BF2S Forums Overclocking a 6600GT

Freezer7Pro wrote:

Download RivaTuner and install it. Run it, and click the arrow on the right side of "ForceWare detected". Click the picture of a video card. Now you should see two sliders, a tick box saying "Enable driver-level hardware overclocking", and a grey selection box. Tick the box, and select "performance 3D" in the selection box.

Now, just move the sliders 10-20MHz at a time, and run some 3D application to test every 40-50MHz. The memory usually won't clock as much as the core, keep that in mind.

When you've got speeds that you're happy with, tick the "Apply overclocking at Windows startup" box, and you're pretty much set.

Cooling shouldn't be too much trouble, since the 6 series cards are pretty cool. You could undust the cooler with some canned air, though.

Yes rivatuner is ok... i have had some issues with it though... i have to use riva tuner in combination with Powerstrip to overclock properly... its weird i now... but its how i overcame my OC problem.

r'Eeee wrote:

Don't bother. You will be lucky if you get an extra frame/s. Not worth imho.

It's not worth 10 minutes to get an extra 15-20% graphics performance? Every frame counts with that kind of card.

Thanks Freezer. I take it the blue area there is the 'safe distance' or something?
I put it on 520Mhz core and 1052Mhz memory clock now, I hope that doesn't break things I'm not all too keen on replacing it right now, and I have no idea on how far I can take it.

jamesb wrote:

Download THIS.

It's the Nvidia tuner that will do it for you.
Leave it running and it finds the most stable speeds.

ntune is a piece of shit.

Rivatuner is the way to go.

Got my 8800GTX from 575 / 900 to 600 / 1000, idles between 50 and 60, goes as high as 80 under load.

Definately helps, didn't add much extra heat at all.

Last edited by PBAsydney (2008-02-22 17:16:32)

First of all, you should monitor your temperatures. Im so surprised no-one mentioned that yet, it's important if you don't wanna fry your card.
First, set the fan to 100%, may be noisy, but runs a lot cooler. (Rivatuner (under the monitor rollup bar) > Customize > Low Level fan settings > 100% > Apply at startup ).
On the same row as Low Level Fan Settings there is also "Hardware monitoring". Click it. Click the red record button left bottom of your screen (with all the green grids), then right-click on the ambient temperature grid and select setup. Now tick the box Show Core Temperature in Tray Icon. Close these windows and the temp of your graphics card should be showed in the Windows tray. Try not to go above 75 on load, Im not sure how much a 6600GT can handle. I fried my 6600GT by OC'ing it on stock cooler so be careful and OC in small steps like Freezer explained.
Have fun

I recommend Everest for checking temperatures.

i know from experience that u have to try really hard to burn new cards out.... i OC'd my 8600 WAY to much... nothing happened except the blue screen when i tried to open a game then when i restarted i just dialed it back lol...

saying that.. i have no experience with a 6600 but if u do OC it too far i doubt it will handle itself as well as the new cards do.

xGj wrote:

Freezer7Pro wrote:

xGj wrote:

First of all, you should monitor your temperatures. Im so surprised no-one mentioned that yet, it's important if you don't wanna fry your card.
First, set the fan to 100%, may be noisy, but runs a lot cooler. (Rivatuner (under the monitor rollup bar) > Customize > Low Level fan settings > 100% > Apply at startup ).
On the same row as Low Level Fan Settings there is also "Hardware monitoring". Click it. Click the red record button left bottom of your screen (with all the green grids), then right-click on the ambient temperature grid and select setup. Now tick the box Show Core Temperature in Tray Icon. Close these windows and the temp of your graphics card should be showed in the Windows tray. Try not to go above 75 on load, Im not sure how much a 6600GT can handle. I fried my 6600GT by OC'ing it on stock cooler so be careful and OC in small steps like Freezer explained.
Have fun

elbekko wrote:

I tried checking the temps with Speedfan before, but it wasn't really clear which one was the GPU
I'll check in RivaTuner later on.

There is no real "stock" cooler for the 6600 series. nVidia delivered it with many different sets of coolers to the OEMs, wihch usually changed the cooler. Most of those coolers can handle everything a 6600 can throw at them, though. I'd recommend just putting a hand on top of the card and feeling if it's too hot whiles under load.

Second, I don't think the 6600 series has got any temp sensor, nor fan controller. My 6600 (Same core, NV43) hasn't got any, and the fan is always maxed if connected to the card.

Third, you can go a lot higher than 520MHz core. Currently, I run my 6600 AGP, wich has a default core clock of 300MHz at 450MHz. Don't know if it's 100% stable, but I know that I've ran it at more than 500MHz.

My PCI-e version has a temp sensor, as for the fan speed I wouldn't know. It's in my other pc, Im too lazy to look for it now.

Yeah, might just be the AGP version that doesn't have it. AGP is such a limited bus in terms of pheripherals and features.

EDIT:

This thread inspied me to go on and overclock my old 6600, even if I don't use this computer for gaming. It went all the way up to 560MHz without major artifacts. 540 100% stable, from 300MHz (Didn't touch the RAM, it's just crappy DDR RAM in the 6600 not GT.). That's a 240MHz overclock that has bought this computer about 400 points in 3DMark 06. Now, the 6600GT is stocked at 500, and is based on the same 110nm technology and core as the 6600, so don't expect a 200+MHz overclock out of it. Go up 10MHz at a time, run 3DMark (Any version), the first test to check temps and artifacts. If those are ok, go up another 10MHz. I'd expect your card to go up to somewhere around 600-620MHz.

Before:


After:


A strange thing I've noticed is that I get higher scores with this Athlon MP 1600+ than I got with this card and a 3GHz P4...

Last edited by Freezer7Pro (2008-02-23 06:00:25)

elbekko wrote:

Well, this is odd. I installed Everest and it says (under Computer > Overclock) that the GPU Clock is 301Mhz and the standard is 500Mhz... But in RivaTuner it says it's at 520Mhz.

Anyway, GPU temp is 53°C, GPU Diode temp is 40°C and 'GPU surroundings', what ever it may be, is at 33°C.

That lower clock there is bothering me tho. Really odd.

It's propably throttled in 2D mode, to save heat and power. And 53C on 2D mode is a tad too hot, I'm afraid, you should blow out the cooler.

And the overclocking you've applied in RivaTuner is only for 3D mode.

elbekko wrote:

Been playing a bit of Crysis, FPS is 2-5fps higher so that's a good thing

Just checking the temps now... 61°C on the GPU diode and 47 on the GPU.
I'll go clean out the fan.

How much have you clocked it?