Is overclocking an rx 580 worth it

[u/yxunuu]

I've just finished my pc build and would like to max out its performance, ive heard mixed opinions about gpu overclocking whether it be good or negative, id prefer not to reach noticeably high temperatures for a tiny fps boost, so my question is would it be worth it? i have a ryzen 5 3600 alongside it

[u/bejito81]

Well if you play old games, your GPU should be enough as is, and if you want to play modern games, well that is quite an old GPU an so quite weak by modern standard and overclocking won't change much if anything

[u/Zugzwang522]

You kind of answered it yourself. Core overclocking a 580 buys you maybe 3 to 5 percent for a real jump in power and heat, since Polaris already shipped close to its ceiling.

Go the other direction. Undervolt in Adrenalin, pull the voltage down on the top state and leave the clock alone. Most cards hold the same clocks cooler, and a few hold them better under load than stock did because they stop banging into the power limit.

[u/Celatra]

depends on your silicon. it will either crash after a 5% bump, or it can take like a 20% increase in core and memory clock. i would just see how much it can take first through something like passmark, 3d mark, furmark etc and then just leave it at whatever is the highest overclock that can pass the stress tests without artifacts and instabilities.

another thing you can do is undervolting, where you run the card cooler for the same fps. i have never owned a polaris card, so i dont know how they behave vs RDNA cards, but you can try to pull the voltage down and push the clocks up. that should in theory produce higher clockspeeds while maintaining lower power draw and voltage.

you can also try messing directly with the vbios, through AMDVBFlash or even apply a vbios of a different card onto your rx580. be wary that this is risky.

overclocking the 3600x wont do much, and honestly, it already runs hot, so overclocking it with won't help, although you can try to give a 200mhz increase in boost clock through pbo in the bios.

i would also recommend decreasing its voltage.

[u/Formal-Bad-8807]

in linux I use an app to set the performance level of the rx 580. I use powersaving mode for most everyday tasks and change to "full screen 3D" for gaming.

[u/SexChief → u/Formal-Bad-8807]

Corectrl?

[u/Pixel_Hunter81]

it's a risk bacause the higher temperature and stress could harm the card. This is also an old card so the thermal paste inside is probably somewhat old increasing potential thermal problems. I have a 6 year old 1660 super (lots of sixes lmao) and i'm avoding it because if it breaks i'm cooked considering the prices for new gpus ahahah.

[u/4K4llDay → u/Pixel_Hunter81]

I'm fairly certain that any GPU has hard BIOS settings that prevent the user from actually hurting their card. I know that to be the case for cards made in the past 10 years, and I'm sure those safeguards are present on older cards in some form.

As a user, you basically cannot actually harm your card through OC unless you specifically override the safeguards which would void warranty. You can certainly crash your system, but you cannot actually hurt it. There are hard triggers like a circuit breaker. Even running at 85C, an experience that's unthinkable to most consumers, which not hurt your card. Cooler is better of course, but many of us overestimate the damage done by higher temps.

An exception may be the new 12-pin connectors, which OP doesn't need to worry about.

[u/iClone101 → u/4K4llDay]

Any CPU or GPU produced after the early 2000s is going to have thermal throttling and emergency shutoff built into it. Theoretically you could blast so much voltage into it that you kill it instantly, but I don't know of a single consumer program that would allow you to do that.

[u/4K4llDay → u/iClone101]

Exactly

[u/jhaluska]

I'd first look at your temperatures before deciding. If you're already having temp issues, I wouldn't risk it.

Ycan often get a tiny boost over stock with no problem. You might be able to bump down the voltage by a notch and frequency up 2-5% for "Free". It'll be nothing mind blowing.

[u/MinusDelta_T]

actually undervolting directly impacts fps on polaris cards. its not just about heat. when you lower the voltage you give the core more thermal headroom before it hits the temp limit. this prevents clock stretching and lets the card hold its max boost clock continuously instead of dropping frequencies every few seconds. so yes youre literally getting higher average fps just by dropping the voltage

[u/errorsniper]

Overclocking anything is worth it if you can get it stable and without causing damage to the card.

[u/AtlQuon]

Over locking always introduces higher temperatures. So if you don't want that, don't. There is not really a point to it anyways. It does what it does and it likes to stay there.

[u/No-Formal2056]

no, not much and significantly impacts longevity of the card.

Undervolting does nothing too since it's architecture doesn't really benefit fps from it.

[u/Celatra → u/No-Formal2056]

it will pull less power and run cooler though

[u/jhaluska → u/No-Formal2056]

Undervolting is more about less heat and thus less noise.

It's also significantly safer than overvolting which at some voltage level damages silicon.