How do you OC a video card?

[D@nny]

Hello, I want to overclock my 6800 gs 256 mb ddr3 graphics card. Im wondering if it will void my 30 day warranty? Not that it matters since I can't even activate it or talk to PNY for help because PNY support is so bad. I heard rivatuner is easy to use and you can simply unlock pipes on your card by checking boxes. If I do overclock is rivatuner I good program to use? What do you recommend? I just want a slight increase in performance how far should I go in unlocking? And lastly is it overclocking really noticable even at lower levels and Should I over clock my memory or processor to match my oc'd video card?

 

[LipsOfVenom]

you can google coolbits, which is an Nvidia-created OC tool. rivatuner is also popular. it is impossible to unlock anymore pipes in the 6800GS since the NV architecture used for this series only supports a max of 12 pipes. as for warranty...it's all up to you, but 30 days is nothing...don't even worry about it. there is no need to alter your CPU or memory speeds when overclocking a video card. for the first over clock, turn up the core up by 25 MHz and the memory by 50 MHz. then you can test that setting and lower/raise as necassary.

 

[D@nny]

Which would you recommend for adjusting the clockspeeds? Rivatuner or this coolbits? Could you post screenies of where I go to do this in one of them I don't want to alter the wrong thing or forgot to check a box here or their that can leave to system unstability. No worries though . Some screenies would be nice of where I change all of this since rivatuner everything is like in a diffrent dialect

 

[oxeyereed]

google "coobits tutorial" it will provide you more information than we could explain in this forum. Also, the actual increments you should use in overclocking will vary across different cards and models. I suggest you start much smaller than suggested above until you have some experience or know that the 6800GS is a strong overclocker.

Quoted from tweakguides.com:
The whole overclocking procedure goes something like this:

1. Select a component to overclock (Core or Memory).

2. Increase its clock speed by a small increment, e.g. 5MHz.

3. Run a game or a benchmark for a short period (See Benchmarking & Stress Testing section below), testing to see if you get any crashes/freezes, stuttering, or 'Artifacts' (small graphical anomalies, such as white dots, strange color blocks or flickering textures).

4. Repeat steps 2 and 3, until you experience a problem - this means you've reached the current limit of your overclock for that component.

5. Reduce the clock speed by at least 5MHz to provide safe headroom.

6. Repeat the entire procedure for the other component (Core or Memory).

7. Once you believe you have both a stable and fast overclock, do a much longer run of benchmarking and/or play some games for a longer period of time (e.g. 2 hours), paying particular attention to any small artifacts which may appear, indicating the need to reduce the overclock ever so slightly and/or increase cooling.


Source: http://www.tweakguides.com/NVFORCE_11.html