Video Card Overclocking - Overclocking Nvidia
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I am going to begin with the Nvidia card. For overclocking an Nvidia video card I use a program called Coolbits. My reason for choosing this is the fact it is already in your system, though it may be hidden. It also offers auto-overclock, which is nice for people that are just beginning, and it gives a solid starting speed from which to start tweaking.
To enable Coolbits click Start, then Run. Type “Regedit”, and click ok. This should bring up your registry. Make your way to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\NVIDIA Corporation\Global\NVTweak. Once there right click and create a new DWORD value. For the name call it “coolbits”, then right click and modify it. Set the value to “3”. Once done you may exit the registry editor.
To get to coolbits, get into your display properties and go to the settings tab. Click advanced, then select your card from the tabs. Now you will see a Clock Frequency Settings option. I start by using auto-overclock, and go from there. Once it decides what my overclock is I test it. I usually set up a run through of 3DMark05. If it fails to pass due to heat or too high of an overclock, I drop the overclock a few MHz and retry. If it passes, I raise the clock speed some. Once I find the highest clock speed, I will back down a few MHz and then test a game for a while with that clock speed. If it holds up, that is my overclock. I’d recommend finding either the core first and then the memory, or vice versa.
Here are the results from stock and overclocked. I was able to clock this card to 390 MHz core and 780 Memory. Remember each card has its own limits, so you may get higher or lower.
3Dmark03
The 2003 version represents more or less the current games. The scenes seem to be on par with most of the current game’s details. The gain will show in general about any games increase you can get.
The gain of 1300 points is substantial. That’s about a 12 percent gain, for free.
3DMark05
This is the newest version of the 3DMark test. It pushes more detail and more stress on the video card. Think of this as preparing for the next generation of games. Scores tend to be lower.
Overclocking gained 500 points, approximately 7 percent. It was not as much as the other test, but this one is a little tougher on the video card.
Doom 3
Time for some real games; first up is Doom 3. Doom 3 tends to be more bottlenecked by other parts of the system. This is the main reason I overclocked the CPU, to try to get rid of the bottleneck. Given the results below, it looks like I need a CPU faster than 3.5 GHz.
There was a small gain, but 4 fps really isn’t that much. It's 4 more then before, but I thought I could at least get 10 or more.
Counter Strike: Source
Last is the Counter Strike: Source / Half Life 2 benchmark. These are the results from the Counter Strike: Source Video Stress Test. These will show better results than the Doom 3 because there really isn’t a massive bottleneck on the CPU; the video card doesn’t have to wait for another part to get its processing done.
This is what I like to see: 12 more FPS! This game relied a little more on the video card than Doom3, so you are rewarded a little more.
Next: Overclocking ATI >>
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