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My friend PowerStrip
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 Re: My friend PowerStrip
Posted by Wild Card on Sun Apr 4th at 7:59pm 2004

PowerStrip, for those who dont know, is a nice utility which allows you to overclock your video card.

At first I was sceptical about using it. After all, overclock DOES void warranty and could lead to permanent damage to the hardware. However, my GeForce4 MX440 came with a stock fan which so far I havent been disapointed with.

So I gave PowerStrip a go. It has 2 sliders to control GPU and memory clocks. The standard timings are:

GPU= 249Mhz
mem= 333Mhz

and I was able to push my card to the following without visual glitches

GPU= 300Mhz
mem= 400Mhz

I just finished playing GTA3 for a little over a hour. Not only did the card perform normally, but it suprised me that before I had some lag when there were explosing or driving very fast, but now, nothing. The card worked wonders.

To anyone with an old video card with a fan, or a very good heatsink/heatspreader, I recommend using this utility. Sure beats buying a new videocard... for now.

[addsig]



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 Re: My friend PowerStrip
Posted by omegaslayer on Sun Apr 4th at 8:01pm 2004

How about a link??? But for me I use RadLinker, ill try this thing. [addsig]



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 Re: My friend PowerStrip
Posted by Wild Card on Sun Apr 4th at 8:04pm 2004

Oh yea, thats what I forgot. I got the utility off a Maximum PC cd for the month of April, but heres a link if ya want.

http://www.entechtaiwan.net/util/ps.shtm

[addsig]



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 Re: My friend PowerStrip
Posted by omegaslayer on Sun Apr 4th at 8:15pm 2004

Cool any suggestions for settings to make Halo PC run better? Here is what I have:
P4 2.8
9800 pro (128mb)
1 gig ram
800 MHz motherboard

[addsig]



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 Re: My friend PowerStrip
Posted by Vash on Sun Apr 4th at 8:22pm 2004

? quote:
Cool any suggestions for settings to make Halo PC run better?

Yeah.

Throw it out.

[addsig]



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 Re: My friend PowerStrip
Posted by Crono on Sun Apr 4th at 8:23pm 2004

Turn off all other applications. Your computer should run it just fine as long as you don't have programs running all over creation. [addsig]



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 Re: My friend PowerStrip
Posted by Wild Card on Sun Apr 4th at 8:24pm 2004

800Mhz motherboard? what the heck does that mean?

And with a 9800pro you gotta be doing something wrong if Halo lags. lol. Unless your using the highest screen resolution.

If you want to overclock, remember it voids warrenty and I suggest overclocking in small increments, say like 10Mhz or 20Mhz, apply changes, until you reach the point when you see visual artifacts. Then, bring it back down until the glitches go away. Play a game for a while.

[addsig]



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 Re: My friend PowerStrip
Posted by Wild Card on Sun Apr 4th at 8:26pm 2004

I havent tried running Halo since my new CPU and extra RAM. And since I just overclocked like 2 hours ago, the only game I tried was GTA3. [addsig]



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 Re: My friend PowerStrip
Posted by Crono on Sun Apr 4th at 8:32pm 2004

800Mhz Motherboard usually means the bus bandwidth. 800Mhz is pretty damn high though. If your bus is 800Mhz and you've got a 9800 ... are you also encoding video while you play? [addsig]



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 Re: My friend PowerStrip
Posted by 7dk2h4md720ih on Sun Apr 4th at 9:30pm 2004

Get the latest patch for it too. [addsig]



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 Re: My friend PowerStrip
Posted by Orpheus on Sun Apr 4th at 9:36pm 2004

you know that debate we always have over fun vs. r_speeds?

you know, the one nobody can post any convincing arguments to support?

well the idea of overclocking anything in your pc, is about as lame.

i have yet, to hear one convincing argument to support it..

yeah, call me cheap, but why prematurely age your system, unless you feel that just because it exists, its already an obsolete piece of s**t

seriously guys, the gain, is not worth the pain, your pc will endure.

[addsig]



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 Re: My friend PowerStrip
Posted by OtZman on Sun Apr 4th at 9:56pm 2004

? posted by Wild Card

I just finished playing GTA3 for a little over a hour. Not only did the card perform normally, but it suprised me that before I had some lag when there were explosing or driving very fast, but now, nothing. The card worked wonders.

I've heard that they added some kind of replay function to GTA 3 that recorded everything all the time and that this was the reason to why GTA 3 lagged on computers that were quite good (like mine for example :/ )

[addsig]



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 Re: My friend PowerStrip
Posted by Wild Card on Sun Apr 4th at 9:58pm 2004

Well, its not like my video card is worth alot. And getting better frame rates (noticably) is IMO worth it for me. Although you'll never catch me overclocking my CPU or RAM, but me "old" video card can sure be overclocked. Might save be from buying another one sooner. [addsig]



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 Re: My friend PowerStrip
Posted by Wild Card on Sun Apr 4th at 9:59pm 2004

As far as I know, I havent seen or heard of any replay function in GTA3. And I just finished the game.. well, the missions anyways. [addsig]



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 Re: My friend PowerStrip
Posted by Myrk- on Sun Apr 4th at 11:15pm 2004

If I had water cooling I'd overclock my PC, heat damage is the only real concern with overclocking...

[addsig]



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 Re: My friend PowerStrip
Posted by GrimlocK on Sun Apr 4th at 11:16pm 2004

? posted by omegaslayer4777

Cool any suggestions for settings to make Halo PC run better? Here is what I have:
P4 2.8
9800 pro (128mb)
1 gig ram
800 MHz motherboard

Try turning off shadows and that shiny metal effect in the graphics options. Seems any hardware will lag with those options on, must be an ignored issue with their software.





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 Re: My friend PowerStrip
Posted by Crono on Sun Apr 4th at 11:20pm 2004

Orph, do you honestly know what overclocking does? It doesn't 'age' the hardware as much as you're thinking. If you have that outlook you'd purposely lower the speed of your CPU because you didn't want it to age, because it's maximum potential is damaging?

The only risk when overclocking is that the Fan might not cool the hardware fast enough, to an extent of course. With overclocking tools they usually test these ranges and scopes (do you reconize the term 'Testing Loops'?)

Also, are you suggesting that overclocking doesn't do anything? I'm honestly asking because I'm wondering your point of view.

On many BIOS you have to overclock your CPU to the correct voltage and speed since the board you might be using supports many frequencies and speeds. That is overclocking, and it's well within the hardwares performance limits.

I really don't understand what you mean by hardware aging. It's not as if you're overloading the connections. I don't have a piece of s**t for a computer, but I still overclock items in it. Why? Because your computer will never, NEVER be fast enough, nor will it ever perform as smoothly as you'd like.

Sorry if seems like I'm laying into you today, Orph, but you're just letting your comments tread into unknowledgeable territory [addsig]



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 Re: My friend PowerStrip
Posted by Wild Card on Sun Apr 4th at 11:24pm 2004

Well, my overclocking has worked out fine so far. [addsig]



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 Re: My friend PowerStrip
Posted by Orpheus on Sun Apr 4th at 11:29pm 2004

don't stress it crono, i am used to it.

i do indeed know what transpires during overclocking, i also know that lowering the power could potentially damage the parts more, so that was foolish of you to say

i did however say that i have heard NO convincing arguments, i did NOT say there were none. there is a distinct difference.

the gain (for the normal user, excluding drastic measures like water-cooling) is not worth the damage, be it minor damage as you obviously imply, or more stressful damage.

but IMO any damage, no matter how slight, can be considered prematurely aging.

as i said, don't stress it crono.. it wouldn't matter if you always found my opinion flawed, ain't gonna stop me from posting it

[addsig]



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 Re: My friend PowerStrip
Posted by Wild Card on Sun Apr 4th at 11:32pm 2004

well, the conviencing difference Orph. GTA3 used to have lower FPS when there was explosions or when I was driving fast, or rainning, or fog. But now, I get pretty constant frames. At least to the eye. They may vary, but my eyes dont see it. [addsig]




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