Questions[overclocking](ubuntu)

While undervolting a CPU is straightforward, undervolting the dGPU is a bit trickier.

You can't directly undervolt the dGPU, but what you can do is overclock the frequency which results in any given frequency running at a lower voltage, thus effectively undervolting.

I have read first about this in this comment. u/Jr712 then provided more details in a post How I stopped my XPS 15 7590 GPU from throttling.

As described in the post, on Windows this can be done with MSI Afterburner. I would like to ask those of you who are more knowledgeable for instructions how can this be done on Linux.

I have read about this in some places, but as I have never done this before, I am not certain I will get what I want.

Here are some sources I have looked at:

• How to overclock Nvidia graphics cards on Linux
  In the video, there is actually a slide bar where I could undervolt directly. Should I instead do that? (Although in the comments someone says that "Nvidia is not allowing voltage control on Linux for new gen cards")
• How can I overclock a graphics card from within Ubuntu?

I know that overclocking is controlled via Coolbits

And as pointed out in Enabling overclocking:

The Coolbits option can be easily controlled with the nvidia-xconfig, which manipulates the Xorg configuration files:

nvidia-xconfig --cool-bits=*value*

But the above links set different levels: 12 vs. 28.

Also, I'd like to learn more about:

• What are the risks? Especially for CUDA usage (e.g. wrong calculations)?

  I can read in Enabling overclocking:

  Warning: Overclocking might permanently damage your hardware. You have been warned.

  This leads me to the next question:

• What is the "safe" range for overclocking?

• If I overclock the dGPU, should I offset also the mem clock? By how much?

I have been having difficulties with my Ubuntu installation.

It will no longer boot and shows a frozen cursor in the top left corner, I have checked many websites and have tried stuff like nomodeset, and I am able to access the console by typing Ctrl+Alt+F2. So I can apply terminal related fixes. I have lost my Ubuntu install USB so that is not an option. I have even tried changing session/display managers. Nothing has worked.

I am using Nvidia graphics cards. Ubuntu has been installed for two months and was working fine until now. This is on Ubuntu 19.10 with dev builds.

I was just installing nvidux or however it's spelled to attempt to overclock my PC's gpu. On reboot it is doing this now.

I have tried many other posts and none of the methods I could do worked. Nomodeset was attempted and failed. I tried changing display managers, failed, and I tried clearing displays from xorg or whatever that was called. Failed, tried many others but forgot what they were. They all changed nothing

I only have access to console so I can't attempt the boot repair tool or anything like that

Booting from another kernel version gets stuck at "Started process error reports when automatic reporting is enabled" and then freezes. Power button works to turn off though

I have an image of it the cursor in the top left, but I can't post due to low reputation.

I bought some memory stick which is ovcerclockable. The default frequency is 2.4GHz, the frequency can be configured up to 3.6GHz. And I confiured frequency and the voltage in BIOS, set the frequency to 3.6GHz. Then I ran the memtester86 8.1, to test if overclocking is stable, and it passed all test with no error on 3.6 GHz. Finally, I entery the OS(my OS version is 18.04),and execue sudo dmidecode --type 17 | grep -i speed, it shows like below:

Speed: 2400 MT/s
Configured Clock Speed: 3600 MT/s
Speed: 2400 MT/s
Configured Clock Speed: 3600 MT/s
Speed: 2400 MT/s
Configured Clock Speed: 3600 MT/s
Speed: 2400 MT/s
Configured Clock Speed: 3600 MT/s
Speed: 2400 MT/s
Configured Clock Speed: 3600 MT/s
Speed: 2400 MT/s
Configured Clock Speed: 3600 MT/s
Speed: 2400 MT/s
Configured Clock Speed: 3600 MT/s
Speed: 2400 MT/s
Configured Clock Speed: 3600 MT/s

I wonder which is the "actual" frequency of my memory? Did I overclocking success? And I tried another command, sudo lshw -short -C memory, and it shows this:

H/W path         Device        Class          Description
=========================================================
/0/0                           memory         64KiB BIOS
/0/1b                          memory         System Memory
/0/1b/0                        memory         8GiB DIMM DDR4 Synchronous 2400 MHz (0.4 ns)
/0/1b/1                        memory         8GiB DIMM DDR4 Synchronous 2400 MHz (0.4 ns)
/0/1b/2                        memory         8GiB DIMM DDR4 Synchronous 2400 MHz (0.4 ns)
/0/1b/3                        memory         8GiB DIMM DDR4 Synchronous 2400 MHz (0.4 ns)
/0/20                          memory         System Memory
/0/20/0                        memory         8GiB DIMM DDR4 Synchronous 2400 MHz (0.4 ns)
/0/20/1                        memory         8GiB DIMM DDR4 Synchronous 2400 MHz (0.4 ns)
/0/20/2                        memory         8GiB DIMM DDR4 Synchronous 2400 MHz (0.4 ns)
/0/20/3                        memory         8GiB DIMM DDR4 Synchronous 2400 MHz (0.4 ns)
/0/33                          memory         768KiB L1 cache
/0/34                          memory         12MiB L2 cache
/0/35                          memory         19MiB L3 cache
/0/1                           memory
/0/3                           memory
/0/100/1f.2                    memory         Memory controller

It just let me more confusing. Dose overclocking independent with OS? Or I should add some payload to let memory speed up? Can you give me some advice? Thank you!

I would like to know what tools are available to Ubuntu users for monitoring the overclock done in the BIOS and to stress-test the machine. Tools for the following:

1) Tool to reliably read actual clock speeds of the CPU when they are on and off load.

2) Tool to provide bus speeds, RAM speed, graphics core speed etc, in real time.

3) Tool to monitor temperatures.

4) Tool to monitor load on CPU/GPU.

5) Tool to stress test the machine.

Although I want to ask the question with regards to any Ubuntu user with any configuration so that it can be of use to everyone, my configuration is Intel i5 2500k + ASUS P8Z68-V LX, if you must know.

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.