As you may or may not know a few months ago I purchased components to make up a very good PC that altogether cost £600.. So I got it, built it up, set it up and voila. It works like magic. I haven't overclocked anything. And it runs idle not OC'd at about 30 Degrees. My ram timings are high I've been told (5-5-5-18) my GPU is a Radeon HD 3850 512MB that can easily be OC'd to perform as well as a 3870...And my CPU is normal. The thing is, I know LOTS about computers but one thing I have never touched upon is Overclocking. I've looked on sites, I've looked in forums...But never got any proper help. So afterdawn, can you help me? With my GPU I got the ATi Catalyst and it has ATi Overdrive which allows you to OC the GPU. I have no idea what the max I should set it to so I just increased it a little bit and left it like that. It tested and said it passed. I know how to access BIOS but I don't know what to change. I don't want to F' up my whole system and burn out my ram. And soon I'm going to be installing XP Ultimate ( www.winxpu.com ) made by an unofficial source, And my brother has it and says it's very good, plus it's x86/64 bit so it is compatible with 4GB ram, and I just wanted to know, to do a clean install I would download it, put it on a DVD, format the harddrive after backing up the data to an external HD, and then restart with the DVD in the drive and install it...Or..Do I put the disc in and click "Clean install?" most of you probably don't use XPU so you don't know but still... My components are... RAM - http://www.ebuyer.com/product/98710 MOBO http://www.ebuyer.com/product/136363 PSU http://www.ebuyer.com/product/131052 CPU http://www.ebuyer.com/product/130484 GPU http://www.ebuyer.com/product/139408 Another thing...My FPS on CSS..(Counter strike source) and other games..The max it goes is 60. That's it. The other day on CSS Vsync was on, I turnt it off and it went up to 300. But still..When I record with fraps it goes ALL the way back down to 30~40 and lags like hell. It was working fine before but now I don't know...I didn't change anything...? Help me =(. My friend told me the reason why it's recording slow with FRAPS (I've got the registered version btw, recording at 50 FPS just like normal, I set it to 60 and it worked fine, and 100 too) , he's saying I should buy more ram. Another 2GIG. I've already got 2GB and it was working fine. And it's GOOD ram too not crappy unbranded ram...Argh... (
here is a good guide that will explain how to do it. read that and if you have any other questions just ask. http://www.asusreviews.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=6
No offense, but your friend's a n00b. You won't be running out of RAM recording CS:S. It's simply a lack of processing power, and it's to be expected whilst running Fraps. As for the overclocking, doing the graphics card is easy. Go into overdrive and unlock the overclocking section. Then raise the GPU frequency around 50mhz then go test. If it passes, accept it, if not, restore it and drop back a bit. If it does pass, keep increasing the speed by one notch on the slider and test again. Repeat until you get a crash/black screen or otherwise fails the test. Then set the speed to one notch below the last setting that worked properly. Do the same for the memory and then you're done! CPU overclocking is done in a similar way, except you will usually get varying degrees of stability. Sometimes it'll POST/boot, other times not, and even if it does boot windows fine, it may crash in a stability test. Raise your CPU voltage to around 0.07-0.08V above what it normally is in the M.I.T. section (I believe that makes 1.40V) and then raise the Front side bus accordingly to achieve your desired overclock. Also adjust the memory multiplier so the memory doesn't exceed its rated speed. For example at a 333mhz FSB, your CPU is at stock, so using the 2.4x multiplier you will make 800mhz, this is ideal. To overclock to a 400mhz FSB (3.2Ghz) you need only change the multiplier down to 2.0x. To overclock further than 3.2Ghz, you will need to raise the voltage to the memory, as you're now overclocking that as well. Don't go above 2.2V (+0.4V)
Thanks for the guide, bookmarked. The thing about overdrive, I figured that out. The only thing is I don't use ATi's drivers anymore, I use Omega drivers. Any help? I tried it, raised the bars, benched, pressed apply and it didn't work. What am I supposed to do? Raise it, press apply(ornot?) and then press "calculate?" Calculate restarts the PC though... huh....And btw I worked out fraps. I'll just use the source console recorder and play it through the console and then record it with fraps. It will record a bit better that way and I don't lag like a...person with a crap pc? Lol.
I don't use the omega drivers for the 3800 series because I found them horrifically unstable. Maybe you've had better luck - I certainly didn't see any performance boost from using them. The latest omega release is quite old, and the 3800 series are absolutely dependent upon regular driver updates to resolve problems with certain games. If I were you, until the ATI drivers stabilise somewhat, stick with Catalyst, and then if a recent omega release appears after that, then try it.
Hmm..I see... The reason why I switched is because I read something on a forum about how it boosts your FPS slightly higher and is less buggy. But it was 3 years old so :/. Also...My refresh rate is 60Hz @ 1440x900 right? So with vsync on games my FPS goes to 60.. That's fine right? I can't get any higher Refresh rate than 60 and lowering my resolution smudges the text... :/. Thanks for the omega tip .
Vsync will limit your frame rate to your refresh rate. On an LCD, 60Hz is such that the human eye can't distinguish between it and anything higher. To see how well you're doing out of curiosity, disable Vsync. There's no need to increase your refresh rate.
Yeah I disabled it and got 300 . I uninstalled the omega drivers and tried to install the ATi ones (I used driver magician to locate the drivers) and they didn't work so I'll try the official ATi site.
I tried it and it said "setup did not find a driver compatible with your operating system" or something like that. Wtf?
well, which OS are you running? I've never had to have it search for me, I just selected my card and OS and the job was done.
it might be because I didn't restart after I uninstalled the drivers but I installed them before and they were FINE... XP Pro, 32Bit
