GTX260 216 OverClocking Help

Well, you have 2D and 3D clock speeds.

Windows runs in 2d while games typically run in 3d, unless your a fan of 2d games.

If your not sure your 3d clocks are improving your games, get an application like fraps, run the game with stock clock speeds, then again with your OC. If your fps goes up, there's your answer.

I have x2 evga 260 216s in sli, and I run my clocks at 650/1450/1150

You mentioned speeds of 750/1250? Is the 1250 shader or memory?

Also, One thing to think about is this. if the clocks you mentioned are really 750 core, and 1250 memory, you might want to de-clock them just a touch. I also ran mine that high for quite some time. But pushing my cards that hard not only made them hotter, but I had more game crashes, strange windows behavior, and worse fps. yes, pushing a card too high is actually a negitive.

Additionally, videocard OC's only average 5-18% benifits. Don't risk damaging your card for a few extra fps.

I found after OCing (through the videocard bios) that the optimal oc for a 260 216 by any brand is 650-725 core, 1375-1550 shader, and 1021-1221 memory. For a 24-7 OC, consider bringing it down to 700/1150 or 1200ish.


Sorry for the rant, lol. I just finished perfecting my sli OC on this exact card x2 after 3 months of major testing. Just food for thought!

Also, you don't mention your CPU, but just an fyi, you need a core2duo running at 3.2-3.4 ghz to unlock this cards full abilities, and not have the cpu be the bottleneck.

We all know that OCing a cpu offers a fps boost, but nothing compared to a new videocard or an oced one. But I run a core2quad q9550 thats stock at 2.83ghz. On 3dmark vantage, I had an average score of 16.5k. After I oced by quad to 3.4ghz, I averaged 21k.

I watched it run the tests and all the tested games easily had a fps jump of 5-20fps easy!! Dragon age ran about 45 fps before (with a single 260 and my quad stock, (before my sli) and after I oced to 3.4ghz I averaged 55-61fps. So, if your really starved for fps, make sure you have a cpu that can back-up your gpu without bottlenecking either, and make sure you PSU is strong enough. a 550W for a single 260 and 700-750w for sli.

Whats your computers complete specs? I'll assit you the best I can.

Man I talk too much, or it's all the drinking I've been doing today.......  

well, i just lost what I've been trying to type for the last 25 minutes.
thanks for the rant i was in the mood to type one myself but its gone now.
and i am preety angry (all honesty)

my system is currently (this is super basic info now, i had all the detail but ARGHHH!)

AMD Phemon 9600 @ stock (wont OC)
MSI K9N2 SLi Platinum
MSI G260 216 OC @ 655/1408/1050 (these are the settings i got from factory)
PNY 2x4Gb DDR2 5-5-5-18
Samsung 7200.11 32Mb 500Gb x 3 (no raid)
Cooler Master 660W Extreme Power
Cooler Master HAF932 Case (no fans on the top, rest is stock)
ahh... thats enough

gunna post now. so i dont loose this  

i plan to bring the system up within the next 2 months by making the following changes (probably in this order)

change the PSU over for something with more grunt, 8pin Mo/Bo connecter, and 4x6Pin GPU connecter
change the CPU over to a PhenomII 955 (plan to OC to 3.8Ghz+)
add an additional 260 216 for SLi
add at least an additional 1.5Tb although i plan on having 5Tb by the end of 2010
add a water cooling setup to cool the CPU (GPU waterblocks are far too expensive) with 3x120 Radiator (across the top of case)



ahh. about the GPU overclock if you push an OC past a certain point (i dont know what it is at the moment)
the card will refuse to go past Low Power 3D mode (400/600/100) (even in game, preety cool considering COD4 ran flawlessly)
Now running an overclocking sitting at the same frequencies of a GTX280 700/xxx/1150 (the shader is linked)

any input would be great, where i am from. the only people that know anything about computer are the people
i talk to and they all learnt from me :S

o and the only reason i believe my overclock was even kind of stable at what i now know is ridiculously high frequencies
at stock voltages (i don't know how to change them) is because the driver was dropping the frequency, thus making it
in effect, MORE stable. Tee-Hee.

does anybody know a work around for this without forcing 3D mode 100% of the time
.... don't like the idea, for heat and power reasons

and if anybody can give me any information on why my Phenom9600 wont go past 2.4 Ghz it would be great...
my last overclocking effort involved
HT from 16 -> 8
RAM from 400 -> 200
CPU volt 1.3 -> 1.4
Cool and quite -> OFF
TLB FIX -> OFF

these are my OC results from there

200x11.5 -stock- -2.3- Perfect boot, no problem
208x11 -2.288- Perfect boot, no problem
218x11 -2.398- Boot Failure (wont get to Password Screen
208x11.5 -2.392- Boot Failure (as above)


Returned to stock after this, any gain below 100Mhz wouldnt be worth the drop in RAM Speeds
Will try and Run a MUUCH lower multiplier to find the FSB's limit to make sure its the CPU thats the problem

never seen the point in overclocking a video card to be honnest

wouldnt bother with SLi with 2xGTX260's when theres better cards out there like the 5850's from ATi etc

o ok, so for the price of a GTX260 i can get a 5850?
considering i have a SLi board i wouldnt be overly tempted to do that and have a dead useless GTX260

Ok, one thing at a time.

Original phenoms have issues OCing, and you might also have the version with the bug. leave it alone and wait for your new phenom2. FYI some store sell 965 black ed for only $20 more than a 955. Just a thought.

There are many places that sell 1.5 TB drives for $99, so it should be easy for you.

If your going to have x2 260s + a new cpu + multiple HDDs, I would suggest at least a pc&powercooling 750w or the corsair tx 850. I run the 750w myself. Look at my member info to see my rig, and I only use a total of 613W fully OCed.

Apache is right on one thing, most people don't see the need to OC a videocard, but I'm not most people   Also, getting a 5850 is pointless as you already have a great card as anyone will tell you. x2 OCed 260 core216s will beat just about any single card out there, and give you massive fps. Just keep in mind 2 things.

Remember what i said about bottlenecking the cards with a low clocksspeed, and if you don't card about directx 11, then sliing 2 260s is fine, otherwise, wait for the 300 series or get a 5850/70.

My rig is:

Q9550 @ 4.0ghz
8 gigs of corsair dominator ram @ 1200mhz
X1 WD Velociraptor
x1 1TB seagate 7200.12 backup HDD
ASUS P5N-D mobo
x2 evga GTX260 core 216s clocked at (750, 1500, 2400)
Thermaltake bigwater 760i liquid cooler for the cpu only.
22x samsung dvd-rw burner
Monolith case

Creative SB titanium sound card

Damn, I keep fogetting to add my psu. lol

I use a PC&Powercooling Silencer 750W