overclocking 8600gt

[hercules71185]

I overclock my video card and my temp doesn't exceed 50 C underload. So its not stressing my card to badly.
my stock clocks are
540/1400
If I overclock past 560/1400 my benchmarks lower.. the SAME card I've seen overclocked to 660/1600.. I raised my card up to aprox 625/1500 and found no artifacts and the card never got hotter than 50C once again.. But, my benchmarks went below stock speeds... I think this is due to my motherboard only running my pci16 as a x8.. is this the cause or something else? can I raise my volts on my video card would that help. (I'm trying to get as much performance as possible out of my motherboard because I'm not upgrading till AMD comes out with a quad core that beats intel or I'll be switching to intel.. :-\
my setup is in the specs and links to my motherboard is below
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813135039 and goto specs for details on it

[DMB2000uk]

When cards get to their limit, the performance tends to drop lower as you ramp up the frequencies. More voltage would probably help. But I couldn't give you a safe recommendation of what to add or change.

Have you tried running ATItool's artifact scanner? It stresses the card while making sure that it is still displaying everything correctly, much more efficient than trying to do it bye eye (though you will probably end up with a slightly lower overclock that is completely stable compared to a higher clock with very few artifacts if done by eye)

Dan

[hercules71185]

I've never actually had an artifact before and I've left it on for a long time how do you up the voltage I read some things on that but, none of the programs seem to work.. One is completely blank and wants me to fill out everything and that seems to risky for me its like 200 things to fill out.

[DMB2000uk]

I think the best thing you can do is look up google to see if there are any guides to software voltage tweaking your card.

A lot of cards require physical mods with soldering etc to get more voltage, but I assumed that you knew something I didn't regarding voltage tweaking with your card.

Dan

[hercules71185]

Ive never did a physical mod just all kinds of bios and software overclocking I know a decent amount about all of that. But, the physical side is sketchy. I am willing to try anything on the card because I was debating starting over with a new motherboard that supports x16 and basically keeping my processor since I like it and seems to do its job. I originally was just trying to built the most powerful system under 400 dollars and see what I came up with. Now I want to push it further and just give a budget of 500 and make it as good as possible if this doesn't work. but, if it does I'll continue my 400dollar spree. I still have almost 100 dollars left on the budget so I can pick up the cold touch soldering thing for 20 and still have room to claim the budget. I just can't find a board with my layout all of them seem to be different. how to I upload a pic if its to big for photobucket?

[DMB2000uk]

Resize the picture with something like infranview (google it)

Dan

[hercules71185]

I can resize it but, you can't see the details I think that are needed I can pick a portion and blow it up to a good size if that would help

[SepheronX]

Volt modding is real simple. I do volt modding (currently, gonna do it on my 8600GTS). Best thing to do first, is pick up an aftermarket cooler for your card, and apply Arctic silver 5, or equivelent. Then get conductive ink (go to a local auto part store, and ask for windshield defrost kit, cause it is high conductive ink they give you) and use something like a tooth pick to apply the ink to the board (you have to be on the dot, if you make a mistake, it can be good or bad). If you make a mistake while applying, just use rubbing alcohol and something not so staticy, and rub off.

Vrzone in this case though, you can use a pensil (number 2B) and just put a bit of shavings on it, and that should increase the voltage.

[hercules71185]

Volt modding is real simple. I do volt modding (currently, gonna do it on my 8600GTS). Best thing to do first, is pick up an aftermarket cooler for your card, and apply Arctic silver 5, or equivelent. Then get conductive ink (go to a local auto part store, and ask for windshield defrost kit, cause it is high conductive ink they give you) and use something like a tooth pick to apply the ink to the board (you have to be on the dot, if you make a mistake, it can be good or bad). If you make a mistake while applying, just use rubbing alcohol and something not so staticy, and rub off.

Vrzone in this case though, you can use a pensil (number 2B) and just put a bit of shavings on it, and that should increase the voltage.

ok I won't do it yet then. But, just out of curiosity what causes the heat the increased voltage or higher clocks? If its higher clocks can I get away with my stock heatsink and at least get a little extra performance until I get a aftermarket cooler? or do the volts themself raise the temp to where it won't cool. Remember I can't get it more than
20mhz higher on the coreclock
and 30mhz on the memclock. or it bogs down.. Also I am getting the motherboard that will allow me to get x16 out of my pcie card vs my current one that clocks at x8. it doesn't make sense why they would add the x16 slot to the mobo when it supports x8. This will let me figure out from experience if the x8 clock is why it bogs down or the volts. I figured it might be bottlenecking due to the lack of bandwidth able to travel to the motherboard

[SepheronX]

Both to be honest. But voltage increase, should give a good +/- 5C temp increase (In my case), but temp increase due to overclocking is pretty random. You will see those with small increase in temps, or others with high increase in temps.

I suggest getting a new cooler first. Something like a Vantec Iceburq 6 cooler.

[hercules71185]

I'll get the new cooler first but, I'll hope I can at least break 10,500 in 3d05 lol. and then I will do the vmodding. The hottest I've EVER seen my card get was 50 degrees/ Idle its around 46 usually it sticks at 48