Maximum PC

A copy and paste of my last comment that was in a post talking about sound cards, which I am moving here since it turned into more of a topic for here than there.

___________________________________________________________________________
BTW I know Very Little about overclocking. I just crank the clock speeds as high as I can without crashing the computer. I cool my 9550 with a 3800RPM 120MM fan and Antec Formula 7 Diamond thermal. My goal it to get the old heap to play DOOM III on High. If you could show me a place where I could learn a little more about overclocking I'd appreciate it! And if you know where I could get the highest possible speed settings on a 9550 (clock speeds, mem speeds, voltages and such) that I can just punch in. And I have a old AMD, might be a Athlon 64 2.1GHZ, anyway to overclock it? Aiming for DOOM III on High and Fallout 3 to play on medium-low with the shader 2.0 mod. Well just though I'd ask! Thanks Again!



BTW this is a computer I don't care a lot for. It's just to screw with and do homework on. I game on a GTX 580 so please don't be like "you should just buy a new computer!" I just want to push this heap as far as humanly possible just for fun!


I AM ALSO GOING TO POST THIS IN THE OVERCLOCKING SECTION AND CONTINUE IT FROM THERE SINCE SOUND CARDS AND OVERCLOCKING SEEM LIKE DIFFERENT CATIGORIES
___________________________________________________________________________

Also I found a 256MB ATI 9700 in a old PC and it had no heat sink, but no signs of damage. I held a old CPU heat sink against it with some Antec Formula 7 between them and plugged it into a AGP slot to see if it would work before buying it a proper heat sink and it just made a loud alarm sound. I just thought, could it be because nothing was plugged into the fan connector on the card?? Also does anyone have the finished mod download for Fallout 3 Shader Model 2.0? I found the forum where the guys where discussing it while they built the mod but not the download for the finished mod. Also is there anyway to play Burnout Paradise on Shader 2.0? And Crysis 3 Beta in DX9 and Shader 2.0? LOL that last ones a joke!

Overclocking by nature means you like to tinker. If you just want more performance go buy a new card. There is no set sweet spot as every card will have it's quirks. It's all about trial and error. Boost the settings then run it hard and see if it's stable. Folding At Home's GPU client is good for testing. Make changes then leave it for at least 24 hours to see if it can handle it.

Good Luck

It runs very stable at 450MHZ Clock Speed, Stressed it for about 8 hours. The Memory Clock though is more picky, if I increase it much at all (like 10-15MHZ) it produces artifacts. I have the option to adjust voltages, will this increase its max limit on both clock speeds? Thing is I don't want to give it to much power and fry it.

rule of thumb I go by is: go crazy on the clock, not so much on the mem, and easy on the power. A small step in power will make a larger difference then a large step in the clock. As for the question, no it will actually reduce the max limit of both.