10/01/99 - Overclocking here - overclocking there -  whatīs up with that?

At first I want to give you a warning: I think this article will be rather old in about two or three days ;-)

Since the TNT review at Tomīs Hardware and the release of the ASUS Beta Tweak Utilities itīs a very actual topic. The drives of the Hercules Dynamite TNT give the user a possibility to overclock the card. ASUS released a beta version of a tweak utility and Creative Labs drivers offer a option to overclock the cardīs memory.

But what can you do if you want to overclock your card but your drivers donīt give you an option?.. well, there are multiple ways to do that:

You can find a crack for the ASUS tweak util at RIVA Extreme, so you can use this tool with every TNT cardīdriver. But I canīt recommend you to do that, because RIVA Extreme reports that the tool shows you wrong values after cracking! Another point is that there are more secure ways to overclock your card!!!!

One is to use the actual Win9X drives of the Hercules Dynamite TNT. There is no cardcheck included in this driver - they do work with ALL TNT cards. But they do only give you options to change the TNT clock and memory clockspeeds. There is no way to change the memorytimings. But more about that later.

The third way is to use Powerstrip by Entech Taiwan. The newest beta version (Download) does also have a option for fast memory timings. I was able to run my V3400 with 105/125 including FastMem. But Iīve placed a big ventilator by the side of my case.
The 'problem' with Powerstrip is that it does not save the settings youīve made, so you have to re-set it every time after you boot-up your system - or register the software. But there is a way to reduce that effort with the newest PS-version:

Install Powerstrip and go to the OC menu. Set the clockspeed you want and enable fast memory timings. Then create a shortcut to the Powerstrip EXE file and place it in your autorun/start (Donīt know the exact name of the folder in english windows versions). You can find the needed EXE file in 'c:\windows'

Powerstrips now starts every time you reboot your windows and sets the memory to 120Mhz and the TNT clock to 100Mhz. You can choose any values you want (that work). The fast memory timing is still enabled, too. You only have to press OK once when Powerstrip starts.

So, what results can you get? Itīs very difficult to find results in the web you can compare with your own system. The newest Diamond Viper V550 drivers (not offically released yet - check out Viper3D) produce surprisingly high results in 3DMARK99 (2463 at 90/110 and 2690 at 108/125) - It seems that these drivers are based on new and faster nVidia reference drivers and/or they are optimized' for some benchmarks, accordingly they donīt give you real values. Iīve allready reviewed the Viper V550, so I can say that it is not faster than any other TNT card - This is the same for every TNT card out there. All manufacturers use the same boardlayout with 8ns SDRAM memory modules (ELSA only with the OEM-SDRAM version, the version you can get from your vendors use a special boardlayout with 8ns SGRAM modules). Performance differences can only be made by drivers (SGRAM is not faster in 3Dgraphics at 16MB. It canīt take any advantages of the faster Block-write operations possible with SGRAM here). One way to increase the performance is the memory or TNT clockspeed or the memory access-timing.
So, if suddenly one card is faster than all other TNT cards outside something is fishy here. I compared my results with a friendīs system who uses a Celeron 300A overclocked to 450Mhz, using another mainboard and the same amount of RAM (128MB). They are nearly identical to my system (PII 450MHz - SL2W8). One possibility could be my ISA soundcard. In the past weeks you could read in PC-Magacines that ISA soundcards reduce the performance - in contrast to PCI (why couldīnt you read anything about that before???).
Running out of free PCI slots I was not able to check that. (All tests were made with a separate Win98 installation with no use of unnecessarily drivers (Hauppauge/LAN/ISDN)).

Hm, doesīnt matter. This is no competition here where youīre the winner if you have the highest values, but to get the best out of your system without any instabilitys. You should never forget that your card can be damaged because of overheating. Itīs not sure that you can get a new card from your vendor because it is improbably that a card takes damage at normal 90/110 settings.
The installation of a 486 cooling fan on your heatsink also results in a loss of warranty. Itīs a unnecessarily risk because the increase of performance you can get is not worth it.

But no more words here. Letīs go to the benchmarks. What performance difference are between the ASUS Tweak tool, Powerstrip and the Hercules drivers?

At first a comparsion of the ASUS tweak with Powerstrip. Using ASUS tweak I canīt get higher than 98/118. Using Powerstrip I wase able to run 105/125 without problems:

The graph shows that ASUS Tweak (98MHz TNT / 118MHz Memory / Fast Timings) and Powerstrip results are the same. But it is possible to set higher clockrates with Powerstrip - at higher risks. It is said that Powerstrip is using more aggresive CAS/RAS memory-timings.

Now letīs take a look on Hercules drivers:

These result show lower values than the ASUS Tweak and Powerstrip results. But they are the same than the values you get with ASUS drivers if you disable the fastmemory timigs in ASUS tweak or Powerstrip (default setting in ASUS drivers). The Hercules drivers donīt give you an option for that (or I didīnt find it). Otherwise these drivers ran without problems with my ASUS V3400, except TV out. Although there are options for that in the drivers I could only get flicker on my TV.

So, what can you do? Well, if your drivers give you an option for overclocking you should use that one. The manufacturesr know the best RAS/CAS settings for their memory used on the cards. If you donīt have that possibility you should use Powerstrip. You can overclock every TNT with it. I canīt advise you to use a cracked ASUS Tweak tool, even if it doesnīt shows correct values after cracking! (The Powerstrip OC menus starts with the values set on your card).
In addition, the results show that a fast memory timings is a point you should look at. The Hercules drivers give you a result of 2277 with 105/125 - thatīs only 20 points higher than the ASUS Tweak or Powerstrip results made with 98/118 using fast memory timings (2357 with 105/125).

The reason why I did not use another card like STB Velocity 4400 or Erazor II is that I wanted to compare ASUS Tweak with Powerstrip. But these card should also work with overclocking - as long as you care for cooling with passive cooled cards with only a heatsink on the TNT.

Possibilitys for cooling are:

• Opening the case. Doing this you destroy the airstream within your case made by the case-fan. If you support this airstream with other fans this is more effective than a open case. But you should remove the slot sheet metal under the TNT card. So you can ensure that fresh air is sucked right over your chips on your TNT card.
• A ventilator, by the side of your open case (youīll get cold feet <g>)
• A PC fan on the bootom of your case, tageting your slots. But this is a bit wobbly.
• Installing a (486) cooling fan on the heatsink of the TNT chip. But you loose your warranty if you can see scratch marks on the heatsink - but it is the best way to cool the TNT. But you have no advantage for your memorychips with a fan on the TNT.

At the end a again a warning: Overclocking is on your own risk!!! Your card can take damage!

RIVA Station 1998 - Lars Weinand