BFG 8800GTS and overclocking

[DougMcDonald]

Hi Guys,

Just a quick question regarding my 8800GTS - I've been playing around with nTune and have currently taken the CPU clock up to 600 and the memory clock to 870 which seems to bumb up things like 3dmark06 scores.

I was just curious what other people are running this card at? and what type of scores they get in various 3d benchmarking tools.

Currently I'm hitting 10225 in the demo version of 3Dmark06, which although not too bad, is still only middle of the road for 'similar systems' according to the online results browser.

Does anyone have any advice on making the most from this card?

[staffsMike]

you used nTune to clock your cpu and ram.. you're brave that just crashes mine lol.

Are you honestly that worried about 3dmark scores..

The gaming performance should speak for itself

[chuckskull]

Highest 100% stable/no artifacts, I managed 640/940. Lot more headroom if you don't mind a little instability. 695/1100, no artefacts, but occasionally games would just jump out and the GPU revert to stock speeds. Heat I think, running the stock, it's good but it has limits.

[DougMcDonald]

Yeah nTune seems fine here. I tried Riva tuner but it seems a little fiddly.
I was only using ntune for gpu and gfx ram, got a p5b deluxe and it complained about mobo compatiblity, I guess i need an nvidia chipset for that.

It is stable and runs fine, currently at 600/900 and temp is sitting about 71 idle (1 degree higher than stock (stock for the oc2 bfg, so 580/850))

I was shocked to see the temps the gfx core cuts off at! well over 100 degrees! not sticking my fingers in there!! What would you say is a sensible maximum for gpu temp in these cards?

One n00b question, what are these artifacts you speak of? Im no indiana jones!?

[staffsMike]

Lol they are weird pixel formations on the screen. Random lines appearing etc..

My stock GTS runs at 48 degrees idle and it still warms up my cpu a little.

So there sensible and then theres SENSIBLE.

They can run into the low 100's without getting damaged but I wouldn't do that. I wouldn't want it anywhere near 100 infact.

[DougMcDonald]

Yeah, this one out of the box hits 70 and after running games for 15 mins or so with 620/925 its getting to 74

I'm fairly that that would not do any harm, but as you say, ill look at cooling options again.

Couple of other quick questions, what do you guys use to test GFX stability? a kind of gfx orthos program would be ideal. Any pointers on what to use?

Also, slightly off topic, but via 3dmark my ram is still reported as SDRAM for some reason, any ideas as to why this is happening? It's doesnt seem to be affecting performance, so it's probably nothing, but still, it seems wierd!

[staffsMike]

I just used the nvidia one..wasn't all that bothered.

[chuckskull]

AtiTool works well for for testing. It finds problems quickly in my experience.

[DougMcDonald]

Been fiddling a bit more and hit 640/940 ok, but a wierd thing happens at that point.

Basically in the nVidia monitor tool, the little green squares got yellow if i switch from 635/935 up to 640/940 I guess it's some form of warning, but I'm not sure what it's referring to?!

Any ideas?

[chuckskull]

It changes number purely on clockspeed. The higher you go the more reds and yellows you will see.

[DougMcDonald]

Gotcha,

It was running happily at 645/950 but strangely when i restart, it resets to stock settings.

Anyone know how to force ntune (or something else) to overclock from boot?

I tried to create a rule to use a profile I had saved but it just doesn't seem to do anything

[chuckskull]

Ntune should do it, but not all drivers work well with Ntune, in-fact none of them do AtiTool has good start up options. It can even wait a set amount of time before applying the overclock, which can be handy.

[DougMcDonald]

Downloaded and now trying ATI tools

I'm trying 650/1000 (a bit of a push i know!) - no errors or artifacts after 15 mins or so but temp is at 85 and holding.

Is 85 acceptable do you reackon in terms of GPU temp? or should i drop it down a bit?

[chuckskull]

Downloaded and now trying ATI tools

I'm trying 650/1000 (a bit of a push i know!) - no errors or artifacts after 15 mins or so but temp is at 85 and holding.

Is 85 acceptable do you reackon in terms of GPU temp? or should i drop it down a bit?

85 is ok for a 8800GTS under load. If the clock was unstable it would probably have dropped back to the stock speeds already. You can tell by checking the clockspeed's at the top of ATiTool.

[tinners]

Cant get my Palit 8800GTS 640 to overclock much at all. It's just too hot, and pushing clock past 600 and mem past 800 it gets up to over 90/95 degrees at load Also fan spins up so much you could hear it at the end of the street.

Agree ATITool is good, especially function to only apply overclock when something 3D like a game starts up.

[GTS@660]

My car is a first gen BFG 8800GTS (NOT OC).
Originally my card would idle at around 60 and hit 75*C under load.
Then I wet sanded the contact area with high grit sandpapaper and re-attached it with better thermal grease.
I also put in a slot cooler next to the vid card running at low speed.
The cards now idles at 513/792 at 55*C
The "Find Optimal" usually puts me at around 660/1100 (hit 1105 once!).

I have it idling at 66/1070 at 57*C and I noticed a 25% increase in performance test like fill rate.
Temperature was only around 67*C but long term stability is unknown.

AMD 4200+, Asus M2N32 SLI, Antec Nine Hundred case, Antec 480W psu