type="html">There are quite a few really good overclocking applications out there, though none are easier to use than the Nvidia System Tools, which integrates with the Nvidia Control Panel when installed. The current 6.06 version was released back in April of 2010 and supports all Nvidia based graphics cards including the GeForce GTX 560 Ti.
The Nvidia System Tools provides plenty of headroom for overclockers as the option to increase the core frequency as high as 1900MHz exists, while the memory can be pushed as high as 2558MHz (5116MHz DDR). The GeForce GTX 560 Ti core operates at 822MHz and 2004MHz for the memory, so neither are going to be limited by the software when it comes time to overclock.
Using the overclocking feature in the Nvidia Control Panel is very easy. The first step is to navigate to the “Performance” menu and then enter the “Device Settings” sub-menu. Once in the device settings the user can switch from factory shipped frequencies to a custom setting, which allows for fine tuning of the GPU and memory clock speed.
There is also a manual fan speed option, though we did not find it necessary to adjust this. Under full load when overclocked, the fan speed never got much above 40% which was quite impressive, particularly given the operating temperature only maxed out at around 80 degrees.
When overclocking a graphics card for the first time it is often best to start with the core to find the sweet spot. Start by increasing the core in small intervals, at each interval use a 3D application, such as FurMark, to test for stability. Initially you can start with 20-30MHz steps and work down to finer 5-10MHz steps. Once you have reached the limit, back it off a few MHz to avoid any stability problems.
When you do go too far the graphics card will cause the system to crash/lock up or suffer from random errors. Do not panic, this is normal when overclocking, and will not have a long term effect on the system. Often when the entire system crashes or completely locks up, you will be forced to reboot and then re-enable the last successful settings.
Given that you will be overclocking both the graphics cards core and memory frequency, we feel it is best to start with the core. Push the core as far as you possibly can and then back it off 10MHz. This saw us reach a stable overclock of 1000MHz with our GeForce GTX 560 Ti graphics card. Then the next step is to increase the memory frequency. Using the same method we eventually arrived at 2290MHz (4580MHz DDR).
However based on our experience with a number of GeForce GTX 560 Ti graphics cards, not all will achieve these impressive frequencies. A more obtainable overclock for the majority of GTX 560 Ti cards would be a 950MHz core and 2149MHz (4298MHz DDR), and therefore we have tested the graphics card using both these overclocks.
The maximum overclock did prove to be completely stable after a 4 hour continuous loop in FurMark. That said, pushing the core or memory frequency any higher would cause FurMark to lock the system up, causing us to force a hard reset. Heat did not appear to be the problem here, and in order to stabilize these overclocks the graphics card would require physical modifications to increase voltage levels.
Graphical artifacts are glitches that can be seen when running the graphics card in a 3D environment. They can be small or large, but regardless, they are a sure sign that the overclock is too aggressive for the graphics card. Therefore, if you begin to see artifacts before the system crashes, back off the frequency by roughly 10MHz and continue to do so until they disappear.
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