Will my TNT2 Ultra limit my PIII 700 overclocking

[Mattlock]

About the put in a PIII 700 Slot (cC0 stepping) with Alpha HSF in an Abit BE6 and try my hand at overclocking.

Currently I have a Guillemot TNT2 Ultra 32mg Vid. Card (175mhz core, 183mhz memory) and wanted to know if anyone thinks this card will limit my overclocking? (yes i will be upgrading that as well)

thanks,

mattlock

My RAM is Crucial PC133 Cas2, 256meg.

 

[The_Lurker]

Not particularily, although some TNT2's dont hit 133mhz FSB on 440BX boards well.... but u'll notice when u play games and it locks up, but doesn't lock up in windows. Either way, it shouldn't limit it too badly, but if it does, u can still hit 124mhz FSB fine. Or should be able to at any rate.

 

[MilkPowderR]

Mattlock,

With that CPU and your TNT2-U, you should be good to go for a 150mhz FSB barrier. If you will become real unlucky with that cC0 stepping, you should at least be able to stay in 140's mhz FSB range. Do not expect to even boot at those speeds without increasing the Vcore, it will not happen. Those TNT2 cards handle well oc'ed bus also not only the GeForce lines. Heck, I even had my Voodoo3 2000 PCI pushed upto 143mhz FSB@ BX board 2/3 AGP bus ratio.

 

[Wind]

If u wanna push ur system harder...u should not O/Ced ur VGA card. Just O/C the FSB & the AGP bus will be O/C as well. Run ur VGA at default core speed & up ur FSB.

 

[Mattlock]

Thanks everyone for your feedback. I am a little nervous about the whole think since this is my first time Ocing.


Mattlock

 

[Mattlock]

I've been reading a little about the AGP "ratio" or "multiplier" or whatever they call it. Do I need to change anything to tweak that at all?

Mattlock

 

[Assimilator1]

MilkPowderR
Heck, I even had my Voodoo3 2000 PCI pushed upto 143mhz FSB@ BX board 2/3 AGP bus ratio.

What's the AGP ratio got to do with a PCI graphics card!? ,many of the latter BX boards had a 1/4 divider for the PCI bus so running a PCI V3 card on a 143MHz bus is not far off spec.It was a good way to get around the AGP divider problem

The chances of him running his TNT2 AGP on a 150MHz FSB are very slim

Mattlock
I agree with The_Lurker & wind ,I had a TNT2 16Mb (not Vanta) which ran fine on a FSB of 126MHz(AGP 84MHz).
Though when I had it running on an in spec AGP bus(66MHz) I could overclock it to 165/175MHz ,on 84MHz it would only overclock to 135/155 MHz.

The AGP divider sets the ratio of bus speeds between the FSB & AGP ,for the BX chipset the only options are 1:1 used for 66MHz FSB giving 66MHz AGP bus & 3:2 (2/3rds divider) used for 100 MHz FSB giving 66MHz AGP bus.You need to set it for the 2/3rds divider.
Btw some people would get around the AGP divider problem by buying a PCI graphics card because many latter BX boards had a 1/4 PCI divider keeping PCI cards in spec at 133 MHz FSB.
You will be very lucky to get much above 133 MHz with an AGP TNT2 ,up the FSB up in the smallest steps & retest each time on a 3D game

 

[Mattlock]

Assimilator,

Thanks for the info. What is the best way to "test" on a 3d game? Just play it or is there a recomended testing software you recommend?

thanks,

Matt

Guess I need to bite the bullet and upgrade that video card soon.

 

[Assimilator1]

Playing a game will test it ,but you'd really want to test it for 2-3 hrs when you do the final test. (As if you needed an excuse to play that longhehe)

I personally still use the ageing gaming Unreal(v226) as you can just leave it looping around the castle with no input from you.Unreal is very picky & it'll usually pick out any unstabilities.What I do when 1st testing out a newly set FSB is to try Unreal for 5 mins ,if its OK then I go to a higher FSB ,I keep repeating those steps until it crashes then I either lower the FSB,raise the cpu voltage or increase RAM latencies.Then I do a long test & leave it running Unreal for about 3hrs ,if it passes that then it is 99% likely you have a stable system.
Oh ,3DMark 2000/2001 is another good test

 

[MilkPowderR]

<< MilkPowderR
Heck, I even had my Voodoo3 2000 PCI pushed upto 143mhz FSB@ BX board 2/3 AGP bus ratio.

What's the AGP ratio got to do with a PCI graphics card!? ,many of the latter BX boards had a 1/4 divider for the PCI bus so running a PCI V3 card on a 143MHz bus is not far off spec.It was a good way to get around the AGP divider problem >>



I'm sorry. To be honest, I was weeeebit tired and didn't realize I made a mistake. I knew that.. I knew the PCI cards are not related with AGP when adjusting the bus ratio divider. I mistyped it..and got little careless when I was replying. man.. it's so easy to make mistakes and I get smacked.. anyways I can't say $hit cauze Im the one made a mistake saying that. You got me. Hopefully I'll get you next time.. hehehehe...



<< The chances of him running his TNT2 AGP on a 150MHz FSB are very slim >>



I know that one of the guys I know had his Abit BE6-2 Rev1 440BX mobo and TNT2 Ultra running at 150mhz FSB, but yeah.. that doesn't mean all TNT2 Ultra's will do 150. this is something we both agree. But heh.. he's a freak OC'er so I guess I have to make that an exception. u're right.

 

[Assimilator1]

heh ,you probably will get me 1 day ,sorry if I came off a bit harsh

 

[CraigRT]

It shouldn't hinder your overclocking, i had a P3 700 overclocked on a BX board with a TNT2U, it worked fine fine fine...

 

[Mattlock]

Yield,

How much did u overclock?