I would like to boost the Core frequency, shader clock, and memory clock on an eVGA GTX 480 I have in my development box running 10.04. Is it possible to overclock a recent graphics card from within Ubuntu? I tried the Coolbits approach, but I couldn't get this to work. I also tried nvclock, but as it has't been updated since January, 4th, 2009, it doesn't work with my card.
In windows, the driver itself ships with the ability to overclock the cards, but nvidia appears to have left this out of the linux drivers. Has anyone discovered a solution? Or would it be possible to stage the windows drivers within Ubuntu? (ick)
If there is a more appropriate forum to ask this question in, I'd be happy to do so — but I'm hoping for a solution within Ubuntu. Thanks!
Update: It appears that I may need to have "Coolbit" "5" as discussed here. Hmm. Nope.
Here is the relevant section of my xorg.conf file:
Section "Device"
Identifier "Device0"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
BoardName "GeForce GTX 460"
BusID "PCI:2:0:0"
Option "Coolbits" "5"
Option "NoLogo" "True"
EndSection
Section "Device"
Identifier "Device1"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
BoardName "GeForce GTX 480"
BusID "PCI:3:0:0"
Option "Coolbits" "5"
Option "NoLogo" "True"
EndSection
When I restart with Coolbits set to 5, I can enable fan control on GTX 460. I can also set it to maximum performance mode. I cannot change the clock frequencies. I am about to try different levels. But here is what I see (with Coolbits = 5):
Update 2: I've tried driver version – 260.24(beta – nvdeveloper) & 260.19.12 (released today). I am not able to see the "Clock Frequencies" tab for any of the 4xx cards. I can however alter the fan speed for the card with a display attached. I'm going to ask a second question and wait for better drivers to be released.
Best Answer
You almost had it. Coolbits is the way. Here's my device in
/etc/X11/xorg.conf
:And then (after restarting X - control+alt+f1,
sudo restart gdm
), load upnvidia-settings
and there's a Clock Frequencies page: