Graphics Card OC question

[DrSatan316]

ok, so when you OC it, how do you test it to see if its fine? Do you just make sure theres no heat issue? or do you have to check to see if theres image problems in a game? If there's any way to test other than by checking the image quality of something I'd love to know

thanks for any help.

 

[Rugger]

Run 3DMark03 and 05 - verify that it is stable and will complete the tests. Then you check the scores and can adjust settings. If you OC too high and start running into stability issues, then performance/scores decrease. Monitor/log voltages and temps while benching and make sure your temps aren't getting too high and there are no temp spikes (up or down) that are greater than 5%.

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<font color=red>You're a boil on the arse of progress - don't make me squeeze you!</font color=red>

 

[ChipDeath]

Use FutureMark's 3dmark series, DoomIII Timedemo, etc. to check. Just run it and see if you can notice any visual problems (they'll be obvious).

Don't be too concerned about damage - you'll start noticing corruption WAAAAY before you start doing any physical damage, providing you stick to the 'golden rule' of only increasing things by a small amount at a time (5 - 10Mhz).

Both Overheating and simply pushing the card too far will give visual problems, but overheating ones might take a little while to manifest themselves, and should get worse the longer you leave it running (obviously).

Unfortunately, you can't check it without actually watching the screen though - no programs pick these things up (AFAIK)

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<font color=red>"Life is <i>not</i> like a box of chocolates. It's more like a jar of jalapeńos - what you do today might burn your a<b></b>ss tommorrow."

 

[ChipDeath]

If you OC too high and start running into stability issues, then performance/scores decrease.

I've always found that you start getting artifacts long before your scores will drop... Although I haven't really tested this... Maybe it's worthwhile doing so..

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<font color=red>"Life is <i>not</i> like a box of chocolates. It's more like a jar of jalapeńos - what you do today might burn your a<b></b>ss tommorrow."

 

[Rugger]

Would definitely be worth a shot...

__________________________________________________
<font color=red>You're a boil on the arse of progress - don't make me squeeze you!</font color=red>

 

[pauldh]

I also like to use 3dMark03 and watch for core "snow" or memory "tearing" artifacts. ATItool can test it for you without having to watch. It will ding and reset the timer when it encounters an artifact.


<A HREF="http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm05=658042" target="_new">3DMark05</A> <A HREF="http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k3=3781954" target="_new">3DMark03</A>

 

[DrSatan316]

Right now i'm at 375 core clock and 1.05 Ghz memory 3Dmark 05 tested without any issue, the Nvidia "test Changes"thing passed and temp of the Vcore is 46C, ambiant temp is 35C.

So as long as the temp stays below 50C, and the test changes and 3dmark05 work, I'm ok? I'd really rather avoid checking for visual distortion as much as possible. But if its something I have to do just say so.

 

[ChipDeath]

Ah, most useful!... Does AtiTool Work on Nvidia cards ? I guess not?

I find 3dMark '03 'Nature' test to be a good one for checking snow (I guess lots of shaders being used for the water refraction effects). I pay special attention to that as it seems to suffer before anything else.

DoomIII is pretty good too of course - nice and stressful on the GPU.

I'm finally doing a reformat tonight so I'll do some before/after benchies I think, just to see if there's much difference...

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<font color=red>"Life is <i>not</i> like a box of chocolates. It's more like a jar of jalapeńos - what you do today might burn your a<b></b>ss tommorrow."

 

[ChipDeath]

Unfortunately I've left my psychic hat at home today - any chance you could tell us what card you're using?

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<font color=red>"Life is <i>not</i> like a box of chocolates. It's more like a jar of jalapeńos - what you do today might burn your a<b></b>ss tommorrow."

 

[DrSatan316]

Sorry about that, I'm so used to having it in my sig.

I'm using a PNY Verto Geforce 6800 GT (AGP version)