FarFarAway
New member
I have compiled a quick reference soft modding guide for nVidia based card that are geforce/TNT.
Hope this is ok. I may add some pics as illustration in addition to the links if there is any call for them.
I personally prefer to use the "Ccoolbits" registry hack to OC my BFG nVidia 6800GT OC 256mb
Basically, nvidia have left a loophole in their forceware display software taht allows anyone to view the "advance" options that you could now usually have access to. These are goodies such as GPU temperature, video clock speed and various overides for the card.
Step 1: Getting to these goodies
To use the "coolbits" hack first you need to copy the text below into a .txt file (notepad)
<from just below this line>
REGEDIT4
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\NVIDIA Corporation\Global\NvTweak]
"CoolBits"=dword:00000003
"NvCplEnableHardwarePage" = dword:00000001
"NvCplEnableAGPSettingsPage" = dword:00000001
"NvCplEnableAdditionalInfoPage"=dword:00000001
"CinematicPageState"=dword:000000ff
"DisableApplyColorsAtStartup"=dword:00000000
"NoMenus"=dword:00000000
"NoPages"=dword:00000000
"NvCplAllowForceTVDetection"=dword:00000001
"NvCplCustomResConfig"=dword:00000000
"NvCplDisablePerfQualPage"=hex:00,00,00,00
"NvCplDisableRefreshRatePage"=dword:00000000
"NvCplDisableRotateAngles"=dword:00000000
"NvCplEnableActiveApp"=dword:00000001
"NvCplEnableAdditionalInfoPage"=dword:00000001
"NvCplEnableAGPSettingsPage"=dword:00000001
"NvCplEnableClearViewPage"=dword:00000001
"NvCplEnableDesktopOverlapPage"=dword:00000001
"NvCplEnableFanControl"=dword:00000003
"NvCplEnableFrameSyncPage"=dword:00000001
"NvCplEnableHardwarePage"=dword:00000001
"NvCplEnablenForcePage"=dword:00000001
"NvCplEnableOverlaySpanControl"=dword:00000001
"NvCplEnablePwrMzrOnDesktopMenu"=dword:00000001
"NvCplEnableRotationColorSettings"=dword:00000001
"NvCplEnableScreenMenuPage"=dword:00000001
"NvCplEnableTroubleshootingPage"=dword:00000001
"NvCplExposeWin2kDualView"=dword:00000001
"NvCplNvThermPage"=dword:00000001
"NvCplTvLocaleAutoDetect"=dword:00000001
"NvCplThermalSettings"=dword:00000020
"OverlayPageState"=dword:00000000
"PowermizerPreferences"=dword:00000000
"QTwkEnableModeChangeWarning"=dword:00000001
"TwinViewCapsOverride"=dword:00000001
<to just above here>
Right: paste it into notepad.
Now save this as a .reg file, I used "coolbits.reg" (and I'll use it as an example) as the filename so I could find this easily. Also save it to somewhere you can find it!
Double click the file that you just created
Then you'll see a message come up: "Are you sure you want to add the information in c:\mydocuments\coolbits.reg to the registry?
Click YES and then you'll see:
The information in c:\mydocuments\coolbits.reg has been successfully added to the registry.
First step done - YAY!
Note: some people may have to logoff for the changes to take effect, but I just didn't!
Step 2: The good stuff!
Right - find your nvidia control panel (right click on the desktop>nvidia display><your monitor name>(e.g. mines Idek Ilyama PLE 435S)
Bring up the <clock frequency settings> as such:
Once you've done this then click on "manual overclocking" in the menu. Read the disclaimer (disclaimer, what disclaimer! lol) and agree to it as well, you're gonna OC your card anyhoo!
Once you have done this it will allow you to OC your card beyonf its current default configurations!
What I tend to do is to check the web for what it a good OC on your particular card (www.google.com - as if you don't know!!) and start at 20MHz below that. Make sure this isn't a mad crazy OC as compared to the stock speeds of your card, as they will burn! But that's just my personal preference and you may want to be more cautious!
You can let the program "Detect Optimal Frequencies" but I tend to use this as a VERY rough guide as sometimes it can over OC the card. The best way to do it is to first go up in 2-3MHz steps, stop, test, then go back and try again.
When you've done this you'll have to click "Test changes" to test them briefly. If you're OC'ing, be sure to check "fan always on" to get that fan working overtime to chill the card.
Also, don't click "apply settings at startup" unless you're 100% sure that they are stable and won't crash your PC.
Step 3:Testing
I have supplied all the link to the stuff I use for testing below. I use RTHDRIBL and check the temperature of the card isn't going too high after watching for a good 10mins of playing it at full screen. I also use Halo (stresses out my card for some reason) and HL2 and Farcry for a good 5-10mins in a stressing part of the game to get the card working!
Make sure you check and double check that there are none of the below:
Artifacts Strange snow on your screen where there shouldn't be? Black dots all over the place? Coloured lines over the screen? Lines and bits from the charactors/scenary going into the distance? STOP!! Then go back and clock back 5Mhz! Then try again. Any irregular graphical stuff is BAD! This probably means your stressing your card too much and/or its getting too hot
Remember that you are OC'ing hardware beyond its factory settings so at some point it will not like it! Cards are only made to withstand so much stress!
ANYTHING abnormal After you've OC'd and just back down. This stuff means you shouldn't be stressing the card so much!
My card seems to have a lot of headway in "core clock frequency" and not so much in "memory clock frequency" I tend to OC till its stable and then clock back 2-5Mhz or so for general riunning purposes.
All cards will have different settings so just doing what you mate does probably won't be the same for your card.
Make sure you use the temperature part of the nvidia display menu to make sure your CPU is at a temperature that isn't too high! The card may be set to slow down at 120deg, but above 80-90deg will not do it too much good!
Here's my GT at rest with its OC'd:
General Tips about this:
1: HEAT!! Cards do not like to be TOO hot. Check using your favourite and most graphically intense game and also use this software program to make sure the temps don't go too high RTHDRIBL (DX9 cards only):
http://www.daionet.gr.jp/~masa/rthdribl/index.html
The 6800X series will usually idle at around 40-50 (approx) and load at 68-80deg (use RTHRIBL)
Use 3dMark03/05 and Aquamark as a guide for OC'ing BUT only as a guide! It's nice to have a good benchmark, but you buy the card for games, right? Play games to test as well as benchmarks!
3Dmark:
http://www.futuremark.com/
Aquamark:
http://www.aquamark3.com/
Also please realise that your system will affect your individual Graphics Card performance. Try comparing yours to other systems with the same specs on the system comparing function on both Futuremark and aquamark.
2: Also when you test the card, make sure that there are no white snow" type effects or anything else that looks strange on the graphics front. These are called artifacts and show that you're ither OC'ing your card too much or have drivers that aren't quite right.
3: Get the right drivers from www.nvidia.com This is VERY important!
And ALLWAYS READ THE RELEASE NOTES. Some of the recent drivers have had a problem with the temperature being reported 20% higher in the nvidia forceware than it is actually is.
4: There is only so much a GPU cooler will do for your card. Your general ambient temperature will affect the temperature of your card. Maybe you will want to clock back in the summer. Or go get some ice! Only kidding, just make sure that the card has cold enough case temps to be ok.
An NV5 or other after aftermarket will keep your card a bit cooler IF APPLIED PROPERLY
I always leave a PCI motherboard slot open for the card to breatch from, although I do put a filter on it as dust kills!!
Remember: OC'ing is might just shorten the life of your components, so be careful and don't stretch the card too much!
Just before I go: here's about my highest stable clock so far without NV5, and I got 5263 with my system on 3DMark03! Not too bad methinks!
This is all I'm going to do for the moment, but any questions then I'm around in the forum, and so are loads of other that know their stuff, so ask away!
Oh and excuse any mishtipezes!
Cheers: kempez815
I.E. Matt
Hope this is ok. I may add some pics as illustration in addition to the links if there is any call for them.
I personally prefer to use the "Ccoolbits" registry hack to OC my BFG nVidia 6800GT OC 256mb
Basically, nvidia have left a loophole in their forceware display software taht allows anyone to view the "advance" options that you could now usually have access to. These are goodies such as GPU temperature, video clock speed and various overides for the card.
Step 1: Getting to these goodies
To use the "coolbits" hack first you need to copy the text below into a .txt file (notepad)
<from just below this line>
REGEDIT4
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\NVIDIA Corporation\Global\NvTweak]
"CoolBits"=dword:00000003
"NvCplEnableHardwarePage" = dword:00000001
"NvCplEnableAGPSettingsPage" = dword:00000001
"NvCplEnableAdditionalInfoPage"=dword:00000001
"CinematicPageState"=dword:000000ff
"DisableApplyColorsAtStartup"=dword:00000000
"NoMenus"=dword:00000000
"NoPages"=dword:00000000
"NvCplAllowForceTVDetection"=dword:00000001
"NvCplCustomResConfig"=dword:00000000
"NvCplDisablePerfQualPage"=hex:00,00,00,00
"NvCplDisableRefreshRatePage"=dword:00000000
"NvCplDisableRotateAngles"=dword:00000000
"NvCplEnableActiveApp"=dword:00000001
"NvCplEnableAdditionalInfoPage"=dword:00000001
"NvCplEnableAGPSettingsPage"=dword:00000001
"NvCplEnableClearViewPage"=dword:00000001
"NvCplEnableDesktopOverlapPage"=dword:00000001
"NvCplEnableFanControl"=dword:00000003
"NvCplEnableFrameSyncPage"=dword:00000001
"NvCplEnableHardwarePage"=dword:00000001
"NvCplEnablenForcePage"=dword:00000001
"NvCplEnableOverlaySpanControl"=dword:00000001
"NvCplEnablePwrMzrOnDesktopMenu"=dword:00000001
"NvCplEnableRotationColorSettings"=dword:00000001
"NvCplEnableScreenMenuPage"=dword:00000001
"NvCplEnableTroubleshootingPage"=dword:00000001
"NvCplExposeWin2kDualView"=dword:00000001
"NvCplNvThermPage"=dword:00000001
"NvCplTvLocaleAutoDetect"=dword:00000001
"NvCplThermalSettings"=dword:00000020
"OverlayPageState"=dword:00000000
"PowermizerPreferences"=dword:00000000
"QTwkEnableModeChangeWarning"=dword:00000001
"TwinViewCapsOverride"=dword:00000001
<to just above here>
Right: paste it into notepad.
Now save this as a .reg file, I used "coolbits.reg" (and I'll use it as an example) as the filename so I could find this easily. Also save it to somewhere you can find it!
Double click the file that you just created
Then you'll see a message come up: "Are you sure you want to add the information in c:\mydocuments\coolbits.reg to the registry?
Click YES and then you'll see:
The information in c:\mydocuments\coolbits.reg has been successfully added to the registry.
First step done - YAY!
Note: some people may have to logoff for the changes to take effect, but I just didn't!
Step 2: The good stuff!
Right - find your nvidia control panel (right click on the desktop>nvidia display><your monitor name>(e.g. mines Idek Ilyama PLE 435S)
Bring up the <clock frequency settings> as such:
Once you've done this then click on "manual overclocking" in the menu. Read the disclaimer (disclaimer, what disclaimer! lol) and agree to it as well, you're gonna OC your card anyhoo!
Once you have done this it will allow you to OC your card beyonf its current default configurations!
What I tend to do is to check the web for what it a good OC on your particular card (www.google.com - as if you don't know!!) and start at 20MHz below that. Make sure this isn't a mad crazy OC as compared to the stock speeds of your card, as they will burn! But that's just my personal preference and you may want to be more cautious!
You can let the program "Detect Optimal Frequencies" but I tend to use this as a VERY rough guide as sometimes it can over OC the card. The best way to do it is to first go up in 2-3MHz steps, stop, test, then go back and try again.
When you've done this you'll have to click "Test changes" to test them briefly. If you're OC'ing, be sure to check "fan always on" to get that fan working overtime to chill the card.
Also, don't click "apply settings at startup" unless you're 100% sure that they are stable and won't crash your PC.
Step 3:Testing
I have supplied all the link to the stuff I use for testing below. I use RTHDRIBL and check the temperature of the card isn't going too high after watching for a good 10mins of playing it at full screen. I also use Halo (stresses out my card for some reason) and HL2 and Farcry for a good 5-10mins in a stressing part of the game to get the card working!
Make sure you check and double check that there are none of the below:
Artifacts Strange snow on your screen where there shouldn't be? Black dots all over the place? Coloured lines over the screen? Lines and bits from the charactors/scenary going into the distance? STOP!! Then go back and clock back 5Mhz! Then try again. Any irregular graphical stuff is BAD! This probably means your stressing your card too much and/or its getting too hot
Remember that you are OC'ing hardware beyond its factory settings so at some point it will not like it! Cards are only made to withstand so much stress!
ANYTHING abnormal After you've OC'd and just back down. This stuff means you shouldn't be stressing the card so much!
My card seems to have a lot of headway in "core clock frequency" and not so much in "memory clock frequency" I tend to OC till its stable and then clock back 2-5Mhz or so for general riunning purposes.
All cards will have different settings so just doing what you mate does probably won't be the same for your card.
Make sure you use the temperature part of the nvidia display menu to make sure your CPU is at a temperature that isn't too high! The card may be set to slow down at 120deg, but above 80-90deg will not do it too much good!
Here's my GT at rest with its OC'd:
General Tips about this:
1: HEAT!! Cards do not like to be TOO hot. Check using your favourite and most graphically intense game and also use this software program to make sure the temps don't go too high RTHDRIBL (DX9 cards only):
http://www.daionet.gr.jp/~masa/rthdribl/index.html
The 6800X series will usually idle at around 40-50 (approx) and load at 68-80deg (use RTHRIBL)
Use 3dMark03/05 and Aquamark as a guide for OC'ing BUT only as a guide! It's nice to have a good benchmark, but you buy the card for games, right? Play games to test as well as benchmarks!
3Dmark:
http://www.futuremark.com/
Aquamark:
http://www.aquamark3.com/
Also please realise that your system will affect your individual Graphics Card performance. Try comparing yours to other systems with the same specs on the system comparing function on both Futuremark and aquamark.
2: Also when you test the card, make sure that there are no white snow" type effects or anything else that looks strange on the graphics front. These are called artifacts and show that you're ither OC'ing your card too much or have drivers that aren't quite right.
3: Get the right drivers from www.nvidia.com This is VERY important!
And ALLWAYS READ THE RELEASE NOTES. Some of the recent drivers have had a problem with the temperature being reported 20% higher in the nvidia forceware than it is actually is.
4: There is only so much a GPU cooler will do for your card. Your general ambient temperature will affect the temperature of your card. Maybe you will want to clock back in the summer. Or go get some ice! Only kidding, just make sure that the card has cold enough case temps to be ok.
An NV5 or other after aftermarket will keep your card a bit cooler IF APPLIED PROPERLY
I always leave a PCI motherboard slot open for the card to breatch from, although I do put a filter on it as dust kills!!
Remember: OC'ing is might just shorten the life of your components, so be careful and don't stretch the card too much!
Just before I go: here's about my highest stable clock so far without NV5, and I got 5263 with my system on 3DMark03! Not too bad methinks!
This is all I'm going to do for the moment, but any questions then I'm around in the forum, and so are loads of other that know their stuff, so ask away!
Oh and excuse any mishtipezes!
Cheers: kempez815
I.E. Matt
You could always buy a nice little fan/temperature monitering device, they're not too expensive!
