I know it's old but...

[DJBeanPole17]

I have a Tornado 1000 case w/ 5 fans in it, and a fan over my GPU card - Hercules ProphetII GeForce2 GTS 64MB running at 200/333.

Is there any possible way to squeeze any more juice out of this card - can the clock speeds be pushed any further? If so how? I bought this case for future overclocks and was wondering if I could speed my OLD video card up a tad before I decide to totally upgrade my system. Thanks.

[Colossus]

The only person to tell you the answer is you

Its all based on trial and error.. If someone else has the same exact card it is possible he or she cannot overclock as high or even higher then you... So just try increasing the core/mem by a few Mhz at a time and play a game.. IF you see artifacts or sharp lightning bolts across the screen or random colors or patterns.. Then drop it down

[Reign]

Originally posted by Colossus
IF you see artifacts or sharp lightning bolts across the screen or random colors or patterns.. Then drop it down

or stay away from the drugs

[Colossus]

But I like all the purty lights!

[GB_Cobber]

Hercules GTS's were generally quite good overclockers.

As with all memory bottlnecked GF2's overclocking the memory will yeild good results.

I wouldnt even bother with the core untill you can get the ram up to 400Mhz which isnt likely but not unheard of for herc GTS.

It would be helpfull if you could read the ram models to see what brand and speed the ram is(unless it has ramsinks)

Speed in the number(s) after - given in ns(nanoseconds)
ie

Samsung xxx
xxxxxxxx -6

It will probably have 6ns(166mhz or 333@DDR)
Some of the old 6ns would actually get close to 400.

If your real lucky it might be 5ns(200Mhz,400@DDR)ram and you could turn that card into a GF2 Pro.

You never know with ram. I have a GF2Pro with 5ns EliteMT ram which runs fine at 495Mhz while i also have a GF2ti with 4ns(500Mhz) cheap ram that doesnt do 480 clean. But i think Hercules used good stuff so you should have some headroom.
Im sure you'l get 366 without trying.That would make it a fake pro.

Easiest way to OC is with coolbits. Its just a reg key which unlocks an OC option in Nvidia drivers. Youl find a new tab in display properties/settings etc.
http://download.guru3d.com/ utilities section.

3D2K1 is a good OC tetser for that card. Watch the game tests after each clock increase and look for dots that shouldnt be there or larger visual artifacts. when you start to see artifacts back it off 10-20Mhz and your done.(with the memory)

Core overclocking really isnt neccesary and makes the GPU hot.
Most GF2 coolers are already too small and shorten the lifespan of the card by being so. I dont remember what the herc GTS cooler was but i think it was better than most.
As long as you keep it cool and your lucky it might do 230Mhz.

have fun.
Its been cool talking about GF2's again

[DJBeanPole17]

Thanks Cobber -

It is the 6ns memory - is there any program I can use that will tell me the temperature of my video card? I will use the coolbits registry trick and unlock the core/mem speeds. You said not to touch the core speeds but try and boost memory up. I'll see what I can do

[DJBeanPole17]

It's memory overclocked easily to 400 (actualy 401 according to Coolbits). So now it's gone from 200/333 to 200/400 - which as I believe I read, is a "fake" GeForce2 Pro card. I also read that the GeForce2 Ultra speeds run at 230/460? I bet the memory could reach that high, but as for the core would that even been necessary??? No artifacts in Q3A.

[GB_Cobber]

Wow. thats really good for 6ns ram. Nice card
But dont forget to test in 3D2K1.

A fake pro is 200/366
A real Pro is 200/400
A Ti is 250/400
Ultra is 250/460.

You now have a GF2Pro.

You can only monitor temp if the card has a temp sensor and a utility to read them. that ussually means using their drivers too.

Just use the old rule of finger.
Hold finger firmly to back of the core for as long as you can.
over 10 secs is cool. over 5 should be ok but not good for it. under 3 is ussually too hot and will start to fail.

Here's an old Clock test i did on my GF2 a few years ago.
Notice the small gain from core overclocking over the memory.
I havent posted this in years


I spent a couple of Hours benchmarking my GF2 Pro at different clock speeds to see for myself the real difference between GF2 DDR based cards.
There seems to be quite a big difference from slowest to fastest.
Ultra is up to 50% fatser than GTS-V and 35% faster than GTS.

AThlon TB @ 7x119-833MHz,256Mb @ CL-2
MSI GF2 Pro Plus T64D 5ns EliteMT SDram.
MDK2 Demo Open GL benckmark. Its old but its fast and fine for a clock speed comparison,also very stable under the highest clock speed.I saw a little texture tearing with mem at 520.Very little and windows was clean.This is 5ns(400Mhz) ram,mind.
Det4 22.80,GeForce tweaker for overclocking.

FSAA off, Vsync off,otherwise settings at driver defaults.

640x480-16 = 118fps at any speed so is my CPU base score.

175/286 - GTS-V

1024x768-16 = 115.5
1024x768-32 = 88.5
1280x1024-16 = 93
1280x1024-32 = 56.5

200/333 - GTS

1024x768-16 = 117
1024x768-32 = 101.5
1280x1024-16 = 105
1280x1024-32 = 67

200/400 - Pro

1024x768-16 = 118
1024x768-32 = 112
1280x1024-16 = 112.5
1280x1024-32 = 80.5

248/400 - Ti

1024x768-16 = 118
1024x768-32 = 112.5
1280x1024-16 = 113
1280x1024-32 = 82

248/460 - Ultra

1024x768-16 = 118
1024x768-32 = 115
1280x1024-16 = 116
1280.1024-32 = 93

240/490 - Safe

1024x768-16 = 118
1024x768-32 = 116
1280x1024-16 = 117
1280x1024-32 = 97

248/520 - Max

1024x768-16 = 118
1024x768-32 = 116.5
1280x1024-16 = 117.5
1280x1024-32 = 102.5


1024x768-32 2xFSAA + anisotropic filtering(default level)

175/286 = 36.5 - GTS-V
200/333 = 43.5 - GTS
200/400 = 52 - Pro
248/400 = 54 - Ti
248/460 = 60.5 - Ultra
200/490 = 61
240/490 = 64
248/520 = 68.5

800x600-32 2xFSAA + anisotropic filtering(default level)

175/286 = 59 - GTS-V
200/333 = 69.5 - GTS
200/400 = 82 - Pro
248/400 = 84 - Ti
248/460 = 93.5 - Ultra
200/490 = 94.5
240/490 = 97
248/520 = 101.5
-------------------------------------

On my Athlon @10x133-1.33Ghz,KT266a DDR the same card was tested in MDK2.
Driver on this rig is 22.40 and may explain the slighly higher AA+ani scores on the 833.
(my apologies for not including higer res scores here, but this 15" monitor doesnt like it)


640x480-16 = 190fps

175/286 - GTS-V

1024x768-16 = 138
1024x768-32 = 88
1024x768-16,2xAA+ani = 58.5
1024x768-32,2xAA+ani = 36

200/333 - GTS

1024x768-16 = 157
1024x768-32 = 103
1024x768-16,2xAA+ani = 68
1024x768-32,2xAA+ani = 43

200/400 - Pro

1024x768-16 = 172
1024x768-32 = 126
1024x768-16,2xAA+ani = 76
1024x768-32,2xAA+ani = 51.5

248/400 - Ti

1024x768-16 = 176
1024x768-32 = 127
1024x768-16,2xAA+ani = 82
1024x768-32,2xAA+ani = 52.5

248/460 - Ultra

1024x768-16 = 184
1024x768-32 = 142.5
1024x768-16,2xAA+ani = 89.5
1024x768-32,2xAA+ani = 60

248/490 - Safe

1024x768-16 = 185.5
1024x768-32 = 149
1024x768-16,2xAA+ani = 92
1024x768-32,2xAA+ani = 63.5


248/520 - Max

1024x768-16 = 186
1024x768-32 = 155
1024x768-16,2xAA+ani = 95.5
1024x768-32,2xAA+ani = 67.5

[DJBeanPole17]

I noticed that there wasn't a huge leap in performance from the Pro to the Ultra (in terms of if I overclocked). So many I should just leave the card alone - or should I push it??? Heh *evil grin*

[Thunderbird1GHz]

Originally posted by Reign


or stay away from the drugs

heh well stay away from crack and heroin. The psychadelics ill leave it up to your imagination, but I "heard" those make you see artifacts in real life



"i also have a GF2ti with 4ns(500Mhz) cheap ram that doesnt do 480 clean."


same here, not sure what ns the ram is but it wont go past 440MHz


"Core overclocking really isnt neccesary and makes the GPU hot."


I never gained anything worthwhile from a geforce2 core overclock, but geforces3 and up are worth it


push the ram dude, 5MHz at a time then back off. go ahead

[DJBeanPole17]

Well, I found a limit to the card. I was trying to achieve the Ultra speeds of 250/460, but only managed to get to 230/430 before it froze up and artifacts galore. Should I just leave the core alone and push memory even further or just keep it at 200/400???