"Turning Up" your Video Card

[uberslet]

Well, recently I have heard many people say "I have to turn up my video card" or "I have my video card turned up" or something like that. was just wonderin how you did it, and if it affected the graphics of the game. Also, would it screw up the Video card over time?

[REP0MAN]

Are you referring to turning up your video settings or over-clocking your video card?

[Hungry]

If its an Nvidia card, I have an XFX 7600GT AGP, the driver I use 93.71 from XFX which allows me to use a little utility called Coolbits.  By "Turning Up" if you mean overclocking, yes, I overclock mine, I use the utility to discover the maximum amount allowed then back it of a little to what I feel safe with according to the card temperatures and the way the PC reacts to it.  

One note the standard Nvidia 93.71 driver does not allow this only the XFX version of it does, point being that theres alot more to it than just the casual "Turn it Up"

[uberslet]

Are you referring to turning up your video settings or over-clocking your video card?

wats the difference? and Hungry i have an ATI RADEON XPRESS 200 w/ a PCI Express Slot.

[REP0MAN]

Turning up the settings is a control either in the video card settings itself or in the game under graphic controls (or similar). Overclocking your video card is a process that speeds up the speed of which your card runs at. I wouldn't recommend it for the non-advanced computer user. There are some geniuses here that could tell you more about it, Im sure.

[uberslet]

do you know how to turn up an ATI RADEON XPRESS 200?

[Sincraft]

There will be no turning up of that video chip.  I would suggest you do not do that. 
Get a video card like a 9600gt or even an older 7600gt and you could overclock (the official term) your gpu (graphics processing unit).
But if you only play games like AH2, you really don't need to overclock. 

And yes it does shorten the life of you graphics adapter (gpu).  How much is up for debate, but YES it will.

[uberslet]

so i cant turn up or over clock my current chip? if that the case ill be over mom ack to buy a new one 

[1701E]

If you get a new video card NVidia 7900 and 8600 are good ones for $100 or so.  If you have a little more to spend go for a GeForce 8800 or 9600.  Which ever card you get if it's NVidia get "NTune" it's good for overclocking, as it has a "test" button to let you know if the card can handle the speeds you set it to.  Example: I have an Nvidia GeForce 7900GS Clock speeds- 450MHz and 650MHz stock, I can overclock safely to 555MHz and 666MHz max before my test fails (I only use OverClock for high-end games).
Also if you do OverClock you will need to turn the speed of the fan(s) on the GPU up, if it doesn't automatically.

[Chalenge]

I think what you want to do is turn antialiasing and anisotropic filtering just a little bit. I dont recommend increasing antialiasing above X4 because you wont be able to see dots as well. I use X8 and I can identify aircraft types at 10k distance by zooming in but with just a little fog or cloud layer and I wont see them at all. Oh and for the money the 7950 is the best buy last I checked but now that the 9800s are out it wont be long before the 8800s are on the cheap.

[HomeBoy]

I have a similar thread to this one (didn't see this one until afterward) where I'm petitioning ideas on how to best configure your VC.  Please give me your ideas there:

http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php/topic,234599.0.html

[uberslet]

any good PC's out there on the market for gaming/every day use other than alienware, even though it is more of a gaming PC?