# Should I overclock GTX 950M for better gaming experience?



## fenixx3

Hello!

5 months ago I got myself an ASUS ROG GL552VX and I wanted to know - Is it safe to overclock GTX 950M for a better gaming experience?

I just want to overclock it to run games better like GTA 5, etc.
Will buy witcher 3 soon and wish that I could run it better on 1920x1080 resolution.

Just say it guys, Is it or not good to overclock it just for these reasons to get a bit more FPS?
And could my laptop run for at least 3 - 3.5 years with overclocked GPU?

Spec:

i7-6700HQ 2.60Ghz
GTX 950M 2GB GDDR5
16GB RAM


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## compuman145

Hey dude,

Right, overclocking a laptop is always a bad plan due to the heat it pumps out, that's far from a gaming laptop so running witcher 3 in 1080 even on low will hammer your GPU.

If you want to game, can I recommend a low spec build with a high end GPU. something like an i5 6400 with a low end motherboard which doesn't ioverclock, and then wait for either the AMD Vega which I'm guessing will push the prices of the other GPU's down so you could get something for a few hundred which will max it out.

Cheers

Comps


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## Just a nickname

I never overclocked any laptop GPU but I believe this is possible. The gain will be marginal at the cost of higher consumption and temperature. A lot of laptop savvy user replace the stock thermal paste to allow better dissipation. Most laptop's gpu (if not all) will throttle under heavy duty so even an overclock will not provide any improvement. The laptop throttle the GPU's speed to maintain temperature and consumption at something it has been designed for.
Replacing the thermal paste and undervolting might in fact be more beneficial for the laptop than overclocking it considering the limited thermal dissipation capability.


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## Shiftstealth

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *fenixx3*
> 
> Hello!
> 
> 5 months ago I got myself an ASUS ROG GL552VX and I wanted to know - Is it safe to overclock GTX 950M for a better gaming experience?
> 
> I just want to overclock it to run games better like GTA 5, etc.
> Will buy witcher 3 soon and wish that I could run it better on 1920x1080 resolution.
> 
> Just say it guys, Is it or not good to overclock it just for these reasons to get a bit more FPS?
> And could my laptop run for at least 3 - 3.5 years with overclocked GPU?
> 
> Spec:
> 
> i7-6700HQ 2.60Ghz
> GTX 950M 2GB GDDR5
> 16GB RAM


Quote:


> Originally Posted by *compuman145*
> 
> Hey dude,
> 
> Right, overclocking a laptop is always a bad plan due to the heat it pumps out, that's far from a gaming laptop so running witcher 3 in 1080 even on low will hammer your GPU.
> 
> If you want to game, can I recommend a low spec build with a high end GPU. something like an i5 6400 with a low end motherboard which doesn't ioverclock, and then wait for either the AMD Vega which I'm guessing will push the prices of the other GPU's down so you could get something for a few hundred which will max it out.
> 
> Cheers
> 
> Comps


Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Just a nickname*
> 
> I never overclocked any laptop GPU but I believe this is possible. The gain will be marginal at the cost of higher consumption and temperature. A lot of laptop savvy user replace the stock thermal paste to allow better dissipation. Most laptop's gpu (if not all) will throttle under heavy duty so even an overclock will not provide any improvement. The laptop throttle the GPU's speed to maintain temperature and consumption at something it has been designed for.
> Replacing the thermal paste and undervolting might in fact be more beneficial for the laptop than overclocking it considering the limited thermal dissipation capability.


Most laptop GPU's in my experience max out the default slider allowed by NVIDIA on laptops which is +135 Mhz core. Mind you this overclock is usually at maybe 2-4C higher temps because you do not need to over-volt it to gain this extra +135 Mhz. This is also the max you can overclock it without bios modding it, which i would not recommend. Mind you this will be a marginal 5-7% performance gain by doing so.


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## fenixx3

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Shiftstealth*
> 
> Most laptop GPU's in my experience max out the default slider allowed by NVIDIA on laptops which is +135 Mhz core. Mind you this overclock is usually at maybe 2-4C higher temps because you do not need to over-volt it to gain this extra +135 Mhz. This is also the max you can overclock it without bios modding it, which i would not recommend. Mind you this will be a marginal 5-7% performance gain by doing so.
> 
> .


Just now I tried to increase GPU Clock +135Mhz and Vram Clock +255 Mhz with NVIDIA inspector and didn't see any difference. Like for example, tried to run GTA 5 Ultra and the fps stays the same as without increasing GPU and Vram Clock. (the same goes with the MSI Afterburner)

Can run the game perfectly fine on high settings, but on ultra it's un-playable.

What am I doing wrong here, do I need to check something in BIOS to be able to modify these things?

(Sorry If i'm not right on the point, English is not my native langauge and it's my first time doing these kind of things)


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## Shiftstealth

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *fenixx3*
> 
> Just now I tried to increase GPU Clock +135Mhz and Vram Clock +255 Mhz with NVIDIA inspector and didn't see any difference. Like for example, tried to run GTA 5 Ultra and the fps stays the same as without increasing GPU and Vram Clock. (the same goes with the MSI Afterburner)
> 
> Can run the game perfectly fine on high settings, but on ultra it's un-playable.
> 
> What am I doing wrong here, do I need to check something in BIOS to be able to modify these things?
> 
> (Sorry If i'm not right on the point, English is not my native langauge and it's my first time doing these kind of things)


Have you verified by GPUz that the clocks actually increased? There were some NVIDIA drivers out where they disabled overclocking on laptops.


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## Just a nickname

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *fenixx3*
> 
> Just now I tried to increase GPU Clock +135Mhz and Vram Clock +255 Mhz with NVIDIA inspector and didn't see any difference. Like for example, tried to run GTA 5 Ultra and the fps stays the same as without increasing GPU and Vram Clock. (the same goes with the MSI Afterburner)
> 
> Can run the game perfectly fine on high settings, but on ultra it's un-playable.
> 
> What am I doing wrong here, do I need to check something in BIOS to be able to modify these things?
> 
> (Sorry If i'm not right on the point, English is not my native langauge and it's my first time doing these kind of things)


Try a benchmark and compare the score.


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## fenixx3

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Shiftstealth*
> 
> Have you verified by GPUz that the clocks actually increased? There were some NVIDIA drivers out where they disabled overclocking on laptops.












The GPU clocks increased, but no difference at all.
What NVIDIA driver should I actually install to be able to make the overclocking feature enabled?

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Just a nickname*
> 
> Try a benchmark and compare the score.


You mean the benchmark to test the FPS on GTA 5? If so, then I did it and didn't see any difference.


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## Shiftstealth

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *fenixx3*
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> The GPU clocks increased, but no difference at all.
> What NVIDIA driver should I actually install to be able to make the overclocking feature enabled?
> You mean the benchmark to test the FPS on GTA 5? If so, then I did it and didn't see any difference.


I would watch the clocks in game with msi afterburner to verify that it is still boosting properly. If your laptop is getting too hot it could be thermally throttling. All of this could be viewed while using msi afterburner and watching the clocks and temps in game in a corner with the OSD.


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## fenixx3

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Shiftstealth*
> 
> I would watch the clocks in game with msi afterburner to verify that it is still boosting properly. If your laptop is getting too hot it could be thermally throttling. All of this could be viewed while using msi afterburner and watching the clocks and temps in game in a corner with the OSD.




Well, the GPU temperature is in a good standing and it isn't that hot or thermally throttling.
I seriously don't know what I'm doing wrong here...


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## Shiftstealth

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *fenixx3*
> 
> 
> 
> Well, the GPU temperature is in a good standing and it isn't that hot or thermally throttling.
> I seriously don't know what I'm doing wrong here...


Based on what i'm seeing there, and what is typical of laptop GPU's is insufficient memory bandwidth. You might be better served seeing how high you can get the memory bandwidth. From what i can see neither the GPU cores, the the CPU cores are being fully utilized which indicates the bottleneck is somewhere else. Laptops has pretty low clocked GDDR so i would look into pushing that a bit more, and see if that has better results.


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## fenixx3

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Shiftstealth*
> 
> Based on what i'm seeing there, and what is typical of laptop GPU's is insufficient memory bandwidth. You might be better served seeing how high you can get the memory bandwidth. From what i can see neither the GPU cores, the the CPU cores are being fully utilized which indicates the bottleneck is somewhere else. Laptops has pretty low clocked GDDR so i would look into pushing that a bit more, and see if that has better results.


This is what I get when I overclock Core clock +135Mhz, Memory clock +600 Mhz


When overclocking memory over 600Mhz PC starts to lag and the image/screen is starting to tear apart.

Does this mean that my GPU is not capable of being overclocked?

I've seen youtube videos where overclocking the GTX 950m you gain an fps boost. :/
Either I'm stupid or this GPU is not meant to be overclocked


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## HITTI

116mem is the highest I can go with my 970m. or it reverts back to zero. Dunno why.

But anyways I see a difference in overclocking vs normal while playing call of duty games with sync disabled and fps unlocked.


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## HITTI

Also u can overclock the monitor which will help.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/psa-you-can-now-overclock-your-laptop-monitor-intel-intel-optimus.802167/

That is if your laptop is optimus,


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## HITTI




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## Imglidinhere

You only have 2GB of Vram on that card. My 960M has 4GB and I notice it every day in games pushing well above the 2GB point. That's probably the biggest reason for why you aren't seeing a huge difference. I know in FO4, on stock settings I get like... 25-30 fps on ultra, no AA. Overclocked as it is in my sig, I see around 35-45fps usually, depending on what's happening.

But just know you're going to struggle to play on Ultra for most modern day games. 2GB Vram is NOT enough for highest settings anymore. It's just not.

EDIT:

Also just be aware you CAN overclock just fine on most gaming laptops. The whole "hurr durr laptops already throttle under basic load so you can't overclock" way of thinking might've been correct back in the early 2000s but today, a gaming machine doesn't break much higher than a desktop GPU with a blower-style cooler.







Keep in mind that it's also a key of the silicon lottery too, being aware that you may or may not be able to push too much more through that card. I got kinda unlucky with my 960M from what I can tell. Most people could get +750mhz on the memory in MSI afterburner whereas I can barely get +400mhz. Maxing out the core clock is typical really.

But yeah your issue is that your GPU is being held back by your Vram allocation. 2GB isn't enough anymore. In GTA 5, you're sitting right at 2GB just about all the time. That's proof right there.


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## fenixx3

It just makes me sad seeing people running games on the same card as I do with the overclocking.












 For example, this guy gets here more than 20-30fps, where I get like 8-13fps with overclocking on ULTRA. :/

Anyways, thank you all for your help and suggestions!


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## Imglidinhere

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *fenixx3*
> 
> It just makes me sad seeing people running games on the same card as I do with the overclocking.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> For example, this guy gets here more than 20-30fps, where I get like 8-13fps with overclocking on ULTRA. :/
> 
> Anyways, thank you all for your help and suggestions!


Did you shut off Anti-Aliasing? Because yes, he's running Ultra on all those games, AA is completely OFF for him. That's a huge performance killer for cards that don't have a lot of memory bandwidth.

Also, don't expect 20 fps averages to be seen as playable. Maybe for someone who enjoys a choppy experience, sure, but I played through DOOM on lowest and game looked gorgeous... so playing on Ultra is kinda overrated, and I've got a more powerful GPU than you. :3


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