hartigan

SSIA

Just wanted to know what y'all feel is the best OC Software for Video Cards.


I'm about to dive into my winter project of building my W/C "box" and before I really get into it, I wanted to dabble with my VC for a bit.

I just ordered the OCZ GameXtreme 850 SLi because I saw that nVidia is saying that 7900GTX 512MB in SLi now requires two independent 12V rails. (See Here) Plus, I want the room to grow, eventually.

I digress . . . If you can let me know what you use for overclocking your cards, I'd appreciate it.


ROCK ON!!

-hartigan

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Jobistober

Well, I'm no nVidia fan by any means... but I believe one of the OC'ing tools of choice for nVidia cards is RivaTuner... and someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I think you can also use ATiTool to overclock nVidia cards. I use ATiTool, but of course, I'm running an ATi card.

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$SOLID$ Necro

You can use "Cool Bits" to unlock the factory overclocking tools in the NVIDA control panel.

The Guru of 3D Download Section

They even have an "Auto detect" feature that will OC for you, however, this is just a "Guess" since once you start gaming, over time the heat will creep in, and may start crashing.

If you run it at a dead cold idle, it will give you much higher numbers than if you just played a game for an hour and ran it.

I tend to find it is a bit conservative on the Memory speeds, and a bit to optimistic on the Core speeds...none the less, it is intresting to find out what NVIDA pikcks for me..I tend to adjust it up or down from there.

You can also use "RivaTuner" if you want to get into some of the more advanced tweeks, but unless you are looking for the last few points in a bench score, there is not going to be much of intrest here, other than the clock speeds, and the ability to control fan speeds

Fan speeds play an important part of your Max OC, if you don't find the noise objectionable, you canrun it at 100%, or have it adjust "Dynamically" to maintain a max temp of 50-60c, or you can set it up manually to give you a certain fan speed at a certain temp...ATI tool is my favorite for that, and it works with most NVIDA cards.

Also see this thread, I just kinda went over the same areas!

http://forums.pcapex.com/video_card_...he_7900gs.html

If you feel comfotable with "Flashing" your vid card, then you can hard code some stable OC settings in using NBITOR, and there are other more advanced things that that cone be done with it too...see me after class if your intrested...lol

Home :: MVKTech :: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX, GTS, ATI Radeon X1950 XTX, XT

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Lokie

Yes Job you are correct, ATItool does support Nvidea OCing, but is limited to all the cool tools that come with it.

I use Powerstrip most of the time but Nvidia built in utility has been getting good results.

hartigan

Thanks for the suggestions.

All are Incredibly useful information.

I'm wondering . . . would you guys say that 3D Mark '06 and AquaMark '06 would be the better benchmarks for testing the OC?

Also, what would be a good stress test (a la Prime95 and SuperPI for CPU stressing) for testing stability of the OC?


HUGE thanks for all the suggestions thus far.

-hartigan

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$SOLID$ Necro

Quote: Originally Posted by hartigan Thanks for the suggestions. All are Incredibly useful information. I'm wondering . . . would you guys say that 3D Mark '06 and AquaMark '06 would be the better benchmarks for testing the OC? Also, what would be a good stress test (a la Prime95 and SuperPI for CPU stressing) for testing stability of the OC? HUGE thanks for all the suggestions thus far. -hartigan

3DMARK 06 is a tough test, much harder on the vid card then 3D 05, and I don't think Aquamark has made an update in quite some time, it's a realy old test, and does not push todays hardware..hell I can run the test quicker than just about any other 3D bench around!

Nothing will beat picking your favorite game and playing it for 4-5 hours!


For CPU testing, I use OCCT, and have recently started using "Stess Prime 04" (Updated version of Prime 95)and I run 2 instances of it on dual core machines...it is also called "ORthos" and more info can be found on it over at Xtremesystems.org

They say to use "Small FFT's" and set priority to 9 to realy push things!



Hang on a second and I will find you some links.

http://forums.pcapex.com/other_oc_ha...ollection.html

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hartigan

Thanks for the great links $Solid$!! Definitely very helpful.


Are there any specific configuration options I can set in 3DMark 06 that will maximize my results?

Also, the CPU test in 3DMark yields only about 1 fps???? I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong with the benchmark or maybe my pc is not configured properly.


LMK.

Thank you.

-hartigan

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reflux

Quote: Originally Posted by hartigan Thanks for the great links $Solid$!! Definitely very helpful. Are there any specific configuration options I can set in 3DMark 06 that will maximize my results? Also, the CPU test in 3DMark yields only about 1 fps???? I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong with the benchmark or maybe my pc is not configured properly. LMK. Thank you. -hartigan

1) Yeah, look for the LOD (level of detail) slider in the nVidia control panel and set this to performance. This will make stuff look a bit crappy but your framerate and total score will be better.

2) This is normal - it's a very intensive stress test of the CPU.

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$SOLID$ Necro

Quote: Originally Posted by reflux 1) Yeah, look for the LOD (level of detail) slider in the nVidia control panel and set this to performance. This will make stuff look a bit crappy but your framerate and total score will be better. 2) This is normal - it's a very intensive stress test of the CPU.

I beleieve the LOD tweek only works for 3D 01, and does not help in 3D 03,05 or 06...but I will check it out further

Here is a recent PM from "Phase" over at OCXtreme about tweeking 3D 01...

Quote: Here you go my friend> Try running 2001 like this, it scored the highest with my X1900's>Open ATT set your OC's and then go to Settings>Driver Tweaks set +3 lod make sure Cat AI Level is set to HIGH. Close ATT run this order----> Dragon Low-Car Low-Lobby Low-Dragon High-Lobby High-Car High Now re-open ATT Go to Driver Tweaks again and set Cat AI Level to OFF and run Nature. You should gain over 100fps in Nature doing this. Note: The other runs are less effected by Lod tweaks. But you can test Nature from +3.0-+3.8 Lod with a fresh reboot between tests. I have seen Nature improve 4-7fps (About 100-300pts) going from +3.0 to +3.8. It all depends on how fresh your OS install is. As the OS degrades from lockups etc it will lose Nature fps. Ghosting your install on a backup drive is best. That will fix your Nature score.

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Slaymate

I use RivaTuner usually. I'm not a real big fan of 3DMark and adjusting the LOD for a
"High" score. If your playing your games on High Detail then you should test your card
on High Detail in the 3DMark test's as well. Otherwise your not testing, your just scoring.
This is not saying I don't shoot for high scores, I do. But there's a time and place for
everything. What I recommend is testing various Drivers. Depending on your equipment,
some drivers play games better, some score better in benchies, some cause higher temps
and so on. Let The Fun Begin :-)

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$SOLID$ Necro

Quote: Originally Posted by Slaymate I use RivaTuner usually. I'm not a real big fan of 3DMark and adjusting the LOD for a "High" score. If your playing your games on High Detail then you should test your card on High Detail in the 3DMark test's as well. Otherwise your not testing, your just scoring. This is not saying I don't shoot for high scores, I do. But there's a time and place for everything. What I recommend is testing various Drivers. Depending on your equipment, some drivers play games better, some score better in benchies, some cause higher temps and so on. Let The Fun Begin :-)

LOL..your one of "Those" guys

Thats OK, I perfectly understand your point of view, when you tweek the hell out of your rig by turning off all the eye candy, run at low resolution, run clock speeds that barely make it to the end of the test, then it is pretty much useles when it comes to playing actual games.

But....

By that same line of thinking, then there is no point to drag racing in the Quarter Mile, why ope n your headers and bolt on slicks if you can't drive it that way on the street? Or how about top fuel dragsters that the engine would greneade if they had to go another 200 feet?

LN-2 and Dry Ice cooling are pretty much pointless since they only last for short periods...and certainly would not be something you would use when you take your rig to a LAN then eh?

Some of us are just into the challenge of "Scoring" as you mentioned...in fact, I barely play games any more...it has come to the point that running Benchmarks ARE my games!

I'm just given ya a hard time buddy, when I do play games, I turn up the res and eye candy, and back down the clock speeds..hell even stock clocks with new high end hardware are usually good enough for all but the highest resolutions, and I don't usually bother with anything over 1280x1024 since I can't realy tell much difference!

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hartigan

Well, I was able to get my eVga 7900GTX 512MB up to 669MHz Core and 1876MHz Mem.

The core didn't oc that great (stock 650) but, the memory is quite pleasing (stock 1600).

With my Opteron 165 oc'd to 2700 and 2GB of OCZ running at 500MHz I was able to get 6355pts for 3D Mark '06.

Once I get my 2nd 7900GTX back from RMA, I'll post my SLi scores.


Also, once I've put this all under water, I'm hoping to see a bit of an increase as well.

Thanks again for the help!!

-hartigan

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$SOLID$ Necro

Did you turn the fan speed to 100% before OC'ing?

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s1ugh34d

Quote: Originally Posted by $SOLID$ Necro Some of us are just into the challenge of "Scoring" as you mentioned...in fact, I barely play games any more...it has come to the point that running Benchmarks ARE my games!