Afterburner force clock: How to force constant GPU clock? Is it even worth? : overclocking

How To Underclock Your GPU [Simple Guide]

There are several reasons you might want to lower the clock of your GPU, whether it is the core or memory clock.

This guide will show you exactly how to underclock your GPU.

If you’re looking to use your PC as a more leisurely tool for browsing the web or perhaps enjoying multimedia such as movies and music, then underclocking can be a good option.

You might look to underclock your GPU if you have previously overclocked it and are either dissatisfied with the results or simply don’t need the additional power anymore.

Another good reason to underclock your GPU is if warmer summer months are approaching and you’re wary of the additional heat that might be introduced to your PC case. There are other ways to reduce the temperature of the PC, but underclocking your GPU is a surefire way to do it.

The reason for this is simple: if you lower the core clock and/or the memory clock of your GPU, it will need less power. If it draws less power from the PSU, that means it’s also generating less heat.

Naturally, less heat means a reduced chance of the GPU overheating and breaking down on you.

This could be another reason why you’re interested in underclocking to extend your graphics card lifespan. This is particularly useful if you’re looking to obtain a new GPU but are waiting for the release of a model you’re interested in.

With a lighter clock and less power being drawn, you should notice that your GPU fans are operating at a slower speed and are quieter.

If you intend to step away from gaming or other GPU-intensive tasks, you may be bothered by the loud fan noise. Underclocking your GPU should keep that in check.

Without further ado, let’s look at the step-by-step process of how to underclock your GPU.

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    Step 1 – Prepare Your Tools

    Fortunately, the technology has evolved enough that you no longer need to enter BIOS and mess with the settings. Now, you can download a software solution and roll with that.

    Important: there are many different applications that can be used to underclock your GPU, including EVGA Precision XOC, NZXT Cam, and ASUS GPU Tweak. Here, we’ll focus on the current best and the easiest one to use: MSI Afterburner.

    Unlike overclocking, you don’t need additional software for benchmarking as you’re trying to reduce clock speeds and don’t need to measure FPS. Even so, it would be best to have some software for stress testing, as underclocking can make your PC work differently than before. Yes, it is possible to underclock too much.

    As far as stress testing tools go, we recommend 3DMark, PassMark, or Heaven Unigine.

    Step 2 – Lower Your Core Clock Speed

    After launching MSI Afterburner, you will be greeted by a few options. You should pay close attention to the original position of the slider, as that will be the default value for your graphics card. However, there is also a reset button that can help you out if you mess up or forget the values you have changed.

    To underclock, you need to either move the core clock slider to the left to its default place (the ‘+0’ position) or move it even further to get it lower than its factory clock. This will depend on your reason for underclocking your graphics card.

    Once you have the core clock at your desired level, click “Apply”, and you can close the application if you don’t want to modify anything further. Be sure to toggle the small Windows icon to ensure that the settings will apply after every startup.

    Step 3 – Underclock The Memory Clock (Optional)

    You only need to perform this step if you have previously overclocked the memory clock. If you have only modified the core clock or haven’t overclocked anything and want to reduce the speed, you should leave the memory clock at its default value.

    There aren’t many additional benefits of going below the default clock, while the main advantage is to retain the better-performing default clock.

    Likewise, you should be careful when underclocking memory. This setting is a bit more delicate if you’re going below the factory clock and can cause instability.

    GPU Underclock Is Not The Same As GPU Undervolt

    It’s important to mention that these two are different processes, albeit related.

    While underclocking your GPU can lead to less power consumption by lower clocks, undervolting is a method that will lower the incoming voltage while not interacting with the core and memory clock of the card.

    You can use both, but we have to warn you that undervolting is much more likely to lead to system instability than underclocking. If you know what you’re doing, you can reduce the power consumption while still somewhat retaining the performance. As this is pretty tricky to pull off without causing instability, we don’t recommend it.

    Who Should Underclock Their GPU

    The reasons for underclocking are numerous, but the benefits are simple.

    If you believe your GPU is overheating and other solutions haven’t worked, you should try to underclock it to see if that fixes the issue. This can happen as the graphics card becomes older and the thermal paste weakens and has issues conducting heat.

    Another reason is that games have evolved past your GPU’s capability of effectively displaying them, despite your best efforts to optimize them and work past stuttering.

    You might be surprised by how significantly airflow in the case can cause the GPU to overheat, as well as outside temperatures. If you live in areas with clearly defined seasonal changes and where room temperature can vary around your PC, you might be affected by overheating issues. Underclocking can be a useful tool if you anticipate warmer weather approaching.

    Finally, and this may be the saddest reason, it’s possible that your graphics card has had its day. It might have served you well for years, but after all that time struggling to keep the latest games running at a high resolution, it might be time to upgrade.

    If you’re aware that a new series of GPUs is coming and can hold on a while longer and accept that your PC is now primarily a web-browsing machine, underclocking could be a good option.

    How To Overclock GPU With MSI Afterburner

    Not every graphics card performs to its full potential out of the box. Depending on how the silicon lottery plays out, you might get a card that can get a significant performance boost with overclocking.

    Be warned: it’s still a delicate process even with software like MSI Afterburner that makes it easier to overclock and manage your GPU. Pushing your GPU too hard could lead to unstable performance or even damage the card.

    What Is MSI Afterburner?

    MSI Afterburner is a program designed to help you manage your GPU and change it once it’s installed in your computer. With it, you can create fan curves, change the fan speed, adjust the voltage, and increase or decrease the card’s clock speed. Each of these makes a difference when you’re ready to overclock.

    MSI Afterburner is a free program that works with cards from many manufacturers – not just MSI-branded cards. It can both overclock and underclock your GPU. 

    What Is Overclocking?

    Overclocking a GPU increases the clock speed, which usually requires a bump in the voltage. There are a few things it may be helpful to know before you start trying to overclock your GPU.

    • The temperature of your card can go pretty high, but there’s a limit to how much it can handle. When a GPU gets too hot, you might notice instabilities in the program you’re using. It can also make the card, computer, or program shut down. Maintaining a too-high temperature for too long can damage the card.
      Overclocking heats up the card, so you have to consider ways to lower the temperature as you work on it. You don’t want to push the temperature beyond 80 to 90 degrees for many graphics cards. Try to keep it on the lower side to prolong its life. 
    • When you overclock your card, you have to increase the voltage. Increasing the voltage will also raise your electric bill and heat up the card. Pushing the voltage too high can severely damage or completely ruin your card. Take it very slowly.
    • Changing the clock speed of your card is what changes the performance. Pushing it up will let the card deliver more performance. Lowering it will decrease the performance but keep the card cooler overall. 
    • Sometimes changing something in your setup might have unexpected consequences. For example, you would think undervolting would lower your performance. But in some cases, it will actually raise your boost clock and increase performance.

    Overclocking is not as simple as launching MSI Afterburner, inputting new values, and closing it. You need to test your overclock to see whether it’s stable. Even if a new setup appears to be working, you don’t know how it will react when the graphics card is put under stress.

    How to Overclock Your GPU

    If you’re using MSI Afterburner to overclock your graphics card, ensure that you have the software installed and your graphics card active before working on your changes.

    1. Launch MSI Afterburner. 
    2. Click the Settings option in the sidebar.
    3. Uncheck Unlock Voltage Control.
    4. Uncheck Unlock Voltage Monitoring.
    5. Uncheck Force Constant Voltage.
    6. Click Yes when prompted to restart MSI Afterburner. This is necessary for the changes you’ve selected to work.
    7. Return to the Settings area and select the Fan tab.
    8. Select Enable User Defined Software Automatic Fan Control.
    9. Click the graph areas that correspond with the temperature at which you want the fan speed to increase. It should be a line going up to increase the fan speed as temperatures rise.
    10. Save your settings.
    11. Click the gear icon and the Auto option on the lower right side of the screen. You want to use the top of the two similar options.
    12. Click the chain icon between the Power Limit and Temperature limit options. Both of these should be linked.
    13. Drag your Core Voltage and Power Limit sliders up. You should move them to their max values.
    14. Save your settings.
    15. Click the OC Scanner button.
    16. Click Scan.
    17. Write down the core clock and memory overclock values when the scan finishes.
    18. Click the check button.
    19. Click the disk icon.
    20. Choose a number to save these results as a profile.

    At this point, you’ve applied an overclock to your GPU with MSI Afterburner. However, you aren’t done yet. Overclocking is all about testing and adjustments. You need to test your overclock and then decide how to adjust the settings based on those results.

    The scan can take quite a while, so don’t plan to do anything else with your computer for up to an hour. You want all the resources of your GPU focused on the stress test. 

    Testing and Adjusting Your Overclock

    You can’t test your overclock with MSI Afterburner. However, MSI offers another program for GPU stress testing called MSI Combuster. If you want to refine your overclock and keep your graphics card operating safely, use this or another stress tester to see whether it’s a good overclock.

    1. Open MSI Afterburner.
    2. Input the numbers for the core and memory clock values into the slider.
    3. Launch MSI Kombuster.
    4. Select Display OSI.
    5. Select Artifact Scanner.
    6. Click RUN Stress Test.
    7. Read the results to see whether artifacts were found. If they weren’t, you could try increasing your overclock. If they were, you should decrease it. You make these changes on MSI Afterburner. 
    8. Click the check icon on MSI Afterburner to set the new numbers.
    9. Rerun MSI Kombuster to check for artifacts. You can keep increasing your numbers until it sees artifacts or your card and computer start to run poorly – which they shouldn’t if there aren’t artifacts and your temperatures are reasonable.
    10. Adjust the numbers again, save them, and run MSI Kombuster again until you find the right balance between quality and performance.

    You can move the numbers up 15 Hz at a time on the core clock and 35 at a time on the memory clock. Don’t try to do more significant leaps because it might be harder to find the sweet spot for your overclock.

    It can also be helpful to adjust the core clock and memory clock separately, running MSI Kombuster repeatedly until you find the correct core clock and setting that before testing the memory clock. It takes longer, perhaps, but helps remove some sources of uncertainty. 

    Once you’ve got the correct numbers, save your overclock as a profile on MSI Afterburner.

    Do I Have to Use MSI OC Scanner?

    You can absolutely manually overclock your GPU without going through the MSI OC Scanner utility. If you’d rather do that, perform the following steps.

    1. Launch MSI Afterburner.
    2. Drag the Power Limit slider to increase the voltage the GPU can draw. You don’t want to set your voltage too high at the beginning. A 10 or 15 percent increase should do.
    3. Increase the Core Clock slider by 15 MHz. Increase the Memory Clock by 25 MHz.
    4. Save your settings.
    5. Stress test your GPU or play a game that will push its limits to see whether your overclock is stable.

    One of the most important things you can do with a manual overclock is watch your temperatures while you’re testing. Temperatures that are too high are signs that your overclock isn’t stable. Turn it down as soon as you notice this. You do not want to damage your card. 

    Testing Your Overclock

    It isn’t enough to stress test your GPU. Once you’ve found a stable overclock, you need to put it to the test in various programs.

    Games and stress tests operate differently. There are more variables involved in many games that perform very different functions. Settings that work with MSI Kombuster might still create problems in games. You cannot skip video games or heavy-duty program testing when trying to make a stable overclock.  

    Here are some things to look out for when testing an overclock in a video game.

    • Watch the temperature of your graphics card while you’re playing. If it gets too hot, you can try to lower the graphics quality. However, this kind of removes the benefits of overclocking the GPU. A graphics card that’s heating up too much in a standard program is probably overclocked too high unless something else is wrong with it. 
    • You might notice problems with the graphics in the game. Look for strange images, screen tearing, ghosting, and other issues that make it difficult to see things. 
    • Sometimes your computer or a game will shut down when the GPU is experiencing issues. It isn’t something you might find in the first 15 minutes, so testing can take a few hours to see what happens. It’s best to choose a game you’ve played many times and know is stable on your original settings. That way, you know it’s a GPU issue and not a problem with the game.

    Over time, you may need to adjust your overclock. Games get more demanding, parts because warped or unclean, and other factors can prevent your overclock from working correctly. Keep an eye on your temperatures and the performance of your programs. If you notice any significant issues, try to adjust your overclock to see if the problems diminish. 

    How to Overclock Your GPU (Graphics Card) in 6 Steps

    Clock speed measures the number of processing cycles per second your card can handle, and is set by the manufacturer. Increasing the clock speed results in more computing power and a smoother, better gaming experience, but it can also raise your GPU temperature.

    What you need to overclock your GPU

    Overclocking is fairly straightforward and doesn’t cost much. You need just two tools to overclock your GPU: one to handle the actual overclock, and another to test performance. You’ll use the overclocking tool to raise your GPU’s clock rate and the testing tool to benchmark and measure the performance impact of the change.

    First, you should make sure your PC is optimized from the ground up, and ready to run its best. Read on to learn more about what you need to overclock your GPU, or jump straight to our step-by-step instructions.

    1. One of the best overclocking tools

    The best tool for overclocking your video card is MSI Afterburner — it’s easy to use, includes a skinnable interface if you like to modify things, and is constantly updated with the latest GPUs.

    There’s also a beta channel you can try if you’ve just bought a card based on new architecture. You can always get the latest beta releases on Guru3D.

    2. A benchmark or stress-test tool

    Overclocking your video card pushes it to its limit and increases its temperature, so you need a tool to benchmark performance and make sure you’re not putting it through too much stress. Benchmarking and stress testing help ensure stability while gaming.

    3DMark and Furmark are our picks for the best GPU benchmarking tools.

    While overclocking is fairly easy, be patient and test and tweak to find the right balance of performance, temperature, and compatibility with the games you play. You might think you’ve reached the perfect GPU or CPU overclock only to find your favorite game like GTA V crashing after just a few minutes. If that happens, try a slightly lower lock rate, and then test again.

    How to overclock my GPU

    First, open your GPU overclocking tool — here we’re using MSI Afterburner. The main dashboard will display your graphics chip’s current clock speed (its GPU Clock) and its memory (Mem Clock). On the right side you’ll see the temperature. Temps will differ from PC to PC, but as a rule of thumb, avoid GPU and CPU temperatures above 90°C.

    The sliders in the middle of the dash control the basic overclocking readings:

    • Core voltage: The voltage level that goes into your graphics card — this may not be available on newer cards.

    • Power level: The power slider lets your card draw more power from your power supply unit (PSU). For example, if your card is limited by default to 200 watts, you can increase this to 240 watts by setting it to 120 (20% higher). You may need to do this if you want to overclock your card further (but this will increase the temperature).

    • Core clock: The core clock gauge lets you specify your desired clock rate. You’ll adjust this a lot as you try to find the optimal setting.

    • Memory clock: The memory clock is like your core clock, but measures your GPU memory.

    1. Benchmark your current settings

    Run either 3DMark or Furmark and check your current performance. That lets you benchmark your performance, temperature, clock speeds, and FPS. Write down these numbers, or take a screenshot — it’ll help you compare later.

    2. Overclock your GPU chip

    It’s important to start slowly when overclocking your video card — raise the core clock rate incrementally by 5% and test for any unusual graphical artifacts like glitches, streaks, or even crashes. At a level of 5%, performance should stay stable, but you likely won’t see much improvement. But this minor overclock helps you quickly check for any potential issues.

    3. Overclock your GPU memory

    Memory is as important as the core GPU clock — even more so in games with gigabytes of textures. Try overclocking GPU memory by 10%, or by 50 to 100 MHz. Anything below 10% should still give stable performance.

    If your computer crashes or if your games start malfunctioning, your hardware may not be designed for overlocking at all — or you may need to increase your computer’s temperature limit.

    4. Fine-tune

    After gently testing the core clock and memory clock rate, continue fine-tuning by increasing your GPU overclock by 10 MHz. Each time, test for stability and performance, and then repeat. Run a benchmark, stress test, or a game for a few hours and check for issues and monitor improvements.

    If Windows freezes or reboots, you’ve reached your GPU overclocking limit. If that happens, reduce your clock by 10 to 20 MHz. Running an overclock so close to the crashing point means you’ll hit a wall after only a couple hours of gameplay.

    For example, our Titan Xp graphics card performs well at +200 MHz on the core clock, but it gets too hot after two or three hours of playing Ark, Final Fantasy 15, Dark Souls, or The Witcher 3 in 4K. So we usually run it at 170 MHz to be safe.

    Once you’ve found a stable core clock, do the same with the memory clock. But don’t test your core clock and memory clock at the same time, because if something goes wrong you won’t know which clock setting is responsible.

    5. Increase the power limit

    Once you’ve hit your limit, you can either keep your clock where it is, or you can turn up the Power Limit and Temperature Limit toggles in MSI Afterburner and see what happens.

    Start your game now. Even without overclocking, you’ll likely notice your computer fans getting louder, and your GPU won’t reduce its clock as fast or as drastically. Use MSI Afterburner’s RivaTuner, which comes with the overclocking tools package, to check your GPU’s performance.

    Enable and configure the onscreen display so you can monitor your GPU’s clock rate and other data while you’re gaming or using your benchmarking tools.

    By default, both Titan Xp GPUs in the PC we use for testing clock up to 1823 MHz when playing The Witcher 3. And they drop down to slightly above 1600 MHz after an hour or so, when the temperature is at its peak. But when we use a higher power limit and temperature limit, we don’t see this throttling anymore, and with the right overclock, we never drop below that optimal 2000 MHz level.

    6. Fine-tune (again) and test

    After unlocking even more power, increase your GPU overclock again by 10 MHz and test each time. Your card will probably soar past its previous crash point. On our gaming PC, we achieved a GPU overclock of +170 MHz to +450 MHz. Finding the sweet spot took us a lot of fine-tuning, so be patient to get the best results.

    Once you find a stable clock, benchmark your system again with 3DMark or Furmark. Benchmark your favorite games, too. You’ll see a difference both in numbers and in actual gameplay. You can also use a number of other methods to test your PC’s performance when overclocked.

    Does GPU overclocking really work?

    Yes, overclocking your GPU will usually improve the performance of your games and media apps. More powerful systems may see less of a benefit from overclocking the graphics card, but if your games typically run at 40 or 50 FPS, an overclock will result in visible improvements.

    Your GPU isn’t the only bit of hardware inside your PC that can benefit from a tuneup. And depending on the hardware you have, apps you use, and games you play, a specialized optimization tool like AVG TuneUp will help you get faster performance and more storage space automatically.

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    Does overclocking GPU increase FPS?

    Yes, one of the main benefits of overclocking your GPU is that it increases FPS for smoother, sharper graphics. The added computing power from a GPU overclock helps your graphics card crank out more FPS at higher resolutions.

    Is it safe to overclock your GPU?

    Yes, GPU overclocking is safe. While overclocking increases the temperature and stress on your GPU, don’t worry, failsafe mechanisms will kick in before the stress is too much. If your computer can’t handle the overclock, it will simply crash or freeze. And if that happens, lower your GPU overclock a bit and test again.

    Running at significantly higher clocks could, in theory, reduce your PC’s lifespan. But we haven’t seen any significant data on the impact of GPU overclocking. Personally, I’ve been overclocking my Titan Xp cards constantly for about a year without any problems.

    How to overclock your GPU safely?

    To safely overclock your GPU, go slowly in increments of 10 MHz, and test your system for stability and performance after each adjustment. If your system fails or struggles to deliver smooth performance, lower your overclock by 10 or 20 MHz, then test again. Once you know your maximum GPU overclock frequency, repeat the process with the GPU memory.

    Should I overclock my graphic card?

    Depending on the strength of your graphics card and how powerful a computer you need, overclocking may not be worth the effort. But because GPU overclocking boosts FPS and helps improve the performance of games, it usually offers strong benefits for gamers and even multimedia editors.

    What are the most common mistakes when overclocking?

    • Going too fast: If you raise your clock frequencies too quickly, you’ll likely experience crashes, glitches, or even a black screen.

    • Not testing: Failing to test after each incremental clock increase prevents you from monitoring system performance at given clock speeds. It’s easy to go too far if you don’t test properly.

    • Overheating: Overclocking your GPU increases its heat output. You’ll want a custom-made card with sufficient cooling ability, or even a water-cooling system in your PC, to protect your computer from overheating.

    • Auto-overclocking: Your GPU works harder when it’s overclocked, so you don’t need to overclock it continuously. Use MSI Afterburner’s profile system to save your overclock, and use it only when running a demanding game or application.

    • Expecting too much: Even when overclocked, an older GPU will never match the performance of the latest high-end cards. At most, you can expect performance to increase by 10 to 20%.

    Can you overclock a laptop GPU?

    Yes, you can overclock a laptop. Mobile GPUs are limited in performance, and overclocking is a great way to improve performance. We increased the FPS of our Microsoft Surface Book, which uses a GeForce 965 GTX card, by 25%.

    But while desktop GPUs usually have adequate cooling systems, mobile GPUs produce a lot of heat in a much smaller case — so you’ll quickly hit their thermal limits. Also, running at higher clock speeds increases power consumption, so your battery won’t last as long.

    Can’t I just Google the overclock numbers for my graphics card and skip all that?

    While you can look up other people’s GPU overclock speeds for the graphics card you have, their results may not work for you. This is because of chip lottery — not all GPU and memory chips are manufactured identically on a microscopic level. The material quality and lithography may vary enough that higher temps, voltage, and overall power can’t be matched.

    Also, other equipment in your PC can significantly affect your overclock potential. A customized gaming PC with a full water-cooling system can easily support a higher overclock than another machine with only default factory components.

    Can’t I just buy a pre-overclocked card?

    While you can buy pre-overclocked GPUs, you’ll still want to try overclocking them yourself. Alongside the leading graphics cards from NVIDIA and AMD, most other graphics cards are manufactured by third parties like EVGA, MSI, or Gigabyte.

    These cards use the same NVIDIA or AMD chips, such as a GeForce 1080 Ti, but their cooling systems, power supplies, transistors, and boards are often designed to clock up higher. That’s why you’ll see a 1080 Ti GPU from many different manufacturers — and even the same manufacturer might offer many different versions.

    These graphics cards range from identical matches to high-end models with advanced cooling, higher-quality power supplies, and RGB lighting. Such cards may be factory overclocked by 10 to 20%. But you can still manually overclock these cards even further — we’ve seen even higher-clocked cards go up by another 15%.

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    MSI Afterburner Auto Overclock — More Performance in One Click!

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