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Rock stable at 190 but won't do 200 for a second? ideas...?

R

RSI

Diamond Member
Ok, I have my 1.333GHz Tbird @ 1.333, 256MB PC133 SDRAM @ PC133, and just replaced the dinosaur Banshee with a TNT2. I thought it was an Ultra, but turns out it's not. In any case, it OCs to higher-than-Ultra speeds without a problem (nice fan on it I guess).

What I kinda find weird is that it does 160/190 perfectly fine, in Winbloze and in games. Yet, if I use Powerstrip to force it to go higher (it won't go higher in display properties), I may only get a minute of gameplay. I had it set to 200MHz memory (I think the 'default' for this card is 150), I could play for a tiny bit, and it was quite a lot faster, but then the screen got jarbled and I had to reset. I have had the card set to 160/190 on reboot for days now and no problem. How come I can run 160/190 (125/150 default) perfectly, no problems, stable, etc... and I can't up the mem to 200?

The fan fitted on this system is quite nice, and I haven't seen a single problem yet pertaining to overall system stability and functionality. Of course, the TNT2, at any speed, completely wastes the Banshee, and the drivers are better too - but I thought I was gonna get a TNT2 Ultra - yes, it's OCing higher than that, but if I had the Ultra, I'd be able to go even higher yet, no? Or is it the exact same card and simply clocked higher, thus wouldn't go any higher OCing?

Any comments would be appreciated! Thanks.

-RSI
 
There ain't any heatsinks on the ram chips itself, is it? If not then you could go out and buy some and see if it becomes more overclockable. Maybe, just maybe it could take you up to 200 and beyond.
 
What do the ram chips on the tnt2 look like? There's just a fan thing (probably the size of the ones you'd see on a 486 processor) on it.. I guess that's the cpu of the video card, or would you call it a gpu..?

The card is in there right now and not very visible from the other comp next to it and from where I'm sitting, so I can't really tell ... where would additional heatsinks go and how would that fit on there?

-RSI
 
No offense, but I think the question posed here is quite silly. That is like saying, "How come my memory has a limit as to how fast it can go?" The memory is running as fast as it will stabley and that is that. I have seen cases where people are trying to overclock their FSB and they will find a stable speed, try and up it by 2 or 3 MHz, and all of the sudden the board won't even POST.

Ultra's could overclock better, it depends if the memory is rated faster or not. Try to get some in-depth specifications of your current card, the compare them to some Ultra cards. If the memory on the other cards is rated for a lower number of naneseconds (ns), then you have a good chance of hitting higher clockspeeds. It sounds like you have a pretty good overclock going now, and overclocking is completely unpredictable. You may have a better chance of hitting higher clockspeeds and end up hitting lower ones. It is just luck of the draw.
 


<< No offense, but I think the question posed here is quite silly. That is like saying, "How come my memory has a limit as to how fast it can go?" The memory is running as fast as it will stabley and that is that. I have seen cases where people are trying to overclock their FSB and they will find a stable speed, try and up it by 2 or 3 MHz, and all of the sudden the board won't even POST.

Ultra's could overclock better, it depends if the memory is rated faster or not. Try to get some in-depth specifications of your current card, the compare them to some Ultra cards. If the memory on the other cards is rated for a lower number of naneseconds (ns), then you have a good chance of hitting higher clockspeeds. It sounds like you have a pretty good overclock going now, and overclocking is completely unpredictable. You may have a better chance of hitting higher clockspeeds and end up hitting lower ones. It is just luck of the draw. >>

I realize all that.. I just like to get the most out of the card. 🙂

I just found it a little odd that it would just crap at 200 yet 190 was perfect... In the past with my experience overclocking, things have always slowly gotten less stable as I up the speed, which made sense. Oh well, I can definitely live with 160/190! I can actually play games in high res and high detail now, without getting 2fps 😉

-RSI
 


<< Well, when i overclock, there seems to be a magic maximum number that works, after that is death! >>

Death to you, mlahbitch!

😛

-RSI
 


<< What do the ram chips on the tnt2 look like? There's just a fan thing (probably the size of the ones you'd see on a 486 processor) on it.. I guess that's the cpu of the video card, or would you call it a gpu..?

The card is in there right now and not very visible from the other comp next to it and from where I'm sitting, so I can't really tell ... where would additional heatsinks go and how would that fit on there?

-RSI >>



I meant that you should put som heatsinks on the ram, it's the black chips (20*10mm), think it's eight of them 8*4mb=32mb that sit around the "gpu" and they sit on both side of the videocard. I doubt there is any heatsinks on them, only GF2 and GF3 have ram heatsinks.
There are kits you can buy with ram heatsinks, don't know any place you can buy them though.
 
I have a Voodoo 3 2K AGP that would do 190/190 fine, (as long as I had a massive 120mm fan blowing), I even got it to 199 but it started to artifact. the RAM on that thing was sweet, it was 5.5 ns, so really I wasn't overclocking until I hit over 183mhz. I didn't have any special cooling besides that 120mm fan, and a Pentium heatsink/fan.

so basically, it depends on the RAM you have. some 5.5ns RAM will hit 200mhz (though it's rated at 181mhz), some will not let u much over 181, it's all luck in that sense. Also, I don't remember the difference in default speeds between Ultra and normal, but it seems to me one reason an Ultra would overclock higher is simply that it has RAM that was rated at a higher speed.
 
*cries*


<<

<< Well, when i overclock, there seems to be a magic maximum number that works, after that is death! >>

Death to you, mlahbitch!

😛

-RSI >>

 
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