The development of technology not only opens up new devices for computer peripherals, but also allows us to increase the potential of already purchased devices. It's about overclocking an AMD graphics card.
This process is not a complex operation. You do not need to be a genius or a programmer in order to improve the capabilities of the device. It is enough to carefully read the instructions and use the necessary programs to overclock the AMD graphics card .
What it is?
Perhaps all experienced PC users have come up with the concept of overclocking. This term came from English and adapted to our language. Therefore, overclocking and overclocking are synonymous.
Both concepts describe the process of increasing the frequency of one of the components of the system. In our case, we are talking about an AMD graphics card. Acceleration can increase the frequency, and, accordingly, voltage, which will entail an improvement in the speed of the device.
Overclocking can be effective and inefficient. In the first case, the user will be able to achieve the maximum frequency value with stable operation. In the second, system errors and adapter problems may occur.
It’s important to understand that overclocking an AMD Radeon HD graphics card will affect heat dissipation, power consumption, and noise.
Objectives and Methods
As mentioned above, overclocking is needed to improve the performance of the device, in our case, a video card. The process has a downside - noise, increased heat generation, instability. All of this can be caused by:
- incorrect operation of viduha;
- non-observance of overclocking rules;
- insufficiently effective operation of the cooling system;
- lack of food;
- errors in adjusting indicators.
You can overclock not only the video card, but also processors, memory, motherboards, routers and other devices.
There are several overclocking methods:
- Using BIOS. Here you need to set higher frequencies for one or more devices in the system.
- BIOS update. In this case, you can use alternative software, which will already have increased frequency and voltage indicators.
- Special branded or third-party programs.
Utility
It just so happened that the programs for overclocking the AMD Radeon graphics card proved to be the most effective. Therefore, it is important to consider several options for utilities that will help you quickly, simply, and most importantly, effectively do overclocking.
Among them:
- Over drive;
- ATITool;
- MSI Afterburner
- ATI Tray Tools.
Over drive
Very often, AMD Radeon cards turn to this program for overclocking. But there is one interesting fact that you need to know before using it.
The fact is that, in addition to software with this name, there is a section of the same name in the company program. Both options have the same tasks. But there is one detail.
The fact is that the stand-alone utility is aimed at overclocking the processor, and the section specializes in video cards.
To configure the graphics adapter settings , you need to install AMD Radeon Software Crimson. This software and driver for branded red video cards.
The latest utility update was released a year ago. Since then, it has been working with many series of desktop adapters. For example, it can easily cope with overclocking an AMD Radeon HD 7700 graphics card. To improve this model, you need to go to the Over Drive section in the program.
The disadvantage of this option is that you can only raise the frequency indicators to the values set by the manufacturer. That is, the performance gain in this case will be insignificant.
ATITool
Another good utility, but somewhat outdated, since it was updated in 2011. Nevertheless, it is an automated program that can work with AMD and Nvidia graphics cards.
Software, in addition to overclocking, is engaged in monitoring, managing general and special settings. Based on the name, it is clear that it focuses more on video cards of “red” models. Hence, there are so many features from this company.
The utility runs on a module with automatic overclocking. In the process, she tries to select the frequency by comparing the installed 3D-picture with the one that is displayed at certain indicators of the adapter speed.
But since the program is still somewhat outdated, there is no point in talking a lot about it. It can be useful except for overclocking an old-generation AMD graphics card.
ATI Tray Tools
As the name of the program implies, it was also developed a long time ago (ATI was conditionally renamed AMD in 2006). Nevertheless, it continues to function stably. It has become popular due to the fact that it can fine-tune and overclock video cards from the "red" company.
It is located in the system tray and gives access to many options. Works with the oldest versions of Windows. Among the latest updates supports the "seven". Starting with the Radeon 9500 version, it works with all models. This is one of the few programs for overclocking an AMD video card in Russian.
What can this software do? It supports a lot of proprietary technologies of the company, and also works with some functions. It can overclock in automatic mode, switching to a 3D image. Creates game profiles and customizes global hotkeys. It copes with temperature monitoring in the system, carries out low-level color gamut correction.
There are functions of low-level overclocking and the creation of special profiles for this process. It supports a lot of useful plugins, creates screenshots and much more.
MSI Afterburner
Despite the fact that this utility has been working for more than 8 years, developers still carry out its support. For example, a month ago, an updated version of MSI Afterburner 4.4.0 was released.
The main feature of this application is that it is used almost always, regardless of the device manufacturer. This is due to many factors.
When this software appeared in 2009, it was often associated with yet another proprietary work of EVGA Precision. But it was the product from MSI that became the universal overclocking tool.
A lot of time has passed since the release, the software interface has changed dramatically. Although overclocking the AMD video card is still simple and straightforward. The latest update introduced the final release of the program, which was robbed of errors and endowed with a bunch of innovations.
The software began to support graphics cards based on the Vega 10 GPU platform. Now it can regulate the voltage on the latest generation cards from Nvidia (GTX 1030, GTX 1070 Ti, GTX 1080 Ti and Titan Xp). The program now displays graphical information regarding the processor loads, frame rates, temperatures. The new shell is called Cyborg White.
Cryptocurrencies
It would seem, how are cryptocurrencies related to our topic? While the whole world is watching the growth of bitcoin, part of the world's population is trying to make money on it. To do this, many acquire special stations that could help in this matter.
Mining is a set of computational tasks that helps the development of bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies. In order for everything to be effective, you need to get a productive system. Some decide to buy special equipment - ASICs. And someone decides to improve the existing system. Therefore, you need to overclock the AMD Radeon graphics card for mining.
Features
Cryptocurrency mining equipment can be chosen forever. One of the good options is the Sapphire NITRO + Radeon RX 580 Limited Edition GPU. This is a great video card model that was developed by Sapphire.
She has an increased frequency due to factory overclocking, as well as improved auxiliary components. To understand the features of overclocking of this model, it is important to briefly consider its technical characteristics.
The video card works on 2304 stream processors, is manufactured according to the 14-nm process technology. The clock frequency reaches 1.4 GHz. There are built-in video memory chips with a capacity of 8 GB type GDDR5. The model consumes 225 watts.
These figures may vary slightly with the same model, but from a different manufacturer.
Overclocking for mining
It so happened that for the extraction of cryptocurrencies, it is necessary to improve not the processor frequency, but the memory speed. Hence the slightly different overclocking technology of the AMD Radeon RX 580 graphics card.
For example, for an Nvidia device, you need to use three utilities:
GPU-Z, which monitors all the parameters of the video card;
MSI Afterburner, already familiar to us, is needed directly to overclock the adapter;
any benchmark that effectively copes with testing the system under stressful loads.
It doesn't matter if you do overclocking to increase performance in games or for mining, the process consists of three stages. First, we increase the frequency indicator, after we check the behavior of the system in a stress test, and then we can analyze the behavior of the device in the game.
You need to increase the frequency carefully. It’s better if the process itself takes longer and you increase it by 40-50 MHz, than you can’t detect a critical indicator of the chip speed. If you get an error, then you need to return to the previous value that was set and use it. The same process must be repeated for video memory.
In the case of the device from AMD, everything is somewhat simpler. It is only necessary to change the timings of the adapter RAM . Because of this process, many have chosen the RX series for mining. Models in it differ in the frequency of RAM. Therefore, when choosing, you need to look only at this indicator.
The most advanced options for 8 GB models. But some already got the hang of working with the 4 GB version, since you can overclock the RAM and change the timings.
Conclusion
Overclocking a video card is a simple process. Often, inexperienced users are afraid to do something, thinking that they can ruin the entire system. In fact, there is nothing wrong with overclocking. The video card will not burn at increased loads. It will simply throw an error and reset all settings.
Therefore, during acceleration it is important to do everything sequentially and accurately. In this case, you can achieve the most effective result both for simple games and for mining.
In the case of AMD video cards, MSI Afterburner software will definitely help. This program copes with almost any model. There is an option to use a proprietary utility that can be bundled with drivers for the adapter. But, unfortunately, they do not always turn out to be successful and effective.
Together with him, you will have to install a couple more programs that will help analyze the acceleration process itself, and then test the performance result. Such tools may also be included.
If you have an outdated card model, you can try using the ATITool and ATI Tray Tools programs. They are focused on old-generation graphics cards. Although it’s a bit more difficult to work with them, since their interface remains the same and the functionality does not meet modern requirements.