XFX: Overclocking

Taking Off the Sneakers and Lacing up Some Steel-Toe

Boots

Overclocking: Taking Off the Sneakers and Lacing up Some

Steel-Toe Boots

Overclocking, its a subject often shied away from by card manufactures

that prefer to lock it away in the closet like some deep dark secret. This is
completely understandable because if not performed properly it can lead to
shortened product lifespan or blown components. I realize however that an
elite segment of users are out there who are going to look for ways squeeze
every last ounce of performance out of their video card. If you are thinking
about joining ranks with this band of radicals, this article is aimed directly at
you.
First off to avoid any misunderstandings, I need to get my disclaimer out of
the way now. We here at XFX in no way condone overclocking our product.
Overclocking should only be attempted if you have a great understanding of
computer hardware and realize that any damage incurred to the product
due to over clocking is not covered under warranty. You also need to
understand that two identical cards may have different Memory and GPU
frequency thresholds.
With that out of the way do note that overclocking can be a safe practice as
long as you provide the correct environment and have plenty of patience.
Airflow is everything
The first rule of thumb is to have a well-ventilated case. If the only internal
exhaust fan you have on your computer is the one built-into your power
supply your computer is not the best environment for over clocking. If this is
the case you should run out to your local computer hardware outlet and
pickup a few internal fans (at least one for intake and one for exhaust).
Another big plus is a nice roomy case. Small cases are often too crowded
and do not allow for proper circulation.
Take a look at the inside of your case. If you have ribbon cables and wires
dangling about, strap or tuck them out of the way. These little bastards can
block the path of airflow, thus screwing up circulation in your system. Whats
the use of extra fans if their flow is blocked by a cluttered case? Actually, if
you have a few extra bucks you may consider replace your flat IDE ribbon
cable with a braided round variety. Not only do they look nice their design
allows for better airflow. Another good step to take is to leave your first PCI
slot open and depending on the type of fansink/heatsink you have on your
card, maybe even the 2nd.

Adding the means

Enabling overclocking:
This step requires you to edit your registry. To enable overclocking simply
open <cd>others\overclock\overclock utility.reg
Now open Display properties. Choose the setting tab and click the
advanced button. Now choose the GeForce tab and click the additional
properties button. Select the Clock frequencies tab of the Additional
GeForce Properties Window. The rest should be self-explanatory.
Protocol for overclocking
Now that you have the proper environment with proper circulation and the
utility to adjust your cards GPU and memory clocks, lets get down to the
nitty-gritty. As I stated earlier you need patience. Above all else, do not get
excited and bump your memory and GPU clocks up to what you think their
levels aught to be or levels you have heard someone else achieve with that
model card. Remember, no two cards are alike and thus, are not
guaranteed to clock the same. So, be sure to be patient and take the proper
steps because you dont want to fry your video card, they arent cheap! The
best approach is to start with the memory and gradually raise its frequency
by about 5MHz at a time. After each increase, test the card thoroughly. As
soon as you notice any instability or video corruption, (lines through the
video, white dotes, or any abnormality) immediately back down to the to the
last good configuration. To test the video I recommend using a benchmark
utility such as 3D Mark 2001 SE and run the entire benchmark while
watching it closely for any of the above mentioned problems. After you have
achieved what you think is a stable memory clock speed, its time to kick the
crap out of it. Sit down and (I know this will be tough) play your favorite
games. Run as many high end games as you have access to and any
benchmarks programs you have downloaded. Id test for a minimum of a
couple of hours to be sure the card is good and stable. Now that you have a
stable memory frequency, your next step is to bump up the Core Clock
frequency. Using the same method as we did for increasing the memory
frequency, slowly increase the GPU core clock.
All that and a water cooler
Some of you may want to go the extra mile and add additional or alternative
fansinks or heatinks to the memory and/or GPU. I dont want to get too
involved with this topic other than to mention there are alternative cooling
solutions available that allegedly offer superior cooling. If you so desire you

can even go so far as to add a water cooling solution to your video card;
although this option is reserved for those individuals with a fairly large set of
balls. So if you are a mod happy mother Fer and would like to add
supplemental cooling, you shouldnt have any trouble finding a plethora of
info on the subject. Simply go to your favorite search engine and do a
search for video card heatsink; I am sure you will come up with something.
Time to bench
Now that you have overclocked your card, its time to find out how much of a
performance boost you where able to obtain. After all, you have invested a
lot of time and energy into overclocking this card, Im sure you want proof
the efforts you put forth were not in vain. To obtain this information you will
use a benchmarking utility. For your convenience there is a list of some of
the most popular benchmarks available at the end of the article. There are
however a few setting changes that should be made before leaping into the
tests. To get the most accurate benchmark result, make sure you disable
any applications that load on boot. Then, reboot your system. Be sure to
disable vertical sync to produce an accurate score. Now you are ready to
benchmark. When you run your benchmarks, run each test three times
without making any adjustments. Your scores should stay reasonably close
so if you get one score that is completely off, disregard it and run the test
one more time. If all scores very greatly, shut down and reboot. Now that
you have three similar scores, average them or simply use the middle score.
This provides a fairly accurate benchmark score.
Posting your results
Now that you have your results, cruise on over to the XFX website forums
and let me know how much extra juice you were able to squeeze. I have
posted a new topic under the 3dGaming forum entitled overclocking. If you
are not already a member you will need to sign up before gaining access to
our forums.
List of Benchmark Utilities and Games that provide benchmark
scores:
3DMark 2001 SE
(http://gamershq.madonion.com/products/3dmark2001/)
Chameleonmark
(http://www.nvidia.com/view.asp?IO=demo_chameleonmark)
Quake III Arena (http://www.idsoftware.com)
Return to Castle Wolfenstein (http://www.idsoftware.com)

Comanche 4
(http://www.novalogic.com/games/Comanche4/body_index.html)
Serious Sam: The Second Encounter
(http://serioussam.godgames.com/se/index.html)
Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast
(http://www.lucasarts.com/products/outcast/html/default.htm)