Overclocking AGP cards

[dolanenwindrift]

I have a question about overclocking AGP cards. I have currently a TI 4600, and I can easily adjust the core and clock speeds from the driver interface. WHat I am wondering is what effect does the AGP bus speed have on performance? I'm running an nForce2 board and can pretty much set the AGP independently.

[GrahamGarside]

In a word. No.
It may give a few 3dmarks extra upping it to 80mhz or so, but in reality agp4X is about all even a modern card needs.

[Pitch]

Upping the AGP bus will really kill stability too.

[dsio]

Geforce 4 cards will actually compensate for a higher AGP bus by not using extra clocks. If you run 80mhz it will be running 40 mhz for example. That is one of the reasons GF4TIs used to be so good for overclocking. They could handle well over 75mhz without tearing while many 9700/9700pros died a terrible terrible death. You cant really kill a geforce 4 by overclocking. If you clock the core too high it will drop odd frames and remain stable before it shows artifacts. If you clock the ram too high it will frame drop rather than distorting. overclocking the AGP bus will do no harm, but will limit your performance considerably in some cases. It will give you no performance boost though.

[dsio]

One thing you might want to try (you can tell ive had and loved a TI4600 for a long time) is give him a little extra volts on the AGP slot. stock voltage is meant to be 1.55 volts though for some reason AGP voltage is usually a little on the low side with most boards. Top end nvidia boards love having some extra to play with. 1.6V measured, not set is the best bet.

so check with USDM if your on epox or MBM5 if you have some other board and see what your AGP volts are, and up it until it sits on at least 1.6V. If you have to go to 1.63 or 1.64 to get over 1.6 then do it. Just make sure it has a genuine measured voltage over 1.6. but under 1.65. lol.

1.6-1.65 is best.

This gives added stability, better overclocking, and has no negative effects on your card at all.

1.6-1.65 is also recommended for all top end cards, FX5800, FX5800U, FX5900, FX5900U, FX5950, FX5950U, 6200, (yes i consider the 6200 to be a top end card as it is actually a decent piece of equipment) 6600, 6600GT, 6800 series. (this is AGP only by the way).