Video Card Overclocking Guide, for those who are new to it

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02-10-2005, 02:38 PM
jjcom

Video Card Overclocking Guide, for those who are new to it

So you've just got that nice new video card going. Now you want to overclock it like you did your CPU after reading AthlonXP/64 OC guide. So lets get started.

First, off cooling:
Chances are your card has some type of cooler on the GPU, but, depending on the card, maynot have any cooling on the RAM. So don't expect to go very far on clocking the RAM if its already clocked fairly higher. But how can you fix this? RAM SINKS! There fairly cheap, about 10-15USD. Get the COPPER ones. Now many come with preapplied thermal compound of some sort. So you can use that, or get yourself some Arctic Silver Thermal Adhesive. The Artic one will be better tho. If done correctly. Don't go crazy with this stuff. Its a one time deal unless you know how to remove these little suckers they're staying.

If your using the preaplied stuff, then you have to stick them on so they cover the whole surface of the RAM chip and your good to go. If you didn't...

Make sure you don't use alot of the Arctic Silver Thermal Adhesive. Make sure that its covering the whole bottom of the RAM sink and put it on the RAM chip. Make sure its on there so its not connecting any traces on the board! If it is...well then...its not good. It could fry your card or it maybe just fine. You never know, so don't take a risk there. Make sure its not connecting any traces.

Good ventilation is key. Make sure you have good air flow on that card. A hole in your case where the video card is and a 80mm or a 120mm fan blowing in would be very nice. You could also take out your PCI expansion slot covers and put a fan there...or maybe get a PCI fan. So you've got several options to chose from.

Now lets talk about the cooler on the GPU. Stock coolers can be very good or they can worse than the reference cooler. So lets say you've got one of the bad ones, never fear you can always buy another one. Makes sure its COPPER. Depending on the cooler it may also cool your RAM. MAYBE So look into it before you sink your RAM chips.

This time you can use Artic Silver 5. This stuff isn't going to be on there forever like the other stuff. Meaning that if you want to change coolers than it won't be bad. Just take it off and no worries of the core coming with it. Now, depending on your card you may have screws on the back/front of the card you have to uncrew to remove the cooler. For some (like me) you might have tabs. There little things you have to push together and then the cooler comes off.

So now that your old cooler is off, its time for your new one :D The Silencer Series is fairly good from what I hear. There's many other options for coolers. Just start up a thread and someone will help you out.

Make sure you clean the video card's core off. Rubbing alcohol works well for this. Just get a piece of cloth or paper towl damp and clean the core off. DO NOT use very much presure at all. Be gentle.

When you install your new cooler, be careful not to crush the core. Keep the presure even on all sides. If your new cooler use tabs make sure they get all the way through. If your cooler uses screws, once they show slight resistacnes give them about a 1/4turn and you should be done.

RivaTuner is a good program to use to overclock your video card. ATi Tool is good to use as well.

In Rivatuner, ater its installed it enables the "Clock Freq." tab in the Nvidia driver panel. Also Rivatuner can show you some other facts about your video card.
What the Program looks like
http://home.mindspring.com/~jjiles1/.../Rivatuner.JPG
What the HW monitoring looks like
http://home.mindspring.com/~jjiles1/.../HW%20data.JPG
HW monitoring may also tell you GPU temps.

RivaTuner, as you can see after using it, has option for overclocking the GPU and RAM. Take one up by about 5mhz. Run a few runs of 3DMark01, or 03, or 05 nature. Then raise it again by about another 5mhz and so on. Never raise both at the same time. If you start seeing artifacts or your score starts going down, lower your clock rate and run Nature 25times. Nature in any of the 3Dmark programs will work, but another member reports that 03 works best. Just try it out for yourself to see. If it passes than you should be stable. Now go on and raise your other setting and do the same thing. If all goes well, then your card will be faster then it was. Good luck and remember Overclocking is never garented and does VOID your Warenty so don't RMA if it dies.

ATi Tool can be used to test your overclock.

http://home.mindspring.com/~jjiles1/...ATi%20tool.JPG

There's a good shot of the program. Just run the "Scan for Artifacts" test for while, over night would be good. Just another way to test your overclock. :D

Quote:

Originally Posted by nebuchanezzar

Just to add Real time rendering this thing heats my 6800 up 6 or C over anything else I've tried..plus it looks pretty sweet :cool: This has just been officially entered as one of my required stress testers....maybe even a new background/screensaver

Yet, another way to stress test :D Lots of programs. :D

jjcom
02-10-2005, 05:08 PM
Dentnvr6

great effort for the future top-benchers jjcom!
02-10-2005, 10:14 PM
Damien

Agreed, nice ltitle guide for those who are just starting out :)
02-10-2005, 10:26 PM
jjcom

thanks guys, I'm hoping to help out the new XS members who want to OC but still don't really know much on how

jjcom
02-10-2005, 10:31 PM
Damien

Actually that taught me something, didn't relize there was a monitoring thing on rivatuner like that. :D
02-10-2005, 11:02 PM
kj™

Quote:

Originally Posted by DamienKC

Actually that taught me something, didn't relize there was a monitoring thing on rivatuner like that. :D

me too...
02-11-2005, 12:21 AM
zA.Gosu

Ramsinks do jack :banana::banana::banana::banana:, remove that part
02-11-2005, 09:03 AM
enzoR

yea... what card do you have? ive gained up to 5mhz on stock v's to them. the samsung gddrII ram gets friggin hot! :rolleyes:
02-11-2005, 11:50 AM
jjcom

Quote:

Originally Posted by zA.Gosu

Ramsinks do jack :banana::banana::banana::banana:, remove that part

RAM sinks can help out if your cards RAM is getting fairly warm...

jjcom
02-11-2005, 12:11 PM
neokenzo

I have vantec ramsinks which I plan to put on my card, it has an adhesive on the ram already. If I stick them on, will it be permanent and if so, will that void the warranty?
02-11-2005, 12:26 PM
jjcom

permanent? Probly...VOID the warranty....I would guess yeah.

jjcom
02-12-2005, 03:01 AM
zA.Gosu

Dont use ram sinks. Unless you use AS5/3/Ceramique to glue them. What kind of heat transfer do you think a sticky sheet of paper has? Waste of time IMO.
02-24-2005, 07:09 AM
heater918

Nice to have guides for people who are new to ocing (me). I was thinking that when you are talking about mounting ram sinks (not using sticky tape that comes on most of them) that you use an adhesive. The 2 products from ArticSilver are Premium Silver & Artic Alumia Thermal adhesive. These are 2 part epoxies that when used are permanent. Not for GPU or CPU.
If you use any other ArticSilver product to attach ram sinks is there a chance they might fall off at some point?
02-24-2005, 07:22 AM
RaptorRaider

I'm also confused about 'Arctic Ceramique'. I thought that stuff was a good alternative for Arctic Silver 5 when you're using phase change and reaching temperatures below -50C.

The ones which are 'permanent' are 'Arctic Silver Thermal Adhesive' and 'Arctic Alumina Thermal Adhesive'.
02-24-2005, 09:31 AM
jjcom

Alright, I'll get that fixed...I think my brain decided to clock out lol

jjcom
02-24-2005, 09:50 AM
vapb400

I can hit 488 Core/739 Mem on my 5900XT w/ stock BIOS and 483 Core/941 Memory with the modded, have you checked out modded BIOS? I can get it up to 500/1000 but i get a ton of artifacting, im gonna mess around with it later today, see how far I can push it.

I have 2.2 ram which is the fastest for the 5900's, what do you have?

What do you get in 3dmark?
02-24-2005, 09:57 AM
jjcom

:eek: I'm stuck at about 415 or so on the core I believe and the RAM kicks out at around 726. Very nice overclock on the card. I don't remember what RAM's on the card, I'll have to check that. 3Dmark03 score in the sig. I get something like 1.1k in the 05

jjcom
02-28-2005, 03:16 PM
Disposibleteen

Quote:

Originally Posted by zA.Gosu

Ramsinks do jack :banana::banana::banana::banana:, remove that part

uuhh i might have to say your wrong there. If ramsinks didnt do anything why are companies atrating to put them on stock video cards now?? and also why do i gain anywhere from 5-25MHz when i put them on my X800 Pro with Gddr3?? (im up to 625 now!)
02-28-2005, 05:40 PM
nebuchanezzar

Nice little guide :up: . You may want to add some little tidbits like to use 3dmark03 a few time to check for artifacts..it also seems to actually heat up the cards better than '05. ATiTool can be used for the testing on nVidia cards also..just can't set frequencies with it. I've heard of "rthdribl" as a rendering program that heats up the CPU and memory the best(google for it, haven't tried it yet myself). When checking out your new OC I like to run 3dmark01s nature test on a 20 or 25 loop to test GPU stability. Otherwise I like '03 and run it a few times in a row. If your GPU is to high you'll either lock-up/hang or see some really crazy artifacts while RAM too high causes "snow", that snow can be really subtle though sometime so you really have to look for it. Of course whole pieces missing is definately a problem and stuff like that falls under massive artifacting. Very nice jjcom...noob friendly :cool:
02-28-2005, 06:20 PM
jjcom

I'm trying to figure this out...my card when clocked too high...the image...shards would be a good way to put it. Never little white dots...o'well.

jjcom
02-28-2005, 07:03 PM
J-Mag

Quote:

Originally Posted by zA.Gosu

Dont use ram sinks. Unless you use AS5/3/Ceramique to glue them. What kind of heat transfer do you think a sticky sheet of paper has? Waste of time IMO.

I disagree sorta...

Ramsinks even with thermal tape definatley conduct heat away from the chips, but you are right that the thermal adhesives are superior. I put vantec copper sinks on my 9800 pro back in da day and the chips before the sinks would run up to 125F while after the side of the chip would get to 95F (I wasn't smart enough to measure from the side only since the inital measurement was taken in the middle of the BGA package)

Waste of time? Nope, took about a minute to install.

Waste of money? Perhaps...

I did increase my RAM clock by ~10 mhz... So if you think 10mhz on your card is really worth $10-15
03-04-2005, 08:58 PM
nebuchanezzar

Quote:

Originally Posted by jjcom

I'm trying to figure this out...my card when clocked too high...the image...shards would be a good way to put it. Never little white dots...o'well.

jjcom

That sounds more like GPU overclocked too high. When I say about snow that usually only comes for just the ram being too high or hot. For me the artifacting/missing stuff/black angled crud comes from too high GPU or a combination of core and mem clock. But just memory I can pick up the snow way before it gets h#lla ugly. On my ATi it would just flat out lock up when the GPU was too high...no artifacts really from just GPU clocking just lock ups. The snow by the way doesn't have to be white spots, they can be different colors. I call it snow cause it looks like...well mild snow on the screen to me :p:
03-04-2005, 09:01 PM
jjcom

I knew what you meant by "snow" yeah, still wondering about that...maybe my core is clocked abit too high...o'well...bad clocker I guess...but it was the cheapest 5900XT at the time on newegg. Apollo card lol

jjcom
03-04-2005, 09:08 PM
shadowing

Well, where's the link to dl the free version of 3dmark? And what's the general heat limit for most cards? And what's a good program to oc the 6800 series?
03-04-2005, 09:12 PM
nebuchanezzar

Do you get that stuff just when your pushing the memory up or when you have both gpu and memory up or just your GPU? I've only oc 4 video cards 3 nVidias and one Radeon. if the x800s hadn't been so outrageous I would have wanted to buy one of them this time too but my 6800 works well enough. Sometimes when I found my max memory setting thsn back it of about 5mz or so and do the same withthe core things would get ugly withboth at what I "assumed"were good. But on my 6800 I haven't seen any snow when things get funny either....but I always start with my GPU at 385 :stick: :rolleyes: . Lately I only OC it to goof off and usually reset it to play games. For me once your FSP get well past 70 or so I can't "see" any improvement in graphic quality. Until I see a game that slows me down (doom3 and far cry set high) I've just been leaving it stock lately.
03-04-2005, 09:14 PM
jjcom

get on to http://www.futuremark.com/
General heat limit: Depends...varies from card to card..probly something like 60degree load temp...
Good program to OC: Rivatuner

jjcom
03-04-2005, 09:18 PM
nebuchanezzar

Quote:

Originally Posted by shadowing

Well, where's the link to dl the free version of 3dmark? And what's the general heat limit for most cards? And what's a good program to oc the 6800 series?

Riva Tuner
Use this to unlock pipes if its a non GT non ultra if they are usable.

3dmark03
and
'05
and
'01
'01 is more CPU dependant vs. 03 and 05 which are more GC dependant.
Hope this helps
03-04-2005, 09:25 PM
jjcom

its my memory thats giving me trouble. :( need to get my room nice and cold again sometime for a benchmark run :D

jjcom
03-05-2005, 04:05 AM
nebuchanezzar

Just to add Real time rendering this thing heats my 6800 up 6 or C over anything else I've tried..plus it looks pretty sweet :cool: This has just been officially entered as one of my required stress testers....maybe even a new background/screensaver
03-05-2005, 01:17 PM
shadowing

What's the latest nVidia driver out there? I think my driver is a bit outdated :(
03-05-2005, 01:34 PM
jjcom

I use 66.93 but there are newer versions I believe...beta are good to look into as well.

jjcom
03-05-2005, 05:38 PM
nebuchanezzar

I wanna say 66.97 are latest fully official but can't recall. go to guru3d and this page has all the nVidia drivers. When you click on one it will say if it's been okd for all cards or the quadro server cards...but you can usually use those anyways. Up into the 7x.xxs now.