Why does UT2k4 hate overclocking?

[BIGG_RAY]

Well my system runs stable at 10.5x240, with 1.85 volts i believe, but ut2k4 will crash and reboot in random intervals...wtf...anyone know why? ive tried more volts, upto 1.95 (comp wont boot with 2.0volts) and it still crashes, and ive tried droping down a few time too...nutting works...i do have a no cd patch..could that be it?

[BIGG_RAY]

should i say...drop down the fsb and try to get some 11x action? i mean would 11x230 or 220 be just as good or faster then 10.5x240?

[ricjax99]

It's the FSB mate, click the 240 MHz link in my memory specs, as you can see 7Hrs + prime stable at those settings but UT2K4 craps out :(

233 x 11 is just as fast if you can do it. Pulled me 22.1K ;)

[texuspete00]

When faced with similar I try to deny it myself. No more. Drop it to stock. If it works you've found yourself a new stability test. ;)

I stability tested (looping 3dm, memtest) and found I had to go 2 or 3 Mhz lower on the fsb for it to work in UT2004. So I agree it is most likely fsb.

If you dont want to lose MHz, up the volts etc. System is only 99.9% stable. Tough to swallow but probably true. If the sticks are new, maybe it work itself out. Mine got better. I bought a gig because of this game partly and my problems did get better over some time.

Not a bad 3dm01 score. What are the radeon clocks? and is CPC on? I too have KHX3000 2*512 but only used to get scores like that with CPC on and 2*256 :(.

[Slickthellama]

does anyone know why it behaves this way? Seems really odd to me. How would UT2k4 even know what the FSB is? Unless your AGP is unlocked. Because it could be strict on the AGP spec. Speculation all of this.

[jmke]

uhm UT2004 doesn't have to "know" anything about your FSB or its speed.

it runs code on your system and stresses it as much as possible to deliver the best performance in-game

if one of the components can't keep up -> crash :)

[texuspete00]

Yeah dude. Speculation my butt. My point is a lot of people go "why doesnt my game work? It's not my OC because prime runs etc." Then I say, does the game work stock speeds? Oh it does. It is your OC.

My experience with the game leads me to believe it is most sensitive to high bus speeds. If you want to call that part speculation, I guess you actually got me there. Bear in mind I have his same ram, motherboard, and even cpu! I have a Sapphire 9700np w/ samsungs instead of a BBA 9700Pro... pretty darn close. All in my sig except the KHX which I mentioned earlier. I have also experienced his issues at similar fsb's. Looping benches is fine but UT crashes. Fixed by FSB drop. Hmmm... maybe not a bad guess after all ;)

Poster and other UT guys.. please take a sec to post your name here-> http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=32607

[jmke]

dropping the FSB will lower tax on CPU, mobo and RAM , basically the 3 most important factors for speed in any PC beside the 3dcard for gaming :)

[lalPOOO]

Another thing you have to take into account is that prime isn't everything. A system could be prime stable for 6 years, but when your videocard is thrown into the mix things change. I havn't found ut2k4 to be extremely brutal on my system, but then again I played a ton of ut2k3 before it came out, so maybe I'm used to the ut2k3 engine.
I would check your videocard, I found that even though I was having the same sort of problems which arrise from too much mem/cpu oc they were actually being caused by a slightly unstable videocard.

What you could try to test your system a bit more is running prime and ati tool's 'scan for artifacts' at the same time (and I usually listen to some music while this is working) Of course your videocard could be perfectly fine, but you never know.

(When I say prime I'm not limiting the program to just prime, any sort of cpu+mem stability test will do)

[interman]

ut04 is actually a weird game in some ways. a while ago i was running the game perfectly fine, but suddenly in a game the audio went very bad (like an LP that's stuck), and it became extremely unstable. i tried reinstalling all kinds of drivers, clocked back down, set more relaxed bios settings, but it wouldnt run right until i formatted. and now it runs just fine with the same overclocked speed i used to run it at. go figure.

[retrospooty]

Originally posted by texuspete2k2
My point is a lot of people go "why doesnt my game work? It's not my OC because prime runs etc." Then I say, does the game work stock speeds? Oh it does. It is your OC.


Exactly. Its taxing on your system, and if its unstable in any way, it may crash.

For me, UT2004 works great, for hours and hours on end at 290mhz fsb. Of course, 292 is hang city.

[BIGG_RAY]

heh ic...yeah cpc is off...today after i re wire my desk and put the wires into these nice cabling, im going to try to get cpc to work PAST 210...lol...and then forget prime! this is how i test my stuff, 01 untill it crashes, go back down 5 fsb, then run prime 5 hours, then play ut2k4...so lol...looks like i gotta take it down further...i know my chip can do a higher clock cause i can run 10x240 at 1.75 volts lol...so looks like i may be running 11x230 or something...who knows...well im out to finish! cya

[cowpuppy]

ut2k4 runs perfictly fine on my OCed rig @255x11 for 2.8 with 465/385 card clocks

[WildKard]

UT2004 is extremely ram sensitive just like its baby brother UT2k3

try tweaking your ram timings and/or front side bus, also try running memtest86 cause if you get ANY errors in that, you can bet UT will crash as well

hope that helps

[texuspete00]

I'd up the multi a half. Drop the fsb to whatever will bring the cpu back to same speed. Forget the loop testing and play some Unreal. Then go from there. Just my hunch it'll be good again and fun at the same time :D

[mluckey]

Stable here, massively OC'ed for gaming setup (41 Mhz over stock FSB speeds, with a 4:2:1 divider!!). I run "Holy :banana: :banana: :banana: :banana:!" details, and every single component is OC'ed (Ti-4200 vid card at 324/624) by a large margin, to include of course the AGP bus which isn't tested at all by Prime95.

UT2004 is hard on setups, and is a good stability tester. Try running UT2004 while running Prime95.

I can................

no errors x 3 hours of contiuous play with Prime95 and UT2004. I have never gamed longer than that, but I'd wager that I still would be error free in the morning.