How to overclock a monitor

Overclocking your CPU and GPU to make them perform better than advertised is something you have probably heard about, but did you know that you can also overclock your monitor? Of course, there are drawbacks to doing so, just as there are when you try to push your CPU or GPU beyond the specifications intended by the manufacturer. You need to be aware that operating your device outside of its designed specifications can potentially lead to faster degradation or even catastrophic failure.

Let's get to the not-so-fun part first, the risks. The manufacturer of your monitor specifies what resolutions and refresh rates your monitor can handle. If you decide to go outside those specific values and something breaks, you are out of luck. So if you value your warranty and cannot easily replace your monitor, you should not pursue the idea of overclocking your monitor.

If you manage to overclock your monitor, you should definitely consider using it only when necessary. This would be the case when you are playing your favorite game and you notice that the higher refresh rate improves the experience. If you're surfing the web, you probably don't need that high refresh rate.

The size of your monitor is physically fixed, so there is nothing you can do about that. The same goes for the native resolution of your monitor. If you have a Full HD monitor, the max resolution is fixed at 1920 x 1080 pixels. You cannot go higher. You can go lower though, and if the image you see is still acceptable and does not look terribly washed out, you could try a lower resolution in favor of a higher refresh rate overclocking. As with any overclocking, you need to go slow and never make big jumps in the values you are manipulating.

The interesting part though is the refresh rate. This is a value that you can theoretically tinker with. Let's say your monitor has a 60Hz refresh rate. You could certainly try to bump that up a bit, maybe to 75Hz. The result would be a smoother gaming experience if your graphics card can handle the increased frame rate (FPS) it has to push to meet the 75Hz refresh rate.

Since you can push custom resolution and refresh rates via software, you can try to overclock any monitor. A small increase of the specified refresh rate, for example going from 60Hz to 75Hz, can go a long way. Of course, not all monitors will be happy once you apply a custom resolution and will simply greet you with a blank screen or an error message telling you that you are trying to do something that is not supported by it.

Manufacturing tolerances even can lead to the situation that you two of the same monitors and one can handle the overclock, while the other can’t. So it is really coming down to trying it out and then testing it in your favorite game to see if all is still working as intended and you do not get any weird side effects.

Depending on your graphics card there are basically two ways to do it. Of course you will need to install the drivers for your GPU first, but that is a given.

NVIDIA

Click on the Windows button in the taskbar and type "NVIDIA Control Panel". The application should appear and open when clicked.

Once you have it open, look in the left column and click on "Change Resolution," which is in the Display category.

On the right you can click on the "Create Custom Resolution" button which will open another window. You can define the resolution and, more importantly for what we want to do, the refresh rate.

Try increasing the refresh rate modestly. If your monitor has a native refresh rate of 60 Hz, try to increase it by 5 Hz to 65 Hz and test it by pressing the "Test" button. If all is well, you should see your desktop and the monitor can work with the overclock. You can try to add another 5 Hz and test that too by editing the custom resolution. If it stays blank or shows an error message, just wait for the previous setting to load automatically. If this happens, you will not be able to push any settings outside the manufacturer's specifications and overclocking will not be possible.

You can now select the custom resolution as well as the refresh you set in the main “Change Resolution” window.

AMD

Install the AMD Software: Adrenaline Edition if you have not done so already and launch it. In the “Gaming” tab you can see settings for your display. In the bottom right you have the option to create custom resolutions. Click on the “Create New +” button to add a new resolution.

Try increasing the refresh rate modestly. If your monitor has a native refresh rate of 60 Hz, try to increase it by 5 Hz to 65 Hz. You can add several custom resolutions and then restart your system to try them out in the display properties of Windows.

There is a tool called Custom Resolution Utility (CRU) that can help you add more custom resolutions to your system. The tool is designed to work with most combinations of GPUs and monitors.

At the top you can select the monitor you want to configure. Then, on the right, you have fields that list all the available resolutions and the available slots that you can add as custom configurations. Add a new resolution where a slot is available and reboot your system. In the Display Properties of Windows, you can now select the custom resolution you added to see if it works or not.

If all went well and you can see your desktop and your monitor is operating with the new custom resolution you made, it is time to test it out. Even though all seems to be working on the desktop, this does not mean that it will work reliably. There could be skipped frames or other unwanted behavior when your monitor is overclocked.

Blur Busters Frame Skipping Check to the rescue! You need to take a picture of your screen at a 1/10th shutter speed to make the skipped frames visible. Most smartphones should be up to the task, but you may need to install a camera app that lets you choose things like shutter speed.

You should definitely boot up the game of your choice and see if everything works fine. If you see any irregularities, try a lower the overclock or go back to the default settings that your monitor supports.