Newbie OC questions

Thats quite a good clock... That 3Dmark score is pretty good too, I get 7100 with a 3700! Once you've overclocked your gfx card, you should be able to get loads higher than that:)
 
My god, I've only just started upping the GPU by 5mhz at a time and my 3DMark Scores are going through the roof! So, 20% is the golden rule when it comes to overclocking the GPU then? What's the max temperature ranges for a GPU?

Thanks for the link. I'll pore over it tonight once I get the plastering in my living room finished (real life = boo).
 
I've never really gone by a golden rule... I just go till it produces glitches then clock it back a touch:)

Have had my GPU up to 70C before and it hasnt caused any problems, think they can probably go a bit higher than that... they can take the heat more than CPUs.

Have fun with the plastering :)
 
It's getting quite freaky now. So far I've got my GPU clocked to 450mhz (from 425 - the BFG cards come pre-overclocked) and the VRAM at 1100. My 3DMark score is now well over 7300 and even running EverQuest2 with all the visual gravy on only peaks the GPU at 32degrees. I have a feeling that the card's ready to take way much more so since you're saying that there's no real golden rule and that you've seen cards run at 70degrees, I think I might push my luck a bit more.

I've tweaked my VCore up to 1.475V from 1.450 because Prime95's been throwing the occasional error. Should I be running Prime in its own or can I get away with browsing and stuff while it runs?

Oh one last question (for now :)). As I say, I've got the Vcore set to 1.475 in my BIOS but ITE smartguardian reports it at 1.42V. Which is best to go by?
 
I usually leave Prime to go over night while im asleep, but it won't hurt to use your PC while its running. I would say that the BIOS would be more accurate at reading your voltage, but im never sure myself. Mine is set to 1.425 and CPUZ reads it as 1.392V. Plus I've heard that the DFI boards overvolt the VCore slightly. Probably best to get a multimeter and check... but im never sure where to measure from!

I'm not sure if RivaTuners got it... but ATITool for overclocking ATI cards has a feature that tests for artifacts when you overclock, its quite useful to have. Can see at what point your card starts to error.
 
There's a whole section in RivaTuner that I'm too scared to even look at. :) Not so much that it looks intimidating but I'm concerned that my fiddling run will make me change something in there that I can't fix. :)

TBH I think I'll stop most overclocking urges for the rest of the weekend and just enjoying gaming again for a while (it's like I've got a whole new rig, mang!). I'm conscious that I'm pretty much being carried along in a wave of euphoria with the successes I'm getting and I don't want to overdo anything and (god forbid) damage something.

OK, I might have a fiddle with my gfx card settings but not much more. :)

So listen, thanks once again for all of your help. I was gonna PM you to say thanks but it would seem I'm not able to on this board. I had pre-judged everyone on this forum thinking that it would be full of l33+ h34ds that wouldn't want to know a newbie but I've been very much proven wrong. Thanks again, Streets and thanks to everyone else for not shouting at me with my incessant questioning. Hopefully I'll be able to return the favour to a newbie in the future.
 
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