Showing posts with label performance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label performance. Show all posts
Wow, Processor Intel Celeron 356 Overclocked Up to 8.2GHz
how to overclock a video card
Introduction
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Anatomy of a Video Card
Figure 1: Anatomy of a video card.
from: www.hardwaresecrets.com
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You can increase the gaming performance of your computer by overclocking your video card. Overclocking is a technique that makes a given hardware part to operate at a clock frequency above its standard frequency, thus increasing its performance. In this tutorial we will explain in details how to overclock your video card, with several tips and tricks.
If your PC has a video card embedded on the motherboard (i.e., “on-board video”) you won’t be able to overclock it, as you PC doesn’t have a real video card installed – the video is produced by the motherboard chipset. In this tutorial we deal exclusively with real video cards, the ones that are connected to your PC through an expansion slot.
To learn how to overclock you video card you need to learn first how a video card works. In Figure 1, you can see a very basic diagram showing the video card main components and how they are connected together.
Anatomy of a Video Card
Figure 1: Anatomy of a video card.
The heart of a video card is its graphics chip, also known as GPU, Graphics Processing Unit. It works at a certain clock rate, also known as “core clock” or “engine clock”. When we think of overclocking a video card, usually the first thing that comes to mind is to increase the GPU core clock.
The new GeForce 8 GPU series from NVIDIA has two clock signals, one used by its shader engines and another used by the rest of the chip (the core clock we’ve just described). So far we don’t know if this second signal (shader clock) can be overclocked or not, or if it is somehow connected to the core clock. We will update this tutorial as soon as we get one video card based on this new architecture in order to clarify this issue.
The GPU is connected to the video memory (which is physically located on the video card) using a dedicated memory bus (yellow in Figure 1). This bus also works at a certain clock rate, also known as “memory clock”. We can also increase this clock rate in order to increase the performance of your video card and of course we will show you how to do that.
One important thing to keep in mind right now is that the memory bus nowadays usually works transferring two data per clock cycle, technique known as DDR, Double Data Rate. Because of this technique the memory clock can sometimes be referred as the double of its real clock rate, because the transfer rate achieved by DDR technique is double the transfer rate of a regular memory transferring just one data per clock cycle. In order to avoid confusion during our tutorial we will add the letters DDR after clock rates that are “doubled”. For instance 300 MHz and 600 MHz DDR are the same thing, as this 600 MHz DDR clock rate is really 300 MHz transferring two data per clock cycle.
The memory bus – which can also be referred to as memory interface – transfers a certain number of bits per time between the GPU and the video memory – 64 bits, 128 bits, 256 bits, etc. This number is fixed and you cannot change it. In other words there is no way for you to transform your 128-bit video card into a 256-bit one. This is a physical limitation: each bit is transferred through an individual wire on the video card printed circuit board, so a video card with a 128-bit memory interface has 128 wires connecting the GPU to the memory. So it is impossible to change this number, as you would need to add 128 more wires between the GPU and the memory chips (and also probably add or change the memory chips). The same thing goes for the video memory size: you cannot transform your 128 MB video card into a 256 MB one simply because you would need to add more memory chips to it.
The GPU is connected to the motherboard through an I/O slot such as PCI Express and AGP. This connection is also done at a certain clock rate (100 MHz for PCI Express and 66 MHz for AGP) and some motherboards allow you to increase this clock rate, giving a third option to overclock your video card. Notice that this option depends on the motherboard and not on the video card, as it is the motherboard that controls the I/O slot where the video card is installed. Some overclocking-oriented motherboards also provide an option for you to increase the I/O slot voltage (i.e., the video card voltage), which can make your video card to achieve a higher overclocking.
from: www.hardwaresecrets.com
How to Optimize PC Performance
The question “how to speed up my pc?” is on many people’s mind, but not all of them realize how complicated this is! Some new parts for the PC may be enough to improve the speed of the PC, but that’s not a cheap solution! There are some others you can try, which don’t cost you anything and produce excellent results as well.
If you’re still asking yourself “how to speed up my pc?”, then you’re asking the wrong question! You should be asking yourself how to get your pc back to its original speed. Usually, the slow down isn’t caused by hardware issues, but by software issues. So keep your computer free from any malicious software, to have it functioning optimally.
Besides spyware, the other main problem that causes a slow pc is a computer virus. These come in many forms, but all of them affect the speed of your computer in a negative way. So the first thing you should look at, the next time you’re thinking “how to speed up my computer” is if there’s no virus affecting your computer.
Installing anti-virus software should prevent this problem from occurring, but you should also install anti-spyware software. Always remember to keep them up-to-date, because new versions of malicious software appear every day, and you don’t want to be caught unprepared. Even though running anti-virus software may slow your computer down a little, it’s nothing like what a computer virus does!
Harmful software slows your computer down, yes, but so does regular software! If you install many programs at the same time, and they all run in the background, they use a lot of processing power and will slow your computer down as well! Depending on the power of your computer, this may not be noticeable at first, but it will eventually be a problem. So stop wondering “what’s the best way to speed up my pc?”, and start monitoring what software you install!
The next thing that you can do to stop wondering “how to speed up my computer” is upgrade it! Yes, this isn’t a cheap solution, but if you invest some money in your computer you won’t regret it. Simply buy some more memory, a faster hard drive, or a faster CPU, and the differences in speed will be noticeable. If you use your computer daily, this is one of the best things you could do!
This will not only make the computer faster, but it will also increase your productivity, since your computer can finish tasks much faster than before! Although the price of the upgrade may be considered high at first, once you see how much smoother it operates, you’ll forget all about it. Just make sure you don’t invest in parts that cost more than your budget allows!
To put and once and for all to the “how to speed up my pc?” question, people are recommended to visit the site at the end of the article. It contains all the information required to get their PC back to regular functioning speed, as well as tips on how to prevent this from happening in the future. For more information make sure to visit: http://speedupmypcnow.tumblr.com
Looking to find out how to speed up my PC? Then visit http://speedupmypcnow.tumblr.com to find the best advice on how to speed up my computer.
5 ways to speed up your PC
1. Free up disk space
The Disk Cleanup tool helps you free up space on your hard disk to improve the performance of your computer. The tool identifies files that you can safely delete, and then enables you to choose whether you want to delete some or all of the identified files.
Use Disk Cleanup to:
Remove temporary Internet files.
· Remove downloaded program files (such as Microsoft ActiveX controls and Java applets).
· Empty the Recycle Bin.
· Remove Windows temporary files such as error reports.
· Remove optional Windows components that you don't use.
· Remove installed programs that you no longer use.
· Remove unused restore points and shadow copies from System Restore.
Tip: Typically, temporary Internet files take the most amount of space because the browser caches each page you visit for faster access later.
To use Disk Cleanup
Window 7 users
1. Click Start, click All Programs, click Accessories, click System Tools, then click Disk Cleanup. If several drives are available, you might be prompted to specify which drive you want to clean.
2. When Disk Cleanup has calculated how much space you can free, in the Disk Cleanup for dialog box, scroll through the content of the Files to delete list.
Disk Cleanup dialog box
Disk Cleanup dialog box
3. Clear the check boxes for files that you don't want to delete, and then click OK. * For more options, such as cleaning up System Restore and Shadow copy files, under Description, click Clean up system files, then click the More Options tab.
4. When prompted to confirm that you want to delete the specified files, click Yes.
After a few minutes, the process completes and the Disk Cleanup dialog box closes, leaving your computer cleaner and performing better.
For Windows XP users
1. Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click Disk Cleanup. If several drives are available, you might be prompted to specify which drive you want to clean.
Disk Cleanup dialog box
Disk Cleanup dialog box
2. In the Disk Cleanup for dialog box, scroll through the content of the Files to delete list.
Choose the files that you want to delete.
Choose the files that you want to delete.
3. Clear the check boxes for files that you don't want to delete, and then click OK.
4. When prompted to confirm that you want to delete the specified files, click Yes.
After a few minutes, the process completes and the Disk Cleanup dialog box closes, leaving your computer cleaner and performing better.
2. Speed up access to data
Disk fragmentation slows the overall performance of your system. When files are fragmented, the computer must search the hard disk when the file is opened to piece it back together. The response time can be significantly longer.
Disk Defragmenter is a Windows utility that consolidates fragmented files and folders on your computer's hard disk so that each occupies a single space on the disk. With your files stored neatly end-to-end, without fragmentation, reading and writing to the disk speeds up.
When to run Disk Defragmenter
In addition to running Disk Defragmenter at regular intervals—monthly is optimal—there are other times you should run it too, such as when:
* You add a large number of files.
* Your free disk space totals 15 percent or less.
* You install new programs or a new version of Windows.
To use Disk Defragmenter:
Windows 7 users
1. Click Start, click All Programs, click Accessories, click System Tools, and then click Disk Defragmenter.
Click Analyze disk to start the Disk Defragmenter.
Click Analyze disk to start the Disk Defragmenter.
2. In the Disk Defragmenter dialog box, click the drives that you want to defragment, and then click the Analyze button. After the disk is analyzed, a dialog box appears, letting you know whether you should defragment the analyzed drives.
Tip: You should analyze a volume before defragmenting it to get an estimate of how long the defragmentation process will take.
Tip: You should analyze a volume before defragmenting it to get an estimate of how long the defragmentation process will take.
3. To defragment the selected drive or drives, click the Defragment disk button. In the Current status area, under the Progress column, you can monitor the process as it happens. After the defragmentation is complete, Disk Defragmenter displays the results.
4. To display detailed information about the defragmented disk or partition, click View Report.
5. To close the View Report dialog box, click Close.
6. You can also schedule the Disk Defragmenter to run automatically, and your computer might be set up this way by default. Under Schedule, it reads Scheduled defragmentation is turned on, then displays the time of day and frequency of defragmentation. If you want to turn off automatic defragmentation or change the time or frequency, click the Configure schedule (or Turn on Schedule, if it is not currently configured to run automatically). Then change the settings, then click OK.
7. To close the Disk Defragmenter utility, click the Close button on the title bar of the window.
To use Disk Defragmenter:
1. Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click Disk Defragmenter.
Click Analyze disk to start the Disk Defragmenter
Click Analyze disk to start the Disk Defragmenter
2. In the Disk Defragmenter dialog box, click the drives that you want to defragment, and then click the Analyze button. After the disk is analyzed, a dialog box appears, letting you know whether you should defragment the analyzed drives.
Tip: You should analyze a volume before defragmenting it to get an estimate of how long the defragmentation process will take.
Tip: You should analyze a volume before defragmenting it to get an estimate of how long the defragmentation process will take.
3. To defragment the selected drive or drives, click the Defragment button. Note: In Windows Vista, there is no graphical user interface to demonstrate the progress—but your hard drive is still being defragmented.
After the defragmentation is complete, Disk Defragmenter displays the results.
After the defragmentation is complete, Disk Defragmenter displays the results.
4. To display detailed information about the defragmented disk or partition, click View Report.
5. To close the View Report dialog box, click Close.
6. To close the Disk Defragmenter utility, click the Close button on the title bar of the window.
7. Detect and repair disk errors
In addition to running Disk Cleanup and Disk Defragmenter to optimize the performance of your computer, you can check the integrity of the files stored on your hard disk by running the Error Checking utility.
As you use your hard drive, it can develop bad sectors. Bad sectors slow down hard disk performance and sometimes make data writing (such as file saving) difficult, or even impossible. The Error Checking utility scans the hard drive for bad sectors, and scans for file system errors to see whether certain files or folders are misplaced.
If you use your computer daily, you should run this utility once a week to help prevent data loss.
Run the Error Checking utility:
As you use your hard drive, it can develop bad sectors. Bad sectors slow down hard disk performance and sometimes make data writing (such as file saving) difficult, or even impossible. The Error Checking utility scans the hard drive for bad sectors, and scans for file system errors to see whether certain files or folders are misplaced.
If you use your computer daily, you should run this utility once a week to help prevent data loss.
Run the Error Checking utility:
1. Close all open files.
2. Click Start, and then click My Computer.
3. In the My Computer window, right-click the hard disk you want to search for bad sectors, and then click Properties.
4. In the Properties dialog box, click the Tools tab.
5. Click the Check Now button.
6. In the Check Disk dialog box (called Error-checking in Windows 7), select the Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors check box, and then click Start.
Check Disk Local Disk dialog box, with the Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors check box selected.
Example of Check Disk Local Disk dialog box
Check Disk Local Disk dialog box, with the Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors check box selected.
Example of Check Disk Local Disk dialog box
7. If bad sectors are found, choose to fix them.
Tip: Only select the "Automatically fix file system errors" check box if you think that your disk contains bad sectors.
Tip: Only select the "Automatically fix file system errors" check box if you think that your disk contains bad sectors.
4. Protect your computer against spyware
Spyware collects personal information without letting you know and without asking for permission. From the websites you visit to usernames and passwords, spyware can put you and your confidential information at risk. In addition to privacy concerns, spyware can hamper your computer's performance. To combat spyware, you might want to consider using the PC safety scan from Windows Live OneCare. This scan is a free service and will help check for and remove viruses.
Download Microsoft Security Essentials for free to guard your system in the future from viruses, spyware, and other malicious software.
5. Learn all about ReadyBoost
If you're using Windows 7 or Windows Vista, you can use ReadyBoost to speed up your system. A new concept in adding memory to a system, it allows you to use non-volatile flash memory—like a USB flash drive or a memory card—to improve performance without having to add additional memory.
* Learn more about ReadyBoost in Windows 7.
* Learn more about ReadyBoost in Vista.
source: microsoft.com
How to Make Your PC Run Faster and Better- Increase Performance
Control What Runs in the Background
- Caveat
- An absolutely essential prerequisite is the absence of malware and adware. Unless a machine is free of these pests, there is no point in discussing other performance topics. Also, make no system changes unless you know how to undo them
- What background processes are
- The computer is always carrying out processes that are not visible as programs on the Desktop or the Taskbar. They come both from application software and from Windows. They are not overtly obvious and are said to run in the background. Many of them are essential functions but some may be useless (or even harmful if malware is involved).
- The problem
- The typical home PC today is likely to be stuffed with background programs and services. Windows XP is quite good at handling a lot of simultaneous processes but too many can consume enough resources to noticeably affect system performance. Also, some programs are poorly written or consume so many resources (Norton SystemWorks comes to mind) that by themselves they create a problem.
- Where unnecessary background processes come from
- There are several sources.
- It is all too common for software companies to pile on a lot of unnecessary features that load into the background at startup.
- Even Windows XP has a default configuration that loads a lot of services that typical home users do not need or use.
- In today's climate a substantial amount of protection against malware and crackers is required. This involves several programs running in the background. These programs are often resource-intensive and require careful configuration. They may conflict with one another if default settings are used. For example, it is easy to end up with three different programs checking your email attachments. Personally, I prevent a lot of functions from running automatically and instead use a regularly scheduled manual routine.
- Solutions
- As mentioned on the previous page, the measures to take are covered in great detail on pages elsewhere on this site. How to use the Windows System Configuration Utility (Msconfig) and the Services Console to control both programs and services is discussed. There is also some excellent freeware to help manage what runs in the background and one program, WinPatrol, is evaluated here. Below is a table showing examples of some services that might be unnecessary. Others are given in the references above.
| Computer Browser | Keeps track of the other computers on your network |
| Error Reporting Service | Reports failures of applications directly to Microsoft |
| Fast User Switching | To switch to other users on the same system without logging off |
| Indexing Service | Creates a searchable database of hard drive |
| Messenger | To send text popup messages to computers on the network |
| Remote Registry | For remote connection to the Registry |
| Terminal Services | Allows users to connect to the computer with remote desktop |
| Wireless Zero Configuration | Configures wireless 802.11 devices |
Configure Windows XP
Some basic tweaks that help performance are discussed on another page in a previous article. Many tweaks are given in the references listed there and in the previous page. Some examples are:- Disable Error Reportingto Microsoft
- Configure Syste Restoreto take up less space
- Change Visual Setting to remove "eye candy"
- Turn off fancy animated visual effect
Use Windows more efficiently
Some basic ways to make using Windows more effective and more suited to personal needs are discussed in a series of pages on "Windows Your Way".* Customizing the Taskbar
* Configuring the Start Menu to your preference
* Customizing Windows Explorer Views
* How to customize shortcuts
* Specific examples of useful shortcuts
* Configuring Windows Explorer to start where you want
* Quick and convenient ways to access your favorite folders
more info: vlaurie.com
how to overclock ram
The Basics
To understand how to overclock your system, you must first understand how your system works. The most common component to overclock is your processor.
When you buy a processor, or CPU, you will see its operating speed. For instance, a Pentium 4 3.2GHz CPU runs at 3.2GHz, or 3200 MHz. This is a measurement of how many clock cycles the processor goes through in one second. A clock cycle is a period of time in which a processor can carry out a given amount of instructions. So, logically, the more clock cycles a processor can execute in one second, the faster it can process information and the faster your system will run. One MHz is one million clock cycles per second, so a 3.2GHz processor can go through 3,200,000,000, or 3 billion two hundred million clock cycles in every second. Pretty amazing, right?
The goal of overclocking is to raise the GHz rating of your processor so that it can go through more clock cycles every second. The formula for the speed of your processor if this:
FSB (in MHz) x Multiplier=Speed in MHz.
Now to explain what the FSB and Multiplier are:
The FSB (or, for AMD processors, the HTT*), or Front Side Bus, is the channel through which your entire system communicates with your CPU. So, obviously, the faster your FSB can run, the faster your entire system can run.
CPU manufacturers have found ways to increase the effective speed of the FSB of a CPU. They simply send more instructions in every clock cycle. So instead of sending one instruction every one clock cycle, CPU manufacturers have found ways to send two instructions per clock cycle (AMD CPUs) or even four instructions per clock cycle (Intel CPUs). So, when you look at a CPU and see its FSB speed, you must realize that it is not really running at that speed. Intel CPUs are "quad pumped", meaning they send 4 instructions per clock cycle. This means that if you see an FSB of 800MHz, the underlying FSB speed is really only 200MHz, but it is sending 4 instructions per clock cycle so it achieves an effective speed of 800MHz. The same logic can be applied to AMD CPUs, but they are only "double pumped", meaning they only send 2 instructions per clock cycle. So an FSB of 400MHz on an AMD CPU is comprised of an underlying 200MHz FSB sending 2 instructions per clock cycle.
This is important because when you are overclocking, you will be dealing with the real FSB speed of the CPU, not the effective CPU speed.
The multiplier portion of the speed equation is nothing more than a number that, when multiplied by the FSB speed, will give you the total speed of the processor. For instance, if you have a CPU that has a 200MHz FSB (real FSB speed, before it is double or quad pumped) and has a multiplier of 10, then the equation becomes:
(FSB) 200MHz x (Multiplier) 10= 2000MHz CPU speed, or 2.0GHz.
On some CPUs, such as the Intel processors since 1998, the multiplier is locked and cannot be changed. On others, such as the AMD Athlon 64 processors, the multiplier is "top locked", which means that you can change the multiplier to a lower number but cannot raise it higher than it was originally. On other CPUs, the multiplier is completely unlocked, meaning you can change it to any number that you wish. This type of CPU is an overclocker's dream, since you can overclock the CPU simply by raising the multiplier, but is very uncommon nowadays.
It is much easier to raise or lower the multiplier on a CPU than the FSB. This is because, unlike the FSB, the multiplier only affects the CPU speed. When you change the FSB, you are really changing the speed at which every single component of your computer communicates with your CPU. This, in effect, is overclocking all of the other components of your system. This can bring about all sorts of problems when other components that you don't intend to overclock are pushed too far and fail to work. Once you understand how overclocking works, though, you will know how to prevent these issues.
*On AMD Athlon 64 CPUs, the term FSB is really a misnomer. There is no FSB, per se. The FSB is integrated into the chip. This allows the FSB to communicate with the CPU much faster than Intel's standard FSB method. It also can cause some confusion, since the FSB on an Athlon 64 can sometimes be referred to as the HTT. If you see somebody talking about raising the HTT on an Athlon 64 CPU and is talking about speeds that you recognize as common FSB speeds, then just think of the HTT as the FSB. For the most part, they function in the same way and can be treated the same and thinking of the HTT as the FSB can eliminate some possible confusion.
How to Overclock
So now you understand how a processor gets its speed rating. Great, but how do you raise that speed?
Well, the most common method of overclocking is through the BIOS. The BIOS can be reached by pressing a variety of keys while your system is booting up. The most common key to get into the BIOS is the Delete key, but others may be used such as F1, F2, any other F button, Enter, and some others. Before your system starts loading Windows (or whatever OS you have), it should have a screen that will tell you what key to use at the bottom.
Once you are in the BIOS, assuming that you have a BIOS that supports overclocking*, you should have access to all of the settings needed to overclock your system. The settings that you will most likely be adjusting are:
Multiplier, FSB, RAM Timings, RAM Speed, and RAM Ratio.
On a very basic level, all you are trying to do is to get the highest FSB x Multiplier formula that you can achieve. The easiest way to do this is to just raise the multiplier, but that will not work on most processors since the multiplier is locked. The next method is to simply raise the FSB. This is pretty self explanatory, and all of the RAM issues that have to be dealt with when raising the FSB will be explained below. Once you've found the speed at which the CPU won't go any faster, you have one more option.
If you really want to push your system to the limit, you can try lowering the multiplier in order to raise the FSB even higher. In order to understand this, imagine that you have a 2.0GHz processor that has a 200MHz FSB and a 10x multiplier. So 200MHz x 10=2.0GHz. Obviously, that equation works, but there are other ways to get to 2.0GHz. You could raise the multiplier to 20 and lower the FSB to 100MHz, or you could raise the FSB to 250MHz and lower the multiplier to 8. Both of those combinations would give you the same 2.0GHz that you started out with. So both of those combinations should give you the same system performance, right?
Wrong. Since the FSB is the channel through which your system communicates with your processor, you want it to be as high as possible. So if you lowered the FSB to 100MHz and raised the multiplier to 20, you would still have a clock speed of 2.0GHz, but the rest of the system would be communicating with your processor much slower than before resulting in a loss in system performance.
Ideally, you would want to lower the multiplier in order to raise the FSB as high as possible. In principle, this sounds easy, but it gets complicated when you involve the rest of the system, since the rest of the system is dependent on the FSB as well, chiefly the RAM. Which leads me to the next section on RAM.
*Most retail computer manufacturers use motherboards and BIOSes that do not support overclocking. You won't be able to access the settings you need from the BIOS. There are utilities that will allow you to overclock from your desktop, such as this one, but I don't recommend them since I have never tried them out myself.
RAM and what it has to do with Overclocking
As I said before, the FSB is the pathway through which your system communicates with your CPU. So raising the FSB, in effect, overclocks the rest of your system as well.
The component that is most affected by raising the FSB is your RAM. When you buy RAM, it is rated at a certain speed. I'll use the table from my post to show these speeds:
Quote:
PC-2100 - DDR266
PC-2700 - DDR333
PC-3200 - DDR400
PC-3500 - DDR434
PC-3700 - DDR464
PC-4000 - DDR500
PC-4200 - DDR525
PC-4400 - DDR550
PC-4800 - DDR600
To understand what this table means, look here. Note how the RAM's rated speed is DDR PC-4000. Then refer to this table and see how PC-4000 is equivalent to DDR 500.
To understand this, you must first understand how RAM works. RAM, or Random Access Memory, serves as temporary storage of files that the CPU needs to access quickly. For instance, when you load a level in a game, your CPU will load the level into RAM so that it can access the information quickly whenever it needs to, instead of loading the information from the relatively slow hard drive.
The important thing to know is that RAM functions at a certain speed, which is much lower than the CPU speed. Most RAM today runs at speeds between 133MHz and 300MHz. This may confuse you, since those speeds are not listed on my chart.
This is because RAM manufacturers, much like the CPU manufacturers from before, have managed to get RAM to send information twice every RAM clock cycle.* This is the reason for the "DDR" in the RAM speed rating. It stands for Double Data Rate. So DDR 400 means that the RAM operates at an effective speed of 400MHz, with the "400" in DDR 400 standing for the clock speed. Since it is sending instructions twice per clock cycle, that means its real operating frequency is 200MHz. This works much like AMD's "double pumping" of the FSB.
So go back to the RAM that I linked before. It is listed at a speed of DDR PC-4000. PC-4000 is equivalent to DDR 500, which means that PC-4000 RAM has an effective speed of 500MHz with an underlying 250MHz clock speed.
So what does this all have to do with overclocking?
Well, as I said before, when you raise the FSB, you effectively overclock everything else in your system. This applies to RAM too. RAM that is rated at PC-3200 (DDR 400) is rated to run at speeds up to 200MHz. For a non-overclocker, this is fine, since your FSB won't be over 200MHz anyway.
Problems can occur, though, when you want to raise your FSB to speeds over 200MHz. Since the RAM is only rated to run at speeds up to 200MHz, raising your FSB higher than 200MHz can cause your system to crash. How do you solve this? There are three solutions: using a FSB:RAM ratio, overclocking your RAM, or simply buying RAM rated at a higher speed.
Since you probably only understood the last of those three options, I'll explain them:
FSB:RAM Ratio: If you want to raise your FSB to a higher speed than your RAM supports, you have the option of running your RAM at a lower speed than your FSB. This is done using an FSB:RAM ratio. Basically, the FSB:RAM ratio allows you to select numbers that set up a ratio between your FSB and RAM speeds. So, say you are using the PC-3200 (DDR 400) RAM that I mentioned before which runs at 200MHz. But you want to raise your FSB to 250MHz to overclock your CPU. Obviously, your RAM will not appreciate the raised FSB speed and will most likely cause your system to crash. To solve this, you can set up a 5:4 FSB:RAM ratio. Basically, this ratio will mean that for every 5MHz that your FSB runs at, your RAM will only run at 4MHz.
To make it easier, convert the 5:4 ratio to a 100:80 ratio. So for every 100MHz your FSB runs at, your RAM will only run at 80MHz. Basically, this means that your RAM will only run at 80% of your FSB speed. So with your 250MHz target FSB, running in a 5:4 FSB:RAM ratio, your RAM will be running at 200MHz, which is 80% of 250MHz. This is perfect, since your RAM is rated for 200MHz.
This solution, however, isn't ideal. Running the FSB and RAM with a ratio causes gaps in between the time that the FSB can communicate with the RAM. This causes slowdowns that wouldn't be there if the RAM and the FSB were running at the same speed. If you want the most speed out of your system, using an FSB:RAM ratio wouldn't be the best solution.
Overclocking your RAM
Overclocking your RAM is really very simple. The principle behind overclocking RAM is the same as overclocking your CPU: to get the RAM to run at a higher speed than it is supposed to run at. Luckily, the similarities between the two types of overclocking end there, or else RAM overclocking would be much more complicated than it is.
To overclock RAM, you just enter the BIOS and attempt to run the RAM at a higher speed than it is rated at. For instance, you could try to run PC-3200 (DDR 400) RAM at a speed of 210MHz, which would be 10MHz over the rated speed. This could work, but in some cases it will cause the system to crash. If this happens, don't panic. The problem can be solved pretty easily by raising the voltage to your RAM. The voltage to your RAM, also known as vdimm, can be adjusted in most BIOSes. Raise it using the smallest increments available and test each setting to see if it works. Once you find a setting that works, you can either keep it or try to push your RAM farther. If you give the RAM too much voltage, however, it could get fried. For info on what voltages are safe, refer back to my Holy Grail of RAM.
The only other thing that you have to worry about when overclocking RAM are the latency timings. These timings are the delays between certain RAM functions. If you want more info on this, you know where to look. Basically, if you want to raise the speed of your RAM, you may have to raise the timings. It's not all that complicated, though, and shouldn't be too hard to understand.
That's really all there is to it. If only overclocking the CPU were that easy
Buying RAM rated at a Higher Speed
This one's the simplest thing in this entire guide If you want to raise your FSB to, say, 250MHz, just buy RAM that is rated to run at 250MHz, which would be DDR 500. The only downside to this option is that faster RAM will cost you more than slower RAM. Since overclocking your RAM is relatively simple, you might want to consider buying slower RAM and overclocking it to fit your needs. It could save you over a hundred bucks, depending on what type of RAM you need.
Voltage and how it affects Overclocking
There will be a point when you are overclocking and you simply cannot increase the speed of your CPU anymore no matter what you do and how much cooling you have. This is most likely because your CPU is not getting enough voltage. This is very similar to the RAM voltage scenario that I addressed above. To solve this, you simply up the voltage to your CPU, also known as the vcore. Do this in the same fashion described in the RAM section. Once you have enough voltage for the CPU to be stable, you can either keep the CPU at that speed or attempt to overclock it even further. As with the RAM, be careful not to overload the CPU with voltage. Each processor has recommended voltages setup by the manufacturer. Look on the website to find these. Try not to go past the recommended voltages.
Keep in mind that upping the voltage to your CPU will cause much greater heat output. This is why it is essential to have good cooling when overclocking. Which leads me to my next topic...
Cooling
As I said before, when you up the voltage to your CPU, the heat output great increases. This makes proper cooling a necessity. Here is a good set of links related to cooling and a few other topics.
There are basically three "levels" of case cooling:
Air Cooling (Fans)
Water Cooling (look here)
Peltier/Phase Change Cooling (VERY expensive and high end cooling[/b]
I really don't have much knowledge on the Peltier/Phase Change method of cooling, so I won't address it. All you need to know is that it could cost you upwards of $1000 dollars and can keep your CPU at sub-zero temperatures. It's intended for VERY high end overclockers, and I assume that nobody here will be using it.
The other two, however, are much more affordable and realistic.
Everybody knows about air cooling. If you're on a computer now (and I don't know how you'd be seeing this if you're not ), you probably hear a constant humming coming from it. If you look in the back, you will see a fan. This fan is basically all that air cooling is: the use of fans to suck cold air in and push hot air out. There are various ways to set up your fans, but you generally want to have an equal amount of air being sucked in and pushed out. For more info, refer to the link that I gave at the beginning of this section.
Water cooling is more expensive and exotic than air cooling. It is basically the use of pumps and radiators to cool your system more effectively than air cooling. For more info on it, check out the link that I gave next to water cooling before.
Those are the two most commonly used methods of case cooling. Good case cooling, however, is not the only component necessary for a cool computer. The other main component is the CPU Heatsink/Fan, or HSF. The purpose of the HSF is to channel heat away from the CPU and into the case so that it can be pushed out from the case fans. It is necessary to have an HSF on your CPU at all times. Your CPU will be fried in a matter of seconds if it is not.
There are tons of HSF's out there. For a ton of info on HSF's and everything that goes with them, check out this page again. It basically covers all you need to know about HSF's and air cooling.
To understand how to overclock your system, you must first understand how your system works. The most common component to overclock is your processor.
When you buy a processor, or CPU, you will see its operating speed. For instance, a Pentium 4 3.2GHz CPU runs at 3.2GHz, or 3200 MHz. This is a measurement of how many clock cycles the processor goes through in one second. A clock cycle is a period of time in which a processor can carry out a given amount of instructions. So, logically, the more clock cycles a processor can execute in one second, the faster it can process information and the faster your system will run. One MHz is one million clock cycles per second, so a 3.2GHz processor can go through 3,200,000,000, or 3 billion two hundred million clock cycles in every second. Pretty amazing, right?
The goal of overclocking is to raise the GHz rating of your processor so that it can go through more clock cycles every second. The formula for the speed of your processor if this:
FSB (in MHz) x Multiplier=Speed in MHz.
Now to explain what the FSB and Multiplier are:
The FSB (or, for AMD processors, the HTT*), or Front Side Bus, is the channel through which your entire system communicates with your CPU. So, obviously, the faster your FSB can run, the faster your entire system can run.
CPU manufacturers have found ways to increase the effective speed of the FSB of a CPU. They simply send more instructions in every clock cycle. So instead of sending one instruction every one clock cycle, CPU manufacturers have found ways to send two instructions per clock cycle (AMD CPUs) or even four instructions per clock cycle (Intel CPUs). So, when you look at a CPU and see its FSB speed, you must realize that it is not really running at that speed. Intel CPUs are "quad pumped", meaning they send 4 instructions per clock cycle. This means that if you see an FSB of 800MHz, the underlying FSB speed is really only 200MHz, but it is sending 4 instructions per clock cycle so it achieves an effective speed of 800MHz. The same logic can be applied to AMD CPUs, but they are only "double pumped", meaning they only send 2 instructions per clock cycle. So an FSB of 400MHz on an AMD CPU is comprised of an underlying 200MHz FSB sending 2 instructions per clock cycle.
This is important because when you are overclocking, you will be dealing with the real FSB speed of the CPU, not the effective CPU speed.
The multiplier portion of the speed equation is nothing more than a number that, when multiplied by the FSB speed, will give you the total speed of the processor. For instance, if you have a CPU that has a 200MHz FSB (real FSB speed, before it is double or quad pumped) and has a multiplier of 10, then the equation becomes:
(FSB) 200MHz x (Multiplier) 10= 2000MHz CPU speed, or 2.0GHz.
On some CPUs, such as the Intel processors since 1998, the multiplier is locked and cannot be changed. On others, such as the AMD Athlon 64 processors, the multiplier is "top locked", which means that you can change the multiplier to a lower number but cannot raise it higher than it was originally. On other CPUs, the multiplier is completely unlocked, meaning you can change it to any number that you wish. This type of CPU is an overclocker's dream, since you can overclock the CPU simply by raising the multiplier, but is very uncommon nowadays.
It is much easier to raise or lower the multiplier on a CPU than the FSB. This is because, unlike the FSB, the multiplier only affects the CPU speed. When you change the FSB, you are really changing the speed at which every single component of your computer communicates with your CPU. This, in effect, is overclocking all of the other components of your system. This can bring about all sorts of problems when other components that you don't intend to overclock are pushed too far and fail to work. Once you understand how overclocking works, though, you will know how to prevent these issues.
*On AMD Athlon 64 CPUs, the term FSB is really a misnomer. There is no FSB, per se. The FSB is integrated into the chip. This allows the FSB to communicate with the CPU much faster than Intel's standard FSB method. It also can cause some confusion, since the FSB on an Athlon 64 can sometimes be referred to as the HTT. If you see somebody talking about raising the HTT on an Athlon 64 CPU and is talking about speeds that you recognize as common FSB speeds, then just think of the HTT as the FSB. For the most part, they function in the same way and can be treated the same and thinking of the HTT as the FSB can eliminate some possible confusion.
How to Overclock
So now you understand how a processor gets its speed rating. Great, but how do you raise that speed?
Well, the most common method of overclocking is through the BIOS. The BIOS can be reached by pressing a variety of keys while your system is booting up. The most common key to get into the BIOS is the Delete key, but others may be used such as F1, F2, any other F button, Enter, and some others. Before your system starts loading Windows (or whatever OS you have), it should have a screen that will tell you what key to use at the bottom.
Once you are in the BIOS, assuming that you have a BIOS that supports overclocking*, you should have access to all of the settings needed to overclock your system. The settings that you will most likely be adjusting are:
Multiplier, FSB, RAM Timings, RAM Speed, and RAM Ratio.
On a very basic level, all you are trying to do is to get the highest FSB x Multiplier formula that you can achieve. The easiest way to do this is to just raise the multiplier, but that will not work on most processors since the multiplier is locked. The next method is to simply raise the FSB. This is pretty self explanatory, and all of the RAM issues that have to be dealt with when raising the FSB will be explained below. Once you've found the speed at which the CPU won't go any faster, you have one more option.
If you really want to push your system to the limit, you can try lowering the multiplier in order to raise the FSB even higher. In order to understand this, imagine that you have a 2.0GHz processor that has a 200MHz FSB and a 10x multiplier. So 200MHz x 10=2.0GHz. Obviously, that equation works, but there are other ways to get to 2.0GHz. You could raise the multiplier to 20 and lower the FSB to 100MHz, or you could raise the FSB to 250MHz and lower the multiplier to 8. Both of those combinations would give you the same 2.0GHz that you started out with. So both of those combinations should give you the same system performance, right?
Wrong. Since the FSB is the channel through which your system communicates with your processor, you want it to be as high as possible. So if you lowered the FSB to 100MHz and raised the multiplier to 20, you would still have a clock speed of 2.0GHz, but the rest of the system would be communicating with your processor much slower than before resulting in a loss in system performance.
Ideally, you would want to lower the multiplier in order to raise the FSB as high as possible. In principle, this sounds easy, but it gets complicated when you involve the rest of the system, since the rest of the system is dependent on the FSB as well, chiefly the RAM. Which leads me to the next section on RAM.
*Most retail computer manufacturers use motherboards and BIOSes that do not support overclocking. You won't be able to access the settings you need from the BIOS. There are utilities that will allow you to overclock from your desktop, such as this one, but I don't recommend them since I have never tried them out myself.
RAM and what it has to do with Overclocking
As I said before, the FSB is the pathway through which your system communicates with your CPU. So raising the FSB, in effect, overclocks the rest of your system as well.
The component that is most affected by raising the FSB is your RAM. When you buy RAM, it is rated at a certain speed. I'll use the table from my post to show these speeds:
Quote:
PC-2100 - DDR266
PC-2700 - DDR333
PC-3200 - DDR400
PC-3500 - DDR434
PC-3700 - DDR464
PC-4000 - DDR500
PC-4200 - DDR525
PC-4400 - DDR550
PC-4800 - DDR600
To understand what this table means, look here. Note how the RAM's rated speed is DDR PC-4000. Then refer to this table and see how PC-4000 is equivalent to DDR 500.
To understand this, you must first understand how RAM works. RAM, or Random Access Memory, serves as temporary storage of files that the CPU needs to access quickly. For instance, when you load a level in a game, your CPU will load the level into RAM so that it can access the information quickly whenever it needs to, instead of loading the information from the relatively slow hard drive.
The important thing to know is that RAM functions at a certain speed, which is much lower than the CPU speed. Most RAM today runs at speeds between 133MHz and 300MHz. This may confuse you, since those speeds are not listed on my chart.
This is because RAM manufacturers, much like the CPU manufacturers from before, have managed to get RAM to send information twice every RAM clock cycle.* This is the reason for the "DDR" in the RAM speed rating. It stands for Double Data Rate. So DDR 400 means that the RAM operates at an effective speed of 400MHz, with the "400" in DDR 400 standing for the clock speed. Since it is sending instructions twice per clock cycle, that means its real operating frequency is 200MHz. This works much like AMD's "double pumping" of the FSB.
So go back to the RAM that I linked before. It is listed at a speed of DDR PC-4000. PC-4000 is equivalent to DDR 500, which means that PC-4000 RAM has an effective speed of 500MHz with an underlying 250MHz clock speed.
So what does this all have to do with overclocking?
Well, as I said before, when you raise the FSB, you effectively overclock everything else in your system. This applies to RAM too. RAM that is rated at PC-3200 (DDR 400) is rated to run at speeds up to 200MHz. For a non-overclocker, this is fine, since your FSB won't be over 200MHz anyway.
Problems can occur, though, when you want to raise your FSB to speeds over 200MHz. Since the RAM is only rated to run at speeds up to 200MHz, raising your FSB higher than 200MHz can cause your system to crash. How do you solve this? There are three solutions: using a FSB:RAM ratio, overclocking your RAM, or simply buying RAM rated at a higher speed.
Since you probably only understood the last of those three options, I'll explain them:
FSB:RAM Ratio: If you want to raise your FSB to a higher speed than your RAM supports, you have the option of running your RAM at a lower speed than your FSB. This is done using an FSB:RAM ratio. Basically, the FSB:RAM ratio allows you to select numbers that set up a ratio between your FSB and RAM speeds. So, say you are using the PC-3200 (DDR 400) RAM that I mentioned before which runs at 200MHz. But you want to raise your FSB to 250MHz to overclock your CPU. Obviously, your RAM will not appreciate the raised FSB speed and will most likely cause your system to crash. To solve this, you can set up a 5:4 FSB:RAM ratio. Basically, this ratio will mean that for every 5MHz that your FSB runs at, your RAM will only run at 4MHz.
To make it easier, convert the 5:4 ratio to a 100:80 ratio. So for every 100MHz your FSB runs at, your RAM will only run at 80MHz. Basically, this means that your RAM will only run at 80% of your FSB speed. So with your 250MHz target FSB, running in a 5:4 FSB:RAM ratio, your RAM will be running at 200MHz, which is 80% of 250MHz. This is perfect, since your RAM is rated for 200MHz.
This solution, however, isn't ideal. Running the FSB and RAM with a ratio causes gaps in between the time that the FSB can communicate with the RAM. This causes slowdowns that wouldn't be there if the RAM and the FSB were running at the same speed. If you want the most speed out of your system, using an FSB:RAM ratio wouldn't be the best solution.
Overclocking your RAM
Overclocking your RAM is really very simple. The principle behind overclocking RAM is the same as overclocking your CPU: to get the RAM to run at a higher speed than it is supposed to run at. Luckily, the similarities between the two types of overclocking end there, or else RAM overclocking would be much more complicated than it is.
To overclock RAM, you just enter the BIOS and attempt to run the RAM at a higher speed than it is rated at. For instance, you could try to run PC-3200 (DDR 400) RAM at a speed of 210MHz, which would be 10MHz over the rated speed. This could work, but in some cases it will cause the system to crash. If this happens, don't panic. The problem can be solved pretty easily by raising the voltage to your RAM. The voltage to your RAM, also known as vdimm, can be adjusted in most BIOSes. Raise it using the smallest increments available and test each setting to see if it works. Once you find a setting that works, you can either keep it or try to push your RAM farther. If you give the RAM too much voltage, however, it could get fried. For info on what voltages are safe, refer back to my Holy Grail of RAM.
The only other thing that you have to worry about when overclocking RAM are the latency timings. These timings are the delays between certain RAM functions. If you want more info on this, you know where to look. Basically, if you want to raise the speed of your RAM, you may have to raise the timings. It's not all that complicated, though, and shouldn't be too hard to understand.
That's really all there is to it. If only overclocking the CPU were that easy
Buying RAM rated at a Higher Speed
This one's the simplest thing in this entire guide If you want to raise your FSB to, say, 250MHz, just buy RAM that is rated to run at 250MHz, which would be DDR 500. The only downside to this option is that faster RAM will cost you more than slower RAM. Since overclocking your RAM is relatively simple, you might want to consider buying slower RAM and overclocking it to fit your needs. It could save you over a hundred bucks, depending on what type of RAM you need.
Voltage and how it affects Overclocking
There will be a point when you are overclocking and you simply cannot increase the speed of your CPU anymore no matter what you do and how much cooling you have. This is most likely because your CPU is not getting enough voltage. This is very similar to the RAM voltage scenario that I addressed above. To solve this, you simply up the voltage to your CPU, also known as the vcore. Do this in the same fashion described in the RAM section. Once you have enough voltage for the CPU to be stable, you can either keep the CPU at that speed or attempt to overclock it even further. As with the RAM, be careful not to overload the CPU with voltage. Each processor has recommended voltages setup by the manufacturer. Look on the website to find these. Try not to go past the recommended voltages.
Keep in mind that upping the voltage to your CPU will cause much greater heat output. This is why it is essential to have good cooling when overclocking. Which leads me to my next topic...
Cooling
As I said before, when you up the voltage to your CPU, the heat output great increases. This makes proper cooling a necessity. Here is a good set of links related to cooling and a few other topics.
There are basically three "levels" of case cooling:
Air Cooling (Fans)
Water Cooling (look here)
Peltier/Phase Change Cooling (VERY expensive and high end cooling[/b]
I really don't have much knowledge on the Peltier/Phase Change method of cooling, so I won't address it. All you need to know is that it could cost you upwards of $1000 dollars and can keep your CPU at sub-zero temperatures. It's intended for VERY high end overclockers, and I assume that nobody here will be using it.
The other two, however, are much more affordable and realistic.
Everybody knows about air cooling. If you're on a computer now (and I don't know how you'd be seeing this if you're not ), you probably hear a constant humming coming from it. If you look in the back, you will see a fan. This fan is basically all that air cooling is: the use of fans to suck cold air in and push hot air out. There are various ways to set up your fans, but you generally want to have an equal amount of air being sucked in and pushed out. For more info, refer to the link that I gave at the beginning of this section.
Water cooling is more expensive and exotic than air cooling. It is basically the use of pumps and radiators to cool your system more effectively than air cooling. For more info on it, check out the link that I gave next to water cooling before.
Those are the two most commonly used methods of case cooling. Good case cooling, however, is not the only component necessary for a cool computer. The other main component is the CPU Heatsink/Fan, or HSF. The purpose of the HSF is to channel heat away from the CPU and into the case so that it can be pushed out from the case fans. It is necessary to have an HSF on your CPU at all times. Your CPU will be fried in a matter of seconds if it is not.
There are tons of HSF's out there. For a ton of info on HSF's and everything that goes with them, check out this page again. It basically covers all you need to know about HSF's and air cooling.
Overclocking Computer Memory
Most PC enthusiasts want to squeeze a few more cycles out of their rigs without spending any money, and overclocking is the way to go. There are plenty of resources online about overclocking because is a popular subject. So here we’re going to concentrate on RAM. If you want to know how to overclock your memory, you’re in the right place.
Overclocking RAM is actually quite quick and easy to do. It’s the testing that takes the time. The RAM clock is controlled from the BIOS and can be easily adjusted, but each change needs testing to ensure stability. So while the overclock itself might take a couple of seconds, making sure the system can cope might take 20 minutes. To ensure your memory is up to the task, check this article on running memory diagnostics before overclocking them.
Some motherboards will only allow you to change the memory clocks with the CPU clock, and not independently. So before you begin, access your system BIOS, and find the section that has your RAM speed. Different manufacturers call it different things, but you’re looking for a setting called “Memory Clock” or “Memory Frequency.” If you have those and can change them, you’re in business.
Overclocking memory has two stages. The first is to increase the speed of the memory clock to make it work faster. The second is to increase the voltage in order to allow it to work faster. Both are done in increments, which is why the testing can take a while.
Firstly increase the “DDR Timing Setting” or “Memory Timing Setting” to manual, expert or whatever setting allows you to change it. Somewhere underneath that should be a setting called “Memclock” or “Memory Frequency." It should be measured in Mhz so you can identify it from that.
RAM
Increase this setting gradually, boot the PC, run it for a bit and repeat the process until you find a setting that’s unstable and causes the PC to crash. Record it somewhere, reboot into the BIOS and set the RAM clock to the last stable speed.
IMPORTANT: Read the following
RAM works on a standard of 2.5v. Making the memory work faster means it’s also going to need more power. However, that power need is tiny, so any increases should be done in .1v increments. Never take the voltage over 2.8v. If you rush this bit you risk frying your memory and rendering it useless, so be careful.
Go to the “Memory voltage” setting if you have one and slowly increase it. Some motherboards will have infinite options, others will have a set few. Whichever you have, choose the smallest change each time and test it. The test is exactly the same as before, run the machine for a while to ensure stability and find the voltage that works.
RAM Voltage
Once the system starts crashing again, move the voltage down to the last stable one and run the system for a few hours with these new settings. Tax the system, run games, benchmarks, whatever to make sure your memory is stable.
That’s how to overclock your RAM in a nutshell. You can also increase your CAS latency timings, but this can sometimes have the opposite effect and slow things down, so it isn’t always worth the hassle.
source: brightthub.com
Overclocking RAM is actually quite quick and easy to do. It’s the testing that takes the time. The RAM clock is controlled from the BIOS and can be easily adjusted, but each change needs testing to ensure stability. So while the overclock itself might take a couple of seconds, making sure the system can cope might take 20 minutes. To ensure your memory is up to the task, check this article on running memory diagnostics before overclocking them.
Some motherboards will only allow you to change the memory clocks with the CPU clock, and not independently. So before you begin, access your system BIOS, and find the section that has your RAM speed. Different manufacturers call it different things, but you’re looking for a setting called “Memory Clock” or “Memory Frequency.” If you have those and can change them, you’re in business.
Overclocking memory has two stages. The first is to increase the speed of the memory clock to make it work faster. The second is to increase the voltage in order to allow it to work faster. Both are done in increments, which is why the testing can take a while.
Firstly increase the “DDR Timing Setting” or “Memory Timing Setting” to manual, expert or whatever setting allows you to change it. Somewhere underneath that should be a setting called “Memclock” or “Memory Frequency." It should be measured in Mhz so you can identify it from that.
RAM
Increase this setting gradually, boot the PC, run it for a bit and repeat the process until you find a setting that’s unstable and causes the PC to crash. Record it somewhere, reboot into the BIOS and set the RAM clock to the last stable speed.
IMPORTANT: Read the following
RAM works on a standard of 2.5v. Making the memory work faster means it’s also going to need more power. However, that power need is tiny, so any increases should be done in .1v increments. Never take the voltage over 2.8v. If you rush this bit you risk frying your memory and rendering it useless, so be careful.
Go to the “Memory voltage” setting if you have one and slowly increase it. Some motherboards will have infinite options, others will have a set few. Whichever you have, choose the smallest change each time and test it. The test is exactly the same as before, run the machine for a while to ensure stability and find the voltage that works.
RAM Voltage
Once the system starts crashing again, move the voltage down to the last stable one and run the system for a few hours with these new settings. Tax the system, run games, benchmarks, whatever to make sure your memory is stable.
That’s how to overclock your RAM in a nutshell. You can also increase your CAS latency timings, but this can sometimes have the opposite effect and slow things down, so it isn’t always worth the hassle.
source: brightthub.com
Tips for Improving Graphics Performance
From: oreilly.com
If you're like me, graphics plays a huge role in everyday computing. Whether you're an avid gamer looking to get the best possible image quality for a new first-person shooter or MMORG, or you're just trying to smooth system performance at high resolutions and color depths, getting the most from your graphics subsystem can be a real challenge. Still, there's a whole checklist of practical items that can help perk up a sagging frame rate.
Close Other Applications
Operating systems can run numerous applications at the same time, but multiple applications siphon off resources, such as processor time and memory, from the program. The quickest way to bog down your favorite game or multimedia player is to run multiple applications simultaneously. Close all applications and reboot the system if necessary. Press Ctrl-Alt-Del and use the Task Manager to verify that all other applications are exited.
Consider the Program Itself
Most modern graphics programs, namely games, offer a wealth of 3-D rendering features, including multiple lighting sources, real-time shadows, long ranges of sight, and other processor-intensive tasks. If you enable these options to improve the image quality, it may bog down your computer and slow down your frame rate. Just because your graphics card meets or even exceeds the program's requirements, it doesn't mean that the program will display its best features. Once the program is running, open its video configuration menu and experiment with each feature to optimize the frame rate while achieving the best possible image quality for your system.
Note: Always check back with the program's publisher for periodic bug fixes or patches that can sometimes improve visual performance and frame rates.
Install the Latest Video Drivers
Disable Video BIOS Shadowing
Here's a tip for more advanced readers. The video BIOS (firmware instructions encoded onto the video card itself) often takes more time to access than RAM. Most motherboards "shadow" the video BIOS, placing a copy of the video BIOS in RAM, where it can be accessed faster. However, video BIOS shadowing is not a suitable technique for every system. Reboot, enter System Setup, and disable the Video BIOS Shadowing option (usually located in the Advanced Chipset Features menu).
From: oreilly.com
If you're like me, graphics plays a huge role in everyday computing. Whether you're an avid gamer looking to get the best possible image quality for a new first-person shooter or MMORG, or you're just trying to smooth system performance at high resolutions and color depths, getting the most from your graphics subsystem can be a real challenge. Still, there's a whole checklist of practical items that can help perk up a sagging frame rate.
Check the Graphics System Requirements
You'd be amazed at just how many folks rush out to purchase software without even checking basic compatibility. Did you know that the initial release of the game FarCry demands a graphics system using nVIDIA GeForce 2/3/4/FX chipsets (with ForceWare driver version 53.03 or later) or ATI Radeon 8500/9000 chipsets (with ATI Catalyst 3.9 drivers or later)? No? Well you should--it's printed right on the bottom of the box. You didn't even look, did you? That's why the game runs at only 2 fps with your old RAGE II graphics card. In addition to the chipset, be sure that your graphics card includes at least the minimum amount of onboard video memory (for example, 128MB to 256MB).Check the Other Program Requirements
Once you get past the graphics requirements, keep reading the bottom of that box for other system requirements such as CPU speed and RAM. Ideally, to ensure best performance your PC should exceed the recommended system configuration. If you had kept reading the bottom of the FarCry game box, you'd see that a AMD Athlon XP 2000+ or 2GHz Pentium 4 is recommended, along with 521MB to 1,024MB of system RAM. Network-based programs, such as those for communication over the Internet, will add other requirements like minimum connection speeds. Bottom line: be sure that your PC has what the program needs if you are hoping for the best visual performance.Close Other Applications
Close Other Applications
Operating systems can run numerous applications at the same time, but multiple applications siphon off resources, such as processor time and memory, from the program. The quickest way to bog down your favorite game or multimedia player is to run multiple applications simultaneously. Close all applications and reboot the system if necessary. Press Ctrl-Alt-Del and use the Task Manager to verify that all other applications are exited.
Consider the Program Itself
Consider the Program Itself
Most modern graphics programs, namely games, offer a wealth of 3-D rendering features, including multiple lighting sources, real-time shadows, long ranges of sight, and other processor-intensive tasks. If you enable these options to improve the image quality, it may bog down your computer and slow down your frame rate. Just because your graphics card meets or even exceeds the program's requirements, it doesn't mean that the program will display its best features. Once the program is running, open its video configuration menu and experiment with each feature to optimize the frame rate while achieving the best possible image quality for your system.
Note: Always check back with the program's publisher for periodic bug fixes or patches that can sometimes improve visual performance and frame rates.
Install the Latest Video Drivers
Install the Latest Video Drivers
Old video drivers may suffer from bugs or inefficient coding that impairs some graphics performance. Check with the video card manufacturer and install the most recent video drivers. For example, ATI may have newer Catalyst drivers available for your Radeon X800 XT card. When it comes to drivers, don't forget to download and install the very latest version of Microsoft's DirectX. (You can learn more about DirectX at www.microsoft.com.)Disable Video BIOS Shadowing
Disable Video BIOS Shadowing
Here's a tip for more advanced readers. The video BIOS (firmware instructions encoded onto the video card itself) often takes more time to access than RAM. Most motherboards "shadow" the video BIOS, placing a copy of the video BIOS in RAM, where it can be accessed faster. However, video BIOS shadowing is not a suitable technique for every system. Reboot, enter System Setup, and disable the Video BIOS Shadowing option (usually located in the Advanced Chipset Features menu).
Adjust Video Card Properties
You can often control the many features of your video card directly rather than through a game's video configuration menus. The video drivers typically include a wealth of 3-D options under the Direct3D and OpenGL tabs. These options include anti-aliasing, anisotropic filtering, and texture quality. Take a look for yourself. To make adjustments, right-click on the desktop, select Properties, click on the Settings tab, click on the Advanced button, and then click on the Direct3D tab. Adjust the 3-D options downward to reduce image quality, which will improve graphics performance. On the other hand, you can adjust the 3-D options upward to improve image quality, although you will possibly sacrifice some performance.From: oreilly.com
Tips for Keeping And Maintaining Stability Operating System (windows)
Almost all of us computer users rarely care "health" of our operating systems, especially windows. Usefulness is to smooth you to run applications via the OS (Operation System) is. Well these few simple steps to maintain the health of our OS:
1. perform disk defragmentar the accessories menu then tools and select disk defragmnetar. Its function is to rebuild a system that has been scrambled, either random or not when using the application2. update anti-virus. There are several anti-virus that I think that is powerful Norton, NOD 32, MCC McAfee, AVG anti-virus and other local. Sometimes the local virus is more difficult than the viruses networking3. if you-do you like in the good OL play games or browsing and chat, do not forget to install anti-Spyware Firewall at the same time, if I guarantee you've got that emotion ... willing umbrella before it rains4. NOTE: do not like to install skins windows either in any OS and any series coz it actually spoil some files on your original OS. Spoil here is replace the file with earlier skin files are sometimes not necessarily suitable5. Use system restore point. This facility allows you to restore data lost your past that is on drive C or the drive where you install the OS it (start-all programs-accessories-system tools-system restore)
which is in addition to see if its basic system problematic or not is by going to Run then type dxdiag menu. Well there you get a look at some menus, and if there is a problem ga means no writing no problems found at the bottom of each menu column. You also can see your computer specs also respectively.
how simple but useful
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