Overclocking

Overclocking results listed in this section are achieved with the default fan and voltage settings as defined in the VGA BIOS. We choose this approach as it is the most realistic scenario for the majority of users.

Every sample overclocks differently, which is why our results here can only serve as a guideline for what you can expect from your card.

On NVIDIA cards with Boost, the values discussed here are the highest observed boost clock after overclocking.



Maximum overclock of our sample is +110 MHz to the GPU base clock (11% overclock), which results in a maximum boost clock of 1298 MHz on the GPU, and 2055 MHz on the memory (17% overclock).

Let's start with the memory overclock: 2055 MHz is good and in-line with what we've seen on other cards that use the same memory chips. This confirms that NVIDIA did not screw up the memory controller on GM200, or memory overclocking would be significantly lower.

The 11% GPU overclock is decent, but not as high as we've seen on recently released GPUs. What I found noteworthy during testing is that the GPU will show artifacts (due to a GPU clock that is too high) early while running at even higher clocks without crashing. Other GPUs crash almost instantly as soon as they hit their maximum clock.

Our GPU overclock does not translate into that much additional real-life performance because the card's power limit and temperature limit (84°C) hold it back; the card reaches 84°C and NVIDIA Boost will dial down the clocks, down to 1000 MHz if it has to, which nullifies some of the potential performance gains from the manual overclock. The same happens with power; the power limit, once reached, reduces the boot and, thus, performance.

If you plan to do any overclocking, and actually even if you don't, I recommend increasing the temperature limit to 91°C, which is the maximum, and the board's power limit to 110%, also the maximum. This immediately translates into significant performance gains without adjusting any clocks.

Dialing in our highest stable clocks now, we suddenly saw the expected performance gains. I also added all these scenarios into the graph below to give you an idea of what improvements to expect.

I've also included the maximum OC performance result with the MSI GTX 980 Gaming, which is the card with the highest overclocked real-life performance we tested. This serves to illustrate that board partners have done fantastic work in getting the most out of the GTX 980—the difference to the Titan X isn't even that big.

Overclocked Performance

Using these clock frequencies, we ran a quick test of Battlefield 3 to evaluate the gains from overclocking.


Actual 3D performance gained from overclocking is 4.1% with just the higher clocks, and 11.8% with both the higher clocks and the thermal target and power limit at their maximum.