HELP WITH GeFORCE 3 OVERCLOCKING PLEASE!

Greetings oh learned ones,

I have just got "Powerstrip" to overclock my 64meg GeForce3, it's an
MX400 I think. This is my current setup:

Identity - NVIDIA GeForce3
Memory clock - 499.08 MHz
Engine clock - 219.98 MHz
IRQ - 16, shared (sound card)
AGP revision - 2.00
AGP transfer rates supported - 1x, 2x, 4x
Current AGP transfer rate - 4x
Sideband addressing - (n/a)

I was wondering if anyone could clue me in on what would be a reliable
but fast setup? Or perhaps there's a good ratio between the memory and
engine?
I don't really know much about this stuff, so any help would be great

Thanks,

James

I have just got "Powerstrip" to overclock my 64meg GeForce3, it's an
MX400 I think.

You're confused - there are no GF3 MX400 cards. Still sure you want to
overclock your hardware?

"MX" was only used for the GF2 and GF4 model series. GF3 consisted of GF3
Ti200 (slowest), plain-jane GF3 (oldest version) and GF3 Ti500 (released
along with Ti200). They all have the same basic functionality, it's just the
speed that differs (and some circuit board changes I believe to support the
higher speed of the Ti500).

I was wondering if anyone could clue me in on what would be a reliable
but fast setup?

Depends. You have to test this yourself you know. With a slow-spinning 120mm
PCI bay cooling fan screwed in, I can run my GF3 at 254MHz core, 544MHz RAM
without any issues, and without modifying the stock core/RAM coolers on the
card itself.

Or perhaps there's a good ratio between the memory and engine?

No, not really. Just carefully tweak either as high as they'll go.

I don't really know much about this stuff, so any help would be great

First off... We're all beginners when starting out at something like this,
yet you're fiddling with costly hardware. There are no guarantees something
won't go wrong. Generally it is not possible to damage hardware through
overclocking, but you should still be aware of the risks. Some tips:

Make sure your computer is thoroughly warmed up (keep it running for a
couple hours first) and in the state you intend to use it; ie don't open the
chassis while you test out the overclocking potential and then close it when
you're done because the noise is getting to you or something like that.
Don't keep any documents or other unsaved data in memory while you fiddle
with this because you will crash sooner or later. Also, don't raise core and
memory speed simultaneously. Bump one, then the other, or else if you crash
you don't know what change triggered the crash. Raise speed at most 5MHz at
a time. If you crash, lower it 5MHz again and re-test. If you crash again,
lower more, as your system might have built up more accumulated heat. Also
important: don't rely on a single program to test with; use several.
Different games use the hardware in different ways, and slower/more complex
graphics generally tend to max out the chip better than speedier and simple
graphics - ie - 3dmark 2003 is a better testing tool than Quake3.
Wolfenstein is good. Morrowind is good. America's Army and other Unreal2
engine games are good. Etc. Try a few different ones. Pixel and vertex
shader reliant software will generally not let the core overclock as much as
older software. Be warned.

If you notice "sparkles" of random white pixels or discolored polygons,
you've set the RAM speed too high. Memory is fairly tolerant of being
clocked too high, though you can crash your box by pushing it too much of
course. Core speed too high generally leads to instant crash without any
prior warnings in my experience. Also notice that with the PLLs used in the
GF3 series, raising clock speed 5MHz in your overclock program might raise
it MORE in reality, since the PLL precision is fairly coarse. Particulary
higher up in the frequency spectrum. Next *real* step from 544MHz RAM speed
is 558MHz, and that's too much for my GF3, I get mujo sparkles and some
crashes at that speed. Rivatuner will let you see the actual clock speed, I
don't know about Powerstrip.

Get the latest nvidia drivers.
Get the coolbits registry hack.
Turn off Vsync
find out how to enable sideband addressing in your bios.


"God" wrote in message
om...
Greetings oh learned ones,

I have just got "Powerstrip" to overclock my 64meg GeForce3, it's an
MX400 I think. This is my current setup:

Identity - NVIDIA GeForce3
Memory clock - 499.08 MHz
Engine clock - 219.98 MHz
IRQ - 16, shared (sound card)
AGP revision - 2.00
AGP transfer rates supported - 1x, 2x, 4x
Current AGP transfer rate - 4x
Sideband addressing - (n/a)

I was wondering if anyone could clue me in on what would be a reliable
but fast setup? Or perhaps there's a good ratio between the memory and
engine?
I don't really know much about this stuff, so any help would be great

Thanks,

James

find out how to enable sideband addressing in your bios.

Not with a GF3. With 90+ % certainty it will lead to endless crashes when
starting a 3D application.

oops ok forget the sideband thing


"Lenny" wrote in message
...

find out how to enable sideband addressing in your bios.

Not with a GF3. With 90+ % certainty it will lead to endless crashes when
starting a 3D application.

I just downloaded the new drivers. It increased all of the default
clock speeds. Then I increased it a little at a time as you said.
Thanks for the help, I think I was increasing the core too much. I
thought that I had it good with the ram at about 520MHz and the core
at 230Mhz, then I ran Max Payne 2 (asking for trouble?) and my screen
turned into a very strange blue and white sparkling chessboard before
crashing. So I put in an extra fan and tried again, this time I was
stable at 510MHz core and it seems 240Mhz memory, a bit strange I
thought. However I don't seem to be having any issues, all is well.
The only other thing I was wondering was whether the core and ram can
limit each other at all. As you said, one just has to find a balance,
but heat is heat, is it practical to bring one down to increase the
other? just a final thought.

Thanks Again,

James