underclocking

Capt. Insane · 10-13-2006, 02:10 PM

As I'm sure you won't remember, my graphics card is an Evga 7600 GT 256mb overclocked to 600mhz core clock and 1560mhz memory clock. I'm starting to think that this overclocking is causing my problem with games lagging because the card's fan/heatsink aren't good enough to keep it well cooled. I did some searching on Google a while ago and found a few tools to underclock my card, but don't know how trustworthy they are or how safe it is to attempt this. One I found was actually a registry hack (sort of) that opened hidden options in the Nvidia controls to underclock the card that way. Would this be the best thing to do? Also, has anyone tried this themselves to see if it's safe? I'd really rather not have to spend another $200 to replace my card if this gets farked up. Or could perhaps adding another fan help better? I got the one in the front of my case working, but it's just causing the computer to inhale more dust than a chain somker inhales his cancer sticks. If anything, I would probably add an exhaust fan in the window, mainly to help with the dust problem, but I'm not sure that an exhaust fan would work as well. Suggestions? Thanks. The faster the better so I can do this before I go back to school on Sunday (I'm home on fall break).

ChemicalWarrior · 10-13-2006, 03:13 PM

I'll state once again that I doubt its the heatsink/heat causing the issues you're having. But anyway:

The two best tools to adjust the core clocks and memory clocks of your video card are Coolbits and Rivatuner. The registry change you said is probably Coolbits, because that's all it is, it just shows you the already built in OC tools of Nvidia's control panal.

Rivatuner is a heavy duty tool though, that allows everything from unlocking and locking pixel shaders and vertex shaders, to fan adjust (run it full all the time, etc) and OC'ing. I'd go with Coolbits first as Rivatuner is very intimidating for a first time user.

Also, DO not add exhaust fan to the window. That would kill yoru CPU airflow and your video card airflow. Window fans are always intake fans. The only exhausts are the back and one on the top of a case.

Capt. Insane · 10-13-2006, 04:00 PM

Ok, thanks. Maybe I can find beefier fans to replace the two that came with the case. But if the heat isn't the issue, why do you think the computer lags when playing games? Before I got home for break, it was doing it a lot; I'd stop playing for a bit and sometimes clean the main components with my can of air, then it'd work fine again. On Wednesday when I got home, I literally took the whole thing apart (except for the CPU/heatsink) and cleaned it all out with my compressor and it worked great until earlier today when it lagged once or twice.

ChemicalWarrior · 10-13-2006, 04:05 PM

What do you mean by lag? Stop or did it severally slow down?

{OF}GreyGhost · 10-13-2006, 06:47 PM

Are there any tools like that for an ATI card?

Capt. Insane · 10-13-2006, 06:49 PM

It stops. Graphically the game stops instantly and the audio loops, either segments or a single noise. After that happens a few times, the graphics go all screwy. I've only been playing San Andreas lately, but when the graphics go crazy what happens is some of the cars get distorted, blown out of proportion, or all jaggedy. When it gets really bad, the landscape effs up; usually part of the road disappears or graphics overlay where they're not supposed to be.

ChemicalWarrior · 10-13-2006, 06:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GreyGhost

Are there any tools like that for an ATI card?

Rivatuner I believes works for ATi card also, pretty certain of that. May want to look at ATi Tray Tools, as I believe it has an OC'ing tools as well but I'm not certain.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Capt. Insane

It stops. Graphically the game stops instantly and the audio loops, either segments or a single noise. After that happens a few times, the graphics go all screwy. I've only been playing San Andreas lately, but when the graphics go crazy what happens is some of the cars get distorted, blown out of proportion, or all jaggedy. When it gets really bad, the landscape effs up; usually part of the road disappears or graphics overlay where they're not supposed to be.

The last part sounds like a possible core issue, though I'm thinking not related to heat. Try undercloking, not a lot but some as actually going down to far can cause issues also. I simply think your card might have a faultly core.

Capt. Insane · 10-13-2006, 08:20 PM

Well, keep in mind the card was professionally overclocked when I bought it. I've never run it at the factory standard

Capt. Insane · 10-14-2006, 08:52 PM

Well, I ran the program and coudldn't figure out how to get to the option to manually change the clock speed. HOWEVER, I found a feature that allowes the card to automatically adjust the clock speed based on the needs of the software running. I've not had a lot of time to test it, but so far it seems to work well, except that HL2 now keeps crapping out on me (though I think the first time it happened was before I changed these settings)

ChemicalWarrior · 10-14-2006, 09:06 PM

It should let you do that, and no it wont dynamically change with the software. It'll check to see what it thinks your card should be running at.

Set it to allow you to manually change the clocks.