oc'ing 9500 gt advice

[Night Fox]

Well I'm trying to hold off on buying a new graphics card due to my crappy psu...

I bought Black Ops when it came out and have recently increased the graphics to:

Resolution: 1680 x 1050 (max)
Fullscreen: Yes
AA: x2
Detail: High
Shadows: no
bullet impacts: yes
Shader Warmer: yes
screen refresh rate: 56 (lowest)
sync every frame: no
texture filtering: auto

After several hours of changing the settings around, this is the best I can get it to look without having an fps below 20. I wanted to increase my average fps a little so I downloaded EVGA Precision tool, since it is the one I've seen friends use before (and I know how to use it whereas Riva Tuner just confused me).

Normal:
Core Clock: 550
Shader Clock: 1375
Memory Clock: 500

So far:
Core Clock: 700
Shader Clock: 1750
Memory Clock: 560

My temperatures on full load normally are about 68-70, now they're 69-72.
My normal average fps is around 25, now it's around 30 (difficult to tell due to map changes..) which is a huge difference between choppy playing and smooth playing.
This is my first time overclocking, so I'm taking it very slowly (by 10).
From what I've read I'm supposed to keep going until the program (black ops) crashes or until I've hit a point that I want to reach. I don't really know what I'm supposed to do or how far I'm supposed to go...

Also, I don't really want to keep it overclocked all the time; only when playing black ops. Is it okay for the card to overclock it, play the game, then when I quit the game, to reset all the values (which is what I have been doing).

 

[Peter.Cort]

First off, I'm pleasantly surprised that you're able to get those clocks out of it. As far as your limit, just go until it starts artifacting or it gets too hot. And it's definitely OK to OC it for games and then bring it back down for normal messing around. You should just get a new GPU though

 

[Trotter]

If you have some decent thermal paste, you can try removing your card's cooler, cleaning it good, and re-applying it using the good paste. It may shave a few off your top temps.

 

[Abstract Hero]

If you have some decent thermal paste, you can try removing your card's cooler, cleaning it good, and re-applying it using the good paste. It may shave a few off your top temps.

Ya that would be a good bet.

IMHO, I went from using EVGA Precision to MSI Afterburner and Afterburner was a pleasant surprise because I was able to control the clocks with more precision (no pun intended) and Precision didn't give me voltage options while Afterburner did.

 

[Night Fox]

Well, I took my case out of my desk (there's a swinging door that opens and shuts on it) and I was surprised to find that my intake fan in the front had an air filter (that is pretty crappy...took forever to shove it back in..) but it was covered with dust. After cleaning that, my temps dropped significantly :O

I also went back to playing Black Ops windowed, so that could also account for the temp differences but, when playing with no overclocking it is a constant 65 degrees Celsius, compared with the 68-70 temp from before...it turns out I can't go any further than I already have with those clock speeds without getting artifacts or crashing...so I guess I stopped at the right spot.

I have some Arctic Silver 5 that I used on my CPU a while back...would that work? I've never really taken anything off the gpu before...so if my temps are fine right now, I'd rather not mess with it. But I will look into it.

 

[Trotter]

If your comp is in a cubby, GET IT OUT NOW! You are making it an oven in there, especially if you close the door to the cubby.

Have you tried blowing out the cooler on your card?

 

[Night Fox]

Well there's no other place for it go to...the desk is cramped on the top, and I don't want to have it sitting in the middle of the room. I cut a hole in the back to allow for adequate exhaust and there's a slit in the bottom at the front to pull in air...it's the best I could do. Although, I do open the door sometimes.

When you say "blowing out the cooler" do you just mean, opening the case, and blowing on the fan? Because yes, I have done that.


(also, why does SpeedFan say all of my cores (0, 1, 2, 3) are around 35-40, then it says my overall CPU is 30..?)

 

[Trotter]

I mean removing the card from your case and using compressed air to blow out the fan and the heatsink under the shroud (if it has a shroud). You should go ahead and blow out the cooler on your CPU while you are at it (but you can leave it mounted). You can get cans of compressed air at any office supply shop and Walmart.

 

[Night Fox]

I have a regular air compressor, so I'll just use that (at a good distance away; it's powerful)