LCD Panel Overclocking

[Robbo]

Hi All,

I'm after a bit of advice/opinion. I recently found out about LCD Panel overclocking, and there's a program called evgapixelclockoc.exe that can increase the refresh rates of monitors. I did a little (I mean not very much at all!) research, and the general consensus was that you can't really damage your panel, but you do it at your own risk.

Anyway, I bit the bullet and loaded up this simple program that I already mentioned to see if I could overclock my monitor of my M17xR3 (1600x900). I found out that the highest stable overclock (didn't keep it at higher refresh rate for more than 8 seconds), was 79Hz. So, effectively, this would mean that I would be able to game at a vsync of 79Hz, so games should look smoother if I can push at least 79fps. I haven't had the balls to keep the overclock to try some gaming because I'm worried about wrecking my lcd panel.

What do you guys think, how big is the risk, will it degrade the display quicker over time? Anybody have any experience overclocking lcd panels or lcd panels in notebooks?

EDIT: just found out you can overclock the lcd panel from within the NVidia Control Panel. You just set up a custom resolution, and set the refresh rate you want. (Just tried it at 72Hz)

Hoping to hear some of your experiences or thoughts...

[Khenglish]

Hi All,

I'm after a bit of advice/opinion. I recently found out about LCD Panel overclocking, and there's a program called evgapixelclockoc.exe that can increase the refresh rates of monitors. I did a little (I mean not very much at all!) research, and the general consensus was that you can't really damage your panel, but you do it at your own risk.

Anyway, I bit the bullet and loaded up this simple program that I already mentioned to see if I could overclock my monitor of my M17xR3 (1600x900). I found out that the highest stable overclock (didn't keep it at higher refresh rate for more than 8 seconds), was 79Hz. So, effectively, this would mean that I would be able to game at a vsync of 79Hz, so games should look smoother if I can push at least 79fps. I haven't had the balls to keep the overclock to try some gaming because I'm worried about wrecking my lcd panel.

What do you guys think, how big is the risk, will it degrade the display quicker over time? Anybody have any experience overclocking lcd panels or lcd panels in notebooks?

EDIT: just found out you can overclock the lcd panel from within the NVidia Control Panel. You just set up a custom resolution, and set the refresh rate you want. (Just tried it at 72Hz)

Hoping to hear some of your experiences or thoughts...

It won't damage the screen. You may be getting dropped frames though. I fiddled with this on a toshiba laptop and I could only do 64Hz before it began dropping frames, but it seems that most people have better luck. The easiest way I found to look for dropped frames was to just move the mouse across the top of the screen quickly at a constant speed. When frames would be getting dropped, I would see a gap where the cursor was not displayed, followed by a quick burst of the cursor.

If using vsync I would advise not raising the refresh rate. It will require a higher minimum fps, and I don't think 79 will look any smoother than 60. I've actually lowered the refresh rate at times for games that cannot maintain 60 fps. If not using vsync though then yes you should raise the refresh rate as high as you can.

What I would love to see is monitors that do not have a fixed refresh rate, but instead refresh only when the frame buffer is refreshed. This would mean perfect smoothness and timing with no tearing, added input lag, or fps requirement.

[Robbo]

Thanks for the reply! I tried it at 72Hz in an fps game where frame rate was constantly above 72 fps, tried it for 10 mins, nothing bad happened, hard to tell if it's subjectively smoother, but I don't think I'm getting frame drops. I tried your moving the mouse cursor method to determine dropped frames. If I move the mouse quickly the cursor seems to appear in four different places at once. If I move it slower it's fine, it's like that at 60Hz too though, maybe that's a Windows or a Monitor limitation or neither?

EDIT: The cursor appearing in four places at once thing, I think that's just because I'm moving it too fast. I think you're referring to moving at a moderate speed (covering the desktop width in a couple of seconds) to detect any skips. If I do that, then the cursor is still smooth at 72Hz. Thanks for the tips! :-)

EDIT #2: Just tried some fps gaming at 75Hz, and that does seem to be noticeably better than 60Hz, was surprised to feel a such a jump going from 72 to 75Hz. All subjective, so could be placebo, but feels easier to game & easier on the eye & brain!

[Robbo]

Khenglish, have you tried overclocking the monitor on your Clevo?

[Khenglish]

Khenglish, have you tried overclocking the monitor on your Clevo?

Can't. It uses optimus and intel drivers do not allow monitor overclocking.

And I meant moving the mouse fast, not moderate speed. Seeing 4 cursors at once or w/e is exactly what you need to look at. If you see odd spacing between them, or maybe one is missing, you are dropping frames.

[Robbo]

Hmmm, I think I see what you mean by the spacing between the cursors as a test for dropping frames. I've tried it and for me it seems a little hard to judge whether its dropping frames by using that method. Mouse cursor movement seems generally smoother now though in windows. Tried F1 2012 at 75Hz Monitor Refresh rate and that felt smoother than running it at the default 60, so I don't think it's dropping frames.

I tooled around with an application called RefreshRateMultiTool, that's supposed to help you determine dropped frames, but again that didn't seem to be much help to me with the limited explanations flying around the internet on how to use it.

Subjectively though, I can see a difference at the 75Hz, and I can't see any obvious frame dropping anywhere.

[Robbo]

As a note to other M17xR3 users, you won't be able to overclock your panel if you have Optimus active (as Khenglish pointed out to me), but if you use the latest A12 BIOS you can disable the Intel GPU and just set it to use the NVidia GPU exclusively. At this point you would then be able to overclock your panel to a higher refresh rate. Of course at this point you would no longer have Optimus & battery life would be affected.

[Robbo]

Can't. It uses optimus and intel drivers do not allow monitor overclocking.

And I meant moving the mouse fast, not moderate speed. Seeing 4 cursors at once or w/e is exactly what you need to look at. If you see odd spacing between them, or maybe one is missing, you are dropping frames.

First off, sorry to everyone for replying to my own thread with such fervour, but I figured that this might help someone who reads this who plans on overclocking their refresh rate of their panel. OK, I know what you mean now Khenglish after doing a bit more research! Yes, when I move the mouse cursor in Windows at a fast but constant pace back and forth, then I'm looking at the spacing between the mouse cursors. And there is even spacing between each of the mouse cursors when I do this. Which means that it's not skipping frames at the 75Hz that I tested. If the spacing had not been even, then that would have been proof of dropped frames. Thanks, got it now!! :-)