Overclocking your GPU for rFactor 2

Discussion in 'Technical & Support' started by Kelju_K, May 25, 2021.

  1. Kelju_K

    Kelju_K Registered

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    Overclocking your GPU for this game is very beneficial. More so than most games infact.
    This title has best gains of all the games i have ever played when overclocking the GPU.

    Here is how i have oc'ed my cards and some general information about it.

    NVIDIA is trickier than AMD and here is how to go about it:

    With nvidia, (gpu) memory oc does help with benchmarks but is rather useless in games tbh, and mostly causes instability. So i would leave it alone. And usually most cards have micron ddr5 memory, that clocks badly, compared to samsung.
    gpu-z will tell you which ic you have on your card. Even tough samsung ddr5 clocks better, gains in games are rare. So not really worth it imo, but you could try if you have samsung in your card.
    This game doesn't really benefit from it, but there might be some that do. YMMV.

    Gpu oc tough makes huge difference for this game. I suggest using the curve editor, instead of the slider.
    Don't lift the curve from 1 voltage point, having it be default curve under that, and then have it flatten out after the oc point tough, even there are guides that tell you to do so.
    Trust me on this. I have never gotten fully stable oc doing that. it requires nice progressive curve and quite a bit of voltage fluctuation in rather wide range to have it truly stable in my experience.
    BUT If you want to play it safe, then ignore this advice and use the MHz slider instead of curve, and leave the voltage offset slider alone. Your gains are gonna stay lower doing that, but it's safer.

    If you feel brave enough to go with the curve, follow the tutorial. But first make aggressive fan curves before anything else!

    Also if you decide to use the curve, set power setting to optimal instead of max performance in nvidia control panel, however counter intuitive it may sound. In my experience it restricts the voltage and MHz fluctuation needed to have stable oc, as it tries to keep max voltage on the curve all the time if set at max performance. This is not ideal even tough it might seem so.

    Make the progressive curve all the way trough the voltage range, even beyond the max desired voltage.
    To do it, grab the point of 1.080v (1 above target voltage, that is 1.075v in this example) by holding ctrl and lifting (dragging up) the target point with mouse. Thats how it makes progressive curve that actually works.

    Raise that curve so that your target voltage point of 1.075v is 150-200 mhz above default MHZ. This obviously sets the OC so finding that correct point requires testing, but 150mhz is good starting point.
    Lower or raise depending if its stable or not when testing the oc
    Use the voltage offset slider to get it to rise to the point in that curve under load (1.075v if 1.050v is default).
    Higher you raise the voltage offset % slider, higher it raises the voltage and MHz according to the curve. You can use the voltage offset % slider to control how far you want to push it. But let the curve raise progressively above the voltage you are after still. Usually 30-40% is enough offset for it to rise to the 1.075v initially. If you feel that is too much voltage for you, start with lower offset %.
    Leaving the offset voltage % slider to zero, might raise the voltage briefly over default of 1.050v to 1.062v but it does that at stock too, but even more briefly. So you can try at first with no voltage offset too.

    But following the example, and going after that 1.075v, It only stays at the 1.075v for awhile on load, as it drops in few minutes (or under a minute) to 1.062 due "thermal throttling", and continues to drop (as temps rise) to 1.050v first and then to 1.043v usually. This is how it behaves with progressive curve as the "throttling" limit is quite low at 55'C. And actually eventually undervolts the gpu, as the progressive curve is at higher MHz at lower voltage than default.

    That 1.043v is were you want it to settle. usually with that 150-200MHz above default at target voltage of 1.075v, and about 30% offset voltage, leaves it roughly at 100-150mhz oc with that 1.043v once it has settled, so it's undervolted and overclocked at that point. This is usually the best case scenario stability wise.
    That "thermal throttling" is not really throttling in same sense as cpu's throttle, but behave this way, and i just dont have better word for it.
    It protects your gpu from too high temperatures and lowers voltages to do so. It makes overclocking bit tricky, and forces you to have temporary high voltages to have proper OC.

    Just for reference I did let my 1080ti rise to 1.080v-1.093v initially with offset voltage % @ around 50% and let it settle to 1.062v-1.075v, so it was overvolted and overclocked, but thats me. I always have case fans set to give the gpu cool air (on top of aggressive gpu fan curve) so it can keep those voltages. and i dont care about fan noise. I usually search for max stable clocks, and usually can have +250MHz OC, but i dont recommend to follow me on this.

    So what about the power limit slider in afterburner? Maxing it out straight away as most guides tell you to do, is not good policy imo. Never have i ever have had to have it maxed out, even with quite extreme overclocks. I think max i have had it is 112% (115% being max it goes to). Overclocking for bechmarks alone is different story, but im talking about game stable overclocking.
    With the example here, not being extreme oc, 108% is what i suggest it to be set at maximum.
    You might think that why not allow to be at max? it wont take more than needed, it's just the limit..
    Well.. it changes the form of the curve actually. This is not easy to notice, but if you allways start from zero, and set everything and then hit apply (the curve set it self at that point). You will see that the power limit setting does effect the curve a bit (as does the voltage offset % setting too btw). What you are after is nice and smooth curve, without dips or bumps.
    I wont go deeper in to this here, but my advice is, don't max it out from the start. Believe me or not, is up to you.

    If your cards default voltage is something else than 1.5v, just apply accordingly. usually the voltage steps in nvidia, in the range it is under load are 1.031v-1.043v-1.050v-1.062v-1.075v-1.080v-1.093v, 1.050v being default.
    If you need help with that, feel free to dm me for questions. just dont expect me to answer in 24h. i dont live here on the forum.

    AND obviously do this at you own risk. i dont take responsibility if you fry your card. but it's rather safe if you leave the voltage offset slider at 30% initially, and dont exceed 40%.
    AGAIN If you want to play it safe, leave the voltage off set slider alone, and use the gpu MHz slider instead of the curve.

    AMD is easier as you set minimum and maximum clocks, and 100Mhz is the minimum difference between the two (fluctuation required here too ;)). Giving my 6800xt more voltage is not possible even with the igors "more power tool" and my brief experience with the card, suggests that slight undervolting is actually better with it. Could be that the beefy vrm in the card makes a difference here, cant really say. Also that beefy vrm does not require power limit increase with igors tool, but i have heard that other brands have benefited from it.
    Powerlimit slider seems to be best at max on my card, but i have quite high oc at 2620MHz.
    AMD seems to benefit from gpu memory overclocking too with this game and others aswell. Setting the vram timings tighter in the other hand only seems to benefit benchmarks, and not games. Plus games seem to suffer instability with tighter timings.
    Since my last AMD card was 7970 i cant really speak for the 5000 series cards or anything between the 7970 and the 6800xt. And my experience overclocking this card for different titles is still quite small to actually say anything with certainty really. If there are experienced AMD card overclockers here, please step in to say your 2 cents.

    Finally. Few simple rules that keep your PC components safe when overclocking:
    Don't go crazy with voltages, even if there seems to be room to push further.
    Respect safe temperatures. Stay slightly under rather than over safe limits.
     
    Last edited: May 25, 2021
  2. JamesB

    JamesB Registered

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    Very useful, thank you. I have just added a 4th monitor to my rig to show some simhub stuff only, so no great draw on resources but it has has a slight negative impact on fps in game. Am hoping that a few of your tips might get me back to where I was before I added the other monitor.
     

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