FAN/CPU control for 8800GS

[steve303]

Hi,

I have just installed 8800GS in my Dell Dimension 8400 with 3.2 Mhz CPU.
Few questions about Nvidia nTune program. Is it safe to change the speed of the card from lets say from 550Mhz to 650MHz? Can I go as high as I want as long as my computer does not hang?
Should I put "Manual" for the fan and put it lets say at 70% or leave it at automatic?(assuming I change the clock speed above)
What is the dangerous temperature zone for the card?
Any program I can download to test Frame rates?



Thank you.

 

[vochtige]

hey dude, what brand is it? xfx? i need to know how long it is!

 

[mactronix]

hey dude, what brand is it? xfx? i need to know how long it is!

One of the guys did a review take a look
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/249707-15-marvelous-evga-8800gs-review-benches
Mactronix

 

[pauldh]

hey dude, what brand is it? xfx? i need to know how long it is!

The XFX is shorter than the evga. It is 8.5 inches from the inside of the slot bracket, so it takes up basically one mm more than that(thickness of slot bracket) inside the case. Keep in mind though, with the pci-e connector on the end, you need a good half inch for the connector and another 1/2 inch for the wire just int hat one spot.

The evga is a half inch longer (9 inches). Here's a pic comparing them.

edit: resized image as it screwed up the forum.

 

[caamsa]

I was unable to change the fan speed on my XFX 8800GS.

 

[pauldh]

The XFX has a two wire fan so You can't control the fan speed with software; it runs 100%.

But you can vary the fan speed by supplying less than 12 volts to the fan. I use a Zalman fanmate for mine and made a harness to adapt the XFX small fan connector over to the fanmate. (grabbed the connector of a dead vga PCB). But really if you aren't too picky and don't mind a bit of electical tape to hold it, you don't need an exact connector, just the fanmate. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118217

There are lots of other ways to knock the volatge down to a fixed rate, but the fanmate is variable and cheap enough. I find the cooler does alright in noise and cooling around 8 volts. You could also rig up a switch where in 2D you run off a molex's 5 volt, but for gaming you flip it to run off the 12 volt wires. http://www.silentpcreview.com/article6-page1.html

Also Depending what you have around, it's super cheap to make a harness and add a few silicone diodes inline. http://www.cpemma.co.uk/diodes.html I take old 80mm case fans that are noisy or filthy and save the harness from them. It's perfect for rigging a cpu/chipset/vga card up to a PSU molex connector. A large pack of diodes is $4 at radio shack.

 

[steve303]

I actually have the EVGA version which runs at 550Mhz. Through the Ntune I am able to change the speed of the FAN and its Core speed. That is what I am asking, what is the optimum(or safe) level I can increase the speed of the card, memory and fan. or should I increase core speed but leave the fan speed automatic?
How much memory bus speed should I increase with proportion to core speed?

 

[pauldh]

It's really up to you. I tend to bump up the fan speed manually at least when trying to find the max OC for the card. Then take the core up a bit at a time (5MHz) testing for artifacts (snow) or crashes. When you see artifacts, I like to go at least 10MHz below that for max OC benchmarking. For daily gaming I go even lower. Then do the same for the memory and watch for artifacts (tearing lines or triangles). I'm even more conservative on the memory for daily use. Key is to take it slow and test it. Up to you if you want to then take things further by feeding more juice to it (up the voltage). Take a look at marvelous's results and you'll see a sweet OC with the 550/1600 evga like yours. Results will vary card to card, system to system. But I'd expect you to easily hit the superclocks speeds anyway at 650/1900 (effective).

 

[vochtige]

thanks for the respons on my question!!!

 

[steve303]

Thanks for the advise.

I was able to bring it up to core speed of 650Mhz and memory up by 50Mhz with no problems. I put fan manually at 60% for the time I was playing Witcher for 2 hours. The card stayed cool enough at 60C.
Since I have only 350W power supply I will probably not push it much further.
Also no noise difference at all.