GPU Overclock Questions

[Blightmare]

So, I have a couple questions involving GPU overclocking. My laptop has this program provided by ASUS called GPU Tweak, which allows me to turn on and off GPU overclocking and whether or not to run my fan at full speed, as well as general information such as fan speeds and GPU temperature. GPU overclock is currently set to on, as is by default.

 

What I want to know is if I turn off GPU overclocking, will it impact performance for things such as games and game engines, and if so, how much? And on top of that, will it bring my GPU's temperature down? I ask because if I want to play any game or run an engine, I have to force it to run fan speeds at full to prevent my GPU from reaching dangerous temperatures. Not to mention it's incredibly loud and I feel I might wear out the fans after a while if I continue to do this.

 

If you haven't noticed, I know next to nothing about any of this and some insight would be greatly appreciated. XD

 

This is what the program looks like:

 

 

[BTGBullseye]

Brand and model of laptop? I HIGHLY recommend taking it apart, and replacing the thermal paste/grease/pad that came stock with your laptop; use Prolimatech PK-1 or PK-3 for best cooling performance. If you're going to a store, don't believe them if they say that some other paste is 'the best' if it isn't the PK-3. (they're either trying to sell you some junk they haven't been able to sell, or they don't know anything about thermal paste and cooling systems) If you need assistance with any of this, I can help.

 

In general, depending on the overclocking settings, you can get around 10-15% extra performance from a proper OC. If you don't need this, you should probly turn it off. (if running a game at 40-45 FPS, it'll probly drop to around 30 with the OC disabled) If you really want to get a good OC, you need to look at the settings available for the OC, and change them to find the perfect balance of power and cooling. I know that on one of my laptops I could do a 10% boost without altering fan speeds if I tuned it right, and it would stay well below the warning threshold.

 

Higher fan speeds don't really affect the fan lifetime. You do however want everything to run as cool as possible if you want the system to last longer. 5°c lower than it's warning temperature can usually prolong the lifetime of the hardware by a year more than running at the warning temp. 10°c under, and it will likely outlast all the rest of the hardware in your system.

 

If you need anything more specific or general than this, just ask.

[A Satanic Panda]

Brand and model of laptop? I HIGHLY recommend taking it apart, and replacing the thermal paste/grease/pad that came stock with your laptop

 

I highly recommend NOT. You should only replace thermal paste if you laptop is having trouble keeping itself cool. If you don't seat the the paste right or the heat sink right your GPU could be damaged. Overclock responsibly, monitor you heat closely as you put your GPU under load.

 

http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html

[BTGBullseye]

It's remarkably easy to do thermal paste/grease properly, and if it's using a thermal pad (like 95% of laptop manufacturers use) even a piss-poor job will provide better cooling. (I know this from decades of experience)

 

I only recommend it for laptops because they tend to have thermal pads, if they defaulted to paste/grease instead, then I still would. Old/dried grease/paste can significantly hinder thermal conductivity. (unless it's one of the higher-end ones, the kind that manufacturers will never use by default)

 

The exact process for replacing the thermal paste/grease on a laptop:

 

***Note*** If some thermal paste goes over the edge of the chip, that's OK, so long as you are using electrically non-conductive paste. (like the one I recommended) Otherwise, make sure to clean it up VERY thoroughly!

 

1. Look up a disassembly video on youtube for your laptop brand & model, and follow it's directions EXACTLY. Do not pass the point where you can extract the heatsink in the disassembly.

- 1a. If you can't find a video, take the screws out, and place them on a piece of paper in the same location you took them out. Do this for as many layers as needed. Typically you will have to remove the keyboard to get to one or more screws that are necessary to remove to fully disassemble the laptop.

- 1b. If you can't find any online help, and want an experienced person to walk you through it, hit me up on Steam.

2. Remove the heatsink.

3. Using paper towel, and 90% or higher rubbing alcohol, remove all original thermal pastes/greases/pads, and clean all surfaces they previously contacted. (both on the mirror-like surface of the chip, and the heatsink)

4. Place a drop of thermal paste, approximately the size of a grain of rice on both the CPU and the GPU. (I doubt you have a split heatsink, as they are rare, and are pretty exclusive to the extremely high-end)

5. Reattach the heatsink in the the same way it came off, then remove it again.

6. If the thermal paste appears to have been squished and cover a much larger area, proceed to step 6b.

- 6a. If the thermal paste does not appear squished, or only slightly squished, that means that the laptop was designed with a gap there, and you will need to put about 5-7 times the amount of paste as you initially did. Clean the chip like in step 3, then apply the larger amount of paste. Try to make it a single glob in the very middle of the chip surface, and reattach the heatsink.

- 6b. Perform steps 3 & 4 again, reattach the heatsink, then proceed to step 7.

7. Reassemble the laptop in the exact reverse of how you took it apart.

8. Turn on the computer and check the GPU idle temperatures to compare to before. It's all right if the temps look the same or maybe even a little higher, as it can take up to 48 hours of constant use to fully set the paste.

9. If the temp is the same or lower, run something taxing to see if the GPU temp gets as high as it used to. If it doesn't, good. If it does, leave the laptop on for 48 hours, use it normally, and check the temps then.

10. In the rare case that temps increase, you may need to apply the paste again.

 

If you don't feel safe spending $15 and doing it yourself, you are welcome to take it to a computer repair shop, but be prepared to spend $50 or more in addition to the cost of whatever thermal paste/grease they choose to apply.