Graphics Card Overclocking: Is It Really Worth It?

Majority of these responses are by noobs with air coolers. My water cooled gtx 480 has 0 extra noise by overclocking and huge 30+% increase in overclocking performance!! The other thing that's not mentioned is once you start reaching the the gpu max overclocking your memory is actually a much bigger performance increase to overclock and with a water cooler its just easy as cake to keep on boosting the performance. All i know is if i get 30% more power for no extra cost when most people pay double the price for a better graphics card that gets less than that in performance boost. Basically if your not water cooling or performance cooling you shouldn't even bother with overclocking passed 10%(gpu not cpu). Without the performance cooling there is no performance overclocking.

I've overclocked everything you can on a computer. If you know how to safely, and know the limits of your hardware (it's not too hard with this resource we call THE INTERNET) it is not too daunting of a task.. it just takes a bit of research and patience.

Currently oc'd on my system:

AMD Phenom 2 Dual-Core 555BE (Stock 3.2ghz) >>OC'd to>> AMD Phenom 2 Quad-Core B55 3.6ghz ($60)

2x nVidia 8800GT SLI Running on a crossfire-only mobo unlocked with HyperSLI ( http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?p=2414995#post2414995 ) 702mhz core, 936mhz memory, 1728 mhz shader. ($50)

ASRock 870 Extreme3 Mobo

4 GB G-skill DDR3-1600 ram default timings 9-9-9-24-2N, oc'd to 8-9-8-24-1N ($30)

Even my mouse is overclocked from the default 125hz to 500hz for smoother response (mx518)

All cooled on air in a Centurion5-2 case.

With everything included I paid very little for this system (less than the current generation of consoles cost) and have gotten absolutely rock-solid reliability (no blue screens or hard windows crashes), but that is only because I took the time to test and know the limits of this hardware, and what works for it. This can be different, even with the same exact parts.. it just takes some time and patience, once again, if you're willing to get the most out of your computer.

Yes, there can be risk, but you minimize this by educating yourself and taking the necessary steps to do it right.

@ guest with the ASUS 550tI and driver issues through ASUS:

Stick with nvidia's drivers. They're updated more frequently and are good quality. The "Integrated driver overclocking" in your ASUS "enhanced drivers" are a sham.

Use EVGA Precision to OC your cards with the newest generic nvidia drivers. Nvidia also has an updated that can keep their drivers up-to-date too, so that's also nothing you'll lose. (maybe a shiny button or two)

I personally think if someone wants to overclock go for it....

I don't need to, I'm not vertically or phallically challenged, or a teenager.

can we overclock console game graphics for some extra performance gains ? lol