Overclocking my GTX 295's (hints welcome)

[clownius]

Im still working on overclocking my GTX295's so i thought id start a thread of updates on speed attained in case anyone else is trying this.  Of course and and all help is appreciated.  I cant seem to find an optimal overclock option in my Nvidia tools.

Core Clock 700
Memory 1500
Shader 1300
Fans 80%
Temp under load 52-68
Ambient 44-57

Ambient is terrible because of the overcrowded case. Hopefully moving stuff will lower this considerable and that lowers the under load temps which mean i can slow fans down.  I found i start to get some instability over 70-75c under load with these GPU's.  If its stable after 24 ill push things a bit harder.

[mike047]

One thing that I have done on all my cases is to cut a hole in the side panel at a close proximity to the cards fan, and install a 80mm or large fan.   Instant cool down of sometimes 10c.

I use a 3"[76.2 mm] hole saw, makes a reasonably nice hole if one is careful.  On black cases I use a black marker to touch up the edges and it looks good.

[clownius]

The CM HAF 932 has a 230mm fan over that area or i could replace it with 4X120mm fans.  Should throw some air.  Blow in or out you think?

[mike047]

In on the card.

[teemac]

@Clownius - The fan that came off the top of the case - 230mm - where you probably put your radiator, fits this spot perfectly.

Have mine on this spot and it blasts the Video - CU area. The other default 230mm is on the front, 2x 120mm on the radiator and the 140mm in the PSU gets a hurricane going in the HAF 932 box with next to no noise on my system.

47C core and 38C ambient on my old 8800GTOC video card after a good dose of Fallout3 on Ultra settings.

It's night here so the low ambient settings but this sort of range is usual. I have not yet got a water block on my video card.

[Lionel]

Clownius...

I think this thread is very timely...as i just bought a Palit GTX295 and put it in on the weekend...

The only problem i had was undating the lunatics apps...all worked fine on the machine that was inheriting the old 9800GTX, but for some unknown reason I lost ~2500 seti WUs on the box that got the GTX295 as the softawre didn't seem to install properly...

Anyway, the Palit has a Performance window that you can use to alter settings.  At this stage I'm running at stock...

The case is a Cooler Master CM690 and the air coming out is fairly cool...

Have you tried bunching all the cables together with cable ties to minimise interference to air flow and do you have fans on all fan mounting positions...

[AusTerror]

Set the fan speed on the GPU to 100%.

If you don't want neat and tidy, get a desk fan, take the side of the case off, and point the fan at the graphics card.

Overlocking GPUs is always risky as they run so hot.  It is basically a PC on a card, mainboard, memory, CPUs and as such all that gear gets stressed a lot.

So yeah, you can never have too much cooling.  Otherwise your card might die sooner than you want it to.

[veebee]

@ Austerror.. i dont know WHAT'S happened to Clownius... used to be one of our most avid crunchers.. was one of the first to go quad-core.. first to get GTX-295's AND multiple of them !.. but now he is "only" earning around 10K a week !!!

"Clownius ... where are you "