Opty 146 and PoV 7800GT overclocking

fragster

fragster

fragster

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Joined
5 Dec 2003
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307
Location
Essex
Hi all,

I don't really know where to start but I'll try and keep this short and sweet so as not to bore people.

I got the new system up and running at the weekend and have been installing the essentials and have installed Coolbits as well. I was curious as to what optimal frequencies it would detect so I tried it, it came back with 496/1190. Fair enough I though, that's pretty good. I didn't test it with any games though because it was 2am and I needed sleep :P

The next day came and after installing BF2 and FRAPS I thought I'd give it a quick play on stock settings. I thought what the heck and cranked the resolution up to 1280x1024 with 100% draw distance and 2xAA (this is from 1024x768 on my 9800Pro and no AA). I must say it looked and played superb. FRAPS reported an average frame rate of 75fps. I was pretty pleased with that.

I quit the game and cranked up the core/mem frequencies to 475/1130. Loaded BF2 once more and every 30 seconds or so there would be a little flash or black on the screen (in random places). I did a FRAPS average and the frame rate dropped to 70fps. Weird I thought. What settings do you guys play BF2 at?

I can't help but feel that I could get better though and crank up some of the detail (terrain, model detail etc...) whilst not sacrificing frame rate. Temps on the card seemed to hover around 55c during gameplay, CPU never hit 45C(stock cooler). The Opteron is at stock because I couldn't really get my head around the Divider stuff and HTT (it's all new to me :().

I guess what I'm after is a guide on what settings to change in the Bios so that I can start pushing this Opty a bit more. Not too much though, I would like a 100% stable system. I was thinking perhaps 250fsb to start off with? Something middle of the road.

I'm also after a list of programs that would give me a good indication on whether the components (RAM, CPU, GFX) are 100% stable. Prime? Memtest? 3dMark05?

Thanks for any help, as you can see I'm pretty green to all this :)

Cheers

Dave
 
I have the same set up as you. The auto overclock feature comes back with 485 and 1160. So not doing qite as well as you there, strange how the same card returns different results. Anyway. I have found that if I leave it at those settings I get visual corruptions. Taking the settings down seems to help.

What have you got your Opty clocked at? Just wondering if that could interfere? Mine is at 2700, 270 x 10 with the memory at 1:1 (270ht). I think this may be causing problems, I am going to put a divider in. apparently this has little effect on performance.
 
thanks for the reply.

The Opty is at stock. I only just put the system together at the weekend and still making sure everything runs fine at stock.

I'm trying to gather some info (from looking through threads on here) about how best to overclock and how to test for stablity. It seems that running Prime and playing games like BF2 for a few hours looks like an intensive enough test.

I don't understand that whole Divider thing really. I'm also thinking that i need more than 1gig of ram but perhaps when overclocked it won't matter as much... i don't know.

What do you think?

Whats the HTT thing all about as well?

Also, and lastly, would I notice a significant increase in Frame rates if i were overclocked by say 500/600mhz?
 
Hi mate,

The small flashes of black you mention seeing,that sounds like you have the core on the gfx card to high(usually squares,triangles ect for core.sparklies when the memory is clocked too high)

Coolbits detects mine @ 479/1150, but my card will only run @ 460/1200.So lower on the core but higher on the memory.

If you run 3D Mark 03 -test 4,the nature test usually shows any artifacts.Run 05 as well.You can also use the latest version of ATI tool,this has a built in tool for testing for artifacts.

Better looking at that before you start clocking the Opty mate ;)

Clocking the Opty won't be a problem though :D



Rob
 
Last edited:
fragster said:
thanks Rob, much appreciated.

Why would you suggest getting the gfx sorted before clocking the Opty out of interest?

Cheers

Dave
Click to expand...

It'll make it easier to see what the problems are caused by. If the Graphics card is fine then you know any new problems are CPU related :)

Dave
 
Just as the last post stated.Rule out the gfx before you go near the opty. But the auto detect on coolbits is a bit hit or miss,better doing some testing yourself using 3D Mark ect.

Cheers

Rob
 
I usually use it as a rough guide for clocking my card,then take it from there. ;)

Hopefully you will get a decent clock from the Opty,when you get started on that mate 2.5Ghz should be a breeze

Rob
 
I'm hoping so too mate, i know its capeable of getting near 3ghz, just whether the rest of the hardware is that's all.

I'm having an overclocking session tonight :) I have 4 hours to myself whilst the gf is at work :):)
 
Rob,

Have gone into the Bios (1009) and the settings for editing the clock speed etc are all greyed out. Is this something I can actually do within the Bios or do I have to install Ntune?

Cheers mate

Dave
 
Just thought I would let you know how my 7800GT clocks (also POV) just to give you an idea. Auto detects the card at 490mhz/1.18ghz but I can quite happily run it @ 497mhz/1.24ghz.
As for the cpu you should be able to hit 2.8ghz without too much trouble, personally I wish I had waited for an opteron now as my 3200+ will only do 2.5ghz

On some motherboards, pressing ctrl+F1 unlocks the advanced features, I'm not sure for yours though.
 
silly me, didn't see the Jumperless Config settings lol.

Now running 2.5ghz on stock volts. Have run Superpi a couple of times and will let Prime run for a while. Is the Torture test the best one to do? or the blend?

34secs 1mb Superpi. I wan't to try and hit 28secs as thats what I've seen on the forums....

Raikiri, thanks for the reply mate. Thats a good clock from your card, I'm currently sitting at 7k 3DMarks 05 with 410/1000. Gonna crank it up a little now...

I wanted to do the gfx and cpu overclocking seperately, but I'm too excited lol!!
 
have benched the following so far...

stock CPU and stock 7800GT (400/1000) = 6794 3DMarks
2500Mhz (250x10) stock voltage 7800GT (410/1000) = 6922 3DMarks
2500Mhz (250x10) stock voltage 7800GT (420/1050) = 7157 3DMarks

Gonna run some Prime now whilst picking up the gf. Getting there...
 
:)

I couldn't see any settings in the Bios for the Divider. Just speeds for the Ram. On boot up it says it's running Dual Channel at 266Mhz. I presume this is running synch to the processor speed? I don't know lol.
 
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