Overclocking a Geforce GTX260 with nVidia nTune
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| Overclocking Results: |
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Gigabyte's GV-N26OC896H-GA videocard ships from the factory with its nVidia GT200
GPU pre-overclocked from the default 576 MHz to 630MHz. The 896MB of GDDR3 memory
runs at a cool 1000 MHz, only 1MHz faster than the 999MHz
default speed. Overclocking nVidia GT200-based videocards has always been a bit tricky, so
it will be interesting to see how much further PCSTATS
will be able to push this factory overclocked videocard...
Overclocking was done through nVidia's nTune utility
which unlocks GPU and memory clock speed. PCSTATS started with the GPU first,
pausing to test the results with a quick 3D benchmark before continuing.
Starting with the GeForce GTX260 GPU the clock speed was
increased in 25MHz increments from 630MHz, and in no time the Gigabyte videocard
was purring at 650MHz, then 680... 704... and finally 713MHz. Next came the
896MB of GDDR3 memory which is clocked by default
at 1000 MHz. The Gigabyte GV-N26OC896H-GA's memory was overclocked more aggressively, jumping all the way
up to 1211MHz, then 1243... 1254... 1276... before settling on a max speed of
1287MHz.
Together the nVidia GTX260 GPU and
GDDR3 memory on the Gigabyte GV-N26OC896H-GA videocard ran comfortably overclocked at 704MHz GPU / 1222MHz memory
without crashing or any obvious signs of artifacts in the 3D benchmarks.
Whereas recent ATI Radeon videocards have run
overclocked well at the respective maximum speed for the GPU and memory,
the Geforce GTX260 GPU series is much more picky. It often takes a few minutes of
tinkering to find which GPU and memory overclocked speeds run well together.
Still, it's nice to know that even a
factory overclocked videocard can be pushed a little faster if you desire!
Prelude to
Benchmarks:
The details of how the Gigabyte GV-N26OC896H-GA
videocard test system was configured for benchmarking; the specific hardware,
software drivers, operating system and benchmark versions are indicated below.
In the second column are the general specs for the reference platforms this
nVidia GeForce GTX260 (core 216) 896MB based videocard is to be compared
against. Please take a moment to look over PCSTATS test system configurations
before moving on to the individual benchmark results on the next page.
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| PCSTATS Test System Configurations |
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Benchmark results are organized by GPU manufacturer
first (AMD/ATI or nVidia), then by GPU generation, and then by GPU class (high
end, mainstream, value). This approach provides a clearer view of how
performance can differ from generation to generation, and class to previous
generation. The product being tested is marked with the red colour bar.
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