Which program to o/c GF3 ti200?

[tantone]

What program out there is the best to overclock a GF3 ti200? I have a Gainward, and it came with their ExperTool program, but I want something else. I don't use their drivers so I don't want to install any of their stuff.

BTW, it's already at 200/450 because of that Golden Sample thing.

Thanks.

[richard_cocks]

I use NVmax to OC my TNT2. Works a treat and has other tweaks. www.nvmax.com should work I think.

[missiveusa]

Try the GeForce Tweak Utility at http://www.guru3d.com .

[NDD]

RivaTuner (http://www.nvworld.ru/downloads/rivatuner.zip) is the best for me (and I'm getting paid for advertising :) ).

[Jimstep]

Be careful with the Geforce Tweak Utility. I've had all kinds of problems messing my graphics configuration up. I don't run it anymore. I know, it's because I don't know what I'm doing. I use Pstrip software. It seems to be much safer for me and I can overclock, which is all I ever want to do with it anyway.

[Strat]

I've seen Rivatuner in action, and also GTU (Geforce Tweak Utility) they both look powerful progs and have good options, is it ABSOLUTELY imperitive that you OC your GF3 Ti200.......because those cards are usualy very high quality and very good spec...no need really till something comes out that they can't hadle which won't be for a lil while yet :D

[InnovaZero]

Yeah that's the beauty of almost (I say almost cause there are some really cheap GF3 Ti 200's out there that suck fo OCing) any GF3 Ti 200 card. They qown in todays games, and if the performance is a little low later on, OC it to between GF3 and GF3 Ti 500 speeds and bam back up to be able to play just fine.

[Newbie2building]

hey tantone, i got the same card.. what drivers are u using and where can i get it???

[shark_megabyte]

I have this same card too. Are the Detonator drivers working better for it than the ones on the cd? And if they are, what version is doing better?

[Newbie2building]

I need to know!! lol

[butthook]

I use geforce tweak utility its worked very well for me. Gainward ti200 is a great OCer mine is purring along at 250/550 !!!! Oh Ive also used coolbits which is a little safer to use.

[richard_cocks]

for XP users 28.32 seems to be reportly the best, (don't get 23.31 though, they can cause problems). 21.83 seems quite good. For 98/me uers, much into 2X.XX won't make too much difference, and the 10.40 or 16.XX series seem to give best results from what I have read. This next weekend I am going to try lots of benchmarking and driver changing and I'll post the results maybe sometime.

[shark_megabyte]

Does the Nvidia site have the old versions of the drivers as well as the latest? If not, links to some of the older ones would be nice to have here :)

[richard_cocks]

I'm just trying to find some links now, I did have one but the download links just redirected back to the main page.

Also I meant 10.80 not 10.40, 10.40 were win2k only :o

[NDD]

All Detonator versions (www.guru3d.com)

[tantone]

I forgot to check e-mail notification, so I thought no one responded which is why I haven't checked back sooner.

Anyway, all I want to do is overclock the card. My processor is overclocked (11x1.33) so I feel safest overclocking just the video card and not the FSB through the BIOS. I tried using ExperTool's performance tab to overclock it, but XP randomly reboots itself after not too long. It did the same thing when I tried 11.5x1.33 for my CPU as well.

I have tried every driver (including Gainward's own) and I personally chose the WHQL Detonator drivers (21.83). They are the most stable and seem to provide roughly the same performance. Technically, I don't get as high 3DMark scores with the 21.83 drivers, but a 50 point difference isn't even noticeable in gameplay. The 23.11 drivers cause system lockups.

I have a question for all of you now. With the Gainward drivers and newest Detonators (28.32), I seem to get really good performance, EXCEPT in Unreal Tournament. When I use the 21.83, I get an average of about 90fps at 1280x1024x32 using Direct3D. When I install the above drivers, it drops to about 60fps. What's up with that? My 3DMark score goes up 50 points, but actual gameplay in UT drops about a third!!! I'm using the same settings. What's up with that?

[richard_cocks]

That might be caused with other factors including directx versions. It is strange that the difference you noticed on UT. UT actually uses direct3d which is actually what 3dmark2001 benchmarks in.

Perhaps another cause is that when you reinstalled the drivers some setting like v_sync changed and that causes a sudden drop from 90 to 60.

[tantone]

I don't think it's a refresh rate issue. I still get framerates well up into the 100's, but the average drops drastically due to a serious drop in framerates in any kind of action.

No other settings are different. When the 23.11 Det's worked for a while before the lockups, I was getting awesome rates with those. It's something to do with the newest drivers.

Has anyone out there who uses the new drivers and play UT noticed this too?

As for the overclocking, I'm leaving my card at 200/450. I ran NVmax and overclocked quite a bit. I had that thing running a flawless 3DMark at 241/538. Then I played UT, and it locked up. I had to drag it down to 241/513 to get it to play without a lockup.

Then I though I was all set and I played Medal of Honor, and it locked up at that speed. After a few more tries, lowering the clock speeds each time, I finally decided that the amount I could overclock and still enjoy problem-free gameplay was so ridiculously miniscule that it wasn't worth the effort.

I bought the GF3 because it would be a hell of a speed and stability increase over my Voodoo5. I need to just be happy with what I have vs. what I used to have. When I want it faster, I'll pop in a XP2000+ and enjoy the new speed; until the GF4ti's drop in price in another year or so.

Thanks for all the help guys.

[richard_cocks]

[edit] The latest drivers are the 28.12 and fixed a lot of probs with the 28.11, have you tried them?

[tantone]

I've installed the 28.32 Det's from nVidia's website. They cause the slowdowns in UT.

I'd love to get to the bottom of this.