Geforce DDR overclocking

[TripperJoe]

I recently read an article on overclocking the same card I have (guillemot DDR-DVI) and the author said there was no problem getting it to 160/370 from the stock of 130/301. Mine's happy right now at 155/345, but at 350 I get artifacts after running demo001 a few times. Is there anyway to rememdy this problem? Since this is the memory clock speed I would figure that ram sinks would be the way to go, but I remember reading that ram chips don't require cooling because they don't actually put out that much heat. So, is this pretty much the best I can do for an O/C? Is it just that the card in the review an unusually great o/c'er? Thanks for any help. Also, is there any OC'ing advantage for dropping back to agp2x?

 

[twong82]

u could try replacing your stock fan with a blue orb. I don't know if it will help.

 

[TripperJoe]

From what I understand, the Borb cools the core, which I am not having difficulties with o/c'ing...Does anyone use ram sinks and did they notice a difference?

 

[Hanky]

Try increasing the RAM speed first with the GPU speed left at 125/130 MHz (depends on your card...my 3D Prophet DDR-DVI has 125 MHz as default). When your RAM hits the maximum, increase the GPU speed as much as possible...I read in one Anandtech review (don't know which...must be a bit older) that results are sometimes not so good when you increase your GPU speed before the RAM is maxed out. Dunno why though and dunno whether it's true (never o/ced the card).

 

[Hanky]

One more thing: I think the RAM gets very hot on this card. But I also heard that heat is not a limiting factor when o/cing the RAM...maybe you just got some bad RAM chips...

 

[shiznut123]

It wouldn't hurt to use ram heatsinks. Give it a try and test it. The artifacts cannot be removed unless you lower your clock speeds.

 

[TripperJoe]

Is there a difference between the quality of ramsinks? Or do I just get any size that fits? Also, I guess I shouldnt' be complaining, because despite my whines, 125/300 to 155/345 with stock cooling isn't bad at all ;-)

 

[tracerbullet]

What are you O/Cing with? What card do you have?

I've got the Hercules / Guillemot DDR DVI. Core got into the 140's before it acted funny, Memory not much over 330. Not much air moving in my case at the time though. I guess I'm saying you're right - those are good numbers to begin with.

My questions are really just for my own interest - I did in fact get a card cooling kit (lloked like fun, not sure if it will do anything). Has a little HSF and 8 alumiinum heat sinks. I put arctic silver on the HSF, but just superglued the fins to the RAM. (I have a friend at a medical products company, he swore that the miniscule layer of super glue would not hurt anything, based on experiments on equipment they make there where cooling small parts is a factor). Anyway - I haven't upped the speeds on it again yet (Have several fans in the case now too).

The Hercules drivers give me ~5100 on 3DMark, the ones from Invidia's site go to 5660 (just did it). Not bad for an old card (on 1Gig TBird no O/C). However, it's the Herc drivers that let me O?C the video card. Problem is, OC'ing with them would only get me up to where the Nvidia drivers are at stock settings.

I've scoured for articles on our card, really varied results. My speed numbers above were higher than some sites, lower than others. Didn't see any pattern to it other than each card was different... hmm. Hadn't tried 2x - I figured that my newer MSI that has 4x built in it (last board went to 2x, but I had to run 1x to keep it from crashing at stock speeds) - and that 4x was just better. Seen data to the contrary somewhere?

So - what are you using to O/C the card?

Thanks - hope my info helped a little.

 

[TripperJoe]

Here's what I've compiled during my trials:
3dmarks--det7.52------Q3A----@-----1024x768 16bit/32bit

130/301-----5377---- 71.9/89.6
136/320-----5569
125/320-----5319---- 73.8/87.9
140/340------------- 80.0/95.7
155/345-----6019---- 83.3/101.3

My system specs are in the link below. I hope that helps you a little bit.
As for my O/C tool, I recommend a program called "Powerstrip." You can find
the two versions here