I use the Visiontek 6564 GeForce3 Ti-200 card on an Athlon 1700+ and, buoyed by the review at Sharky Extreme, figured I'd try a little overclocking. I used NVMax to set the card at 200MHz core clock and 460 Memory, the settings of a standard GF3. Now, I managed to score 6836 at 1024*768, which ended up over 200 pts higher than when I had the card clocked at 188/422, (which the NVMax says is within my hardware's limits) but I experienced a few glitches, especially in the Lobby demo in both low and high detail. Polygons would warp and distort, some in the background, but mostly on the main character; he'd run, and certain points would stay where he was 5 seconds ago, and he'd look like he had 2 or 3 black leather spikes sticking out of him. Other than that and a similar case in the high polygon test, there was nothing out of the ordinary. Now, I didn't mind the last set of scores, but since the Sharky people got their chip to 220/485 with few problems. Is there something I am doing wrong? Do variables with the case cooling, ambient temperature, etc. really lower the overclockability of a video card that much, and what could I do within reason to get near their overclocking capabilities? Keep in mind, there's nothing else in this box overclocked.
My system, besides the video card: Athlon XP 1700+ CPU running at 1466MHz with a Cooler Master DP5-6I31A HSF on an Asus A7V-266 with 512MB DDR Ram from Crucial. 2 80mm case fans, in the usual spots I'm currently using the stock thermal pad, but I will be upgrading to Arctic Silver soon.
Do variables with the case cooling, ambient temperature, etc. really lower the overclockability of a video card that much, and what could I do within reason to get near their overclocking capabilities?
Yes, ambient tempurature in the case can result in the card running hotter, and therefore give you less overclocking ability.
Check out <A HREF="http://www.1coolpc.com" target="_new">1CoolPC</A> for some easy to add cooling for your video card. They have fans you can mount above your expansion slots to add airflow and you don't have to modify the card at all.
Also, adding an extra intake fan in the front blowing in the direction of the expansion cards can help too.
And, there is sometimes the variable of some cards just overclock better than others, even in the same production line.
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As Bront stated, all chips are not the same. Production quality can vary between different runs of the same chip on the same fab plant. Some of the Ti-200's are failed Ti-500's. The chip couldn't run at the 500's speed, but was otherwise fine and so was "demoted" (given slower RAM and sold as a Ti-200). Since these chips are failed Ti-500's you won't be able to get them up to the Ti-500's level of performance, otherwise nForce would be selling them as Ti-500's.
Some Ti-200's, on the other hand, are chips which can run at Ti-500 levels but are sold as Ti-200's simply because there is a bigger demand for the 200's than the 500's. These chips are capable of running at the Ti-500's level of performance, except that they are paired with cheeper RAM.
Of course, there's no way to tell the difference between these 2 except through testing (overclocking) them. As a rule the reviewers get the best samples (since they can influence many people) and the OEM's get the worst samples (since they buy in bulk at discounted prices, they get the discounted chips). I'm not quite sure how this works with nVidia, since they actually don't produce the cards, just the processors, but a good example of this is the ATI Radeon 8500 which is clocked at 275 mHz if you buy from ATI retail and at 250 mHz if you buy from an OEM.
Of course, heat plays a factor too. Who knows, with better cooling you may just be able to pump up that Ti-200 even more.
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At 188/422 it runs rock stable, and NVMax doesn't complain. I'd like to get it to 200/450, but I'm realistic about my chances. After looking at the cooling solutions on the website listed above, I do have a question or two. Where do the fans direct the air? It seems it'd be bouncing off the case and eventually getting vented out the back, but wouldn't that possibly raise the ambient temperature in the case? I suppose I could just leave that side open....
I'm currently putting my new Ti200 through its paces and after some initial disappointment with the stock Hercules drivers I've reverted to the NVIDIA reference set and am having great results. So good in fact, that I'm sure I must be missing something. I've currently got it up to 210/500 for a score of 6822 at 1024 x 768. There are zero visible defects and all seems well. I've nearly maxed it out now and haven't broken it yet. Obviously it needs more thorough testing, but I'm happy so far!
<b>Style is when you lean against a lamppost and it looks as though you're doing it a favour</b>
I'm wondering now if I spoke a bit too soon (don't you hate that!) The day after I got those figures I went back to the machine and it wouldn't boot the 'OS at all. It looked like a disk problem, but I'm wondering if my adventures just made it cranky. A quick reinstall of XP later and I'm off again. Maybe I'll try bedding things in a little more thouroughly this time. Maybe it was too good to be true after all.
<b>Style is when you lean against a lamppost and it looks as though you're doing it a favour</b>
I have the PNY version of the card. So far so good .My first nite trying. Up to 240/480 with no artifacts. Will do 240/510 with a lot of artifacts but finishes 3DMARK2K1. P3550e@857 5299 so far will try more later. http://gamershq.madonion.com/compare2k1.shtml?2152811
I aint signing nothing!!!<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by rick_criswell on 12/05/01 09:34 PM.</EM></FONT></P>
It depends on the chips used (as said in the posts above) but I think the GPU is much less overclockable than RAMs are. My Leadtek GF3 Ti200 won't go beyond 230 core (100% working at that speed though) but the RAM is overclockable to unbelievable 550...
I was rather astonished at that amount of overclocking ability even without any passive cooling on the RAMs. From the writing on the chips I guess they are the same as on the Ti 500 (3.8 NS).
On the other hand with a ti 200 you don't get the guarantee that fast chips are used and since you normally can't look at the card itself, it's some kind of gambling.
BTW dunno how you can get such high 3DMark results:
Without overclocking I get 5900, with the above overclocking I get 6700 on a TB 1.4 GHz, 640 MB SDRAM, Abit KT7A 133.
Just for the record:
I don't think you can do this to every TI 200. I suspect Leadtek basically used the same chips as on the 500 and simply didn't add the passive cooling and the other add-on stuff (Heatmonitor, additional connectors).
okay i just got a chaintech geforce 3 ti200 and i have never overclocked a graphics card. i have NVmax or somethin like that but i cant use it because i have the most recent drivers. is there another way i can overclock it because i think my 3d mark 2k1 scores are pathetic, 6100. maybe i didnt adjust my agp in the bios or something, who knows, but i would like to squeeze every last bit of juice from this graphics card with its stock cooling.
how do you get the clock speed over 220?
after trying a bit harder i can get my asus v8200 up to 220 without any problems, (the memory on the other hand....)
using the asus tweak or the nvidia hidden tweak
axp 1800+
abit kg7 raid
crucial pc2100 ecc ddr sdram
soundblaster live
netgear and kingston 10/100mbps NIC's
seagate 7200 15gig (C) and maxtor 5400 40gig (d)
need to know anything else?
vid cards a chaintech geforce 3 ti200 if i didnt already put that
what model Leadtek ti-200 do you got? t, td, tdh? i am thinking of overclocking my ti-200t but i noticed it doesnt have any ram heatsinks. should i put some one there before i begin to try to overclock?
It might be that your NICs are the cause of the low scores.
Before i added one in my system i was getting 7300. Now i get 6900. Even if i disable the NIC in windows system manager i still get like 6900. I have changed nothing else since installing the network card.
