Overclocking My Videocard Results

[kamori]

Ive spent some time seeing if it is worth overclocking my video card...See if you agree.

The card is a   Gainward Nvidia FX 5200 128
I used 3DMark 2001 SE for the tests.

It is running well in AHII but only on 2/3 rds Eye candy..I stay in the 25-45 fps range depending on where I look...Not stright up to me that is a ridiclous test. My fps are based on flying and rolling over or diving into the detail..bases trees, Furballs.

I am getting a new card but I would like to see more benchmark posts. This is more tangable then "Yeah, My card runs good"..

Results below:

I started out at the default settings of:
Core clock Frequency: 250
Mem Clock frequency: 280
Represented by the Light Grey

I Final results at:
Core clock Frequency: 281
Mem Clock frequency: 388
Represented by the Dark Grey




Kalamori

[kamori]

I did add a fan to the heat sink on the card.
Note: I did remove the heat sink cleaned the gooo and put on some Artic Silver helped a bunch on the cooling.

Kalamori

[Skuzzy]

You are aware that the 3DMark is a poor representation of potential performance gains, or performance in general as NVidia has 'optimized' the drivers for many synthetic benchmarks?
They run a very different path in the driver for many programs.

I just wanted people to be aware of this before they go off and, potentially, fry thier video card.

[kamori]

I was very carefull before I did anything. I did alot of reading from independent overclockers and never heard of this but, I could have missed it...

I did get a performance increase in AH2.
3Dmark is just a meter to see cause and effect. The final test is in the game. I only Play AH.
I did go to 300/410 That lowerd my score by 500 so I was able to use it to know where my operating window was.

Skuzzy...Can you please post what cards you are recomending as a sticky in price range catagories. I really do not want to waste hundreds of dollars on no facts.

We could really use your help..


kalamori

[kamori]

by looking at my specs would you go to a better card or up grade MB..keeping in mind I have a 200.00 cap or so...My current board can take a AMD 2400 266 FSB CPu would that help?

Please help,

If you dont feel right about recomending on the news group can you e-mail me?

kalamori

[SunKing]

Originally posted by Skuzzy
You are aware that the 3DMark is a poor representation of potential performance gains, or performance in general as NVidia has 'optimized' the drivers for many synthetic benchmarks?
They run a very different path in the driver for many programs.

I just wanted people to be aware of this before they go off and, potentially, fry thier video card.

ATI FOR LIFE!

[ergRTC]

I would upgrade your board and chip.  YOu can get a good amd 2400 or even 2800 +the motherboard for under 150 (probably under 100 if you look), and that 5200 card is just fine.  A geforce 3 ti200 gives me a minimum of 45 and a max of 75 (limited by monitor).  Most of the time I sit at 75.  

I bet anything not mx and newer than 2001 will be fine.  I am worried that my old card, although the frame rate is good, may lack some 'effect' (fog? hell if i know) I dont know about.  Things your 5200 would have.

[Zanth]

I have same system as you sort of, but man my results are different:

AMD Athlon Thunderbird 1.333  ( put a slight overclock on it tp 1.40)

128 meg of system ram
winxp

Geforce Fx 5200 128 meg (pulled from a brand new Dell I don't know who really makes it)  Mine didnt have a fan either (great heatsink though) I slapped one on for the heck of it.

Letting Windows "auto detect" (a) my clock etc of video card I am set at Core clock of 306 MHz  and a Memory Clock of 514 MHz  I also left the slider set far right for "Quality" at this point.

Running Default details in game, made sure by hitting "Default" video settimgs are   1024 x 768    512 and  Unlimited
All the boxes are check on (Bump mapping etc.)

Played game for an hour or so just now.  Turn fight with a Spitfire in a P51B (which I won btw  )  I was mid 70's fps whole time.  Big furballs I drop to the 50's and 60's.  Flying without anyone real close otw to action im 80's and 90's.  Looking striaght up is slightly over 200 fps.   In tower F4 external view without clipboard if 52 fps.  Darn good for a card the "experts" dump on so much as being "not any good".

Im pleased as can be, this isn't a high performance box - and a slightly better than bottom line video card  (they are round 50 some odd bucks at newegg).    I'm not even going to fool with a formal overclock, it is running great.


(btw I am running the Omega drivers - forgot to mention that)

(a) Display Properties, "Advanced" Tab,  "Geforce 5200" button, "Clock Speed" option,  "performance" pull down selection, (check load at startup box), then finally "auto Detect and let Windows figure out the settings - takes couple of minutes be patient.

[HavocTM]

I converted my video card to run on Ethanol.

Fewer emissions and higher horsepower.  It does tend to ping and detonate occasionally though.

I am pretty happy... 2 to 3 frames per minute over the VESA local bus...

[Morpheus]

Originally posted by HavocTM
I converted my video card to run on Ethanol.

Fewer emissions and higher horsepower.  It does tend to ping and detonate occasionally though.

I am pretty happy... 2 to 3 frames per minute over the VESA local bus...

ROFLMFAO!

Havoc you rule! LOL

[kamori]

Zanth can you point me in the direction of thoses Omega drivers.

Kalamori

[snapperhead]

Originally posted by kamori
Zanth can you point me in the direction of thoses Omega drivers.

Kalamori

http://www.google.com

It's a revolutionary thing where you can search for stuff that your looking for.


Wow type Omega drivers in and looky here the very 1st link is where they are  

[Orig]

A GF4-4200 would probably get you approximately double the score in 3dmark2001.  Although like Skuzzy said the graphics card makers have put in benchmark optimizations, 3dmark2001 (not 3dmark2003) is still a reasonable way to get an estimate on how a video card will run on older directx 7 and 8 games, including AHII even though AHII requires DX9.  In my own testing with my own video card, a 10% gain in 3dmark2001 scores will roughly correlate to a 10% gain in most game framerates.

For directx9 benchmarking, you really do need to get some sort of game that actually uses DX9 and has the ability to benchmark using demo loops, and you shouldn't use any one benchmark as a purchasing decision either because image quality may be sacrificed at the driver level (ie. benchmark cheating) in favor of higher scores, so both in-game benchmarks and image quality need to be considered.

I must admit I'm suprised at how low of a 3dmark2001 score that 5200 got you.  That score is about what I'd expect a GeForce2 GTS/Ultra to get.  Like others have said, you may find some more speed by trying different drivers or using custom drivers like the Omega ones that have been tweaked to enhance performance or image quality.  You may also be able to force the card into using lower filtering methods such as bilinear instead of trilinear in the nvidia 3d settings control panel, and while that may reduce image quality it may also give you some more speed.

[Zanth]

http://www.omegacorner.com/

[kamori]

Get a grip. This was an oppertunity for me to put the post back up top..Dont be such a....well ill be nice..If you dont have any thing constructive to add...Then be silent please.

Oh...TY ZANTH I added them and didnt see much of a performance diff. It is running well.
Thanks again....


ORIG...Great advice I appreciate the feed back....
Kalamori