How To Overclock Your Monitor?

You might be asking, what does overclocking a monitor mean?. Well, overclock your monitor means that you will be able to squeeze a little extra performance out of the monitor.

You might have heard people say the same about a processor as well. Essentially, people do this to push the performance of a monitor a short step further than what it is meant to put out. Your monitor is configured with specific settings from the manufacturer’s end that may depend on the model of the monitor or on the capacity of the technology used.

Overclocking a monitor beyond the specific settings that the manufacturer has embedded it with to push its performance further is sometimes preferred by people. Generally, in certain scenarios, the refresh rate of the monitor is pushed further than the stock settings. This is maybe done because higher refresh rate monitors available on the market are more expensive than regular ones.

So, people with low budgets go for cheaper low refresh rate monitors and overclock them beyond their stock settings for a little extra performance edge. This does prove useful when you are gaming as your monitor would work on a higher refresh rate.

Whether you can overclock your monitor or not depends on the panel type. Usually, TN panels allow being overclocked higher than their counterparts such as IPS and VA panel types.

However, your monitor’s screen resolution plays a huge role. For example, a 1080p monitor would allow being overclocked to a higher rate than as compared to a 4k monitor. If you have a 4k monitor, we recommend you adjust the screen resolution to 1080p as this would allow you to overclock it even more.

Although some monitors may come either already set to a higher refresh rate setting from the manufacturer or they may be set to a low refresh rate setting which you would then have to bump up manually.

After reading everything stated above, you might be wondering why should you overclock your monitor?. To keep it simple, overclocking your monitor to a higher refresh rate than what it already is putting out would give you a boost in performance. Your monitor will refresh the image you may be viewed at a faster speed in one second than how it comes pre-configured from the manufacturer.

A higher refresh rate would give you a smoother viewing experience when playing a visually intense game or even a smoother and sharper entertainment experience when watching your favorite movie or show.

Benefits Of Overclocking Your Monitor

Overclocking comes with amazing benefits. When you overclock a monitor, you will be getting a higher refresh rate than what you are normally used to.

Having your monitor overclocked to a higher refresh rate would eliminate problems like screen tearing and stuttering. Overall, you would have a smoother much better viewing experience than before.

Risk Of Overclocking Your Monitor

There is a reason why your monitor comes pre-configured with a specific refresh rate setting from the manufacturer. This is because your manufacturer knows the capacity and ability of your monitor components.

They try and keep the settings to be as compatible as possible in order to give you the most worth for the value of your money so that your monitor could prove economical for you and you could return as a happy customer.

But overclocking comes with its risks. Overclocking may rarely harm your monitor’s internal hardware. This is because overclocking the monitor to increase the refresh rate would require it to conduct a faster current. This will ultimately increase the energy output of the monitor thus generating and dissipating more heat, internally. The components used in the monitor may not be designed as such and may not be suitable for a higher current to pass through them and tolerate such heat levels for a longer period of time.

This would, over time, wear down the components and thus decrease the life span of your monitor. Some high-end gaming monitors are already set to be manufactured to tolerate being overclocked to higher refresh rates.

‘What Else Should I Consider?’

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To overclock your monitor you can either use a third-party tool called CRU or u can also use the integrated software that comes with AMD, NVIDIA and Intel.

Always remember, that you need to start slow and keep verifying the new refresh rates as you proceed.

Using CRU – Custom Resolution Utility

Keep in mind that using CRU to overclock our refresh rate settings is an old method and might not work with certain GPUs and intel-integrated graphics. Follow these steps to overclock your monitor;

After this, you need to change your refresh rate on windows as well. For this, right-click on any blank space on your desktop home screen. Select Display settings.

Scroll down and select the option called Display Adaptor Properties. Then proceed to change the refresh rate to the maximum that you have set under the Refresh Rate box.

After all, if your monitor screen does not go black then this means that you have successfully overclocked your monitor.

Using AMD Settings

1- Right-click on the desktop home screen and select AMD Radeon Settings.

2- Then click on the Display tab and next to the custom resolution option click on create.

3- Change the refresh rate to your desired settings.

After this, read the last paragraph from CRU.

Using NIVIDA Control Panel

1- Right-click on the desktop home screen and select the Nvidia control panel.

2- Under the display menu on the left side, select Change resolution. Then select Create custom resolution.

3- Change the refresh rate to your desired settings. Click Save and reboot.

After this, read the last paragraph from the AMD settings above.

Using INTEL Graphics

1- Right-click on desktop and select Intel HD graphics control panel.

2- Click on display and then select create a custom resolution.

3- Enter your desired refresh rate and click add.

After this, read the last paragraph from the Nvidia settings above. You can use online tools to verify if your new refresh rate is actually working or not.