970m overclock?

[mikesaa309]

Hi,

Recently got an Octane II with GTX 970m graphics card in it sadly couldn't afford the 980m. I've looked online and found that the 970m overclocked will perform just as well as a 980m. Anyone got any views on this?

If it is a good idea to overclock the gpu, how do I go about doing it? Can only find things for an ASUS laptop and found something about modding the bios etc also once overclocked can it be clocked back to it's original clock speed if I have any issues? Never overclocked a gpu or cpu so don't have a clue where to start.

 

[Fear]

I am pretty sure you will void the warranty if you overclock your card and also being in a laptop I do not think it is wise with the cooling issues.

 

[SpyderTracks]

I am pretty sure you will void the warranty if you overclock your card and also being in a laptop I do not think it is wise with the cooling issues.

THIS

Overclocking brings with it major cooling issues which is why you'd have a watercooling setup on a desktop gpu to deal with overclocking.

Overclocking on a laptop will likely fry the chips as the cooling isn't designed to cope with the extra temps.

Plus it'll void your warranty.

 

[mikesaa309]

Won't be over clocking then lol. Most games seem to run on high - ultra graphic settings at 40-60 fps depending on what is going on in the game. I like really good graphics but also want decent fps. Does anyone notice a difference between say 30 and 60 fps? Was playing gta 5 and with graphics turned up to ultra with msaa off was getting around 45-50 fps when I started setting of a load of explosions would drop to high 30's - low 40's but I couldn't really tell the difference and only reason I knew was because I turned on the FPS counter in steam.

 

[ihavenoideawhatiamdoing]

I have to say I cant really tell the difference between about 24 to 60 and above 60 doesn't actually make a difference on my laptop as the display is 60hz.

 

[Rakk]

Won't be over clocking then lol. Most games seem to run on high - ultra graphic settings at 40-60 fps depending on what is going on in the game. I like really good graphics but also want decent fps. Does anyone notice a difference between say 30 and 60 fps? Was playing gta 5 and with graphics turned up to ultra with msaa off was getting around 45-50 fps when I started setting of a load of explosions would drop to high 30's - low 40's but I couldn't really tell the difference and only reason I knew was because I turned on the FPS counter in steam.

It depends on the game as to whether you actually benefit from higher FPS or not, we were actually having this very conversation at work last week (well it was a Friday lunchtime so we were actually in the pub but that's beside the point), for the game I play and other MMO's 30 fps is perfectly fine, however for first person shooters where its about the who shoots who first then there is a huge difference between 30 fps and 60 fps, people can will shoot you before their character has rendered on the screen for you - least that's what the first person shooter work friends said.

It think above about 65fps most people can't tell the difference at all, people will vary obviously so some can see slightly faster than others

 

[mikesaa309]

Yeah I'm sitting on the fence in terms of choosing between graphics and fps. Honestly can't notice a lot of difference in gta 5 but on max settings with MSAA turned off I'm getting 50-60 fps the 40-50 in grassy areas. Had it occasionally drop to high 30's in some situations but not a lot. Still trying to find the balance between good graphics and fps but not sure If i'm really noticing 60 fps and therefore whether it's worth worrying about.

 

[mikesaa309]

Am I just stupid?

Am I just stupid for not noticing the difference between 30 and 60 fps?

I've been trying to tweak the graphics settings on GTA 5 so I get a constant 60 fps (or close to it) but anything below max settings with MSAA turned off I want the max graphics back. I used Nvidia optimal settings and it got me 60 fps but graphics weren't up to what I wanted and ended putting everything at max again. It mainly stays round 50-60 fps in most areas except grassy areas or where there is a lot of traffic and it'll be 45-55 fps.

I loaded a modded map into gta 5 which has a massive fps hit as it has loads of objects in it and got about 35-40 fps when I started shooting an RPG everywhere the lowest I got was 26 fps which is unlikely to happen without the map loaded so was an extreme situation which most likely would never happen otherwise. Once It got below 30 I can notice choppiness but above 30, especially above 35-40 I can't tell that I've lost FPS except from the FPS counter using the steam in game setting thing.

Anyone else notice a difference or does it depend on the game? I'm not trying to say 30 fps is better or people can't see past 30 fps, obviously the more fps is better but I'm struggling to decide whether to have really good graphics or really good fps? I have the Octane II laptop with the 970m gpu and the i5 600K cpu if anyone has recommended setting for it?

 

[Fear]

Not everyone notices any difference over 30fps so don't worry about it, if you are happy with the Max settings and less than 60fps go with it tbh most people probably would not notice the difference unless they had a fps counter on the screen (I said most people before the arguments start) as long as you are happy with the game and settings just enjoy yourself and forget about it.

 

[SpyderTracks]

graphics and fps are a very personal thing, each individual has different reactions to higher fps and graphical settings. What for one person looks awful at 30fps looks amazing for the next person.

 

[Cyph3r]

Overclocking the 970m is definitely worth while. The GPU runs very cool and is very power efficient. I have a Skyfire laptop with a 970m and here is my 3DMark11 result at stock clocks:

Core: 1038mhz Mem: 1253mhz (5012mhz effective)
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/10432778

And then here are my OC'd results:

Core 1250mhz Mem: 1500mhz (6000mhz effective)
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/10763087

That's a 15% increase. The GPU never reaches over 63c which is still well within the safe zone for this GPU. Some of the previous posters were very melodramatic. Unless you max out all the sliders and get an unlocked vBIOS that allows you to dump a huge amount of additional vcore you're not going to break it very easily.

Also EVERYONE can tell the difference between 60fps and 30fps. If you can't, your monitor probably isn't running at 60hz.

 

[mikesaa309]

How did you get that kinda overclock? I used precisionX and put the memory to 464 mhz offset and 135 mhz offset for the core. I hardly notice any performance increase. Also any higher than 470 mhz for memory I start getting artifacts. Is there a way to safely up the voltage, I think power is limiting the performance but risky to increase voltage. First time I've tried overclocking.

Yh I notice the 30-60 fps difference even in game but anything from 40 upwards I can't tell I'm below 60 fps unless I look at fps counter.

 

[Cyph3r]

How did you get that kinda overclock? I used precisionX and put the memory to 464 mhz offset and 135 mhz offset for the core. I hardly notice any performance increase. Also any higher than 470 mhz for memory I start getting artifacts. Is there a way to safely up the voltage, I think power is limiting the performance but risky to increase voltage. First time I've tried overclocking.

Yh I notice the 30-60 fps difference even in game but anything from 40 upwards I can't tell I'm below 60 fps unless I look at fps counter.

I've unlocked the vbios which removes all the limits and I use nvidiainspector.

Increasing the voltage isn't risky as long as you stay within the limits of the GPU, keep an eye on the temps and don't just max out the voltage slider. I've bumped the voltage up by 25mV to stabilise this overclock.

You probably wouldn't be able to get much higher on the memory (im on +495mhz) But theres definitely a lot of headroom on the core speed.

 

[keynes]

Some of the previous posters were very melodramatic

I think there is a difference between being melodramatic and cautious. Any overclock could cause instability issues at any time and by unlocking the bios and overclocking the gpu you are voiding the warranty on the gpu.

 

[Cyph3r]

I think there is a difference between being melodramatic and cautious. Any overclock could cause instability issues at any time and by unlocking the bios and overclocking the gpu you are voiding the warranty on the gpu.

Well no, my point is people make out that hardware will spontaneously combust and fall to pieces once its overclocked. That's simply not the case. Of course instabilities can and will occur, but that's where common sense and prior research come into play. You don't just mindlessly overclock, there is a method to it all which frankly isn't difficult to understand or to put into practice at all.

Someone previously mentioned in this thread that overclocking will fry the chips:

Overclocking on a laptop will likely fry the chips as the cooling isn't designed to cope with the extra temps.

That's simply not the case for a multitude of reasons. Yes some laptops have poor cooling solutions that can barely handle the components at stock speeds, but this is why you monitor the temperatures when you overclock. No one overclocks without monitoring the temperatures, that's just stupid.
Many laptops have sufficient cooling to handle overclocks, especially the 970m which is a very cool running card. The overclock on my 970m increase the load temperature by about 5c, which is nothing. Also components have safeguards to prevent damage through overheating, thermal throttling occurs at 105c on my GPU for example, so the speeds will be lowered until temperatures are back under control, if the temperatures still won't go down, it'll shut down.
As I said, my GPU is running at 63c under load, I still have PLENTY of headroom to push the overclock even further.

And warranty is voided of course, though any hardware enthusiast is aware how truly difficult it is 95% of the time to attribute a hardware failure to an overclock unless it was a vbios flash that wasn't put back to standard. But don't take that as I'm suggesting to be dis-honest with ones usage when it comes to warranty claims. You break it, you deal with it.