Today we are going to provide you with a basic step-by-step guide on how to overclock a graphics card. The GeForce 8600 GT is the test subject and while we do not feel this graphics card is the best gaming solution at its standard clock frequencies, with a little overclocking it can deliver respectful performance. In order to achieve respectful performance the GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) must be bumped up by nearly 30%, while the memory will take a 30% frequency injection.
In the past we have found that overclocking the CPU (Central Processing Unit) can be highly beneficial, offering huge performance gains. That said overclocking is most effective when the right combination of hardware is selected, as certain processor/motherboard combos will work far better together than others. The same is true when tackling graphics card overclocking, as there are some graphics cards that overclock very poorly and others that overclock like champions.
Overclocking low-end or mid-range graphics cards, as is the case here, there is little to worry about as products such as the GeForce 8600 GT have a very low thermal output to start off with. The power consumption of an 8600 GT graphics card is said to be just 43 watts, while the 8600 GTS uses 71 watts. Compare this to the 225 watts used by the GeForce 8800 GTX and it soon becomes clear that by today’s standards the 8600 GT is a low powered solution.
Given the majority of 8600 GT and GTS graphics cards feature the same cooling, we know that they can handle at least 71 watts worth of heat distribution. Therefore if you were to hypothetically increase the thermal load of the 8600 GT by 30%, you would still be well below the 71 watts generated by the 8600 GTS. Therefore overclocking the GeForce 8600 GT by up to 30% is very safe and as we have found, very stable. So then the next step is to overclock the 8600 GT core and memory from 540/1400MHz respectively to 693/1826MHz.
