Gigabyte Maya II 9700Pro - Overclocking

[nebulus]

Ive never overclocked this card of mine and am beginning to think its about time. I recently ran 3DMark 2001 SE to see how my card performed, I achieved a meagre score of 7800 (and thats with no AA on). From comparisons on the madonion website I see that I should be hitting nearly twice this, so understandably I'm a bit dissapointed with the current performance.

As a sidenote, I realise that my CPU might be holding me back as I have only a 2000+ Athlon, also only a 350w PSU, but I think I should at least reach 10,000 marks or something.

As I understand it these 9700's are built with overclockability in mind, and allthough my card came with loads of extra's it did not include any overclocking software as some 9700pros do. After some research, I grabbed an app called 'v-tuner' which is designed by Gigabyte for oc'ing their gc's. I dont know if this is a safe app for my model card but it allows me to punch up the core and memory clocks. Currently my core is 352 and mem is 325.

Ive never done this before and can't find any specific guidance online as to safe settings and was wondering if anyone here might be able to lend me some advice before I go ahead?

 

[PreservedSwine]

samll increments..just remember......5 mhz at a time...if you see any artifacting, or your comp. just locks up...you'vr gone too far

also, standard clocks on the R9700P are 310 memory and 324 core.....325/350 is already overclocked


Also, you 3dM01 score is indeed adysmal for your specs....more than likely, it is due to one of these items:

1) FSAA being on (I know you have it set to off, but sometimes it will take a "mode change" before it will actually re-set, ie changing resolutions and back again)
2) Anisotropic filtering being on
3) V-sync being on
4) Back-ground (anti-virus) software running in background

Try setting FSAA, AF, and V-sync to off or "appl. preference" then do a mode change, then re-run 3dM01...your score will most likely go WAY up


Once you find a stable upper limit of your card, back it off 10 mhz or so, and just leave it there. Having to set you core and menory speeds avery time you want to game is a pain, so find a nice safe overclock, and enjoy...


Good luck, and happy overlcoking

 

[MrGaribaldi]

Just a word of caution about the oc (PS covered the most likely reasons for such a low score)...

The 9700pro's has a shim around the core to make sure the hsf doesn't crush the core, but the shim is a wee bit tall, and the space is either filled with thermal paste, or a thermal pad... the problem with this is that the cpu will overheat much faster than it would've done if the hsf had proper contact... (A thermal pad or too much paste will lower the heat transfer compared to the correct amount of paste)

So be careful when you increase the speed, and very careful if you increase the voltage! Or you could very well end up with a dead card...

Oh, and one last thing about 3dmark2001SE, what kind of ram do you have, and what are the timings?

 

[Cucumber]

What would be a nice idea would be to run 3dmark before and after Overclocking, and then post here with the compare URL's (these can be found at the top of the project, in your manager)

...In general, the majority of 9700Pros reach around 350-360mhz on the core...with some freak cards which do 400mhz+. As was said take it 5mhz at a time (doing RAM, and Core seperatly)...i know this will take time, but if you want a card which is stable at the end then it is the only way to do it.

...Take the core up at 5mhz at a time, and then run 3dmark all the way through. If you experience artifacts (strange visual effects) or, your computer locks up, then take the core down 5mhz from the last stable overclock.

...This is your maximum core speed, and now do the same with the memory, this varies alot with cards so i wouldn't even guess what your likely to get to.

...As for your current poor 3dmark score, its likely to be what has already been posted, but it may be worth trying some new drivers...as a personal recommendation i would recommend the Omega Drivers found at:

Omega Driver Page

These drivers may not give the highest benchmark scores (maybe 100-200 points off your potential maximum), but they are designed for gamers, and provide a full level of Image Quality, while many offer benchmark improvements at the expense of IQ.

Hope this helps....

 

[Steg]

My Ge3Ti200 overclocks nicly almost 20% (its stable for about 2 hours - then locks up) and this gives a nice 10% 3dmark (both 01 and 03) boost - and this is all with stock cooling
i no this isnt alot to go by - but it shows that stock cooling and volts can lead to some pretty heafty overclocks

btw - i overclocked my Core by 5 increments and Mem by 10 increments - this makes the whole process quicker - and also shows the limits you can push the hardware to quickly

Steg

 

[nebulus]

Thanks for your input so far, some nice nuggets of info

My current clock and mem speeds are higher than the default 310/324 stated (mine being 325/350) because I have already upped a little before my post, just to experiment. I just wondered whether I should take it higher as this small overclock was done before acheving the afformentioned 7800 3dmarks. I shall try upping further in 5mhz increments.

As for my ram, well I have 768mhz of crucial pc2700/ddr333, so that should be dandy. I'm also using the latest catalyst drivers, but will try these Omega ones out of curiosity as Ive never heard of them before.

I'll also try taking down all the FSAA, Antriscopic Filtering, vsync and I'll turn off my Anti-Virus Software before running my next 3DM tests.

Thanks again, I'll keep you posted