Overclocking Graphics Cards Page
The default settings of the Nvidia Geforce 3 Ti200 graphics card are rather conservative. In most cases (but not all) you can overclock to roughly the same speed as the much more expensive Ti500 card. Firstly you need to enable the overclocking tab in the properties screen. To do this download a simple utility from the net, such as from HERE: This will enable a change to the registry which turns on the overclocking tab.
Now you can adjust both the core clock and the memory clock speeds. The default core speed is 175, and the default memory speed is 400. (On the Ti500 the core is 240 and the memory is 500). Using the overclocking tab you can simply increase the speeds to the level which works best for you.
As always, I recommend that you increase slowly in small increments, then test thoroughly, and if ok, increase again. Until you find the fastest setting that works for you without crashing or causing problems. My Ti200 card is currently working fine at core = 220 and at memory = 475.
Remember to increase cooling if necessary. (I have one extra small fan colling the graphics card). Some of the cheaper Ti200 cards do not have a fan on the cpu or heatsinks on the memory chips, if you have one of these cards you must ensure it is adequately cooled.
Yes, the V5 cards can also be overclocked! Although you probably will not get as much benefit out of overclocking a V5 card, as you would if overclocking one of the earlier Voodoo cards. 3Dfx seem to have got the V5 card already running at its optimum speed? But, you can try and eak a bit more performance out of the card. By default the 3Dfx overclock slider in the Voodoo 5 Properties screen is not enabled. Once enabled you can adjust the slider to increase the cards performance. To enable the overclock slider you need to alter one registry key. Edit the following registry entry:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\3dfx Interactive\3dfx Tools\Installed\Tools\
{AB040305-8AA1-11D2-8DD1-00104BB5EAD6}] "CompleteRegistration"=1
You will probably not get much higher than 175/175Mhz which will not give much of a performance increase, but hey, every little helps! And ensure you have adequate extra cooling if necessary.
This card is essentially the GeForce 256 produced on a 0.18 micron die with faster speeds and a few other extra features. The GeForce 2 GTS has two important factors that dictate the cards speed (and therefore its performance), the core clock and the memory clock. As mentioned on my main overclocking page, overclocking has the potential to damage your hardware. Things to watch out for are blocky graphics, flickering, snow like effects, or general degradation of the graphics quality on screen, as these are sure signs that you have pushed the card too far, and need to slow down.
The main goal for overclocking, used to be obtaining the highest core speed and the fastest memory speed while maintaining a stable system. This is no longer the case, because the arrival of the GeForce 2 GTS shows us the limitations of a slow memory system. This is because the card can throw information at the memory so fast, that the memory cannot keep up with it, and so the memory becomes the bottelneck! This is shown by the good performance increase which occurs when the memory clock is overclocked and the poor performance increase shown by overclocking the core clock.
So how do you overclock the card? Well, you will need a program that allows the core and memory clock settings to be adjusted. NVIDIA have included a program that does just this! To activate it, (cos it is not enabled by default), Simply run Window's registry editor (regedit) and perform the following steps:
Now a new overclocking screen should be available in the additional properties of your video card (under the hardware options tab). You need to enable overclocking by selecting the "allow clock frequency adjustments" check box. Reboot, and you should now be ready to overclock. When you first use the utility, it will test your configuration. You cannot use the new settings until they are tested. Check the "allow these settings at startup" box, as the changes will work best when the PC is rebooted every time you overclock.
You need to experiment with the "memory clock frequency" settings until it is at its optimum setting (its fastest setting). Then, slowly increase the "core clock frequency" setting one increment at a time until the card becomes unstable. Then go back a step. We do not want to get the maximum speed out of our core as well, we only want stability from the core setting, extra speed will come from the memory clock settings.
3Dfx has made it easy to overclock the 3Dfx graphics accelerator cards, the only thing you need to do is change (or add) one variable to your AUTOEXEC.BAT file.
SET SST_GRXCLK=50 (The Default setting for the card, setting it to run at 50Mhz)
Change the number to say, 55 by typing this in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file:
SET SST_GRXCLK=55
For the new setting to take effect you must reboot the pc. The cards can be overclocked higher than 55 I've heard of people running them at 59, But personally I would not go much above 56. But its your hardware, so if you feel confident in trying a faster speed then its up to you? If you note any increase in the on screen graphics tearing or a reduced image quality, that is a sign that you have gone too high. Try turning the card down a notch.
Voodoo2 graphics cards can also be overclocked in a similar manner to 3Dfx cards and Voodoo3 cards. The card settings can be changed by altering the registry, or if you use the Diamond "Monster" Voodoo2 control panel program, its done by sliding the bar they provide in the program. However, if you use reference drivers (standard generic drivers that can be used with all V2 graphics cards) then you do need to edit the registry:
Go to the following location in the registry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\3Dfx Interactive\Voodoo2\D3D\SSTV2_GRXCLK HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\3Dfx Interactive\Voodoo2\Glide\SSTV2_GRXCLK
Modify the keys to the clock value you want to use, say 90, or 93, etc. You should also be able to find all the other settings that you may want to modify there. As always, back up the registry before changing anything.
If you want to increase the overclocking possibilities for the control panel that diamond (or any other manufacturer) provides you need to edit:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Diamond\Monster 3D II\panel\PERFMAX HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Diamond\Monster 3D II\panel\PERFMIN
Modify the keys by entering your desired min and max clock rates. If you change the clock rate for your V2 card and it stops working, or graphics quality degrades, you have gone too far, remember, small increments at a time, test to see if its working ok, continue....
Want to speed up that Voodoo 3 graphics card? Want to get faster game graphics? Easy peesy: - Go in to your Windows directory and double click on Regedit.exe (or from the desktop select start, run, and type in regedit) Your Registry Editor should open. Click on HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE. Scroll down to 'System' and select that and you will open the CurrentControSet directory. Now select the 'Services' folder. Select the 'Class' folder. Scroll down until you see the 'Display' folder. Select it and you're in. from the 'Display' folder you may have several 000X type folders. These are your old or previous graphics card's registry settings. Leave these as they are and locate the one that is for your Voodoo 3 card. It should say something like "3Dfx Voodoo 3" next to the DriverDesc. Now select it and you will open five more folders. Open the 'Default' folder and add a NEW STRING VALUE. Name it "Grxclock". Modify the Grxclock value to whatever you fancy trying your luck at.
If you have a 143 MHz board (The V3 2000 runs at a clock speed of 143 MHz, the V3 3000 runs at 166 MHz and the V3 3500 runs at 183 MHz) and want to try 160MHz then simply try put in "160". Don't overdue it, try small increases one at a time to see if they work ok. I suggest increments of about +5MHz at any one time.
If the card stops working, go back to the last setting, as this indicates you have gone too high, and the card is overheating. You can add cooling (fans) or use a freeze spray which coats your graphics card chips and keeps them cool (available from hardware shops or the net). You can also try leaving one free PCI slot between the V3 card and any other cards, this aids cooling.
