GPU Benchmarks and Tuning

[donnato]

Hello folks. Now that I`ve got a few months with my home built PC up and running, I`ve slowly been familiarizing myself with all the various adjustments. I`ve DLed the EVGA Precision and the EVGA OC which allows me to make Core clock...Shader clock, Memory clock, etc. adjustments and run stress tests and get a benchmark score.

My questions are:

1, How do I know if the benchmark score is a good one?

2, I ran it twice...making adjustments for the 2nd run but with the exact same score...?

3, What \ where\ how can I tune to optimize for qa better score...if needed?

4, Anything else y`all think I...and all who read this...might need to know?

I`m running an EVGA GTX460 fermi card, with an i3 CPU on an Asus P67 mobo.

Thanks Folks

Edited September 11, 2011 by donnato

[DsoS]

I can't give any tips for OC'ing as I don't do it myself, but do be careful when doing any changes with anything in the EVGA OC program or any other program. I'd hate to see you lose your setup. So be careful and good luck

[HeyYou]

Check out Tom's Hardware guides. He has performance/comparison charts on just about everything under the sun. You can compare your scores with what he has on his charts, provided you use the same software..... and see how ya rate. Or, just check out where your card scored on his tests.

If you want to bump performance some more, check out Blackvipers website for system configurations. You can pick up a fair bit by nuking the stuff you don't use/need.

[_echo]

Realistically, overclocking is useless to the vast majority of people. There are some RARE instances where a stock CPU is unstable and needs to be over(or under)clocked, but you have a higher chance of having 3 full moons in a single month.

To know if your score is good, google other peoples results.

[donnato]

Ok cool folks, thankyou. I`m not messing with the CPU clocks...the GPU I only mess with with the EVGA app. When i make a change I can test it with the OC app with my high temp cutout set. I`ve also found that the GTX 4XX seriese run hot...a bit over 100c max ....that scares me sorta......my 2 minute stress test ran to 60c and leveled there so I figure I`m ok so far.

Thanks for the info on my benchmark stuff. I`m mainly interested in tuning...not pushing my mech over their rated limits....mostly looking for bottlenecks...

[_echo]

over 100 is bad. But stress tests are designed to... stress, so I wouldn't worry about that.

[AndalayBay]

I built my rig with the intention of OC'ing it but haven't gotten around to it For hubby's rig, we bought a 5970 video card, which has to be OC'd to reach it's potential. Sure enough, once OC'd he was able to play Crysis in ultra mode. Now we just have a basic case, so the cooling isn't ideal. As a result we found that he had to back the settings off for everyday use. So you might find that you can drive things up for certain circumstances, but I suggest saving different profiles and be prepared to switch to a less aggressive mode for certain programs.

He did try pushing things to the point where the machine would crash as soon as he tried to do anything, but he was able to back the OC off and get a stable setup. Just take things in small increments and watch the temperatures. As echo says, if you start reaching over 100 on your video card, you're pushing too hard. You can find out what the limit is from the Nvidia site, but you don't want to push the limit anyway - that will just decrease the life of your card.

[donnato]

Thank you folks I haven`t pushed any limits yet and during a 2 minute stress test the temp leveled and stayed at 60c with the fan auto adjusting to keep it there. Only thing is...if I set the sliders even just a little over half way the screen blacks out and monitor shts down...game is still running I know because I still have sound and can track the activity audibly....Sliders set just a bit lower...no problems...Been this way from the beginning and I`m starting to suspect it`s something in the monitor but....what? Exceeding the refresh rate... (60Hz)? Doubt it because before it shuts off there`s a message saying that the monitor is recieving no power from the PC. This seems like it`s something in the card...

All that being as may be...everything works fine at medium card settings and The game looks terrific with the sliders slammed. I just bring it up here so you all can see why I`m looking for bottlenecks.

As far as temp goes...I get nervous when it hits 50c and I think I`d have kittens if I actually saw it go to 100c...that`s water`s boiling point. Even if the card could withstand it..what about the rest of the components nearby....no no...I set the auto shut down at 100c.

[AndalayBay]

50C is nothing. Nice to keep it that low if you can, but you can run graphics cards hotter. My bios won't even start complaining until it hits 90C.

Here are the tech specs for that card. Your limit is 104C and yeah if you can keep it down under 60C you're doing well. I would look up some numbers on overclocking sites and see what other users' experiences are like.

That's really strange about the monitor shutting down. I'm not sure what's going on there.

[_echo]

50C is nothing. Nice to keep it that low if you can, but you can run graphics cards hotter. My bios won't even start complaining until it hits 90C.

Here are the tech specs for that card. Your limit is 104C and yeah if you can keep it down under 60C you're doing well. I would look up some numbers on overclocking sites and see what other users' experiences are like.

That's really strange about the monitor shutting down. I'm not sure what's going on there.

Ideally you want to keep it under 90. if you are pushing the 104 limit you run the risk of damaging the card even if its not over the card's listed threshold.

If you do go over 90 then you may want to really consider your ventilation.

[AndalayBay]

Oh yes, absolutely. The 90C limit is what the bios is set to - if it hits that point, my machine shuts down. I don't think my card gets over 50C, but I haven't OC'd it. Even if I did, I wouldn't want it to go over 70C.

That's why I suggested having a look at OC forums to see what other users' findings were. I don't really know what the practical safety limits are.

[donnato]

Yup, thanks folks...I kiced up the card`s settings last night after getting the spoken dialog in OB working again and after one little hiccup had no other problems. Temp stayed nicely between 50c and 60c. I posted a screen showing the card`s stats displayed in the upper left. I don`t know what has changed but after about 30 minutes testing the monitor displayed none of the previously mentioned problems...

Edited September 13, 2011 by donnato