How to Overclock Your Laptop's Graphics Card

If you're at all into gaming, there's plenty to be gained by overclocking your graphics card (GPU). With some luck you can boost gaming performance and frame rates by 20 % or more, making a previously unplayable game playable or allowing you to turn up the details in demanding titles. There is usually little risk involved, but you have to be aware that by tweaking the hardware settings you might lose the warranty. Consider this a fair warning and follow these steps at your own risk!

Step 1

Prerequisites

What you need to overclock your laptop's GPU is first of all a laptop with a dedicated graphics card. Don't bother trying to overclock a laptop with an integrated graphics chip from Intel such as "Intel HD graphics", "GMA 4500mhd" or anything of that nature. Only dedicated chips from AMD or Nvidia are eligible for overclocking (or playing advanced 3D games at all for that matter).

Different tools are at your disposal for overclocking, and it can (usually) all be done with software solutions. The exception is when the manufacturer has made the unfortunate choice of locking down the card in the BIOS to prevent overclocking. You can use most of the same tools for laptops as those you would use for overclocking a desktop graphics card. You have to keep in mind, however, that the space inside a laptop is restricted and a laptop GPU is likely to overheat faster than a full-size graphics card in a roomy desktop computer chassis.

Comments

[Gazook]

Well, like it says in the opening paragraph and warnings throughout the article it's at your own risk and overdoing it will definitely result in crashes, even if it doesn't permanently damage your laptop. Nevertheless, I've overclocked dozens of laptops with no permanent adverse effects and people do it all the time - even some professional gaming laptop vendors ship their laptops "factory overclocked" (after rigorous testing and "burn-in"). Also, graphics card vendors usually ship their graphics cards with tools like the one above from eVGA, essentially encouraging overclocking. The same principle applies to laptops, but you have to take much greater care considering the heat constraints and watch the temperatures closely. Needless to say, if you feel uncomfortable doing it then steer clear of overclocking altogether.

[DopePhizh]

This doesn't seem to be a good idea to do.