- Joined
- Nov 26, 2004
- Location
- France, Lyon
I was trying to over-clock with RivaTuner a few days ago when I bought my GTS (last week-end), and that day I used the 158.22 drivers found at nVidia.com, but whenever I OC'ed the Core/Memory above (respectively) 550/860 then I experienced a bunch of hangs and freezes in a few games (not all) I own, such as S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War, for example.
Then, with the same drivers, I tried using ATiTool, but whenever I went above 560/860 (only 10 extra Mhz on the Core compared to RivaTuner) then it also hanged here and there in a few games. And ATiTool wasn't, and still isn't stable enough for me anyway, so I moved back to RivaTuner for OC'ing purposes, hoping to find out why some of my games hanged and froze randomly.
Only two days ago I installed the 158.27 drivers, and tried to OC again via RivaTuner. The results were different, but not necessarily better. With those drivers, it seemed that I could OC the Core up to 568 (that was the exact number I could go up to without issues), and the Memory up to 870 or so, before I got some hangs and freezes again. No actual crashes to the Desktop though, only in-game freezes, as in the game stops, freezes, and nothing responds anymore, not even Ctrl+Alt+Del.
Then, just yesterday I installed the 160.02's, WHQL from Station Drivers, and now it's a completely different story ...
In RivaTuner and ATiTool (both 0.26 and 0.27 Beta 1) I could easily over-clock the Core to 575, and the Memory to 875 without any single issues whatsoever. Even though ATiTool is still unstable, I managed to run a 30 minutes 3D View test so I could see if I could provoke a system hang/freeze. Usually that test is a good indicator of a GPU stability for OC'ing purposes, I used it all the time for my X1800XL. So, the test had no errors, it kept on going, although the temperatures reached a shocking 77ºC, it still worked and nothing froze.
After that, I started an Artifact-Scanning test, again for around 30 minutes, and it found nothing at 575Mhz/875Mhz. Then, I ran three consecutive 3DMark06 tests, one of them with 8x AA and 16x AF, and no errors whatsoever ! That's not all ! After that I had a two hours gaming session, non-stop in S.T.A.L.K.E.R, then at least 30 minutes in Oblivion, and around an hour or so in Medieval II: Total War.
So, now, in RivaTuner, using the 160.02 drivers, I have my Core and Memory respectively set at 575Mhz and 875Mhz for 3D Performance, and everything looks stable, runs smooth like never before, and I'm pretty sure I could do much, much better, and I will try later today.
My own conclusions according to my experiences is that OC'ing might well be affected by drivers, but that's a subjective view, I don't know if in fact it can be technically true, technically possible. Is it ?
Then, with the same drivers, I tried using ATiTool, but whenever I went above 560/860 (only 10 extra Mhz on the Core compared to RivaTuner) then it also hanged here and there in a few games. And ATiTool wasn't, and still isn't stable enough for me anyway, so I moved back to RivaTuner for OC'ing purposes, hoping to find out why some of my games hanged and froze randomly.
Only two days ago I installed the 158.27 drivers, and tried to OC again via RivaTuner. The results were different, but not necessarily better. With those drivers, it seemed that I could OC the Core up to 568 (that was the exact number I could go up to without issues), and the Memory up to 870 or so, before I got some hangs and freezes again. No actual crashes to the Desktop though, only in-game freezes, as in the game stops, freezes, and nothing responds anymore, not even Ctrl+Alt+Del.
Then, just yesterday I installed the 160.02's, WHQL from Station Drivers, and now it's a completely different story ...
In RivaTuner and ATiTool (both 0.26 and 0.27 Beta 1) I could easily over-clock the Core to 575, and the Memory to 875 without any single issues whatsoever. Even though ATiTool is still unstable, I managed to run a 30 minutes 3D View test so I could see if I could provoke a system hang/freeze. Usually that test is a good indicator of a GPU stability for OC'ing purposes, I used it all the time for my X1800XL. So, the test had no errors, it kept on going, although the temperatures reached a shocking 77ºC, it still worked and nothing froze.
After that, I started an Artifact-Scanning test, again for around 30 minutes, and it found nothing at 575Mhz/875Mhz. Then, I ran three consecutive 3DMark06 tests, one of them with 8x AA and 16x AF, and no errors whatsoever ! That's not all ! After that I had a two hours gaming session, non-stop in S.T.A.L.K.E.R, then at least 30 minutes in Oblivion, and around an hour or so in Medieval II: Total War.
So, now, in RivaTuner, using the 160.02 drivers, I have my Core and Memory respectively set at 575Mhz and 875Mhz for 3D Performance, and everything looks stable, runs smooth like never before, and I'm pretty sure I could do much, much better, and I will try later today.
My own conclusions according to my experiences is that OC'ing might well be affected by drivers, but that's a subjective view, I don't know if in fact it can be technically true, technically possible. Is it ?