need help overclocking my video card

[ForceFedFlesh]

i have an nvidia AGP 6800 ultra. its stock core clock is 400mhz and the memory clock is 1.1ghz(1100).
i overclocked its core to 444mhz and mem clock to 1180. i tried overclocking it further than this but wen i test it, i get a message saying that the driver failed the internal test. i was wondering if theres a way to get around that?

ive read articles reviewing this card saying that they overclocked more than mine

[onelegout]

From what I understand it is possible, but the dangers outweigh the benefits in my opinion. Unless you have very good cooling you're not going to be able to overclock much higher than the driver test allows before experiencing problems. I prefer to have mine 10mhz under the driver fail limit. I have had overheating problems with my 6600GT at the driver test limit.

You realy need to think about how much you will actualy gain by the extra 50-100mhz overclock on the core - probably not enough to merit the possibility of burning it up!

Also, some chips overclock better than others - the articles you have read may have gotten lucky and got a very overclockable gpu. You may equaly have gotten unlucky and got a gpu which doesn't overclock well. So don't totaly rely on how far other people have pushed their chips when determining how far you can push yours safely.

Just my two cents
H

P.S. If anything that i have just said is wrong, please correct me because i dont want to mislead anyone and im not exacty an expert when it comes to overclocking!

[sega01]

thats a nice card, i have an fx5500 in my windows desktop and a asus mx440 gforce4 in my slackware desktop. i would not recommend overclocking past what the driver says is stable, any higher and you can get artifacts/overheating. i would recommend getting ram sinks if the card doesnt have them, and possibly replacing the gpu cooler. my asus was 250/400 i think and i brought it up to 320/520. i added ram heatsinks, and a fan to the gpu on my mx440, the extra cooling really helped. my fx5500 is slower than my mx440 even when it is overclocked. some cards overclock much better than others - typically due to the quality of the ram.

whatever you do, dont kill the card. but i do think you should be able to overclock it much higher than that, probally around 460/1220

[Slug Toy]

ive got the same card as you do (well pretty much, mines actually a reference card). im not surprised by what you got. mine is running at 455/1150 right now. for some reason its very hard to get these buggers to overclock on air cooling. i know for a fact that they can achieve 500MHz or more on the core and above 1.3GHz on the ram with watercooling or other more extreme methods.

sega is probably right about being able to go to 460/1220. i mean, for god sake, its an ULTRA! they dont call them ultra for nothing.

onelegout is right about luck of the draw too. you might have gotten a chip that just cant handle high frequencies. i probably did too. hard to say though.

you could try going .1V over stock on the core and ram, and hopefully it wont add on to the heat. dont chance it though, im not going to until i upgrade, and then ill overclock the hell out of everything in my old system to see what it can do.

so, ya, 444/1180 is respectable/expectable on air cooling. it creeps higher and higher with every driver update from what ive seen. just dont do something stupid, and if you do, video tape it.

[bartvandenberg]

ive read the highest stable overclock on the pcie version of the card is 450/1200. ive had mine at that for months. no overvoltage, stock cooling. run rock stable. not a kickass overclock, but.. does the trick a mild and safe overclocker like me.....:D

edit: just overclocked it to 460/1220 stable so far after 2 hours of call of duty2. temps are no change

[legoman786]

The most feasable possibility to get higher than what you have now, is to change the voltage on the card... And let me tell you IT IS NOT FUN TO DO IT!! It can kill your card in a heartbeat! But if you really want to do it then go ahead. The guys at http://www.overclock.net can help you out.

[public_eyesore]

yea, volt mods and water cooling are the only way to get more juice. But if you are even asking how to do this, you shouldn't. You need electical knowledge, and volt modding is way too time consuming for the clock.

[bartvandenberg]

Dont even play around with voltages. its not worth it. like i said, ive got mine up to 460/1220 no voltage change. but.. like u can read elsewhere, you wont see enough change to make it worth tryin to majorly overclock your card.

[pyromaniac_yeti]

overclocking wise, i used riva tuner on my mx4000 (128mb AGP) and with the addition of a fan cooler on the core ive had it running 403/421 (core/mem) with no problems, which as the core should be running at 275mhz aint bad in my opinion. but then my case has got a fairly good airflow. if your going to overlock it make sure you add an extra fan or two or if youve got some money to spare possibly a watercooling kit?

[bartvandenberg]

and i suggest overclocking nvidia cards with coolbits. downloadable from nvidia's site or guru3d. sets itself in the registry and then is accessible from advanced options in your display properties.. very very user friendly..