If you’re looking to get the most out of your RTX 3070 GPU, you’re in the right place. This guide walks you through how to overclock the GPU for increased performance, and undervolt it for better power efficiency and temperature management. Let’s dive into the details of each process so you can achieve optimal results!
Why Overclocking and Undervolting?
When you overclock a GPU, you boost its performance, often gaining extra frames per second (FPS) in games and smoother rendering in other applications. However, this comes at the cost of increased heat and power consumption. On the flip side, undervolting reduces power draw and heat output, sometimes with minimal or no performance loss — or even a slight boost.
By combining both methods, you can strike a balance, achieving performance gains while keeping your card cooler and more efficient.
Getting Started: Benchmarking at Stock Settings
Before making any changes, it’s essential to benchmark your GPU at stock settings. Set your GPU fan speed to 65% to ensure a consistent cooling baseline for all tests. Use MSI Afterburner and Hardware Info for monitoring, alongside your favorite benchmarking tool or game to measure performance.
- Stock Benchmark Results:
- 1080p Performance: 20,355 points
- 1440p Performance: 13,642 points
- 4K DLSS FPS: 17 FPS (native) to 49 FPS (DLSS)
During these tests, the RTX 3070’s core clock wasn’t stable due to its 220W TDP limit. Let’s change that by adjusting the power limit.
Step 1: Unlock Power Limit
A simple way to get a performance boost without fully overclocking is to unlock the power limit. This allows the GPU to exceed its rated TDP, providing better stability and a higher core clock. To do this, open MSI Afterburner, increase the power limit, and run a benchmark to check performance gains.
- Results with Increased Power Limit: Slightly more stable core clock and improved performance with minimal effort.
This step alone can boost performance if you’re not comfortable with overclocking.
Step 2: Overclocking the RTX 3070
To get more performance out of your RTX 3070, let’s proceed with an overclock.
- Increase Power Limits: Start by raising the power limit in MSI Afterburner.
- VRAM Overclocking: Increase the VRAM clock by 100 MHz increments, applying each change and testing stability until you find a setting that doesn’t crash or show artifacts.
- Core Clock Overclocking: Increase the core clock by 10 MHz increments, applying each change and running a benchmark to confirm stability. Continue until the GPU crashes or artifacts appear, then reduce by 10-20 MHz to find a stable point.
For this RTX 3070, we achieved a stable overclock at:
- Core Clock: +110 MHz
- Memory Clock: +1000 MHz
This produced an 8% performance increase at 1080p, with similar gains at higher resolutions.
Step 3: Undervolting for Improved Efficiency
Now let’s make the card more efficient by undervolting. This process reduces power draw and heat output while maintaining similar performance.
- Check Max Voltage and Core Clock: First, benchmark to find the maximum core clock and voltage under stock settings.
- Adjust the Voltage Curve: In MSI Afterburner’s Curve Editor, locate the voltage point 25 mV lower than the stock setting, then adjust the curve to align with your max stock core clock.
- Iterate: Run benchmarks and continue lowering the voltage by 25 mV increments until you reach a stable point.
For this GPU, we managed to reach:
- Voltage: 875 mV (down from stock)
- Performance: Almost identical to stock
This adjustment provided near-stock FPS performance at a significantly lower power draw, making the card run cooler and quieter.
Step 4: Combining Overclocking and Undervolting
For the best of both worlds, you can combine undervolting with a slight overclock. A general approach is to reduce the overclock by half while increasing the core voltage slightly above the undervolt setting. Experiment to find a balance that provides a performance boost without sacrificing stability.
- Combined Results: 14,076 points at 1440p, surpassing stock performance with significantly lower power consumption.
Results Summary
Here’s how each setting impacted the GPU:
| Mode | Power Draw | Core Temp | Performance (1440p) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stock | 220W | Moderate | 13,642 |
| Overclocked | ~240W | Higher | 14,765 |
| Undervolted | 175W | Lower | ~13,899 |
| Combined | ~190W | Moderate | 14,076 |
Conclusion
Undervolting, especially when combined with a modest overclock, strikes a fantastic balance, providing performance gains while reducing power draw and heat output. This approach can enhance longevity, stability, and efficiency.
Thank you for reading! Leave any questions or share your experience in the comments below. If you enjoyed this guide, please like, subscribe, and share it with others interested in GPU tuning. See you in the next tutorial!
