increase in 3DMark score.

Final Stable Overclock (Overclock 4.1)

Processor Clock:	760 MHz	Percent Increase:	12.59%
Memory Clock:	2380 MHz	Percent Increase	8.18%
		We tweaked the last known stable overclock (overclock 4) and tested this configuration to be completely stable and run our torture test without problems.  With an average of 10% higher clock ratings on an already supercharged card, I would say these are some impressive numbers. 6.8% increase in 3DMark score.

As you can see, AVADirect takes great care in making sure our custom overclocked systems are in a stable and working operating condition.  We do not just choose some random numbers and call it a day.  We carefully and progressively overclock to achieve the highest level of performance but still remain within the components operating and stable limits.

Let AVADirect overclock your video card today and see amazing performance without upgrading to a more costly card.