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.



As mentioned before, the card has a turbo switch which lets you select between a normal mode (GTX 460 reference clocks) and a turbo mode (820/1000). The two modes have different 3D voltages so we tested overclocking potential in both of them. The first number in the following paragraph is normal mode, the second number is turbo mode.

The overclocks of our card are 850 MHz / 886 MHz core (26% / 8% overclock) and 1045 MHz / 1035 MHz Memory (16% / 4% overclock). When in normal mode, the overclock is comparable to what we have been seeing on other GTX 460 cards. 886 MHz in Turbo mode is a very good overclock and only topped by the Point of View GTX 460 TGT Beast which managed 905 MHz.

Colorful has asked us to remind you all that additional overclocking potential is available when you increase the card's voltage (same as on all other cards from other manufacturers). This is something we usually test only when companies include their own voltage tweaking software with the card. Please leave feedback in the comments of this review whether you would like to see voltage increases become a permanent testing feature for all cards.

Overclocked Performance

Using the clock frequencies of 886/1035 MHz we ran a quick test of Call of Duty 4 to evaluate the gains from overclocking.


The actual 3D performance gained from overclocking is 26.5% over the normal mode setting and 7% over the turbo setting.

Temperatures

Temperatures are low, which is great. But considering the fan noise I would have preferred to see higher temps and less noise.

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.

Normal:

Turbo: