# overclock is lowering clock



## Jonathan Smith (Oct 12, 2010)

i tried to oc my 260m, but when i increased the clocks in nvidia control panel and later on evga precision, the clocks were lower than stock when i was playing sc2. on precision i got the oc clocks i set it to for a minute or so and got 150 fps, but then it went to about 300/300/700. the temps never got to even 70c. it looks like my card can handle oc just fine, but it's not for some reason.


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## Jonathan Smith (Oct 12, 2010)

ok a ~10% overclock was stable for several hours when i was not doing much, but after a few minutes to a half hour of sc2 the screen goes black for a second or 2 and i checked the clocks and they were 383\300\766. the absolute highest temp as reported by gpuz is 71c. those clocks are stuck unless i restart and then they return to stock clocks. this is happening consistently. i just replaced the thermal paste so i could oc, and the temps look really nice compared to what other people are getting, so why can't i overclock?


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## Troy_Jollimore (Dec 31, 2007)

Overclocking, especially with video cards, isn't just about temperatures. Internal things like power frequency, or possibly just ONE bad transistor amongst millions, could force a seemingly 'fine' setup to fail. At least video overclocking only usually gives you a very small return, so you're not really missing much.


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## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

what he said ^

Is it just the card you are overclocking?


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## MonsterMiata (Jan 5, 2010)

Those lower clocks you see is the videocard switching to 2d mode. You need to log it to see clocks while playing a game. Overclocking a laptop is a very bad idea, not enough air flow for stock heat levels let alone overclocked ones. Your most likely overheating the system as a whole.


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## Jonathan Smith (Oct 12, 2010)

my temps were in the upper 70's before and before i oc'ed i cleaned out the vents and several other paranoid based things, and even after an hour of 10-20% oc, the highest it got was 71c. i know oc'ing can have heat problems, but fortunately im the paranoid type. another thing i noticed is that my power as measured by a kill a watt meter is around 50w idle and less than 100w (80w typical) gaming. it's rated at 150w, but power supplies are usually underrated. wouldn't increasing the voltage solve stability problems? because all other factors don't seem to be a bottleneck. i would have increased the voltage, but the option was grayed out. any other way to do it besides nvidia performance? btw i logged everything with gpu z and looked at the log so i can confirm the temps.


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## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

I never realised you were doing a laptop. I would never overclock a laptop. THey get too hot as they never mind overclocking any parts.


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## MonsterMiata (Jan 5, 2010)

Jonathan Smith said:


> my temps were in the upper 70's before and before i oc'ed i cleaned out the vents and several other paranoid based things, and even after an hour of 10-20% oc, the highest it got was 71c. i know oc'ing can have heat problems, but fortunately im the paranoid type. another thing i noticed is that my power as measured by a kill a watt meter is around 50w idle and less than 100w (80w typical) gaming. it's rated at 150w, but power supplies are usually underrated. wouldn't increasing the voltage solve stability problems? because all other factors don't seem to be a bottleneck. i would have increased the voltage, but the option was grayed out. any other way to do it besides nvidia performance? btw i logged everything with gpu z and looked at the log so i can confirm the temps.


IF the option is greyed out there is no way to up the voltage through software because the bios for the chip does not support voltage change.

Iv never heard of an underrated power supply. Everyone i have come across has a maximum "death" wattage it could theoretically sustain for a few seconds and then the normal "use" wattage that the power supply can provide safely. Im almost certain you see the max it can provide. Every other electronic i have come across operates on this principle as its a sales pitch companies use to make their psu look "better" then their competitors.

Some of your power is also lost through heat, the more efficient the supply the less power is lost. You will be hard pressed to find a psu that supplies it rated wattage under load though.


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## Jonathan Smith (Oct 12, 2010)

other people got +190w from the same psu. were they just lucky? as for heat, way ahead of you...


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## Troy_Jollimore (Dec 31, 2007)

> wouldn't increasing the voltage solve stability problems?


Heh, like I said in my first post, the chips aren't created equal. And what do you want to bet that a lot of the 'mobility' chips are ones that failed 'desktop' testing? If you have a chip that happens to have less overclocking potential, just throwing more voltage at it isn't going to make it any better, even if you can dissipate the heat.


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## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

what troy said is absolutley correct.

I know people with the exact same setup as me (see my sig). I can get 4GHz easy where as the highest of the people I know can only get 3.6.

when a cpu is created there are lots of them on the same die, one at the bottom may not be as clockable as one in the middle.


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