Hardware & Technical GPU overclocking and Elite dangerous?

UpsidedownDave · Aug 15, 2017

Was wondering, does anybody know if overclocking your GPU will make much difference with this game?

I have an okay low-mid range system, but the graphics card is letting me down a bit, I see drops to mid 40fps sometimes on planets. I'm not trying to run 4k or anything, just 1080p with best settings.

Right now it totally un-overclocked/stock whatever you call it. Will any amount of overclocking gain an extra ~15fps?

Morbad · Aug 15, 2017

UpsidedownDave said:
I see drops to mid 40fps sometimes on planets.

UpsidedownDave said:
Will any amount of overclocking gain an extra ~15fps?

At best, you will never see better than linear scaling so an extra 15fps at the low end would require a stable ~40% overclock, which is extremely far fetched on the overwhelming majority of GPUs out there.

This isn't to say that overclocking can't be worthwhile, just that expectations need to be kept in check. What GPU are you using?

Tuning graphics down a bit can help considerably, often with a minimal hit to image quality.

UpsidedownDave · Aug 15, 2017

Morbad said:
What GPU are you using?

I'm using a gtx 1060 (6gb), from what I've heard, it's possible to squeeze an extra 10-15% from it, so definitely not 40%!

I may install afterburner anyway and give it a try, a few extra FPS is always welcome.

I really don't want to drop settings, but if I do, is there any one setting that'll have the biggest impact on performance? I only really see these dips around busy planet ports and alien ruins, if there's nobody around or I'm nowhere near the port, everything stays at 60.

Jon flint · Aug 15, 2017

I'd actually be interested to know this too, while I have overclocked both my cards (sli 1070s), I never thought to check for any noticeable framerate increases!

As for overclocking, it will depend on your card's cooler and case airflow as well as the silicon lottery, but you *may* be able to get from the stock boost speed of 1708MHz to around 2050-2080MHz. Not too sure how far you can push the memory on the 1060, but if it's the same as the memory on the 1070, 8.6-9GHz is possible.

If you do OC, just remember.. small increments, like 30-50Mhz at a time, test each step until you reach instability/artifacts or unacceptable temps, then go back 2 steps. At least that's how I do it. Good luck, and post your results

Morbad · Aug 15, 2017

UpsidedownDave said:
I really don't want to drop settings, but if I do, is there any one setting that'll have the biggest impact on performance?

Depth of field, shadow quality, and ambient occlusion are good places to start.

starman · Aug 15, 2017

Doesn't overlocking shorted the life of the chip?

[video=youtube;KcJs4qJPQ_M]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcJs4qJPQ_M[/video]

Morbad · Aug 15, 2017

starman said:
Doesn't overlocking shorted the life of the chip?

Usually, but voltage and temperatures are also significant factors, and most parts kept within reasonable limits aren't going to fail any sooner from OCing than from the sort of thermal cycling they'd see at stock anyway.

lysan · Aug 15, 2017

Ok this is something I've done quite a bit.

Heat is your enemy, so make sure you are as cool as you can be (your GPU)

OC VRAM, doesn't give you much, haven't noticed any changes at all.

OC GPU HZ, here you can gain some FPS, mostly where your GPU normally throttle down, could be planets or in the jump sequence.

OC VRAM+GPU HZ, same results as above, I always do it because, why not?

Voltage OC/boost, here you can really squeeze some performance out of your GPU, but be aware, heat heat heat, best for WC systems.

[video=youtube;vUEMS-B1Siw]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUEMS-B1Siw[/video]

MickyG1982 · Aug 15, 2017

UpsidedownDave said:
I'm using a gtx 1060 (6gb), from what I've heard, it's possible to squeeze an extra 10-15% from it, so definitely not 40%!

I may install afterburner anyway and give it a try, a few extra FPS is always welcome.

I really don't want to drop settings, but if I do, is there any one setting that'll have the biggest impact on performance? I only really see these dips around busy planet ports and alien ruins, if there's nobody around or I'm nowhere near the port, everything stays at 60.

It'd be interesting to know what else you have under the hood, I suspect that the GPU is only a small part of the problem if it's causing any at all...

Morbad said:
Depth of field, shadow quality, and ambient occlusion are good places to start.

Not to mention Super Sampling as that can by far have the biggest effect on the game.

aRottenKomquat · Aug 15, 2017

You really shouldn't have any trouble with a GTX 1060 at 1080p. I have a 1060 and play at 4K with no issues at all. What's the rest of your system like?

UpsidedownDave · Aug 15, 2017

aRottenKomquat said:
You really shouldn't have any trouble with a GTX 1060 at 1080p. I have a 1060 and play at 4K with no issues at all. What's the rest of your system like?

I have an old i5 (4460), 8gb ram and an 128gb SSD+HDD as storage.

Im not sure where the bottleneck is, as I only play at 1080p, it does only seem to occur when there's a few commanders around, and usually only on planets.

lysan · Aug 16, 2017

aRottenKomquat said:
You really shouldn't have any trouble with a GTX 1060 at 1080p. I have a 1060 and play at 4K with no issues at all. What's the rest of your system like?

When I run heaven test, at 4K with all on ultra I get from 20 - 60FPS

GPU is OC to 2045 Mhz can't get more out of it without getting artifacts, memory is around 11500 mhz and voltage is 0.1056, temp steady at 70 C

starman · Aug 16, 2017

Overclocking explained

[video=youtube;uMSV4OteqBE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMSV4OteqBE[/video]

Jon flint · Aug 16, 2017

Just to answer the question "can you gain 15fps by overclocking?"

Well, yes, but of course it depends on your starting fps...

I'm in the middle of a case transplant, but partially reassembled my pc to test this out....

Running at 2880x1620 (strange res I know.. don't ask!), highest settings and running on just a single card...

Stock clocks: 150fps

Overclocked to 2050MHz core/8.7Ghz mem: 166fps

That's around a 10% increase in in-game performance (I think!)... So the game certainly does show performance gains with a gpu overclock, most games do, unless they're heavily cpu bound.

MikeHawk · Aug 23, 2017

depends on settings but mainly FPS will be affected...only pumping more juice into the core to make it run faster

Bazil · Aug 24, 2017

UpsidedownDave said:
I have an old i5 (4460), 8gb ram and an 128gb SSD+HDD as storage.

Im not sure where the bottleneck is, as I only play at 1080p, it does only seem to occur when there's a few commanders around, and usually only on planets.

I have the same processor and amount of RAM as you with 256gb SSD on Windows 7, I don't get any slow down.
I did used to get issues with it not working well with Windows 10 hence I went back to W7.

shadragon · Aug 29, 2017

Lysander lysan said:
Heat is your enemy, so make sure you are as cool as you can be (your GPU)

This. I've seen many people OC on stock coolers and have disappointing results. The cooler your CPU / GPU chips run, the better.

Noctua has become my fave CPU cooler as it beats many AIO's for efficiency, price and noise levels. YMMV.

OnePercent · Aug 30, 2017

Sounds like your CPU is bottlenecking your GPU, because i'm running elite at 1080P highest settings with a 1060 at stock clocks and it never dips below 60 fps even on planets and during orbital cruise and around stations.

What CPU do you have? and in your graphics settings, is the "terrain work" slider set to the maximum to the right position? this makes the game use more of your GPU resources.

lysan · Sep 11, 2017

shadragon said:
This. I've seen many people OC on stock coolers and have disappointing results. The cooler your CPU / GPU chips run, the better.

Noctua has become my fave CPU cooler as it beats many AIO's for efficiency, price and noise levels. YMMV.

tried to see if I could tweak my system a bit more today, well not possible. I'm hitting the heat barrier and can only keep my Mhz up in short bursts, as soon as the card hits 78 C it throttles back to 1999 Mhz. When my room temperature is lower I can keep it on 2045 Mhz.

Pumping more juice into it is just making it worse due to ..... heat. I need to water cool it or just be happy about it.

CPU is running on 4.5 Ghz if I raise it I need more power and then more heat so not an option, so need to be happy with the old girl now.

My only mistake was my RAM is NOT XMP supported

DerDzvero · Sep 12, 2017

If the issue is not persistent it might not necessary be related to bottleneck. Disable ambient occlusion (if it's already off, then turn it on and then off again). See if you have extended network logging and try disabling auto voice teaming with neighborhood in panel up.
Also check if you are in full screen mode and not windowed.. check performance analyser if real time antivirus or firewall is not jumping at times..Or some audio driver could max cpu usage at times also (many reasons)..

Also note some planets and locations in game are known to cause fps drop even on top graphic cards..so it's not related to your hw setup in my opinion