Essential Overclocking

Software

In this report, I’ll tell you about a number of different applications that let
you overclock your CPU, as well as your graphics card. Some of them can
even change memory frequency and timings.

Obviously, you use software like this at your own risk, but if you stay
within reasonable limits, there’s not that much danger of damaging your
hardware—and the benefit in extra performance is quite often substantial.

Before we get into the applications you’ll use to actually tweak and tune,
we’d like to tell you about two applications that we feel are essential
sources of system information: CPU-Z and GPU-Z.

These two small programs—which actually have nothing in common

beyond the similarity of their names—let you display information about
your hardware. CPU-Z does this for the CPU, motherboard, and memory.
GPU-Z provides information about your graphics card.

Two Favorites: CPU-Z and GPU-Z

CPU-Z: The Benchmark
CPU-Z is an extremely complete and effective French-developed
application, updated regularly to support the majority of processors and
chipsets available on the market.

It lets you access the CPU and bus frequencies, CPU voltage, memory
frequency and timings (via SPD), and so on. The software also includes
functions for validating overclocking scores, to avoid cheating.

Before you embark on your overclocking journey, you’ll want to download

CPU-Z here.

Tips: You need to make sure you’re using the latest version of the
software if you want to validate scores. If you’re using an older
version of the program, validation may be refused.

GPU-Z: Increasingly Popular

GPU-Z, despite its similar name, wasn’t developed by CPUID—the folks

who brought you CPU-Z—and has no connection to them. It is a small
program dedicated to displaying extremely useful information about
graphics cards.

This includes the exact name of the card, the type of GPU used, the GPU,
memory, and shader frequencies (if the card is compatible), the number
of ROPs, bus memory width, and more. The program is still in
development, and could use a bit of improvement on the practical level,
but it’s perfectly usable.

You can find the latest version of GPU-Z over at techpowerup.com.

For The CPU: SetFSB

SetFSB is an easy way to overclock a processor. This little program lets
you adjust the frequency of the FSB directly from Windows. It’s
compatible with a wide range of motherboards and requires only that you
know the PLL used by the board.
So What’s A PLL?

The Phase Locked Loop (PLL) is a chip on the motherboard that generates
the frequencies for various components. On many of today’s
motherboards, there are at least four reference frequencies: FSB,
memory, PCI Express bus, and PCI bus; the PLL generates these
frequencies.

In practice, on the majority of boards, the FSB and memory frequencies

are linked (with a ratio that can be chosen in the BIOS setup program),
while the PCI Express and PCI frequencies are fixed (at 100 MHz and 33
MHz respectively). Certain motherboards, like the one used in the
screenshot, also link the PCI Express and PCI bus speeds.

Tip: The PLL chip is usually made by a company called ICS. All you
need to do is find the chip with that name on it to find out the PLL
version.

Changing Frequencies

Once you know the model of your board, just select it in the drop-down
menu and click “Get FSB.” The program should find the current FSB
frequency and let you change it by moving the cursor along the graduated
bar.

It’s important to keep two things in mind. First, avoid making excessive
changes in frequency, or your computer will likely freeze up. Second, not
all PLLs offer the same frequency ranges; some motherboards limit the
available speeds.

Note also that checking “Ultra” mode lets you access additional
frequencies (depending on the PLL). Once you’ve selected the new
frequency, you just click “Set FSB” to start using it—and hope your
computer doesn’t crash. If it does, restart and try again. You’re not
adjusting voltages here, so you won’t damage hardware, at least.

SetFSB is an indispensable overclocking tool, and it’s frequently updated

to work with new PLL versions. You can check out the latest version of the
software here.

Motherboard Utilities
If you’re not interested in using an application like SetFSB, the major
motherboard manufacturers usually offer overclocking software with their
boards.

Asus

Asus includes a fairly expansive selection of software in its motherboard

bundles. Perhaps the most notable application in its AI suite is the AI
Booster application. This program lets you overclock from Windows, just
like a great number of the other overclocking programs.

One point worth noting is that you don’t need to look for the PLL type
here, since the application only works with Asus motherboards. In
addition to setting the FSB frequency, it can also change the CPU voltage
(Vcore), and memory frequency. So, though more limited in scope, it’s
actually quite a bit more functional than our generic choice.

Gigabyte, Too

EasyTune6 is a lot less fancy than the Asus software; its ergonomics were
inspired by CPU-Z. It’s fairly complete though, letting you get information
on your hardware, as well as allowing you to overclock the processor and
finely control the frequencies and voltages of the components on the
motherboard.

MSI Likes Pizazz

Whereas Gigabyte’s program comes in a fairly pedestrian package, MSI

(like Asus) likes to spruce its software up—almost to a fault in this case.
Dual Core Center, shipped with a number of the company’s
motherboards, is a fairly flashy-looking program with its own approach to
aesthetics. But like its competitors’ applications, it lets you overclock and
set voltages. It’s as least a functional alternative to SetFSB.

Other manufacturers also offer overclocking software with their high-end

motherboards—I simply focused on the apps included by the largest
vendors.

nTune and OverDrive: Overclocking With AMD and

Nvidia
AMD and Nvidia both offer their own overclocking apps as well, called
OverDrive and nTune, respectively. They’re less specialized than the
utilities from the motherboard manufacturers, though they are limited to
certain chipsets rather than specific motherboards.

nTune: For nForce Only

nTune, Nvidia’s app developed in-house, only works with the vendor’s
chipsets—at least as far as overclocking the CPU is concerned. It won’t
work with the company’s first generation of chipsets or with mobile
versions.

But if you have an nForce chipset, the program will let you overclock the
processor and memory and change their voltages, as well as the chipset
voltage.

You can download the latest version of nTune here.

Tips: nTune will run on platforms that don’t use an nForce chipset,
but only for graphics card adjustments. You won’t be able to
overclock the CPU.

OverDrive: AMD And Overclocking

AMD’s OverDrive is the equivalent of Nvidia’s nTune, an application for

monitoring motherboards that use the maker’s CPUs. The program works
only with AMD chipsets (7-series) and AMD processors. With it, you can
overclock the processor with very granular control.

For example, you can select a different frequency for each core of a
Phenom. Naturally, memory and HT performance are also adjustable.
Voltages are adjustable, too.

The latest version of OverDrive can be found on AMD’s page, here.

Memset: For Memory Optimization

The applications I’ve mentioned so far are very good for overclocking a
processor and its memory, but are short on possibilities where memory is
concerned.

Fortunately, there’s Memset, another French-developed program that

gives you fine control over memory timings without having to use the
BIOS setup utility (incidentally, if you’re using an AMD- or Nvidia-driven
board, OverDrive and nTune enable many of these same features.

A Wealth Of Timings

The program lets you change memory timings. Not only the standard CAS
and RAS-to-CAS parameters, but also less common ones like Read Delay,
Write to Read Command, Read to Precharge, and so on. Be aware that
changing timings on the fly is fairly dangerous, though, and that crashes
should probably be expected as you tweak your memory subsystem for
the best possible performance.

Memset is available for download here.

Tip: Under-clocked memory (DDR2-800 in 667 mode, for example)

generally lets you use more aggressive timings, and some programs
prefer timings over raw frequency.

Overclocking Made Easy: Drivers

Now it’s time to talk about your graphics card, a component that can
generally be overclocked through software, even though you can also do
it via the card’s BIOS.

The Simplest Way: AMD Drivers

The simplest way to overclock a graphics card is to use the drivers. With
AMD, that’s easy, as there’s an OverDrive panel that’s accessible directly
in the vendor’s Catalyst driver.

The downside is that there’s a limit to the frequencies that are accessible,
since AMD obviously doesn’t want to open up frequencies that’d likely
cause heat and stability issues, flooding tech support lines with frustrated
gamers.

If you’re looking for the latest drivers for your AMD card, you’ll find those
here.

Tip: The Auto-Tune function takes care of everything—it

automatically checks to see that overclocking settings are stable
 and then uses the new frequencies automatically. It’s less effective
than manual overclocking, but it’s simpler.

Nvidia: ForceWare + nTune

At Nvidia, overclocking isn’t built into the standard ForceWare drivers, but
you can activate it with nTune. As with AMD’s drivers, this method limits
the frequencies available. Note that to use nTune with a graphics card,
you don’t necessarily need an nForce chipset.

Nvidia makes its latest drivers available on this page.

For Nvidia/AMD Graphics Cards: RivaTuner

For graphics card lovers, there’s an effective overclocking solution:

RivaTuner. This very complete application isn’t limited to Nvidia cards; it
can also be used to overclock AMD cards. (For those of you who
remember that Nvidia’s cards used the name Riva many years back.

Granular Overclocking

The application lets you overclock without any real limitation on

frequency—you can go much farther than AMD or Nvidia would want you
to go using the overclocking interface in their own drivers, in any case—
and RivaTuner can also de-synchronize certain frequencies.

An interesting point about RivaTuner is that it can change the frequency

of the shaders independently of the GPU, whereas other programs can
only act on the GPU (with the shader frequency set as a reference to it).
RivaTuner is available right here.

PowerStrip: The Veteran

One of the oldest overclocking programs on the market is PowerStrip.

This utility for managing the graphics aspects of a PC has been capable of
overclocking for years (our colleague in France who wrote this piece used
to overclock the S3 ViRGE with this program) and is very complete.

Its only drawback is that it’s not free, unlike the other programs I’ve
mentioned. Then again, it can also be used for other functions besides
overclocking.

A Program Worth Paying For

The big advantage of this program is it works with the majority of the
cards on the market, not just AMD and Nvidia models. It’s accessible from
the Windows task bar, and as a result can set certain parameters faster
than if you do so via the drivers.

It can also adjust a lot of display settings, such as refresh frequency, and
more interestingly, output resolution: an indispensable option for some
HDTV users.

PowerStrip is available from EntechTaiwan’s Web site.

ATI Tray Tools And ATITool: Two Different Programs

The next two utilities have very similar names, but are very different: ATI
Tray Tools and ATITool. The first is limited to use with AMD cards, while
the second (despite what its name might suggest) works both with AMD
and Nvidia graphics cards.
ATITool: One Application For All Cards

This overclocking program is compatible with all Nvidia and AMD cards,
and is interesting for at least one reason: it has a rendered 3D animation
that taxes the core of your graphics board and lets you check whether
overclocked settings work by looking for artifacts.

It also has a function for detecting the maximum frequency a GPU will
take, like the Catalyst driver’s Auto-Tune feature.

You can download the latest version of ATITool at techpowerup.com.

ATI Tray Tools: AMD-Only

This little application sits in your system tray (hence the name) and is
dedicated to helping tune AMD (formerly ATI) cards. There’s one small
problem with this program: its maximum frequencies detection function is
a little too optimistic, which causes crashes.

Like certain other applications, it’s also capable of storing profiles that can
be loaded to match the program being run, such as a profile for games,
another for office applications, and so on.

Ray Adams, the developer of ATI Tray Tools, keeps the utility updated at
Guru3D.

Overclock a Netbook? Yes, It’s Possible

Using the software I’ve discussed, it’s entirely possible to overclock a

notebook, even though they rarely have a programmable PLL and their
cooling system isn’t really suited to it. Of course, that doesn’t stop
specialty shops from building and overclocking desktop replacement
machines.

But there is a category of portable PC that has its own specialized

overclocking software: netbooks, more specifically EeePCs from Asus.

EeeCTL

EeeCTL is a program that can change the processor frequency on models

that have a Celeron M processor (factory clock speed of 900 MHz), like
the Eee PC 701 and 900, as well as models that use the Atom N270. On
the latter, a frequency of 2 GHz (compared the 1.6 GHz factory clock
speed) seems within reach. It can also adjust the brightness of the
display, the fan rotation speed, and the CPU voltage.

You can find the latest version of EeeCTL right here.

Conclusion
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