The GTX 980 Ti did not show any improvement in performance after the overclock attempt.
The GTX 980 Ti did not show any improvement in performance after the overclock attempt.
Hello! I've been experiencing some unusual overclock outcomes with my GTX 980 Ti card. Initially, the settings appear to be set as follows:
GPU Clock: +50Mhz
Memory Clock: +500Mhz
Power Limit: 110%
No Voltage Increase
However, during testing in various games that typically run around 45 FPS at 4K resolution, after applying the overclock and expecting higher clock speeds, I'm only seeing a minimal improvement—sometimes just a few frames per second. This falls within the acceptable range, so it could be considered near zero.
I also ran a benchmark such as Shadow Of The Tomb Raider's benchmark, which showed a slight increase from 37 to 38 FPS at 4K resolution with high settings.
Despite this, I'm struggling to push my GPU Clock beyond +50Mhz without running into problems. This seems to be the main issue, even though I know memory clock should have a significant impact. My laptop runs a Ryzen 2700x with a GT740M chip that clocks at +340Mhz on memory (though some claim 300Mhz is the limit), and my Windforce GTX 980 Ti—believed to be one of the best models available—only manages about half a frame gain when memory clock is at 0Mhz, factoring in the margin of error.
My system specs are:
Ryzen 2700x
Windforce GTX 980 Ti (driver version 441.66)
32GB RAM DDR4
Windows 10 Home
Cpus and gpus are distinct. Each one has its own requirements. Some require higher voltages while others need lower ones to stay stable, but no one tests every unit to confirm the exact needs. They set voltages high enough to handle any situation, just to ensure stability.
I'm using my gtx970 Strix at 124% OC with a 114% power limit. I don't want to adjust the original voltages. Very few people do this.
You won't notice big differences, that's a frequent error when adjusting GPU overclocking. The variation between models is minimal—some cards might gain 10-15 fps compared to others at the same settings. Once you add a third-party OC version, the gap narrows until the 2060 OC is only 5-10 fps faster...
You can observe the variation, the problem is that memory speed won't boost the FPS, but the GPU clock will, though your 50Mhz isn't doing much. For example, when using Unigine Valley benchmark, my 1050Ti would reach 1973 Core (compared to 1800~) at maximum overclock and the results were great with a +1000 Memory overclock. Don't be afraid to push the GPU harder by raising the MHz, just be extremely cautious with voltage.
50MHz is really just a small change
overclocking the GPU is straightforward
if FPS doesn’t improve, you need to boost the clock speed in the GPU RAM
continue raising voltage until stability returns
there should be safe boundaries to prevent overvoltage
Cpus and gpus are distinct. Each has its own requirements. Some require higher voltages while others need lower ones to stay stable, but no one tests every unit to confirm the exact needs. Therefore, they set voltages high enough to handle any situation, just to ensure stability.
I'm using my GTX970 Strix at 124% overclocking with a 114% power cap. I don't want to adjust the original voltages. Very few people do this.
You won't notice huge improvements, which is a frequent error when adjusting GPU overclocks. The gap between models is small—some cards might gain 10-15 fps compared to others at identical settings. Once you add a third-party overclock version, the difference narrows until the 2060 OC is only 5-10 fps slower than the 2070. Eventually, someone adds an OC layer on top of factory settings and sees a 2-6 fps gap. In general, you can expect your 2060 to reach near 2070 performance, but surpassing it is unlikely due to differences in cooling, VRAM, clock speeds, and architecture (256-bit vs 192-bit).
It's a 4K challenge that puts significant strain on any GPU. Without massive improvements, overclocking will only yield minimal gains. At 1080p, you might see a 5 fps boost, but with four times the workload, that becomes about 1 frame per second. If you believe a full GPU boost gives you 37 fps, then a 2% overclock adds roughly 0.7 frames. Reaching 38 fps is reasonable.