Overclocking

To find the maximum overclock of our card we used a combination of GPUTool and our benchmarking suite.
The overclocks listed here were achieved with the default fan and voltage settings as defined in the VGA BIOS. Please note that every single sample overclocks differently, that's why our results here can only serve as a guideline for what you can expect from your card.



The overclocks of our card are 850 MHz core (11% overclock) and 1255 MHz Memory (11% overclock).

I also tried using ASUS SmartDoctor to increase the GPU voltage. I reached 890 MHz at 1.15V, 940 at 1.20V, 970 at 1.25V, 965 at 1.30V and 970 at 1.35V which is the maximum in SmartDoctor. Please note that the voltages are listed as they are displayed in SmartDoctor - not actual measurements.

Overclocked Performance

Using these clock frequencies (850/1255) we ran a quick test of Call of Duty 4 to evaluate the gains from overclocking.


The actual 3D performance gained from overclocking is 11.3%.

Temperatures

Temperatures are comfortably in a perfectly safe range, even with overclocking. The fan noise is also low, good job ASUS.

Clock Profiles

Modern graphics cards have several clock profiles that are selected to balance power draw and performance requirements.
The following table lists the clock settings for major performance scenarios and the GPU voltage that we measured. We measure on the pins of a coil or capacitor near the GPU voltage regulator.


AMD includes their own overclocking utility with Catalyst Control Center. While easy to use, it also limits the maximum overclock to a predefined limit in the BIOS. Here are the upwards limits for overclocking CCC gives you.