How to overclock an AMD Radeon video card

Technologies are developing at an amazing speed, and after just two weeks of admiring your new computer, you will begin to look at new interesting models. But is this really necessary? Perhaps your computer can no longer handle new games (this is one of the most common reasons for changing a computer, especially among gamers); perhaps you are uncomfortable working in some programs that use 3D graphics. You don’t have to buy a new computer right away: you can customize the device’s graphics adapter to suit your needs, and everything will be okay.
The manufacturer usually does not set the highest frequency values ​​for the graphics adapter, and it is thanks to this that the procedure for overclocking it is available.

Overclocking an AMD Radeon card

First of all, you need to know that overclocking (that is, overclocking the graphics adapter) has some risks. You need to think about this in advance:

1. The first step is to increase the current supply to the video card - this will increase its performance.
   
   
2. Your computer may have overheated more than once. If you want to overclock your video card, this should not happen - so take care of improving the cooling of the device in advance: after overclocking, the video card will generate a lot of heat.
   
   
3. Increasing the current supply can have a bad effect on the power supply: it may begin to overheat.
   
   
4. Actions regarding a desktop computer were indicated at the top. Therefore, if you want to overclock your laptop (especially a cheap model), you may experience the two previous problems, and at the same time.
   

And so, if you still decide to overlock your computer, then do everything strictly step by step, as written in this article.

In general, it will be great if overclocking, or rather flashing the BIOS of the video card, is done by a specialist. But if you decide to do overclocking yourself, then you will need these applications:

• GPU-Z;
  
  
• MSI Afterburner;
  
  
• FurMark;
  
  
• speedfan.
  

Before starting the procedure, do not forget to check that your video card drivers are up to date.

Step 1: Check the temperature

As mentioned above, the video card will begin to generate much more heat. During the overclocking process, it is necessary to ensure that neither the video card nor the other parts overheat (and in general are heated to a temperature of 80 degrees). But if this does happen, then you need to “slow down” a little and lower the settings.

To monitor this process, use the SpeedFan application: you will see the temperature of many system components.

Action 2: Stress test and benchmarking

First of all, see if your video card is overheating at standard settings (to check, you need to turn on a powerful game for about an hour and “check” the temperature of the video card in SpeedFan, or you can use the FurMark program, which can perfectly load the video card and monitor the temperature in real time ).

1. Run the program and view in the utility window "GPU stress test".
   
   
   
   
   
2. When the notification pops up, click on "OK". The notification itself states that the computer may overheat.
   
   
   
   
   
3. Then a window with a “donut” animation will open. You can enjoy it for 10-15 minutes while monitoring the temperature. After time, the temperature should not exceed 80 degrees.
   
   
   
   
   
4. If the temperature is much higher than 80 degrees, then you need to think about how to improve the cooling of the graphics adapter, and not about speeding it up. It is possible to improve “cooling” thanks to a new cooler (or increasing the speed of rotation of the blades of the old one) or a system unit equipped with liquid cooling.
   

FurMark can also perform a video card benchmarking procedure. In the end, you will have an assessment of the performance of your video card and you will be able to compare it with what will be on your PC after overclocking.

1. Click any button from the block "GPU benchmarking". The only difference between them is the resolution with which the program will reproduce graphics.
   
   
   
   
   
2. The exact same video “Donut” will run for about one minute, and then you will be presented with a report where your video card is rated.
   
   
   
   
   
3. Write down this information or take a screenshot of the screen.
   

Action 3: Revision of these characteristics

The GPU-Z app will show you the subject of your work. First view the values "Pixel Fill Rate", "Texture Fill Rate" и "Bandwidth". You can try moving your cursor over them to find out what they are. Generally speaking, these are some of the most important indicators that determine the performance of a video card. The most interesting thing is that they can be increased! But for this you need to change other characteristics.



Below you can see the following values: "GPU Clock" и «Memory». The video card and memory operate at these frequencies. You can pump them up a little - this will upgrade the parameters described above.

Action 4: Changing operating frequencies

For overclocking the AMD Radeon GPU itself, the MSI Afterburner utility is a good option.

The important thing is how you work with the program: you need to increase the frequencies in small (importantly, very small!) steps. After every change you make, you need to test. Provided that the GPU continues to work stably, it is possible to increase the settings and then restart testing. This cycle must be repeated until the video card begins to act up and overheat during the stress test. Next, you need to reduce the frequencies so that problems no longer occur.

Now we will look at this process in more detail:

1. Click on the settings icon in the main program window.
   
   
2. In the “Basic” settings, click on "Unlock voltage control" и "Unlock management monitoring".
   
   
   
   
   
3. At this moment the function "Startup" is not needed - it must be deactivated.
   
   
   
   
   
4. First of all, it will increase "Core Clock" (which is the processor frequency). This action is performed by moving the required slider to the right. To start, a gap of 50MHz is enough. To apply the changes, click on the button with a check mark.
   
   
   
   
   
5. Next, you need to run a stress test and wait a quarter of an hour, observing the progress.
   
   
6. Provided that no artifacts appear on the screen and the video card temperature remains normal, you can again add 50 MHz and enable testing. Continue to do the same until the video card warms up and the graphics become normal.
   
   
7. Once you reach the very edge of the frequency, reduce it to achieve stable operation during the stress test.
   
   
8. Now move the slider with a similar action "Memory Clock" and, after all other subsequent checks, add no more than 100 MHz. Don't forget to click on the checkmark after all changes.
   
   
   
   

Step 5: Set up your profile

After exiting the application, all your settings will be reset - to save the results of your work, click on “save” and select one of the profile numbers. When you re-enter the program and click on this profile, your settings will be immediately applied.



An overclocked graphics adapter is needed mainly for playing games. For standard computer use, there is no point in using it. Because of this, in MSI Afterburner you can only perform configuration settings when launching games. To reproduce this simple step, go to the settings and click on the “Profiles” tab. In the “3D profile” line that appears, click on the previously marked number. Click OK.

Action 6: Consolidate results

Now we need to reproduce another benchmark in FurMark and compare the results. It will be normal if the percentage increase in the main frequencies is directly proportional to the percentage increase in productivity.

1. To check the results, load GPU-Z and view changes in certain performance metrics.
   
   
2. An alternative would be a tool installed with drivers on an ADM video card.
   
   
3. Right-click on the desktop and select the item from the list that appears "Graphics Properties".
   
   
   
   
   
4. Click "AMD Overdrive" in the menu on the left and, after reading, accept the warning.
   
   
5. Once you've completed Auto-Tune, you can activate Overdrive and drag the slider.
   
   
   
   

Only the possibility of this overclocking is within the maximum limits assigned by auto-tuning. If you take your time and pay close attention to your computer, you can overclock your AMD Radeon graphics adapter to the point where it can perform on par with some modern PCs.