[Thebinaryman]

i recently got a used nvidia geforce fx5600xt from a friend. this is temporary until i can get a better card, but will be used for a significant amount of time. i would like to be able to crank the graphics on age of empires 3 to the max. right now i have it running at 1024x768 everything cranked including anti-aliasing, but the shader on low. i get about 22 fps, and with the shader on high, i get about 9 fps.

for those of you who are confused as to the "xt" suffix to the model number, yes nvidia used xt at the time to specify this is a UNDERCLOCKED version of the normal fx5600. i would like to overclock it to the normal specs of the fx5600, rather than its xt settings.

it has 256mb of 128-bit ddr ram, currently running at 234mhz clock, 399mhz mem.

it has just a heatsink on it about 2.5 inches, by 4.5 inches.

after an hour of play, the computers system temp (temp in the case, not any particular componet) is about 40-45 degrees C.

does anyone know how far i can push this card without damaging it? i was thinking of OCing it to 325/499 which is what i believe the normal fx5600's are. is this safe? or do you need to know any more information from me?

thanks

-thebinaryman

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As far as any overclocking goes, I would just gently ease it up about 5 or so mhz each try, then stress test it, up it again, stress test it, etc... One thing I would reccomend is that when overclocking ANY video card, I honestly beleive you should have more than just a heatsink on it. There's plenty of GPU fans you can get at a CompUSA store by you, or online for low price. As far as personal experience goes, I was able to push my old 5200 up around 50mhz on the core, 100 on the memory and it's been running for over a year like that, with a small fan and heatsink. I don't know if the 5600 is any much different, but with my last three nvidia cards, I've been able to get anywhere from 40 to 75mhz of a core overclock out of them stably. Just remember what I said if you're going to do it. Get a fan for it, and OC slowly, 5 or so mhz at a time. If something goes wrong one of the times, you know you've found it's limit and just back it down a little re-stress-test it and you should be okay.

Edited by MikeFromNY, 31 October 2005 - 09:51 PM.

[MikeFromNY]

As far as any overclocking goes, I would just gently ease it up about 5 or so mhz each try, then stress test it, up it again, stress test it, etc... One thing I would reccomend is that when overclocking ANY video card, I honestly beleive you should have more than just a heatsink on it. There's plenty of GPU fans you can get at a CompUSA store by you, or online for low price. As far as personal experience goes, I was able to push my old 5200 up around 50mhz on the core, 100 on the memory and it's been running for over a year like that, with a small fan and heatsink. I don't know if the 5600 is any much different, but with my last three nvidia cards, I've been able to get anywhere from 40 to 75mhz of a core overclock out of them stably. Just remember what I said if you're going to do it. Get a fan for it, and OC slowly, 5 or so mhz at a time. If something goes wrong one of the times, you know you've found it's limit and just back it down a little re-stress-test it and you should be okay.

Edited by MikeFromNY, 31 October 2005 - 09:51 PM.

[Thebinaryman]

thanks, will do!

i'm looking at getting the iceberq pro vga cooler (heatsink, and fan) for it, that should help i guess, if i convince myself that putting 15 more dollars into this card is worth it.

[Thebinaryman]

http://www.bestbytei...-A1C&variation=

how would this fan/heatsink fair in cooling the card i have? if i got this, would it allow me to overclock the card a significant amount???

it says its made for the fx5600, so i would assume its capable of cooling any gpu (including mine) running at regular fx5600 speeds of 325 instead of the xt speed of 235.

Edited by Thebinaryman, 02 November 2005 - 12:12 PM.

[MikeFromNY]

Extra cooling helps keep it from overheating and losing stability when overclocked, but all cards, no matter how much cooling, have their limits as to how far they can be pushed. Like I said, I don't personally know the limits of a 5600, but just find out the way I posted before, raising it by small incriments.

The HSF you chose looks like it should do the job, just make sure you know how to install it correctly. Other than that, you seem to be set.

[Thebinaryman]

alright, i'm gonna get that cooler. if it allows me to get the card even 50MHz faster than i guess its worth it. i'll test it every 5MHz like you said. when i get the cooler, i'll post if all goes as planned.

i havent really overclocked much before, but i'm pretty much not worried about ruining anything. when i was younger i accidentaly discovered overclocking when i set a pentium mmx from 133MHz to 200MHz and then i set it back lower after i realized what i did. I tried overclocking an ati 3d rage pro agp 2x card from 75MHz to 100MHz worked without problems so i'm not too woried about overclocking this card, but as i said i will take caution.

Edited by Thebinaryman, 02 November 2005 - 01:54 PM.

[MikeFromNY]

The 5 series GeForce cards seem to be pretty hardy with overclocking... I was able to push mine up 150mhz for about a minute, computer died, though I had killed the card... A day later I tried to boot again and the card magically worked... It still works to this day... No idea how that happened, but it happened.

[Thebinaryman]

maybe your card had automaticly shut it off to stop it from badly damaging it. when my friends FX-53 processor runs slightly hot, he has it set to automaticly turn off everything.