Hardware & Technical Overclocking an MSI GTX960 4gb - is it worth it?

[[VR] optimal_909]

So, I've upgraded my rig* with the exception of the GPU, and the plan is that the 960 will soldier on until the Volta cards are launched and then I'll buy something 'tasty'.
However, any improvement would be welcome in the meantime, and I was led to believe that the GTX 960 is worth overclocking - since the GPU is now the bottleneck, would it bring noticeable performance improvement around stations and planets? If yes, what kind of benchmark should I aim for that is within a reasonable margin of safety? Obviously I'm not worried about the GPU, rather about the rest of the new stuff.

*
- i7 7700K with a Be quiet! Pure Rock BK009 CPU cooler
- Ripjaws 2x8GB DDR4 3000Mhz RAM
- MSI Z270 A-Pro motherboard
- FSP 600W power supply

 

[Viper2kUK]

I'd say for the 960 - its not worth the overclocking when you can trade in your card against a 970 for better performance and overclocking facilities.

I'll be looking to get rid of my 1060 when my 1080ti turns up

V2k.

 

[[VR] optimal_909]

I'll take a look if there are any convenient trade-in options, but if rumors are true, the Volte should be around the corner - so if I'd go for a stop-gap solution, it would be worth waiting anyway?
I could be tempted for your 1060, but I fear shipping it across Europe is not cost effective.

 

[Jon flint]

It's always worth overclocking CPU and GPU and ram, it's extra performance at no extra cost!

As long as your cooling is sufficient it won't shorten component life in any significant way either, unless you plan on using the same GPU/CPU for 10years+.

GPU overclocking is pretty risk free too, just DL afterburner, max out the power target for the card (dependant on bios it can be anywhere from 105-130%+). Then start bumping up the core clock 10-20MHz at a time while running a windowed benchmark program (like unigine valley/heaven) and watching for artifacts. Once you reach a point where you see glitches/artifacts bump it down a couple of steps (40-50MHz) then move on to the memory and do the same steps.

Once you've OC'd the core and memory it's worth setting a custom fan curve (also with afterburner) I always aim to keep air cooled GPUs below 70 degrees, although they won't throttle till 84+, it's just my preference to keep below 70.

If memory serves, Maxwell cards like the 960/70/80 were generally happy anywhere from 1300-1400MHz for the core.

As for performance gains, well it's easy enough to check, once you've got your card overclocked, just fire up elite, and check your FPS, enable/disable the OC and see how it affects performance. For my own system the GPU overclock adds 15-18fps which is worthwhile enough.

 

[[VR] optimal_909]

Soooo, after tweaking the thing with MSI Afterburner, the GPU clock speed is now increased from 1433 to 1631Mhz. Memory speed is 3700ish, also up by 200Mhz. Increasing the voltage stabilized the performance (apparently), and I'm now enjoying stuff like -in some cases- 60 fps around stations and planets.
Having spent two hours in-game, I noticed only once a disappearing texture for only a frame or two, which could be associated by the overclocking - I can live with that. GPU temperature never exceeds 73C, which is okay I guess.

The upgrade works very well, probably because the the rest of the rig is OP vs. the card. I should have done this earlier!

 

[Patrick_68000]

Excellent ! Now you will see on the duration if it holds the shock

 

[[VR] optimal_909]

After a crash here and there, I slightly dialled the clock speed back and also slightly increased the voltage - it was really a fine tuning and it now runs stable. Max temperature is 73C and the auto fan speed never went anywhere close to max.
For what it's worth, core clock speed according to MSI afterburner is now 1507 Mhz, the memory's is 3683 Mhz. I am a bit lost with benchmarking these figures as I have no idea what is the difference between in base, core and graphics clock speed, also I have no idea why I'm reading vastly different figures for the same card at various websites.

Anyway, apart of the much better framerates, shadows are rendered better with much less pop-in. As I was approaching a planet/gliding it used to render the shadows in an arc of sight, i.e. shadows changed as I was looking left and right. Now this is gone and the whole thing looks much more 'composed'. To be honest I don't know if this improvement happened now or before, but it became very apparent with the better framerates.

 

[Jon flint]

Glad to hear you're seeing some performance improvements. I'd be a little careful playing around with voltages, although it sounds like you're doing it right, small voltage increases to aid stability of an overclock. Just keep an eye on temperatures