If you’re a gamer, the graphics card is pretty much the most important component in your computer. The GPU provides all the graphical power you need to play the latest and greatest games on your computer. The performance you get in each of these games depends on how powerful your graphics card is. However, some people are dissatisfied with the stock performance and want to get every last possible performance out of their cards. If you’re one of them and wondering how to do this, you’ve come to the right place. Well, without further ado, let’s take a look How to overclock GPU for better gaming performance:
Download and Install MSI Afterburner
Afterburner is a third-party software developed by MSI (Micro-Star International) primarily aimed at replacing graphics cards and getting better performance from it. you can simply Download MSI Afterburner for free directly from the company Web site.
After downloading, extract the RAR file and run the EXE file to install the software. By default, MSI Afterburner comes with RivaTuner Statistics Server, which allows you to monitor the temperatures and usage of various components in your system. If you don’t want it, just uncheck the box during installation.
Changing GPU with MSI Afterburner
Fine-tuning your GPU isn’t even close to hard, and much easier than overclocking a CPU or RAM. The whole process only takes a few minutes. So please make sure you follow the steps to avoid any unnecessary confusion:
note: I personally tested this utility on my Alienware 15 R3 laptop. However, overclocking your GPU can shorten its life due to high temperatures and I will not be liable for any damage you may cause to your system in the process. Therefore, proceed at your own risk.
- Before we get straight to overclocking, we need to provide a few things to help you with the process. When the MSI Afterburner software opens, you will be able to see the sliders on the side. “Power Limit” and “Temperature Limit” options in the middle of the utility. Please note that these sliders are locked on some systems and unlocked on some systems. It totally depends on the GPU you have. Considering mine is a laptop GPU it’s unfortunately pretty locked so I won’t be able to move it around. However, if you can scroll, Move the power limit slider to the far right and Move the Temperature limit slider according to your preference. Note that this slider will set the maximum temperature of your GPU.
- Now comes the important part you’ve all been waiting for. Yes, in this step we are compressing every bit of your GPU’s performance. Can you see the sliders for “Core Clock” and “Memory Clock” Is it just below the Temperature Limit option? Yes, we will play with sliders here. If you are overclocking for the first time, Make sure to increase the sliders for your Core Clock in 50 MHz steps and for your Memory Clock in 100 MHz steps..
- When you’re done, play graphically intensive games while simultaneously monitoring your GPU temperature in MSI Afterburner. As long as the temperature below 85 degrees Celsius, you should be good. Also, make sure you don’t see games crashing or your screen glitches to make sure your overclock is stable.
- Well, if you think the temperatures are too hot for you, fan speed can be increased according to your preference. Similar to the Power and Temperature limit sliders, this slider may be locked depending on your hardware. If you are using a laptop like me, it will most likely crash. When you complete the configuration, you can save your configuration profile by clicking the box indicated with a check mark.. You can also activate this configuration by simply clicking on it when your Windows starts up. Windows symbol It’s just below Startup, at the bottom left of the Afterburner utility.
Well, this is how you squeeze every bit of the final performance of your computer’s GPU to increase the fluidity of your game.
Enable High Performance Power Plan in Windows
Even if overclocking improves the performance of your GPU, there are still a few more steps you need to check to make sure the GPU is performing at its full potential and is not affected by your operating system’s Power plan. By default, all computers running Windows use the Balanced Power plan. So, you will have to change it “High Performance” power plan.
To do this in Windows 10 go to Control Panel->Hardware and Sound-?Power Options and click High performance. Well, that barely lasted a few seconds, right?
Choose Maximum Performance in NVIDIA Control Panel
Users with an NVIDIA graphics card in your system will have to go through an additional setting to make sure their card isn’t throttled due to the NVIDIA Control Panel’s Power management mode. By default, it is set to Optimum Power. By opening NVIDIA Control Panel and then “Manage 3D Settings” And in “Power management mode” option, choose “Choose maximum performance”. By changing this, your GPU usage will mostly be above 90% Playing some graphically intensive games on your PC, thereby unlocking the full potential of your GPU.
SEE ALSO: 10 Best Graphics Cards You Can Buy for Gaming
How to Overclock the GPU to Boost Gaming Performance
As you may have noticed from the steps above, the process was far from difficult and complicated. If the steps we mentioned are followed correctly, even a person with little technical knowledge can overclock the GPU. The performance boost in games is quite noticeable if you watch it. So, are you ready to try MSI Afterburner for yourself and experience better gaming performance from your system? Let us know in the comments section below as we want to know your thoughts on this whole process.
