Overclocking my Geforce2

[nascarfan]

I have a Geforce2 GTS 32 mb card with a 1.2 ghz T-Bird overclocked to 1.25 and Im wondering why I get no performance gain in games when I overclock my video card. Using 3dmark I get about a 100 point increase overclocking my card about 20 mhz(runs stable havent tried any higher) but in any game I play my framerates dont go up at all from the overclock of the video card. I gained about 5 fps overclocking my CPU from 1.2 to 1.25 but I get nothing from overclocking my video card. Please help

Also I did have a Leadtek Geforce4 Ti4400 for about a month and then it died and I have to return it for a new one. It was just a faulty one but when I did upgrade to that Geforce4 card from my Geforce2 card I also saw not one framerate higher in games but my 3dmark score more than doubled. Is it my motherboard(EP-8kta2) thats causing it to run slow no matter how fast the video card is?

[quegyboe]

Do you have Vsync turned on? Did you format after the new video card install? Obveously your using the KT133 chipset with PC133 ram so that is definatley a bottleneck aswell. My first guess is that you have Vsync turned on...check that.

[nascarfan]

Nope have vsync turned off, AA of, AF off. I tried a format as well but no difference.

Heres my complete system specs:

1.2 T-Bird @ 1.25
EP-8kta2 motherboard
320 MB PC133 ram at 133 mhz
Geforce2 GTS 32 MB
C-Media sound card(sucks I know)
2 hard drives:
80 gig maxtor 7200 rpm(all programs)
8 gig maxtor 5400 rpm(OS only)
250 Watt Deer PSU

[quegyboe]

What driver version? You should have seen a HUGE improvement going from a GF2 GTS to a GF4 Ti. I don't think your CPU would be a bottleneck for a GTS...

[nascarfan]

Ive tried 41.09, 41.04, 41.03, 40.72, 40.71, 30.82, and 29.42 and the 29.42 are the best. Right now Im on my Geforce2 though if you didnt see what I said I have to return my Geforce4 and get a new one but for some reason my system is even bottlenecking my geforce2

[Penguin4x4]

Originally posted by nascarfan


320 MB PC133 ram at 133 mhz


That right there is a problem; with a simple DDR upgrade you should be seeing a difference with frame rates,:)

[gazzrawly]

this has nothing to do with it but using teh GF4 on a T-Bird setup, I would be using at least a 350watt PSU :D

[quegyboe]

Yeah, the SDRam is definatley a limiting part in that system. Get DDR ram and you will see a nice improvement! I also agree that you should get a 300w PSU minimum for a system of that speed.

[nascarfan]

Can my 250 watt PSU slow it down?

[Monaco]

nope- if your PSU was too weak, your systme wouldn't start at all.

The Geforce2 series had plenty of speed when it came to computation, it was only held back by slow memory. Don't bother overclocking the GPU core of your GF2- spend your time overclocking the memory as high as you can. The faster the memory, the better!

Make sure you're using the latest VIA 4-in-1 drivers as well.

What kind of 3DMark scores are you getting? GF2 cards are more or less maxed out on a 1.5ghz AMD system- my GF2 stops getting faster past there on my system, at least. At 1.2, you still have a little bit of headroom. Switching to a DDR systme won't really help- the GF2 will still be limited by it's slow memory.

[nascarfan]

I have been overclocking just the memory on it and havent touched the core. I notice an increase of FPS in 3dmark but in games I see no FPS increase at all. Its like the card is only running at the right speed for 3dmark and not any games.

I got a score of 3842 with my 1.2 T-Bird @ 1.33 without my Geforce2 overclocked. If I do overclock it it will go over 4000 easy but I wont see a difference in my gaming so I dont keep it overclocked.

The only thing that will improve my framerates in games is overclocking my CPU. Kind of weird isnt it?

Heres my compare URL: http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=5411113

[quegyboe]

Switching to a DDR systme won't really help- the GF2 will still be limited by it's slow memory
Actually, your wrong. It will help with his system. He is running a 32MB GTS, which means that his system probably swaps out textures over the AGP bus to the apeture, which means that faster system memory would definatley help. Sure, his video memory is slowing him down aswell, but DDR would definatley show an improvement!

Hmm, I don't really know what else to tell you...get a new GF4 and then we can troubleshoot with that...

[Monaco]

well, yah, there would be an improvement by switching to a DDR rig, but how much? Very, very little i'd think. Take a look at the 3DMark team database (http://oc3dmark.octeams.com/db/gf2gtsprodb.html) , or the Madonion database- GF2 cards all pretty much max out at around ~5200 3DMarks, no matter if they're being driven by an SDR or DDR rig. You may be able to throw data at the AGP bus faster with a DDR rig, but if the GF2 is too slow to accept it then what's the point? :D

Not that I disagree, as it's always good to upgrade to a faster platform. It's just that in this specific case, I don't think he would see very much benefit in terms of higher framerate. Until he gets that Gf4 back. :)

nascarfan, you probably already checked this but what is your refresh rate set to? And, do you have the latest DirectX installed? I can't think of much else that would make 3DMark go fats, but not your games.

[nascarfan]

I have my refresh rate at 60 and directx 9.

[quegyboe]

If you say that you only gain FPS in games when you overclock your CPU, then that would mean your CPU is bottlenecking your system. That means the only real way to get more FPS, would be to get a faster CPU...

[nascarfan]

No when I overclock my system my 3dmark and my framerate in my games go way up. Overclocking my cpu about 100 mhz will gain me an extra 5-8 FPS. My 3dmark score goes up a little bit from overclocking my CPU. I gained about 100 points overclocking my cpu from 1.2 to 1.33(or it might be 1.27 because my motherboard reads my multipier as 13 when its really 12.5 and 102 FSB).

[nascarfan]

Also when I overclock my video card to say 200/355 from default 200/333 I gained about 100 marks in 3dmark but no change in games.

Can having a 5400 RPM hard drive as my OS(Windows XP) and a 7200 for all my programs slow my computer down?

[Anaxagoras1986]

Originally posted by nascarfan
Can having a 5400 RPM hard drive as my OS(Windows XP) and a 7200 for all my programs slow my computer down?

Only in loading and swap file use.

As others said before, the GF2 is limited by its memory bandwidth. What puzzles me is why my GF2-Ti has stock speeds of 250/400. The strange thing is that the core can be run much lower than that and stil get the same 3DMarks because of the bandwidth. With my memory at 460, the core still seems to be held back at 250. Usually I run the core at stock speeds and just have the memory o/ced because of this.

EDIT: I just under-clocked my GF2 to the max (now at 220/360) and brought my FSB way down to 102. This makes my chip run at 1173, and memory run at 204. My 3d Marks went down to 4023 (orinally at 5743). Compare my scores and yours to show the difference you would get from going to a DDR board.
These scores are a bit low also because I was on a slow 102FSB - slowing memory, chip, etc. Also, keep in mind that my comp is under a dark cloud right now. I have been having lots of driver probs so these scores will be even lower.

[Monaco]

nascarfan, try turning your refresh rate up to 75 or better. Not only will this save you a lot of eyestrain, some games use the default refresh rate no matter what- even with vsync off they will still be locked to 60FPS. Although this mostly effects older games, it may still be worth a try!

What games are giving you trouble?

[nascarfan]

Im mostly testing it with Americas Army. Also in Nascar 2002 my framerate dont change either.

[nascarfan]

Someone has got to know :(

I just dont understand how my cpu can bottleneck a geforce2 gts.

What makes 3dmark scores go up from overclocking a gf2 that makes my gaming fps stay the same? Would a bottlenecking system do that or would the 3dmark score also not go up?

Please help no one else has ever had a problem like?

[Monaco]

Personally I think there's a problem somewhere, that isn't related to your CPU or vid card.

Let me ask- how are you testing your games? I don't play AA much; does it have a built-in benchmarking routine or are you using FRAPS? You won't be able to see a speed increase by your eyes alone- it just isn't a big enough boost.

As for bottleneck- I really think the main problem is the GF2, not the CPU. Since your FPS increases when you increase the CPU clock, that means your CPU isn't holding back the vid card- it's the other way around. Also, all applications will use the video subsystem a little differently. Some games might grab for every last bit of bandwidth, while some need more vertex data from the CPU. So, some games might hit a wall sooner or later than others/than 3DMark.

I think the only way you're gonna see a real speed boost is to replace that card, or crank down the game's resolution and/or image quality. That, or reinstall the whole system, and reload it and benchmark it piece by piece. Not much fun :D

[nascarfan]

What I do is load a map offline and have it show the FPS and you can usually see if you get an increase or not. When I load a map it loads you at the same spot every time so the spot Im in wont be different.

BTW I did have a Leadtek Geforce4 Ti4400 and it wasnt any faster than my geforce2 like I said already.

[Monaco]

oh ok, I misunderstood! The GF2 and the GF4 were both moving games at the same speed? That IS weird.

You already did pretty much everything I would do: new drivers, check AA settings, all that. Have you tried that Detonater Destroyer program? It's supposed to completely remove all traces of old drivers when you reinstall an nVidia card, that might be worth a shot. www.voodoofiles.com has it, I think.

I can't think of anything else, really. Maybe a bad BIOS setting? Doubtful.

[nascarfan]

I just took out my 8 gig 5400 rpm hard drive completely and now Im just using my 7200 rpm 80 gig hard drive. I gained about 4 fps in Americas Army doing it but my 3dmark score went down about 60 points(not sure why?)

[nascarfan]

Forget about that last post I missed a setting in bios now my 3dmark score is back to normal and my fps dropped down to where they were before(dont know why the setting dropped my Americas Army fps but raised 3dmark score)