need help to get get more from my card

[subzero]

ok i have an MSI TI 4200 128mb 8x and i wanna score a bit more in 3dmark and also wanna o/c it a bit more . now im stuck at 290/600mhz but i have seen ppl get crazy like 320/700 how do iget this kinda overclock without modding the card? will better cooling help it much? what cheap cooling would u guys suggest? also what the hell is with det drivers? i use 41.09 cause everything newer scores 500-1000 points less and also with anything newer i cant raise the refresh rate of my monitor over 85hz and with 41.09 i get 200hz. any ideas?

[resonatorman]

So...you want to get better 3dmark scores. First of all get the detonator 42.68, it's no use in games, but should give you a few hundred points more (obviously this doesn't make sense, but you asked...).
Overclocking some more doesn't depend on better cooling, but on higher voltage - a voltmod is the way.
A good cooling solution for the GPU is the lap job, try the search function for that (it is pretty close to modding).
Memory can be cooled w/ ramsinks, cheap and easy, doesn't yield one single MHz though.
700 MHz memory can only squeezed out of 3,3 ns RAM, check yours (last digit of long number on chip). Probably it is 4 ns, this would match your o/c.

[Arghuin]

If it's only 3DMark points that you're after, they also depend on a lot of other parameters (such as which Operating System you use, how many programs you have running in the background while running the benchmark etc).

Other than overclocking, if you wish to gain access to more driver features for your card compared to what nV's proprietary drivers allow for at the moment, give RivaTuner (http://www.guru3d.com/index.php?page=rivatuner&menu=8) a go as well....IMHO it is the best nV tweaking program out there, but it's 'power user' options take quite a bit to get used to ;)

As for the drivers, again which OS are you using and do you completely uninstall your older drivers before upgrading to the newer ones?

[Mr.Guvernment]

could be quiet simple that your card is not made for good overclocking - not all cards are made equal.

[subzero]

ok well i added better cooling to mycard and managed to get the clocks up to 315/625 without artifacts. i mounted an OEM 2000+ HSF to the GPU and it drop my temps from 50c to 32c and now gives me alot more o/c ability but i think im about at the limits of this card

[Mr.Guvernment]

^^^ just keep pushing till thos artifacts start appearing.

[subzero]

i can get a little higher on the clocks but then the artifacts appear and i dont think its a valid test when there is artifacts plus when there is artifacts i get random crashing and freezing

[subzero]

as for some of the other questions above i use win XP pro and when i do general benchmarks i close all programs that are not needed but when i do my serious benchmarks for the most possible points i can get i disable everything from serial ports to onboard audio and disable every service that is not needed to run the benchmark.. the only way i think i am gonna get more is by overclocking some more and every day i push my card an extra 2 or 3mhz and it seems to be stable so far UT2003 is the thing that crash's when its not stable but 3dmark 2001/2003 are stable at high speeds. will a volt mod be the only thing thats gonna squeeze more out of my card?