*waves*
Well here is your typical pc gamer - and a prowd owner of an overclocked 5700 Ultra - so I guess i am the one you are talking about
FIRST THINGS FIRST
- Be sure to know your card and computer well, and its technical specs
- Ensure your system is well ventilated
- Make sure you have some monitoring software installed to check the temps inside your machine. I recommend Motherboard Monitor. The temps of your graphics card can be found in the nvidia driver panel
- And remember - overclocking will void your warranty. Some times you can get away by returning a burnt out card - but on many a occasion they will refuse to replace it - which can get expensive
You have been warned
Now if you still want to play with overclocking then the easiest way is to install the nvidia 'coolbits' registry key and then overclock from the nvidia control panel. Copy this code exactly as stated - shove it in a txt file in notepad and save it as "coolbits.reg" - without the "......
Code:
REGEDIT4
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\NVIDIA Corporation\Global\NVTweak]
"Coolbits" = dword:FFFFFFFF
"NvCplEnableHardwarePage" = dword:00000001
"NvCplEnableAGPSettingsPage" = dword:00000001
Once you have saved that as a .reg run it and it will ask if you want to add the data to the registry, tell it yes.
Open up the Display Properties window then click Settings=>Advanced=>GeForceFX 5700 Ultra=>Clock Frequencies.
From here you can chance the clock speeds in both 2D and 3D modes. You do NOT want to change the core speed in 2D mode as you will simply be wasting your time. However, memory should ONLY be overclocked from the 2D screen, overclocking memory from the 3D screen causes the driver to 'forget' you’re overclocking efforts on a fairly regular basis. The core clock speed should only be overclocked from the 3D screen, because windows don’t not really need a hugely powerful graphics chip to render the desktop......
On the 5700 Ultra the 'standard' overclock is 500/1000 up from 475/906. Nearly every 5700 Ultra I have either seen or read a review of will do at least that. But remember that some wont so don’t jump straight there.
If you want my recommendation you will increase the core in 10Mhz increments and the memory in 20Mhz increments. After setting a new set of clock speeds click 'Test Settings' and the card will decide if the overclock is stable. If it passes ok click apply and then run you card through a few tests (3dmark 01/03, aquamark etc) and check for ANY KIND of visual corruption (odd coloured/looking textures, corrupted models, flickering polygons etc). If there is no problem go back and put the clock speeds up some more and repeat. If at any point you get corruption switch back down to the last stable clock speeds.
If and when you get to the 500/1000 mark (or the highest overclock you reach) and it runs stable through a few tests, sit down and use it for a good few hours (my favourite method is playing UT2003 but anything 3d video card related will work). If at the end of this period you are still stable and corruption free then you can start to fiddle some more.
After the 500/1000 mark start increasing the clock speeds more slowly, e.g. 5 Core, 10 Mem, and then rerun the tests - keep going until you card hits the 'wall' and then, as before, drop back a notch and thoroughly test.
If have not yet tested my thoroughly card much beyond 500/1000 but I did at one point get it to run at 525/1040 happily....one day I will see just how high it will go.
So the basic message here is
test, test & test. The more testing in the more different programs the more sure you can be that your card will be stable. Mine has been running at 500/1000 since Christmas happily with not a problem.
I hope that makes sense and is of some help to you. I also hope there are not
too many spelling mistakes
Steg
