EVGA Precision X OC Overclocking and Card Utility
Contents
I know I already showed you this before, but I will show you again the overclock, first in GPU-Z, then in EVGA’s Precision X OC.
And now for EVGA’s Precision X OC:
BEFORE
AFTER
Let’s get into some more detail on the ins and outs of Precision X OC.
We will work our way along the edges the come towards the middle. On the top left hand corner, we have the MENU:
HW Monitoring, shows you the Memory Clocks, GPU Usage, VID usage, Memory usage, Fan tachometer, voltage limit, CPU temperature, GPU Clock, GPU temperature, FB usage, BUS usage, Fan Speed, Power Limit, Temp Limit, GPU Temperature and Frame Time. A decent little monitoring utility.
OSD Settings: On Screen Display, allows you to show statistics over your game, lots of options here.
OSD: Enables all the settings you configured in OSD Settings.
Start UP: Allows EVGA Precision X OC to start up with windows.
On the top right hand corner, we have GPU: GPU tells you what GPU you have, that’s about it.
Working our way down to the right side, we find the CURVE:
Click on CURVE, brings out 2 Windows, I will show you the first one
The Fan tab, allows you to Enable Automatic Fan Control, increase or decrease the fan speed update period response time by milliseconds, Temperature Hysteresis and Presets of Custom, Aggressive or Quiet fan speeds.
General, allows you to start Precision X OC minimized, start it with Windows, check for update options, check for updates now, set a screen capture hotkey, select your screenshot format, then select you screenshot folder, overvoltage and overboost.
If you notice here, Appearance LED and Thermal LED are grayed out.
The reason for this is this is a Founders Edition Card, there is little to nothing that can be changed on this card out of NVIDIA’s reference design through EVGA Precision X OC but it is adjustable though NVIDIA’s LED Visualizer. Check out this video on how it work’s
Profile, allows you to show the profile in the tray menu, assign 2D or 3D profiles and set hotkeys. Each profile allows for 10 presets.
Interface, allows you to set the UI language, show user interface hint icons, show user interface tool tips, change skin colors for the UI, GUI transparency slider and allows you to keep the GUI Always on top.
Pixel Clock, allows you to overclock your monitors Pixel clock, Refresh Rate, pixel clock slider and select the monitor you wish to overclock. Be careful with this one, you can kill your monitor.
Framerate Target, allows you to Enable Framerate target, Frame Rate slider, allows you to set that framerate target.
Clicking that CURVE button also brings up this Fan Curve for GPU. Here you can set the fan speed for when the GPU hits a certain temperature, I love using this. So that’s it for CURVE, lets go a little more down on the right.
Clicking the “AUTO” button, allows you to enable or disable the auto fan curve in favor of the manual fan speed. The manual fan speed can be set by raising or lowering the slider just below it and the RPM counter, shows you the current RPM’s the fan is spinning at.
Coming down from the RPM display, we have the gear or cog. This will bring up the initial menu I showed previously and went over a bit.
Moving towards the left, to the left-hand corner we have the log Profiles bar.
This bar allows you to set profile. Right click on a grayed-out bar and you have set that profile and left click on the whiter text to load that profile. This is a great utility for testing your overclocks. As you can see, I have 3 prior profiles I tested before I landed on the final one, the 4th. I know, I need a few more to get a good overclock.
On the bottom left hand corner, we have the K for KBOOST. KBOOST forces the card to operate at full boost speed regardless of the load. This generates more heat and uses more power.
Moving closer to the center of the program, we find DEFAULT. Default allows you to quickly come back to the stock speeds in case you forget where you started.
On the opposite side of the center, we find the Apply button. Apply allows you to apply any of the changes you have made.
Now, let’s work in the center.
The Voltage slider allows you to adjust the voltage, common sense, right? Should only be done when you over overclocked the GPU and the overclock becomes unstable, this provides more power to the GPU.
Coming over to the middle, we have some sliders.
Power Target allows you to raise or lower the power target. It allows you to set the limit at which the card will throttle.
Temp Target, allows you to set the maximum temperature at which the card can hit before it begins to throttle the GPU. Notice here that the slider does not let you go above 90°C, 1°C lower than it’s designed max.
Let me also show you a bit on how she sounds and how the LED works.
GPU Clock Offset, allows you to adjust the GPU’s speed. The Offset starts at the base clock of the GPU, so for example, the base speed is 1481Mhz, raising the GPU Clock Offset to +130, will raise its speed 130Mhz to 1611Mhz.
Mem Clock Offset, like the GPU clock offset but for memory, allows you to adjust the memory’s speed. The Offset starts at the base clock of the memory, so for example, the base speed is 1376Mhz, raising the Mem Clock Offset to +20, will raise its speed 20Mhz to 1396Mhz, but the slider is not always precise, so you might have to play with each to get it perfect.
The link shown in that picture, linked allows the voltage and temperature targets to remain linked or unlinked across cards, if you have multiple cards.
The priority toggle, allows you to choose the priority between Power Target and Temp Target.
The center, shows you your current GPU and Memory click, GPU Temperature, Power Temperature and Memory Temperature.
These little pointers show you as well your current Base clocks and boost clocks. The blue bat shows you what your current speed is, it along with the GPU Clock, GPU Temp, Memory Clock, Base clock pointer and Boost clock pointer will jump around as you play a game or do anything with your PC, these are dynamic indicators.
This bar, depending on which yellow arrow you click will change what is display.
Clicking the yellow arrow to the right once, brings you to this screen. On the left, the vertical bar shows you your GPU’s Ghz (speed) and the horizontal line shows you the millivolts. You can click anywhere here to assign the voltage and frequency.
Clicking on the right arrow again, we come to this screen. This screen shows you while benchmarking what your current power percentage and GPU Clock Mhz are, this should help you determine a good overclock. I will say, these last 2 screens I showed you, I had not used in my overclock, might have been better and quicker overclock if I did though.
So, next up,… my Final Thoughts and Conclusion.
I have spent many years in the PC boutique name space as Product Development Engineer for Alienware and later Dell through Alienware’s acquisition and finally Velocity Micro. During these years I spent my time developing new configurations, products and technologies with companies such as AMD, Asus, Intel, Microsoft, NVIDIA and more. The Arts, Gaming, New & Old technologies drive my interests and passion. Now as my day job, I am an IT Manager but doing reviews on my time and my dime.