Auto overclock on Geforce 5500

I have recently looked into overclocking my graphics card, as it posts sill scores in 3dmark2005 (240).

I have found a button which reads: "Detect optimal frequencies" which boosts my frequencies as so:

Core clock frequency from 270mhz to 309mhz
Memory clock frequency from 390mhz to 471mhz

This seems a really big jump. I have run this for a few days without any problems, inc playing BF2 online, which is resource hungry.

Is this a true reading of clock speed, or just a software prog lying to me?

Also, how do I overclock a P4 3ghz and how far can I safely go?

Many thanks...

It would be a true reading of your frequencies. As long as you don't see any artifacts on the screen, such as big white or colored shapes flashing on the screen, you should be in the clear. Run 3DMark03/05 and run all the games you play regularly to make sure no artifacts pop up in any of them. Sometimes one game will play just fine with your card overclocked, and other games will have artifacts or outright crash. Just up the frequencies by 2-4MHz steppings, then test, up the frequencies, test, and so on until you find the highest you can go. Be sure to also watch the temps, you don't want them to get too high.

As for overclocking the processor, you'll have to do that in your BIOS. Restart your computer and hit the "DEL" key as soon as it posts and you'll access your BIOS. If you have a computer such as a Dell, HP, Compaq, ect, you may not be able to OC your processor. If you have a custom built, you should be able to.
You can up the FSB speed to increase your overall frequency. For instance your processor would be running at 200FSBx15 Multiplier I believe, which would equal 3000MHz, or 3GHz. If you were to set it at, say for instance, 240x15 you would have 3.6GHz, so long as it ran stably. It being able to boot into Windows doesn't always mean it's stable. If you only have DDR400 RAM, you'll want to set a CPU:RAM ratio, such as setting your memory to run at DDR333 speed, or a 5:4 ratio. This will cause your RAM to run as close to DDR400 as possible, while allowing your processor to run faster. Just like overclocking your graphics card, run programs like 3DMark, PCMark and your games to make sure everything runs OK.
If your system will not post after changing your FSB settings, unplug your power cable, wait about 30 seconds, open your case, remove the onboard battery, wait another 30 seconds and replace. This will reset your BIOS to default so that you can try again. If your computer won't post with a small increase to the FSB, you can increase the voltages to your processor, but don't up them very high if you don't know what you're doing. Your processor should run somewhere around 1.4v-1.5v, so I wouldn't take it much higher than 1.0v higher than default to be on the safe side. But increase in the smallest increments that your motherboard will allow and try the settings again.

Hopefully this isn't too confusing for you, but if you have any more questions, please feel free to ask rather than experiment ;)

Just like to add, a 1.0 V increase would likely be fatal without some cooling measures.
I use something more like .05v increments when overclocking my P4 3.0E. Managed to get it to post at 4.0Ghz, it tried to get into windows but i pussied out of overvolting at about 1.6v and settled on 3.75 stable.

Many thanks to you both, system shut down in windows last night, 3 times in a row. Think the graphics card got a little too warm. I'll invest in some decent cooling before looking at the processor tho!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by JediOfDarkness

Your processor should run somewhere around 1.4v-1.5v, so I wouldn't take it much higher than 1.0v higher than default to be on the safe side. But increase in the smallest increments that your motherboard will allow and try the settings again.

---

That's what I said, dab, to increase in the smallest ammount his motherboard would allow. Whether that be .05v increments or .25v increments.

Oh, and I'm thinking you're meaning 1.375v? Because 3.75v of power would be enough to fry a processor :p

Found the shutdown problem. CPU going above 53 degrees on Football Manager 2006.
Got a new heatsink and fan for £5, runs 10 degrees lower on full load, plus idles at 25 - 27 degrees

Cheers for the advice guys.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by JediOfDarkness

That's what I said, dab, to increase in the smallest ammount his motherboard would allow. Whether that be .05v increments or .25v increments.

Oh, and I'm thinking you're meaning 1.375v? Because 3.75v of power would be enough to fry a processor :p

---

3.75 (GHz) was teh clock speed. I agree that voltage would make for a neat smoke show. ;)

OK, gotcha Dab. You didn't say GHz, so I wasn't quite sure if you meant you had upped to another 1.6v to 3.75v or what.

But let us know if you have some success overclocking yours Robert, we're always glad to see some OC postage. :t

I've got the same question. I have my P4 3 GHz ovc'd to 3,3 GHz (220x15) with the default voltage. It runs fine and my system is really faster, how high can I go? Normal temp is 41C (Winamp running in the background and Firefox I type now in) and full load is 52C (when testing it with SiSoft Sandra) My benchmark results (@222x15) have beaten the 3,6 GHz P4 LOL! It was stable but there was almost no performance increase in normal use so I came back to 220x15. My RAM frequency is now 297 MHz (it was 266 MHz normal, I have older RAM, 384 megs) And any suggestion for a nice, quiet, air cooler? Because I'm running the stock one and it's pretty noisy, but I'm not gonna mess with watercooling, prometeias etc. That would be too much $$$ spent on cooling :D

OK, you just can't ask "I've got such-and-such processor how high can it be overclocked?" Every processor can overclock differently in different systems. One person may have a lesser motherboard, RAM, ect and may get a 200-400MHz OC, while one with high quality components may get an 800MHz OC. The only way is to try and overclock it yourself. If 3.3GHz is as high as you can without it crashing, that's as high as it will go. You can try to increase your voltage, lower the frequency of your RAM, ect and maybe get another 200MHz out of it.

As for a cooling solution, you can go to http://www.newegg.com/ProductSort/Su...SubCategory=62 and search for heatsink/fan combos that fit your processor socket type and read the reviews posted on it. Since you didn't post what socket type your processor is, I can't really recommend one for you.

no, it can go higher but i've not tried it yet. i mean it's perfectly stable @ 3300, it's not the highest it can go w/o crashing. my socket is socket 478 (if i'm not wrong). anyway it's not lga775 and i remember the other model for the p4 is socket 478 :D if i remember wrong please correct me coz i'm too lazy to look for the mobo manual.

yep. it's socket 478. now perfectly stable @ 3400 (227x15) anyway, i'v read about the thermal safety intel has put in their cpu's so wheny they get too hot they slow down a lot to cool themselves. now i know there is no way of frying a p4 unless you're severely overvoltaging it. mine runs at default voltage fine. did not experience any major slowdowns yet so i guess it's not overheating (i didn't see it go over 55C yet) strangely, temps seem to go down a little after ovc'ing it :)