Overclocking a Geforce 6600GT

[joejccva]

What's the best tool to use to overclock video cards? Coolbits 2.0? or RivaTuner that comes with my motherboard? Also how do you know when enough is enough? Is there a way to tell "max safe video overclock" without ruining your card?

Anyone have a short clean cut video overclocking guide for Geforce 6600GT it would be appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[corpseofworms]

I use coolbits to OC.

www.sunkend.com

 

[ssvegeta1010]

Any OC that doesnt cause your card to overheat, and is stable and free from artifacts, is a safe OC.

 

[theMan]

get NVTweak. thats wut i use. lucky you dont have an xfx like i do with a crappy cooler that fills up with dust and idles at 60C and overclockes only to 525/1050.

 

[joejccva]

Does NVTweak also have a temperature monitor and fan rpm monitor for my geforce 6600GT? I need to be able to see how hot it's getting.

Edited:
Oops nevermind I found the GPU Core Temperature monitor in my Display settings. LOL. Sorry. The temperature running stock is at 52C, is that normal? Also after I overclock it, what's the normal temperature for the card to be at while overclocked? How high can these cards go before they get too hot?

 

[joejccva]

Bumpage, just a few questions above please.

 

[theMan]

just overclock it a little bit at a time, and as soon as you get artifacts in games reduce it. test core speed and mem speed separately. if it overheats, you will get artifacts. usually, once it gets into the upper 70s you will notice slowdowns and artifacts.

 

[qbackin]

Originally posted by: joejccva
Does NVTweak also have a temperature monitor and fan rpm monitor for my geforce 6600GT? I need to be able to see how hot it's getting.

Edited:
Oops nevermind I found the GPU Core Temperature monitor in my Display settings. LOL. Sorry. The temperature running stock is at 52C, is that normal? Also after I overclock it, what's the normal temperature for the card to be at while overclocked? How high can these cards go before they get too hot?

I have 2 6600Gt both stock. 1 idles 49 and the other 44, it also helps to have sufficient cooling in your case. Which I assume you do. It is a good idea to invest in an aftermarket cooler when OC'ing your Vcard, as the stock hs/f usually isnt the best.

Cliff notes:
52 isnt bad ive seen worse. 65 makes me uneasy imo.
Try and apply some AS5 and re-seat heatsink to see if it helps.
Buy an artic cooler to OC!

 

[mike890]

my 6600 non-Gt overclocked to 500core and 580mem runs stable at a temperature of 75 load. should i clock down?

 

[The Pentium Guy]

! YES?
If you see artifacts and all... you KNOW that's not a safe clock.

 

[MADMAX23]

I use Coolbits 2.0. Very simple and nice results.
My current stable overclock is :
GPU: 567 Mhz
MEM: 605 Mhz = 1210 Mhz effective
My card: XFX 6600GT GDDR3 1.2ns

For stability testing I use Aquamark3 with all quality settings set to the highest:
1024x768,Very high detail, AA: 4x, AF:16x, sound: on
fps average: 51

If the Aquamark test stops suddenly(freezes, you need to reboot the Pc), your videocard is not stable, and if you see artifacts (green irregular spots) that will warn to slow down your overclock.

My max temp: 63ºc, my Idle temp: 52ºc

 

[joejccva]

Nice gains on the video OC there Madmax!

Question:

If I remove my HSF from my geforce 6600GT, should I clean the chipset and the bottom of the heatsink with some alcohol first before applying AS5. Or can I just detach, apply and go!

 

[MADMAX23]

Originally posted by: theman
get NVTweak. thats wut i use. lucky you dont have an xfx like i do with a crappy cooler that fills up with dust and idles at 60C and overclockes only to 525/1050.

Which XFX model?? 6600GT or 6600??

 

[joejccva]

I dont have XFX.

I have the Gigabyte 6600GT 128mb PCI-ex card.


Oops nevermind you weren't asking me. Sorry

 

[MADMAX23]

joejccva, don't remove your Gigabyte's retail HSF because it's glued with a special thermal paste/glue!!
There is a site where the reviewer did that and couldn't get afterwards normal temps, He got 90ºc at load after that, no matter what he did...be careful!!
If you remove the HS, its contact with the GPU once installed won't be the same as before and you'll get very high temps!!

 

[joejccva]

Originally posted by: MADMAX23
joejccva, don't remove your Gigabyte's retail HSF because it's glued with a special thermal paste/glue!!
There is a site where the reviewer did that and couldn't get afterwards normal temps, He got 90ºc at load after that, no matter what he did...be careful!!
If you remove the HS, its contact with the GPU once installed won't be the same as before and you'll get very high temps!!

I haven't done it yet and won't now. Thanks so much for letting me know this! I'm actually thinking about just not messing with overclocking the video card at all. Well maybe do it a very little bit but nothing too extreme. LOL.

 

[MADMAX23]

Don't worry about oc your Gigabyte, in fact it's one of the best overclockable 6600GT in the market.
You may be able to oc it up to 589Mhz for the Gpu and 1100-1200 Mhz for the Mem!!
Oc it, but don't remove the retail HSF, that's all!!

 

[RichUK]

IIRC .. Artifacts are caused by the GPU overheating, and dots usually random white dots, are caused by too high of a clock on the RAMDAC's or GFX ram in other words..

RichUK

 

[joejccva]

Originally posted by: MADMAX23
Don't worry about oc your Gigabyte, in fact it's one of the best overclockable 6600GT in the market.
You may be able to oc it up to 589Mhz for the Gpu and 1100-1200 Mhz for the Mem!!
Oc it, but don't remove the retail HSF, that's all!!

Ok thanks man. Btw, can you post a link to your PSU? I wanted to see the specs on it.

 

[MADMAX23]

Here's the link:
Revoltec Star Serie Chromus II 500W

 

[MADMAX23]

REVOLTEC is a german brand, their new PSU, the Star Serie Chromus II 500W v2 (mine), rocks...high efficiency and barely audible. Its design is similar to OCZ's Modstream...but I prefer Revoltec's.

 

[joejccva]

Originally posted by: MADMAX23
REVOLTEC is a german brand, their new PSU, the Star Serie Chromus II 500W v2 (mine), rocks...high efficiency and barely audible. Its design is similar to OCZ's Modstream...but I prefer Revoltec's.

Nice.

+3,3V = 28A, +5V = 36A, +12V = 29A, -12V = 0,8A, -5V = 0,5A, +5Vsb = 2,5A

The reason I asked is cause I almost have the same pc specs you do. I knew I should have gotten a 500W PSU or better when I placed my original order. And I asked folks, is an Antec 430W dual rail PSU good enough for my system keeping in mind I want to overclock and people said yes it's fine. But it turns out that it isn't. It's not enough power let alone enough amperage on the rails themselves to overclock with. Sure the 430W is good enough to run stock, but even then in the Asus A8N SLI manual it says the recommended amperage for the motherboard is 18A. Well the Antec TruePower II 430W only has 17A on each rail so when I overclocked it buckled and shuts off my machine automatically.

I'm getting the Rosewill 550W single rail PSU.

Specs are:
+3.3V@30A, +5V@50A, +12V@35A, -5V@0.5A, -12V@1A, +5VSB@2.5A

Here is link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817182010

It might be an overkill for only running 1 video card, 1 hard drive, 1 dvd burner but I want to make sure that I have enough power this time.

 

[MADMAX23]

It seems to be a powerful PSU, good luck Joe!!

 

[ssvegeta1010]

Originally posted by: mike890
my 6600 non-Gt overclocked to 500core and 580mem runs stable at a temperature of 75 load. should i clock down?

NO. Do not clock down. 75 is a perfectly safe temp. Only up in the 80s-90s is near unsafe.

 

[MADMAX23]

Originally posted by: ssvegeta1010

Originally posted by: mike890
my 6600 non-Gt overclocked to 500core and 580mem runs stable at a temperature of 75 load. should i clock down?

NO. Do not clock down. 75 is a perfectly safe temp. Only up in the 80s-90s is near unsafe.

Yeah, don't clock down. Although it's a pretty high temp it won't kill the Gpu.