Overclocking is the process of increasing the speed of a computer component to run faster than its default factory setting. Overclocking is particularly popular among computer enthusiasts and gamers, because it allows them to get top performance from hardware. Most commonly overclocked components include the CPU, graphics card and memory. Overclocking your graphics card can make a significant improvement in video game frame rates. The XFX GTX 280 graphics card is the high-end card of the 2xx generation of nVidia graphics cards. With decent stock cooling, it is often possible to get an overclocked speed increase as much as 15%. The overclocking process is similar nVidia graphics cards.
Instructions
1. Download and install the latest nVidia ForceWare drivers from nvidia.com. Restart your computer once the setup is complete.
2. Download and install nVidia System Tools from nvidia.com. This will add more advanced settings, including overclocking settings, to your nVidia Control Panel. Download GPU-Z from techpowerup.com/gpuz and place it on your desktop for easy access.
3. Right click on your desktop and click "NVIDIA Control Panel." Click on the "Performance" section of the menu on the left-hand side and select "Device settings." Click on the large GPU icon to access the graphics card overclocking settings.
4. Select "Custom" under clock speeds. Increase the core and memory clock speeds by 10-20 MHz increments at a time. There is no need to modify the shader clock.
5. Click "Apply." Do not let Windows load the new settings automatically on start-up until you have found a stable overclock.
6. Run GPU-Z and click on the "Sensors" tab to monitor the temperature of your graphics card. For the XFX GTX 280, the temperatures should be no more than around 80 degrees on full load. Test the new overclock by running a video game. Restore the clock speeds to their default settings if you experience artifacts (random green triangles in 3D rendering) in your game. If the system is stable, increase the clock speeds one step at a time until you find the optimal overclock.
Tags: clock speeds, graphics card, Control Panel, Download install, from nvidia, graphics cards, nVidia graphics