General Gaming Article

General Gaming Article

How to Overclock Your Graphics Card

Posted: 06 Feb 2015 03:28 PM PST

TitanLearn how to wring every last bit of performance out of your video card

Overclocking a graphics card used to be more trouble than it was worth, but things have changed. EVGA Precision X and MSI Afterburner are just two of the most popular choices for software overclocking. AMD even bundles its own overclocking solution—AMD OverDrive—with its Catalyst drivers. Wringing more performance out of your graphics card is now as simple as moving a few sliders and testing for stability with a benchmark. 

That's not to say that the best overclocking practices are obvious. We're here to help with a guide on how to overclock your graphics card. Be forewarned—even the most basic overclocks can end in tragedy. Although we're willing to walk you through the steps, we can't be responsible for any damaged hardware or problems arising during the overclocking process. If you're willing to take the risk, read on to learn how to overclock your graphics card. Keep in mind that the procedure for each video card can be slightly different. If any part of the guide doesn't make sense, ask for help in the comments or spend some time on Google. 

1. Gearing Up

MSI Afterburner

MSI Afterburner is capable overclocking software that works with most AMD and Nvidia cards.

Our favorite overclocking software is MSI Afterburner. Your other options include EVGA Precision X for Nvidia cards, and for AMD Cards, AMD OverDrive, but to keep things simple we'll be working solely with MSI Afterburner. 

You'll also need a benchmark like 3DMark—download the demo—or Unigine's Heaven Benchmark to make sure your overclocks are stable enough for daily use. They're also useful for quantifying just how much more performance you're getting out of your hardware. 

GPU-Z is the final piece of the puzzle and although you don't technically need it, it's super helpful for checking your GPU and memory clock speeds. 

2. Getting in the Know

Before you even start overclocking, it helps to know what sort of overclocks you can expect from your hardware. HWBOT is the easiest way to look up what overclocks other users are achieving. Our test bench included the GTX 650 TI and 7850, which have average overclocks listed on the site. 

It also helps to know how much real-world performance you'll be getting out of your overclocks. Although you probably don't need to run through an entire suite of benchmarks, having a baseline to refer to is useful. Run through 3DMark or Heaven Benchmark once to get your base scores. 

3. Core Speed Overclocks

Unigine Heaven

Unigine's Heaven benchmark looks good and is packed with features.

Once you've got some averages in hand—for the 650 TI: 1,179MHz GPU and 1,687MHz memory—you're ready to start overclocking. Start by maxing out the Power Limit slider—this isn't the same as overvolting, the power limit is simply how much power your card can draw. Then grab the Core Clock slider and move it forward at 20MHz increments. After applying your changes, crank up the settings on Heaven Benchmark—quality at ultra, tessellation to extreme, anti-aliasing to 8x, and resolution at system—and run through it at least once by pressing F9 or clicking the "Benchmark" button.  Keep an eye out for weird graphical artifacts—visual glitches that range from colorful lines of light to random off-color pixels across the screen—and for crashes. If the benchmark crashes to the desktop, seems to slow down dramatically, or gives you a lower frame rate or score upon completion, drop the clock speed by 10MHz until you can run through the benchmark without any problems.

4. Memory Speed Overclocks

When you've found the highest stable clock speed for your card, repeat step two with the memory clock slider. Your memory clock speed generally won't affect your frame rate or benchmark scores as much as the core clock speed, but it'll help, especially if you're running at a higher resolution. 

5. Stability Check

Lock in both of your increased clock speeds, run through Heaven a final time, and you should be seeing higher frame rates and a higher score. Go wild and test out your overclocked card in your favorite games to make sure that it's stable enough for daily use—if it isn't, step down your GPU and memory clock speeds until it is. To be extra safe, you can leave Heaven running for a few hours to make sure you won't run into any problems during an extended gaming session.

Read on for information on overvolting, special situations, and the results of our overclocks.

Overvolting

If you're not satisfied with your card's overclocking performance at standard voltages, some cards let you crank up the voltage to squeeze even more performance out of your hardware. Before you do anything, spend a few minutes on Google to look up what other users are reporting as safe voltages for your specific graphics card. 

MSI Afterburner Properties

If you're feeling frisky, unlock voltage control and monitoring.

You have to dig into Afterburner's settings to gain access to your card's voltage. Increase your voltage by 10mV at a time until your overclock is stable, your temperatures exceed 70 degrees Celsius, or you reach your card's maximum safe voltage. 

Even if you're operating within the maximum safe voltage, overvolting a card can have severe consequences, including general instability, decreased part lifespan, and unsafe temperatures. It's usually a good idea to stick to stock voltages unless you really need every last bit of performance from your card. 

Special Situations

Each and every video card overclocks differently. These differences aren't limited to just how much you can push the card. Some cards like the GTX 670 and 680 utilize GPU boost to ramp up graphics performance when you need it. Those cards unlock special sliders in Precision X to manage when the boost is active. If you're working with a card that has GPU boost, you'll want to play around with the Power Target slider, which determines when the boost is applied. Pump up the boost and your card won't downclock as often—unless you're temperatures are getting too high.

The Results

Nvidia GTX 650 Ti Overclock

We haven't won any records, but we do have a respectable overclock.

In our Nvidia test system with an i5-3570k running at 3.4GHz and a GTX 650 Ti, we managed to overclock the graphics card to 1,161/1,600MHz from a stock 941/1,350MHz. That's a 19% increase in GPU clock speed and a 16% increase in memory clock speed. 

AMD Radeon HD 7850 Overclock

This 7850 didn't play nice with memory overclocks, but a 190MHz increase in core clock speed isn't bad at all.

Our AMD test system with an i5-3570k running at 3.8GHz and a 7850, generated comparable results with a default 860/1,200MHz pushed to 1,050/1,225MHz. That's an 18% increase in GPU clock speed and a less impressive 2% bump in memory clock speed.

 

Stock GTX 650 Ti

Overclocked GTX 650 Ti

Stock 7850

Overclocked 7850

3DMark Fire Strike

2,990

3,574

4,119

4,706

Unigine Heaven 4.0 (fps)

15.6

18.7

20.5

23.8

BioShock Infinite (fps)

36.6

42.1

42.4

48.44

Tomb Raider (fps)

25.2

31.5

31.3

33.2

Core/Memory Clock (MHz)

941/1,350

1,161/1,600

860/1,200

1,050/1,225

Remembering Microsoft Bob, the Precursor to Windows RT

Posted: 06 Feb 2015 01:54 PM PST

Microsoft Bob CDTreating users like idiots never works

I've written about the demise of Windows RT on more than one occasion over the course of the last couple of weeks, and in the comments section of both articles, there's mention of Microsoft Bob. Prior to those incidents, it had been a long time since I've seen anyone bring it up. References to Microsoft Bob usually only manifest when talking about forgettable Windows releases, like ME, Vista (pre-SP1), and RT. However, Microsoft Bob wasn't actually a Windows version, it was a patronizing GUI that foreshadowed Windows RT's demise. Never heard of it? Let's take a trip back in time.

Microsoft Bob was released in early 1995 as a desktop replacement for Windows 3.1 and Windows 95. Think of it as a GUI overlay. It was intended to make Windows less intimidating to novice users by dumbing down the interface -- instead of the traditional desktop with folders and icons, Microsoft Bob put users inside a graphical home with different rooms.

Rooms were either public or private, the latter of which could only be entered into by whichever user account it was attached to. You could decorate each of the rooms with various objects, as well as move things around, change the theme, and even create new rooms altogether.

What about the applications? These were integrated into the rooms. If you wanted to access Calendar, you could click on the calendar hanging on the wall. Likewise, clicking on the pen and paper on your desk would open up a word processor. These were essentially shortcuts presented as decorations.

Microsoft Bob

As you moved about the house, a pet dog named Rover (think: Clippy) would follow you around and offer tips and suggestions, provided you didn't turn him off.

Microsoft Bob isn't a project that came out of nowhere, but was born out of research by a pair of Stanford University professors, Clifford Nass and Byron Reeves. It was overseen by Microsoft researcher Karen Fries, and for a short while, Melinda Gates served as one of the project's marketing managers.

Only one major version of Microsoft Bob was ever made (not counting the Gateway Edition that came with Gateway 2000 PCs) and it was discontinued less than five months later. The biggest reason it flopped is because users had no interest in being treated like idiots, though it didn't help that it had relatively steep system requirements for the time (minimum 486SX CPU, 8MB RAM, 32GB disk space, and 256 color Super VGA) and initially sold for $100.

These days Microsoft Bob is remembered as one of Microsoft's biggest product failures, which makes it even more interesting that Windows RT and the whole metro interface came about. Just as interesting is that as recently as 2013, Bill Gates spoke out in support of Microsoft Bob, saying it will make a comeback someday.

"We were just ahead of our time, like most of our mistakes," Gates said.

Here's a look at Microsoft Bob in action:

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Newegg Daily Deals: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit, MSI X99S SLI Plus Mobo, and More!

Posted: 06 Feb 2015 01:48 PM PST

Microsoft Windows 7newegg logo

Top Deal:

Still getting by with Windows XP? Congratulations, you made it all the way to the end. Now if you're ready for something newer, check out today's top deal for Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit for $80 with free shipping (normally $100 - use coupon code: [EMCANAS36]). We don't know if it's compatible with Microsoft Bob, but will make you eligible to upgrade to Windows 10 for free when it comes out -- you just need to make sure you upgrade within the first year of its release.

Other Deals:

Intel Core i7-5930K Haswell-E 6-Core 3.5GHz LGA 2011-v3 140W Desktop Processor for $560 with free shipping

Corsair Vengeance Pro 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 1866 Desktop Memory for $140 with free shipping

Dell P2314H Black 23-inch 8ms Widescreen LED Backlight LCD Monitor IPS for $160 (normally $180 - use coupon code: [EMCANAS28])

MSI X99S SLI Plus LGA 2011-v3 Intel X99 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard for $190

Will Unpleasant Side Effects Hold Virtual Reality Back?

Posted: 06 Feb 2015 11:59 AM PST

SickExcuse me while I barf

There are some exciting things happening in the field of virtual reality. The bigger ones include devices like the Oculus Rift, Microsoft HoloLens, and Samsung Gear VR, but if you stop and read the list of possible side effects, it raises some concern that VR can become a mainstream thing. For example, Samsung tells users they should stop using its Gear VR if they experience certain symptoms.

They include "seizures, loss of awareness, eye strain, eye or muscle twitching, involuntary movements, altered, blurred, or double vision or other visual abnormalities, dizziness, disorientation, impaired balance, impaired hand-eye coordination, excessive sweating, increased salivation, nausea, lightheadedness, discomfort or pain in the head or eyes, drowsiness, fatigue, or any symptoms similar to motion sickness."

That's not even the entire laundry list of disclaimers associated with the Gear VR. Samsung also advises against letting children under the age of 13-years-old use the device, and points out that prolonged use can screw with your hand-eye coordination, balance, and ability to multi-task, even hours after the fact. Samsung even warns that the radio waves emitted from the device can affect nearby devices, including cardiac pacemakers -- sorry, gramps!

A lot of this has to do with Samsung wanting to cover its bases and protect itself from liability. If devices like the Gear VR and Oculus Rift sent everyone into a seizure and turned them into bumbling fools, the projects would never have gotten as far as they have.

At the same time, reading the disclaimers is like listening to a prescription drug commercial, and there will be people that are sensitive to VR technology in different ways. I don't know how many, but if I was invested in one of these products, you can bet I'd want to find out, especially if the goal is to make a profitable push into the mainstream.

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Google Adds Remote Lock Feature to Chromebook for Admins

Posted: 06 Feb 2015 11:32 AM PST

Chromebook Disabled MessageNow admins can disable a stolen Chromebook

Well, this was a long time coming. As Chromebooks grow in popularity, so does the risk of one being stolen -- it's just a numbers game, really. It sucks if that happens, but on the bright side, Google has issued an update that will finally allow admins to place lost or stolen Chrome OS devices in a disabled state. They can flip the switch right from their web-based management console.

They can also input a custom message to be displayed on the disabled device's screen. That could come in handy if you think the system's been lost rather than stolen, allowing you to put a "Reward if found" message or something to that effect. Or if it's stolen, "I know where you live -- return this laptop within 24 hours and I'll spare your pets."

Google's François Beaufort announced the new feature on his Google+ page, and also linked to a related support document. Clicking through reveals some additional information, including the fact that the new feature requires the device to be running Chrome version 40 or later.

Once you enable the feature, any user that's signed in gets signed out and taken to the device disabled page. Once that page is displayed, the user can't sign back in, and it will stay in that state until an admin re-enables or deprovisions the devices. It also returns licenses associated with the device to the license pool while disabled, and removes the serial number from the default ("Provisioned") view.

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Researchers Warn of Zero Day Vulnerability in Internet Explorer 11

Posted: 06 Feb 2015 08:37 AM PST

IE LogoHackers have a new security hole to go phishing in

If you use Internet Explorer 11, be aware that researchers have discovered a zero-day vulnerability that could allow attackers to change content on domains remotely. The exploit could also allow hackers to inject malicious content in browsers, steal personal data, and track your online movements. That's the bad news. And the good? You're unlikely to fall prey to such an attack, according to Microsoft.

"To successfully exploit this issue, and adversary would first need to lure a person, often through trickery such as phishing, to a malicious website that they've created," Microsoft said in a statement sent to The Inquirer. "SmartScreen, which is on by default in newer versions of Internet Explorer, helps protect against nefarious phishing websites."

Microsoft also said that it's not aware of the vulnerability being actively exploited at this time, and that it's working on a fix, which it will dole out in a future update. However, the Redmond outfit didn't provide a time table for the fix.

Security firm Symantec weighed in with a statement of its own, saying that it too was unaware of the vulnerability being exploited in the wild. However, it also warned of the exploit's potential for harm, saying it "could allow an attacker to bypass the same-origin policy in order to steal from, and inject information into, other websites."

David Leo, the researcher at Deusen who discovered the flaw, provided an example of how the vulnerability works. By exploiting the vulnerability, he's able to inject content that reads "Hacked by Deusen" into the Daily Mail's website seven seconds after opening the webpage.

To see for yourself, fire up IE11 and click here. Close the popup window after three seconds, as it instructs, and then click Go. This will open the Daily Mail website, and after seven seconds, you'll see the Hacked by Deusen message.

The zero-day vulnerability affects Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 users.

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