3200+ and GeForce 7800GT Overclock Results

Aepheme

Member
Sep 12, 2005
174
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The System

Case: Antec Sonata II
Power: Antec 450W SmartPower
Mainboard: Epox Ultra 9NPA+

CPU: Athlon64 Socket989 3200+ (2.0Ghz, 10x multiplier)
CPU HSF: Thermalright SI-120, 120mm Nexus fan, AS5

GPU: eVGA Geforce 7800GT
GPU HSF: Zalman ZF700-AlCu, AS-Ceramique

Memory: 2x1GB OCZ DDR PC-3200 Platinum
Hard Drive: WD 320.0 GB SATA
Not Relevant: Audigy 2 ZS, Dell 2405FPW, NEC 3540A, Logitech X-530

The Overclock

I was able to get my CPU / System to overclock about average: 2.5 Ghz (from 2.0Ghz). Temperatures are well within acceptable limits at full loads on Prime95 with no errors (voltage is auto-set at 1.60 V). I'm a little dissapointed that it didn't go much higher, but it's not a bad overclock.

I have pretty good memory (2-3-2-5), but I haven't really tweaked it much. I've played around with it some, but there wasn't an obvious performance improvement and there were too many variables. It's currently running at 250 Mhz with 2T/3-4-6-3 and an auto-set voltage of 2.76 V. Do you think that further tweaking could result in a >5% performance gain (in gaming, not synthetic memory benchmarks)?

My GPU performed rather exceptionally. The core easily reaches 509mhz (from 400mhz) and the memory reaches 1.20Ghz (from 1.0Ghz) on stock voltage. Temperatures are also well within acceptable ranges at full load with rthdribl.

Some Comments

I started by going through the "isolation" process described in the Quick & Dirty A64 Overclocking guide, but didn't follow it rigorously. Is the chipset ever the limiting factor? It was useful to remove the memory from the process -- I forced it to a 1:2 multipler and tested the CPU with Prime95 at increasing clockspeeds until errors occured.

The GPU is a bit more unique. The "auto-detect" function actually places the clock speed higher than what I decided was stable (it puts it in the 520mhz range!) And, interestingly enough, I can run rthdribl without problems for hours on end at that range. However, even though rthdribl brings the GPU to it's max temperature, 3dMark05 will freeze after several loops even when rthdribl doesn't show any problems. Any idea why?

The Benchmarks

These are all rounded because there's too much variation to give it down to the specific digit. Format is: Overclocked (vs. Stock System).

3dMark05: ~8,200 (vs. 6,700)

3dMark03: ~17,000

3dMark01: ~26,300

Aquamark: ~82,000 (vs. 69,400)

How do these compare to your scores if you have a similar setup? Any suggestions or thoughts?
 

Aznguy1872

Senior member
Aug 17, 2005
790
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0
My set up is very similar to yours but my 3dmark scores is lower then yours, mine is around 7600 and my Aquamark is at 87,000.
 

Aepheme

Member
Sep 12, 2005
174
0
76
Our 3dMark scores make sense -- my overclock is about 50mHz higher than yours. I'm not sure if I understand the Aquamark score, though. Could that be because the CAS Latency of my RAM is at 3ns? Or would that be because of the 2T timing?

Interesting...
 

fbrdphreak

Lifer
Apr 17, 2004
17,555
1
0
Sometimes 3DMark05 just sucks and it freezes with an OC; have you gamed to test for artifacting? That IS where it matters after all ;)