which platform's better for OCing vid cards?

[stockspeedsrule]

I recently upgraded from a 1hgz athlon thunderbird on a gigabyte 7ZX with a 235W power supply to a P4 2.4C on an intel d865perl with a 350W power supply. My vid card is a chaintech GF4 TI 4200 128 MB, and previously, I had comfortably OCed it to around 275/500 without any problems running 3dmark and MOHAA for about an hour or so and my room temperature was quite hgh around 37-38 C (dont know Fahrenheit equal, sorry). I even went beyond this mark to around 280 o 285/505 and still there was no problem. After the upgrade though, the memory is fine at 500 but as soon as I pumped up the core and ran a 3dmark bench, I think after 11 or 12 tests, it crashed and said that the vid card was unable to complete a drawing. On other occasions, the PC either crashed or rebooted so I have brought it down at default at 250/444 . Anyone experience this kinda thing? I am shocked to see this with an Intel original built board coz they are supposed to be rock solid and even the power supply is stronger. On the contrary, maybe the power supply is not providing 350 ..... Any suggestions?
BTW, I did a quick format before installing Windows XP and the board was updated to the latest P07 bios and the chipset drivers are in place.

 

[dderidex]

Well, fairly simple steps seem obvious:
* Replace the 350w with your old 235w.
* Make sure the card is seated properly - different motherboards have different retention mechanisms. Maybe the card isn't *quite* fully in?

If that doesn't help, it is then the motherboard itself that must be causing the problem - not supplying enough power or something. Suppose you could always look into one of the newer cards from ATI or nVidia that has the external power connector?

Perhaps an obvious question first - did you overclock either the AMD or Intel system?

Neither of the boards you listed have a clock lock on the PCI bus, so overclocking your FSB any will not only overclock the CPU, but push the AGP bus out of spec. That can cause stability problems with some boards.

 

[Ketchup]

Originally posted by: dderidex
Well, fairly simple steps seem obvious:
* Replace the 350w with your old 235w.
* Make sure the card is seated properly - different motherboards have different retention mechanisms. Maybe the card isn't *quite* fully in?

If that doesn't help, it is then the motherboard itself that must be causing the problem - not supplying enough power or something. Suppose you could always look into one of the newer cards from ATI or nVidia that has the external power connector?

Perhaps an obvious question first - did you overclock either the AMD or Intel system?

Neither of the boards you listed have a clock lock on the PCI bus, so overclocking your FSB any will not only overclock the CPU, but push the AGP bus out of spec. That can cause stability problems with some boards.

Ok, first of all stockspeedrule, don't listen to anything this guy has to say. As you can hopefully tell, he doesn't know what he is talking about.

What kind of power supply do you have? As you can imagine, your new setup required quite a bit more power than your old one. I think 350 watts would be enough, but if it wasn't I could see how it would limit your overclock.

Have you checked the heatsink on your video card? I had an MSI Geforce 4 Ti4400, and after a while, the heatsink kept falling off the core, intil I superglued the mounts to the card. Less than optimal contact will make the card overheat, obviously.

I really don't think this has anything to do with your motherboard. If it runs fine at stock speed, that should rule out your motherboard as a source of the problem.

 

[dderidex]

Ok, first of all stockspeedrule, don't listen to anything this guy has to say. As you can hopefully tell, he doesn't know what he is talking about.

How old are you? 10? That's a fine way to start off a conversation there, kid.

think 350 watts would be enough

And that's a shocker right there. You do realize, of course, that few computers require that kind of PSU and that the reason any hardware companies recommend them is merely to make sure the quality level?

Consider the shuttle cube PCs that power Radeon 9800s and Pentium-IV on *200W* power supplies with no problems.

I HATE it when people immediately suggest, "Oh, just buy a bigger power supply". That is 99% of the time NOT THE PROBLEM. A better QUALITY power supply, sure, but that has absolutely nothing at all to do with the wattage of it.

If it runs fine at stock speed, that should rule out your motherboard as a source of the problem.

And that, of course, is completely wrong.

I've had at least 2 cards whose maximum clock speeds changed radically when changing motherboards (one was so bad - going from a kt133 to a kt133a - that it actually ended up being a faster system overall moving it back to the old board - which, you guessed it, allowed me to overclock it right back up where it was).

 

[dderidex]

bleh - double

 

[Ketchup]

Originally posted by: dderidex

Ok, first of all stockspeedrule, don't listen to anything this guy has to say. As you can hopefully tell, he doesn't know what he is talking about.

How old are you? 10? That's a fine way to start off a conversation there, kid.

Ha ha, that's pretty funny. Heck, my kid is probably closer to your age than I am. I started the conversation that way because nothing you said in your post has any constructive information. A 235 watt power supply will not run a modern ATX motherboard. It will power a microATX board, like the one in the Shuttle systems you refer to, but even the one stockspeedsrule listed would not work because it does not have the 4-pin ATX power connector. Motherboard manufacturers say to use at least a 300-watt power supply, I would play it safe and go 400. Yes, quality matters, but the best quality can't make up for not having enough juice. I would be willing to bet you have more than 235 watts powering your little setup there.

Card not seated properly? If the card was not seated properly, the computer would either not boot and give you a BIOS beep code, or boot with no video, depending on how unseated the card was.

I have nothing against you personally dderidex, but when it is so obvious you yourself don't know what you are talking about, you shouldn't be giving out advice.

 

[dderidex]

A 235 watt power supply will not run a modern ATX motherboard

Sorry, but that IS just wrong.

I am running a 1Ghz Athlon, 256mb ram, Radeon graphics card, DVD-rom, etc on my living room PC. Full ATX board - ECS K7s5a, in fact.

200w power supply. Stable as a rock.

If the card was not seated properly, the computer would either not boot and give you a BIOS beep code, or boot with no video, depending on how unseated the card was

I'll grant you that is USUALLY the symptom of such a thing, but not always. A card almost completely seated correctly would have exactly the effects he described - I know, I've had it happen before.

I have nothing against you personally dderidex, but when it is so obvious you yourself don't know what you are talking about, you shouldn't be giving out advice.

You have a problem with arrogance, I'm afraid. You don't know everything, as I've already demonstrated twice in this post - things you say are not possible I have actual experience with doing.

I do tech support for a living for a multi-national telecom software provider (using PC hardware for all our installations). I DO know what I'm talking about when it comes to PCs.

 

[mindwreck]

whoa whoa whoa.. settle down ppl lets try to help this guy out.... the mobo has very lil to do with ocing a video card. ive switched my geforce 2mx around a couple of times. sometimes ocing +- 1 or 5 mhz diff. but a that kind of drop in mhz shouldn't be the modos faults.UNLESS the mobo itself isn't supplying enough voltage to the card.
your really pushing the limits with a 300 watt PS and a modern ATX with stuff. IT could be the PS's problem since he is useing a P4. hard to tell without more specs.

loss in mhz in a oced vid could be a heat problem like ketchup said.(though i wouldn't recommend superglueing ur pins)

most likely its a heat prob. but we need more specs about computer to fully figure this one out

Originally posted by: dderidex
Well, fairly simple steps seem obvious:
* Make sure the card is seated properly - different motherboards have different retention mechanisms. Maybe the card isn't *quite* fully in?

that can't happen; either its in correctly and works or its not in correctly and doesn't work.. (trust me on this dderidex.. ive been building comp's for ppl for a LONG TIME)

 

[Ketchup]

Originally posted by: dderidex

A 235 watt power supply will not run a modern ATX motherboard

Sorry, but that IS just wrong.

I am running a 1Ghz Athlon, 256mb ram, Radeon graphics card, DVD-rom, etc on my living room PC. Full ATX board - ECS K7s5a, in fact.

200w power supply. Stable as a rock.

I said MODERN, do you know how old your system is? You have almost the same setup as stockspeedsrule used to have, so of course you are gonna be able to run it on a modest power supply. I would argue with you some more, but you obviously don't get it.

You have a problem with arrogance, I'm afraid.

Afraid of what? My alleged arrogence only allows you to show off you ignorance?

I do tech support for a living for a multi-national telecom software provider

I knew there was a good reason I never called tech support.

Let the flaming continue

Stockspeedseule, if you don't wanna listen to me, listen to mindwreck. He is another gentleman who knows what he is talking about.