Overclocking Your Nvidia Graphics Card
Overclocking your Nvidia graphics card doesn't have to be difficult. Nvidia's proprietary drivers actually include a nice little overclocking tool by default called "coolbits". In this guide, I show you how to enable coolbits, use it to overclock, and have your overclocking settings applied when your computer starts up for convienance.
Before we begin, note that you should already have the Nvidia proprietary drivers installed. Also remember that the nvidia-settings tool that I will refer to later in the guide is usually available in a shortcut located under the Applications > System Tools menu. If it isn't, just run the command nvidia-settings in the terminal to access it.
Enabling Coolbits
Coolbits will provide an easy to use overclocking utility inside nvidia-settings (typically you can access this through Applications > System Tools > NVIDIA Settings). Here's how to install it:
We are going to edit your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file so the first thing I would do would be to back it up with a command like this (which would create a backup called "xorg.conf.bak" in the /etc/X11 directory):
Code:
sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg_backup.conf
If we have any problems after editing the file, we can just revert to our backup with this command:
Code:
sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg_backup.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf
Now for the actual editing:
Code:
gksudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf
This will open up your xorg.conf file in gedit. Search for a section of text that begins with Section "Device"
Mine looks like this:
Section "Device"
Identifier "NVIDIA Corporation NV43 [GeForce 6600 GT]"
Driver "nvidia"
EndSection
Your's may look different depending on what graphics card you have. We need to add the following text to enable coolbits:
For reference, here's what my section looks like after I have enabled coolbits:
Section "Device"
Identifier "NVIDIA Corporation NV43 [GeForce 6600 GT]"
Driver "nvidia"
Option "Coolbits" "1"
EndSection
Now save the file and open up nvidia-settings. There should now be a clock frequency tab.
Overclocking With Coolbits
Using coolbits to overclock is straightforward. Just configure your frequencies, hit apply and you're done. The "Auto Detect" button can be very helpful for finding a good overclock. The frequencies it gives you are usually a bit high so you might want to decrease them a bit especially if you are noticing any artifacting.
One problem is that your frequency settings are restored to the hardware defaults after you restart the computer. Reconfiguring the settings everytime I bootup is a pain so I found a command that will do this automatically for us:
Code:
nvidia-settings -a GPUOverclockingState=1 -a GPU2DClockFreqs=<2dGPU>,<2dMEM> -a GPU3DClockFreqs=<3dGPU>,<3dMEM>
You need to replace the bold type with your actual settings. So I would replace <2dGPU> with my 2d core frequency (in megahertz). I would replace <3dMEM> with my 3d memory frequency (in megahertz). On a side note, I'd recommend leaving the 2d settings at their default values (unless you want to play pong at 5000 fps :-p). 3d settings are what you want to increase for gaming performance and such. Just for reference here is my script:
Code:
nvidia-settings -a GPUOverclockingState=1 -a GPU2DClockFreqs=300,1000 -a GPU3DClockFreqs=550,1100.
Replace my settings with your settings in whatever text editor you prefer. Now we are going to make this command run every time we start up the computer. Go to System>Preferences>Sessions. Select the Startup Programs tab.
Now simply select the Add button (top right) and paste your command into the text box. Then hit OK. From now on your overclocking settings will be conveniently applied when you login.
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