Newbie trying to overclock GF3ti200...

[Davegod]

...using RivaTuner atm. Cant seem to find much in the way of documentation for it. I've got as far as notching up low level overclock to 185 (3dmark seems ok with it) but wondering if i should mirror this OC in the driver overclocking bit, or is it a case of low-level OR driver overclock? If so, which is probably better?

Is it wise to follow some pattern/forumla when overcocking gfx memory, i.e. overclock it to the same proportion as you overclock the core...

Any suggestions what i could safely take a Creative GF3ti200 up to? using 30.82 dets; not sure who actually made the card, probably wasnt creative.

 

[BoomAM]

Hi
The low level overclock works independently to the drivers, so aslong as you have rivatuner running in the background, it doesnt matter what drivers you use. So If you change drivers then you`ll still have ure OC in place.
Driver overclocking, is by name, driver baced. When you update your drivers, u`ll have to OC it again.

I have A GF3 Ti200 also. I get about 230/510 OC on it. The card has a Crystal Orb on it, and the stock memory heatsinks. I currently have the Crystal Orb running at 7V. If i have it set to 12V (normal) then it`ll allow me to push the core upto 245mhz. The memory will do higher on mine, but ive lowered it by 10mhz for safety.

MY rules for OCing are,
1) Choose a reasonable OC speed for core and memory, on a Ti200, i`d say 200/500.
2) Try at them speeds
3) If it runs fine at that speed, then add an extra 10mhz to core/memory. If not then lower mhz till it runs fine(5mhz at a time)
4) Continue to raise/lower speeds until you get a stable and artifact free OC.
5) If your cause damage, then dont blame me!!!

There are far more in-depth OCing articles out there so check them out.
I think Tweak3D has one.

 

[BoomAM]

Any suggestions what i could safely take a Creative GF3ti200 up to? using 30.82 dets; not sure who actually made the card, probably wasnt creative.

By this, do you mean that you have a Creative Labs GF3? Mine is a Creative Labs one as well, and as you can see above, they pretty good OCers. Not the best, but easyly upto Ti500 speeds.
By the way, MSI makes all of Creative Labs GF baced cards. Use SiSoft Sandra and it`ll tell you who the manufacturer is as well as loads of other info on your cards model in particluar.

 

[Davegod]

cheers for the info, actually installed SANDRA about a week ago, not used it since old comp. Just had a look and sure enough it';s a MSI

atm I've overclocked to core 192 & memory 444, +10% for each, all looks stable htough noticed system temp up 1-2C. Doing it with Riva's low level andthen saved plus ticked the load the oc at startup, probably wont go up more until the two new fans arrive (will have 4 low rpm ones).

Is the Crystal Orb worth it? Its only about £10 I guess (practically the same again for some 10v-7v cable :/) but I'm not intending on overclocking that aggressively, core 200 & memory 460 is 15% faster and should do me fine until next upgrade time... basically how loud is it over the stock fan? ATM i've two low rpm intakes and one medium rpm exhaust fans, and going to be two low rpm intake + two low rpm exhaust - one each end controlled by the truepower psu. Going for reasonable quiet so thinking a louder gfx fan might be going backwards a bit Card does have to be reliable and stable until probs at least february though... While I'm at it, do i replace the whole GPU hsf with that or just replace the current fan and stick that on top?

thx for the tweak3d link, readin ga few articles now

 

[BoomAM]

Alot of people say that the Crystal Orb is crap for cooling, but they are trying to use it with GF4s, which is what its not designed for, its designed for GF3s.
I think its great. Reasonably Quiet anyway, 7V it to run it quieter.

You should be able to hit at least 220 on your core. And at least 500 on the memory. I ran at my OC`d speeds before i had the Crystal Orb, I got it for core safety, temps and stuff.

IMHO, go to Ti500 speeds and try that as your start point. Then try higher/lower depending on your results.
If it crashes, then lower the core and not the memory, as thats the likely cause, then if its not the core after lowering it back to normal, then slowly lower the memory, It not like OCing ruins the card, you just reboot, and set it to something lower.
Its just trial and error really.

If you do get the Crystal Orb, then remove the fan guard on it cos it adds to the sound level, and restricts airflow.(It runs slightly quieter and cooler with the fan gurd off)

 

[jiffylube1024]

BoomAM is right about the Crystal orb - it's pretty good for the GF3 I hear, but a bit noisy and not worth your while IMO. It would probably let you get to 240 MHz core, but you could screw up the installation, and the noise just isn't worth it IMO.

I have an MSI GF3 Ti200 and I overclocked it to 220/500 for a year, with zero problems. Your results will definatley vary, as my friend had the exact same card, and couldn't go that high stably.

There were two types of memory manufacturers usually shipped with the GF3 Ti200; I can't remember the rating in nanoseconds, but one was officially rated to run at 460 MHz and the other at ~500 MHz. Remember, however, that they intentionally put this faster memory in there so that duds of the group (ones which couldn't run this fast) would still be acceptable to run them at the stock speed of 400 MHz.

However, unless you're extremely unlucky (highly unlikely) you should be able to get your memory to either 460 MHz or 500 MHz with no problems. Try 500 MHz, and you should get no artifacts at all. If you get any problems, back it down to 460 and you should be good to go.

For the core, it's a total crapshoot. The stock is a low 175 MHz; you should be able to go to 200-230 MHz, but most likely not the 240 MHz of the hand-picked GF3 Ti500 core.

Hopefully this helps; I did a lot of research in o/cing my GF3 back in the day .

 

[Davegod]

cheers, i have it at 200 & 460 right now, no problems although case temp seems to be higher after running games? hard to be sure though tbh, and all still ok. Probably will leave it about at this, maybe try 500 on the memory. I expect to be going for a new card ready for Doom3 and card currently doing me fine, except in UT2k3 which i dont play much anyway. I have noticed a difference in RTCW though, framerate doesnt drop occasionally like it used to . UT2k3 antalus flyby bench is 12% higher though havent got round to playing that yet to feel any improvement.

 

[DT4K]

I've got mine running at 240/510 with no problems at all. Actually I had it at 240/525, but my benchmarks were no higher than at 240/510. I played around with it and was able to get to 250/450 or 200/550, but I got the best benches by balancing the core and memory at 240/510.

I've got a Gainward Golden Sample version, which means it has faster rated memory. So depending on manufacturer, your results will vary. I wouldn't bother messing with the fan unless yours is known for having a very poor fan. I think the possible additional performance would be minimal and not worth the money or hassle. I'm pretty happy that I'm now basically running a Ti 500 for the price of a Ti 200. Of course I did pay $160 for it, so I'm glad I was able to OC it.