Abit GF4 Ti 4200 128mb overclock question

[JuicyFruit]

I've seen many benchmarks with the 64mb version but I can't seem to find a general speed to overclock my 128mb version.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[wetcat007]

Just try it in 10-20MHz intervals on the mwmory and try your core at 275MHz check stabiliy and look for any anomilies for each set of changes, you should be careful adjusting the core speed though, you should at least get a 100 to 150MHz overclock speed out of the memory I would start around 550MHz with that.

 

[JuicyFruit]

Default's at 250 core and 445 mem, btw.

Anyone out there with this card with tested speeds for reference?

 

[CraigRT]

you've got lots of room to play with

my MSI 128MB Ti4200 runs with the slider maxed out at 315/560

 

[chizow]

Yep, core should hit 300 easy, as all A3 revs do. You could start at 500mhz and work up to around where Yield said. Probably 4ns RAM on that card, so that sounds about right.

Chiz

 

[JuicyFruit]

315/550 so far.

Thanks for all the quick replies. You guys rock.

 

[bhof]

I just helped my son put together a system with an 2000xp, 512 pc2700, Albatron G4 ti4200 8x, win 2K pro.
We D/L power strip and tried upping the settings. No increases seem to make any difference in UT. He is constant about 75 fps and can't get any more. Is there something we are missing?
What are you guys using for a benchmark and what readings are you getting ?

 

[AnAndAustin]

You almost certainly have Vsync enabled. Put simply this limits the FPS to the refresh of your monitor to avoid hoizontal tearing. It's generally considered to be better to disable Vsync so I'd try that, esp when benching, very few people notice the tearing while gaming anyway.

As for 4200-128MB o/c you simply have to take it a small step at a time until you get visual artifacts in games/benchies and then back off a couple of notches. The default for 4200 128MB cards is 250/444 while 4200-8X 128MB cards should be at 250/500. The former nearly always uses 4ns RAM and should get between 500 and 550 from the RAM while the latter SHOULD use 3.6ns RAM and hit 550 to 600. The core should now be A3 and 275mhz is the least it should hit, 320mhz is not overly rare. BUT the card only has to run at 250/444 to pass manu tests so 250/444 might be all you get although this is unlikely. You could get 250/600 or 320/444 or any where in between, the ONLY safe and 99.99% risk free way to o/c is to leave all voltages alone and simply up the clock (RAM then core) a small amount at a time (eg 5-10mhz) checking at each setting. The RAM speed will help AA while the core will help AF, both will equally improve over all 3D perf so see what you can get! Don't be too disappointed if you hardly get a thing, you are faster at stock than a Rad8500 or GF3TI500 and that is no bad thing at all, anything you gain from o/c'ing is pretty much a free bonus.

 

[JuicyFruit]

Originally posted by: AnAndAustin
You almost certainly have Vsync enabled. Put simply this limits the FPS to the refresh of your monitor to avoid hoizontal tearing. It's generally considered to be better to disable Vsync so I'd try that, esp when benching, very few people notice the tearing while gaming anyway.

As for 4200-128MB o/c you simply have to take it a small step at a time until you get visual artifacts in games/benchies and then back off a couple of notches. The default for 4200 128MB cards is 250/444 while 4200-8X 128MB cards should be at 250/500. The former nearly always uses 4ns RAM and should get between 500 and 550 from the RAM while the latter SHOULD use 3.6ns RAM and hit 550 to 600. The core should now be A3 and 275mhz is the least it should hit, 320mhz is not overly rare. BUT the card only has to run at 250/444 to pass manu tests so 250/444 might be all you get although this is unlikely. You could get 250/600 or 320/444 or any where in between, the ONLY safe and 99.99% risk free way to o/c is to leave all voltages alone and simply up the clock (RAM then core) a small amount at a time (eg 5-10mhz) checking at each setting. The RAM speed will help AA while the core will help AF, both will equally improve over all 3D perf so see what you can get! Don't be too disappointed if you hardly get a thing, you are faster at stock than a Rad8500 or GF3TI500 and that is no bad thing at all, anything you gain from o/c'ing is pretty much a free bonus.

Nice post Thanks man.

 

[JuicyFruit]

I'm not sure if this post should go here but it is video related. . .

My computer beeps and I think it's video related. Asusprobe is telling me that out of 3.3V, it's only getting around 2.9?-3V. Is the 3V designate to the video stuff? And is it my powersupply not feeding it enough?

Before, this only happened when running those flyby things in UT2003 but now it's been going on sometimes when I'm not really doing anything in windows.

I have a 420W Turbolink ps, Abit GF4 Ti4200 128mb, P4, Asus P4B533-E.

 

[AnAndAustin]

I'd highly suspect the PSU, esp since I haven't heard of that brand before. You could try unplugging a few PCI cards and poss CDROM/DVD or anything else non-essential just to see if the voltages settle down a bit. If it is the PSU then don't waste any time as I have seen quite a few components fried due to a bad or failing PSU. Enermax or Antec would be my top recs although ToPower, SFLower and Sparkle are good alternatives. As for the rating, only the branded PSUs are likely to be accurate and 400W is prob a good minimum to buy.

 

[Slaimus]

Originally posted by: bhof
I just helped my son put together a system with an 2000xp, 512 pc2700, Albatron G4 ti4200 8x, win 2K pro.
We D/L power strip and tried upping the settings. No increases seem to make any difference in UT. He is constant about 75 fps and can't get any more. Is there something we are missing?
What are you guys using for a benchmark and what readings are you getting ?

UT original or 2k3? With original UT, you will get a big performance boost by using the beta openGL renders from unreal.epicgames.com compared to the D3D one, esp in win2k or xp. Also in general, the Ureal engine is very CPU dependent as much of the game code is running on a virtual machine, like Java. More CPU power will give the most improvement.

 

[JuicyFruit]

Originally posted by: AnAndAustin
I'd highly suspect the PSU, esp since I haven't heard of that brand before. You could try unplugging a few PCI cards and poss CDROM/DVD or anything else non-essential just to see if the voltages settle down a bit. If it is the PSU then don't waste any time as I have seen quite a few components fried due to a bad or failing PSU. Enermax or Antec would be my top recs although ToPower, SFLower and Sparkle are good alternatives. As for the rating, only the branded PSUs are likely to be accurate and 400W is prob a good minimum to buy.

I've got a few (4) case fans, maybe I'll disconnect those and give it a try. I'll definitely unplug a boatload of stuff to, to test the 3.3V line. Thanks for the advice.

Happy holidays to everyone.

 

[bhof]

Thanks Slaimus and all others
It is UT original, The last system he had was a AMD 950 with win 98 with a Geforce GTS and he got FPS over 100 at times.
We do not have Vsnyc turned on and the monitor refresh is at 100 .
None of the OC changes seem to improve the FPS. we are staying at 75. I am sure it is something I am overlooking, but I don't know what it might be. Just my stupidity.
The 2000xp with G4 ti4200 8x and FSB of 333 with 512 of PC 2700 all on a Epox 8K5A2+, Win 2K, should give us better performance.

Any more ideas what I should look for?

 

[AnAndAustin]

It could be that game's limiting the FPS, something like setmaxframerate=75 could be the problem. IIRC UT orig had a menu structure (switch out of full screen) and there were a lot of settings in a Windows directory style. I'd look for something like that, perhaps check if there's and update to the game as it's pretty old now ... that'd be my guess anyway.

 

[jiffylube1024]

Originally posted by: JuicyFruit
I'm not sure if this post should go here but it is video related. . .

My computer beeps and I think it's video related. Asusprobe is telling me that out of 3.3V, it's only getting around 2.9?-3V. Is the 3V designate to the video stuff? And is it my powersupply not feeding it enough?

Before, this only happened when running those flyby things in UT2003 but now it's been going on sometimes when I'm not really doing anything in windows.

I have a 420W Turbolink ps, Abit GF4 Ti4200 128mb, P4, Asus P4B533-E.

That is a PSU problem. ASUS probe has "safe" ranges for all of the voltage rails (+3.3, +5, +12) and when running will warn you when it dips below what they deem acceptable. for the +3.3V, it is I believe 3V or below, so your PSU is dipping into dangerous waters, so to speak.

I had a defective PSU that ran the 3.3V rail at 2.8-3V only, and consequently, couldn't even POST a 2.4B at 2.4 GHz (only 1.8 GHz) and had serious stability issues.

Your PSU is either overloaded, or defective/dying. Did the 3.3V run this low before? Does it run this low when you use fewer fans? If it's the same with the bare minimum, then you should definately get a new PSU.

 

[CraigRT]

Originally posted by: bhof
I just helped my son put together a system with an 2000xp, 512 pc2700, Albatron G4 ti4200 8x, win 2K pro.
We D/L power strip and tried upping the settings. No increases seem to make any difference in UT. He is constant about 75 fps and can't get any more. Is there something we are missing?
What are you guys using for a benchmark and what readings are you getting ?

turn VSync off
it's staying at the refresh rate of your monitor.

 

[bhof]

Thanks Yield,
But the vsync is turned off and the monitor refresh is set at 100.
Any other ideas?

 

[CraigRT]

try changing the max fps setting for the game.. i am sure it has one.
look up the command and see what the max default FPS is

however, sometimes bringing the FPS too high causes problems
75FPS in UT2K3 looks fantastic. i would consider just leaving it there.
if it stays there, you're gold.

 

[bhof]

Thanks Yield,
My boys have already left to go home to RI, but I will forward this advice to them.
You are right about 75 fps looking good in UT , but he plays a lot of Everquest on line and just wanted to fine tune the new system for max performance.
We spent a lot of time playing Medal of Honor over the holidays. I have a small lan setup, so we had five of us playing at once. It was great fun but dissappointing that the game did not have any bots to play against. We are looking for a new game that we can play as a team against bots.
Thanks again for the info.

 

[TheWart]

Not trying to hijack your thread, but if you need a good game with bots to play on a lan, check out Battlefield 1942. The game is a blast to play on a lan.

 

[bhof]

Thanks Wart
We will give it a try. My Grandson and I play lots of UT GOTY and 2003. He is only 7 and always wants to be on my team against the bots.
I will only be able to outplay him for a couple more years, after that, he will take great pleasure in beating the pants off grandpa. Hmmmm Maybe I will build him a SLOWER computer <G>

 

[JuicyFruit]

Originally posted by: jiffylube1024

Originally posted by: JuicyFruit
I'm not sure if this post should go here but it is video related. . .

My computer beeps and I think it's video related. Asusprobe is telling me that out of 3.3V, it's only getting around 2.9?-3V. Is the 3V designate to the video stuff? And is it my powersupply not feeding it enough?

Before, this only happened when running those flyby things in UT2003 but now it's been going on sometimes when I'm not really doing anything in windows.

I have a 420W Turbolink ps, Abit GF4 Ti4200 128mb, P4, Asus P4B533-E.

That is a PSU problem. ASUS probe has "safe" ranges for all of the voltage rails (+3.3, +5, +12) and when running will warn you when it dips below what they deem acceptable. for the +3.3V, it is I believe 3V or below, so your PSU is dipping into dangerous waters, so to speak.

I had a defective PSU that ran the 3.3V rail at 2.8-3V only, and consequently, couldn't even POST a 2.4B at 2.4 GHz (only 1.8 GHz) and had serious stability issues.

Your PSU is either overloaded, or defective/dying. Did the 3.3V run this low before? Does it run this low when you use fewer fans? If it's the same with the bare minimum, then you should definately get a new PSU.

Got an Enermax 431W psu It rocks. All of my voltage rails are higher than before. The +3.3V used to be 2.98V, now it's at 3.36V Now my computer doesn't beep while running UT2k3 demos and flybys.