Nvidiux is a graphical Nvidia GPU overclocking tool for Linux. The application makes it easier to overclock or underclock Nvidia GPUs and at the same time offers some additional functions such as fan control or GPU monitoring.

Nvidiux takes care of everything needed to overclock Nvidia graphics cards, making it almost as easy to use as Afterburner, the popular MSI GPU overclocking tool. It automatically generates an xorg.conf file with the Coolbits option (required to enable overclocking of Nvidia GPUs on Linux), can overclock automatically at startup, supports saving and loading of overclocking or underclocking profiles, and more.

Nvidiux features:

• Save and load overclocking or underclocking profiles
• Change the clock of the graphics (GPU), the shader and the memory transfer rate
• Adjust the fan speed of the Nvidia GPU
• Enable or disable vsync and maximum performance
• Overvoltage (must be activated in the settings by first activating the advanced options in the Nvidiux settings)
• Option to force new parameters for gpuBoost V1 (must be activated in the settings after the advanced options have been activated – requires Nvidia GT (X) 6xx)
• Displays the Nvidia graphics driver version, OpenGL version, temperature, GPU and memory usage, memory interface, available video memory, number of CUDA cores, and more
• Graphical monitoring of GPU temperature, fan speed, GPU load and memory usage
• Automatically apply an overclocking profile when starting Nvidiux or at system startup (however, this option is grayed out on my system)

The application does not support undervolting.

Nvidiux works with 4XX or newer Nvidia graphics cards. You also need the proprietary Nvidia graphics drivers to use Nvidiux. Overclocking requires version 337 or later, while you want to use the over-voltage feature, version 346 or later.

You can overclock or underclock your Nvidia GPU by using the Nvidia setting tool after Activate coolbits, so Nvidiux doesn’t offer anything new. However, Nvidiux offers some additional features, including easy loading and saving of overclocking profiles. And it has a nice built-in GPU monitoring tool:

I’m using the experimental GPU monitor in this screenshot, which requires installation pyqtgraph (In Debian, Ubuntu, Linux Mint, etc., use this to install it: sudo apt install python-pyqtgraph) and activate the Activate experimental monitor Option in the Nvidiux settings.

I should also add that Nvidiux collects some system information like the Nvidia graphics driver version, GPU model and UUID, as well as the system version and architecture. You can disable this in the settings by doing the Disable Stats Crate.

On my Ubuntu 18.10 system, the Nvidiux option to apply an overclocking profile at system startup is grayed out. I’m not sure if it’s an incompatibility problem or a bug (I. asked the developer about it), but you can still easily get Nvidiux to load an overclocking profile at startup by running the application with --silent Option followed by the path to the profile – I’ll explain exactly how to do this later in this article.

While using Nvidiux I also came across various passages of text in French even though the application is set to English, like “Option Avance” instead of “Advanced Options” or the user agreement / disclaimer that comes up when installing Nvidiux. These are rare and shouldn’t be a problem for most users, but hopefully they’ll be translated soon. Here is some English Translation of the disclaimer.

I am also adding my own disclaimer: using Nvidiux could void your warranty and / or damage your computer. Using the following instructions (changing xorg.conf) may interrupt your Linux desktop from booting. So make sure you understand what is going on and how to undo the changes. You have been warned, use it at your own risk.

Install and use Nvidiux

The Nvidiux GitHub project page includes a DEB that can be installed on Debian, Ubuntu, Linux Mint, and other Debian / Ubuntu-based Linux distributions, a link to the Nvidiux Arch Linux (and Manjaro) AUR package, and CentOS RPM packages.

An Ubuntu and Linux Mint PPA is also linked on the project page, but note that the Nvidiux PPA packages don’t come with a .desktop File so that Nvidiux doesn’t appear in your application menu – you’ll need to open a terminal and type in nvidiux to start it. The DEB package available on the GitHub download page has a .desktop File to prevent this problem from occurring when you use this package.

Run Nvidiux

Before you run Nvidiux for the first time, if you have a xorg.conf File in /etc/X11/ (in most cases you shouldn’t /etc/X11/xorg.conf Ignore the file if there is no such file on your system), rename it to something like xorg.conf.bck1:

sudo mv /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.bck1

In theory, Nvidiux should be able to use an existing. to modify xorg.conf automatically, but that doesn’t seem to work properly. By renaming your original xorg.conf Nvidiux creates a new file xorg.conf, and automatically add the Coolbits option (this worked without any issues on my system). If you run into problems, you can use the Nvidiux generated. remove later /etc/X11/xorg.conf File and use the backup.

You are now ready to run Nvidiux. Since there aren’t any /etc/X11/xorg.conf File, Nvidiux will ask you to generate it and add the coolbits option:

After pressing Yes and enter your password, Nvidiux will ask you to restart your system. Reboot and you can use Nvidiux to overclock your Nvidia GPU on Linux.

Apply an overclocking or underclocking profile at system startup with Nvidiux

As I said above, the Nvidiux option to automatically apply an overclocking or underclocking profile on startup is grayed out on my system. If you encounter the same problem, you can get Nvidiux to apply an overclocking or underclocking profile at system startup by adding it to your startup applications as the command to silently apply an overclocking profile (without opening the Nvidiux GUI) can be run without the root .

First, create an overclocking profile. In Nvidiux, change the settings you want to use for overclocking or underclocking, then save the profile (Profile -> Save in the application top left).

Now you can add it to the start. Open Startup Applications (or equivalent) in your Applications menu, click Add To add a new startup item, enter a name in the Name box (something like Nvidia overclocking or whatever you want) and use this as a command: sh -c 'nvidiux --silent "/path/to/overclockingprofile.ndi"', substitute /path/to/overclockingprofile.ndi with the path to the Nvidiux overclocking profile that you want to apply at system startup (for example: "/home/logix/GeForce GTX 980-1450 Mhz.ndi").

You can also do this manually by creating a file called. create nvidia-overclocking.desktop in ~/.config/autostart/ with the following content:

[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Exec=sh -c 'nvidiux --silent "/path/to/overclockingprofile.ndi"'
Hidden=false
NoDisplay=false
X-GNOME-Autostart-enabled=true
Name=Nvidia Overclocking

Replace again /path/to... with the path to the Nvidiux overclocking profile that you want to apply at startup.

If you can’t add Nvidiux to your startup applications as described above, you can get Nvidiux to apply an overclocking profile at system startup by creating a cron job for your user. Run this command:

crontab -e

Next, paste in the following cron job:

@reboot sleep 60 && env DISPLAY=:0 /usr/bin/nvidiux --silent "/path/to/overclockingprofile.ndi"

DISPLAY=:0 may not work for your system. Open a terminal, run echo $DISPLAY and use the output of this command as the DISPLAY value instead of :0if it is different. Replace too "/path/to/overclockingprofile.ndi" with the path to the Nvidiux overclocking profile that you want to use at startup.

The crontab line has sleep 60 (the command runs with a 60 second delay) and DISPLAY=:0 because while using Nvidiux with the --silent Option doesn’t open its GUI, X is still necessary.