Overclocking video cards

[PG_Raptor 0]

In all my excitement of thinking about my new computer (that I won't be getting for a while, but still :D) I've been looking up information on overclocking. I think I've got a pretty good hold on overclocking the CPU and RAM, but I'm still kind of unsure about video card overclocking. The few articles I've seen say you have to download a third party program, and raise it with that. Is there not a way to overclock it via the BIOS? Also, what kind of an effect does increasing the FSB have on a video card?

 

Hopefully somebody can find me some good articles :)

[Creepy847 0]

Hey Raptor,

 

As far as overclocking my card I use the Rage Tweek. You can find alot of software mods at http://guru3d.com/

 

They have all the tweeks on this site for both ATI an Nvidia. Depending on which card you get. Some of the programs will add a tab in your advanced display properties called Overclocker an others will install a overclocking interface along with a tweeking interface where you can make mulitiple changes to your config.

 

Heres a link to some of the 3rd party utilities:

 

http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?id=13

 

As far as overclocking video theres really not that much to gain from that unless you can really go high. Of course then you risk damaging your card for afew extra frames. Some folks push the card when theyre benchmarking but other than that its not that much of a gain in reg gaming as far as Im concerned. Ive seen some gain but not enough to brag about. Even tho the card can be the same manufacture an specs it may have different results than its brother. Some cards like chips even tho exact same specs overclock better or worse. Alittle luck helps there.

 

I havent seen anything that allows you to overclock the video thru the bios. As far as overclocking the FSB I doubt it has much of an effect on the video. You may get better performance but thats probably because the processor an memory is working faster.

 

Youll noticed after overclocking the video that some games might have graphic issues like snow flakes or texture dropouts. Youll have to exp with your games to find that sweet spot. Each game might be alittle different.

 

I would say if your gonna get a state of the art high end card you probably wont need to overclock it. The latest generation cards are plenty fast enough to push games now without overclocking them. I doubt youll see much of a gain in reg gaming apps.

 

If you need any help when you get your system send me an email. I do this sort of thing all day. Next Monday Im building a system worth 8 grand for a designer FX-53 with Raptors an god knows what else havent seen the complete list of parts but its just about 8 grand so I would say its the fastest system Ill ever build. My buddy an I will run it for afew days before delievery an we both intend on benchmarking the s**t out of it before delievery. Ill post the results an specs of this system in the hardware forum.

 

R/S

Creepy847

Semper Fi.

Edited September 26, 2004 by Creepy847

[utley 0]

What kind of card do you have?

[PG_Raptor 0]

Here's the system I'm planning on buying, with a few changes. RAM is now Corsair TWINX1024-3200C2PRO, and instead of 2 of the same DVD+/-RWs, I got rid of one and got a cheaper DVD-ROM.