PCMARK and 3DMARK score increases

Grr, didn't realise but the default memory setting on my new mobo is for 133Mhz, just increased to the 200Mhz (or PC3200) and seen an increase of about 2700 (to bring it up to about 7000 with 2xAA and 2xAF @ 1024x768) on 3DMARK03... need to download some more futuremark tests now as '03 is getting a little old :-)

Posted by 42 [Modding] ( February 06, 2006 09:05 AM ) Permalink

downed PC :(

Looks like I took things a little too far, my P4 system would not start up the other day after some OCing so had to go out and upgrade. A little disappointed because neither my mobo or 6800 will work with the new sockets and graphics bus (PCI-E). Ended up switching to AMD (wanted the X2 but they had none in stock!) and a couple of cheap 512MB 6600 PCI-E cards for SLI. Testing the setup now and initial results look good with a 3DMARK03 score of over 6,000 - unfortunately I never recorded a benchmark with the 6800 so can't compare the two. Proof will be in the pudding I guess once I load Fear and Battlefield 2!

Posted by 42 [Modding] ( February 05, 2006 02:57 PM ) Permalink

6800OC pipelines increased from 12 to 16, vertex from 5 to 6.

Just purchased a secondhand Nvidia 6800OC based video card off ebay, using RivaTuner I was one of the lucky people that have been able to enable the hardware masked pipelines and vertex engines bringing my card from 12 pixel pipes to 16 and 5 vertex shaders to 6. Basically this brings my cheap card up from a standard 6800 to a high end 6800 (less the DDR3 mem that is) - all without video artifacts commonly seen with this practice. Not a bad way to get the last drop of blood out of my aging AGP system before having to cough up the $$$ for PCIe.

Posted by 42 [Modding] ( December 08, 2005 06:20 PM ) Permalink | Comments[0]

Overclocking Happiness (+ 600Mhz and climbing!)

Just took my P4 2.4C from (amazingly) 2.4Ghz to 3.0Ghz with nothing more than my current cooling solution (Cooler Master Hyper 6). Based on my first round of tests there seems to be more room for OCing left so will be looking at 3.2+ over the next few weeks. I also took the chance to OC my video card as well, not too much to start. Here's some interesting stats: System basics 1024MB PC3200 RAM NVidia 5700 Ultra 128MB AGP Video 72GB SATA HDD Before CPU Clock freq/multiplier: 200Mhz/12 (effective FSB = 800Mhz) CPU Speed: 2400Mhz CPU Memory freq: 200Mhz (400Mhz Dual channel) CPU Vcore: 1.525V CPU Memory to FSB ratio: 1:1 GPU Clock freq: 475Mhz GPU Memory freq: 900Mhz I ran into problems with OCing my memory almost immediately so I had to play with the bus/memory ratio, adventually settling on 5:4. Once I hit my 3Ghz goal system stability was 99% with 2 reboots under heavy load over 2-3 hours, increasing the voltage from 1.525V to 1.55V to the core seems to have fixed, more testing to follow. After Clock frequency/multiplier: 250Mhz/12 (effective FSB = 1000Mhz) 200Mhz INCREASE CPU Speed: 3004Mhz 600Mhz INCREASE Memory: 200Mhz (400Mhz Dual channel) NO INCREASE Vcore: 1.55V .05V INCREASE Memory to FSB ratio: 5:4 GPU Clock freq: 533Mhz 58Mhz INCREASE GPU Memory freq: 1002Mhz 102Mhz INCREASE So how does all these really effect me? Well apart from the real world difference I can see in games (fps to come later), here are some benchmarks to review: PCMark05 Before:2565 After:3093 (+528 points) 3DMark03 Before:2833 After:3179 (+346 points) Core temp Before: Idle 42C, Loaded 52C (+2 degrees) After: Idle 44C, Loaded 54C (+2 degrees)

Posted by 42 [Modding] ( September 09, 2005 11:06 AM ) Permalink | Comments[0]

Ruled out phasechange and peilter, sticking to watercooling, well kinda

Can't be bothered dealing with all the condensation at this stage so I think I'll stick to water cooling.  Well, at least that is to start anyway. My plan is to go with a pretty standard water cooling solution based off the asetek WaterChill kit (not sure which kit/model yet) with the dual 120mm radiator. I want to add peilter to the water cooling mix later once I 1) replace my P4C with a dual core AMD and CLI rig and 2) feel more comfortable with dealing with the condensation that comes as an unfortunate side effect of sub-ambient cooling. When I do decide to mix in peilter, then the combined waterblock and peilter from Wintsch Labs looks pretty damn fine!

Posted by 42 [Modding] ( June 14, 2005 10:02 AM ) Permalink | Comments[0]

Watercooling v Phase change v Peltier CPU cooler and overclocking

I have narrowed down my selection to:

Water cooling - Easy to install, cheapish but heat transfer properties not as good as next 3.
Phase change - Just like your fridge, extreme cooling but currently only available for CPU, no cooling for GPU or chipsets out there that I can find.
Peltier - Great cooling but heat is transferred directly into the case therefore still requires loads of system fans :(
Water & Peltier - good combination though power consumption might be a killer.

I have ruled out:

Forced air - I already have 7 system fans and a heatpipe/heatsink combo, too much noise.
Passive heatsink and heatpipe - Yes, extremely quiet but heat transfer not good enough for extreme overclocking
Submersion - I'd really love to give this a go but is generally left to high end super computer components and people with friends in high places :)
CO2 (dry ice) - Another one to play with and if I ever get an old CPU from somewhere I think I'll have a go.  Problem here is that you need to be able to supply a continual 'stream' of the stuff to the processor in order to keep it  cool while you play.  I have read an article where someone used a coke can as the CPU block, must dig out that link.




Posted by 42 [Modding] ( April 15, 2005 03:27 PM ) Permalink | Comments[3]

Let there be, water?

So tough choices coming up, should I upgrade my rig now to get blinding frame rates or wait for PCI express, SLI (2 x video cards), DDR2 and dual core CPU's for my gaming experience?

I'm going to wait, but this isn't such a bad thing, it means I'll just have to get what I can out of my existing components through overclocking, better still - overclocking with extreme cooling.

Why all the bother with cooling, apart from the fact to me that the most interesting part about OC isn't so much the additional horse power you can squeeze out of a 3 y/o chip (taking a 2.4Ghz chip to 3.2Ghz for example) but the available options you have for cooling the thing down when you're doing so!

So far my research into cooling options has lead me to consider 7 possibilities, 5 are realistic for my poor home machine whereas the others can only be put down to 'hell I'd love the option to play with'.

1)   Forced air (heatsink and fan) - "stock" cooling used on the majority if not all but custom computers systems.
2)   Water cooling
3)   Phase change
4)   Peilter
5)   Passive heatsink and heatpipe
6)   Submersion
7)   CO2 (dry ice)

6 and 7 are really not options I could consider but would be fun to play with...  anyone know any science majors :)?


Posted by 42 [Modding] ( April 14, 2005 09:40 AM ) Permalink | Comments[0]