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GeForce 2 Ultra Overclocking (Page 2 of 4)

Posted: August 15, 2000
Written by: Dan "Tweak Monkey" Kennedy

Preparing to Overclock the Monster (cont.)

Most of the more extreme cooling methods are a bit overboard for a video card, and too risky for this precious GeForce 2 Ultra. All I really need is very good ventilation. And what better way is there to get ventilation than to add some powerful fans? First I made sure that my Card Cooler XT was well positioned over the GeForce 2 Ultra. Two 120mm fans should do plenty to keep this beast from overheating.

I couldn't really find anything else that would help too much so I added the awesome Honeywell SuperTurbo fan.

Click to enlarge

It's 215mm across -- not too large, but MAN does it move air. When this baby is turned on, the lights dim slighty and it moves more air than my ceiling fan! The best thing about it is the fact that it's so small; I can put it right up against my computer and easily cool the whole system.

So my plan is to keep The Card Cooler XT over the GeForce 2 Ultra and to keep the Honeywell fan outside the case blowing in, with the chassis sides removed. That should be plenty of airflow.

Initial Testing

I decided to add a thermal probe to the GeForce 2 Ultra to make sure it doesn't get too hot from this. I couldn't put the probe on the chip itself so I set it on the back of the card behind the chip -- this should be a good indication of the chip's temperature. The original temperature after hours of running games and various applications was about 95.2慚. After I added The Card Cooler XT (w/ the GeForce 2 Ultra at its default clock speed) the temperature dropped to 89.8慚. The temperature didn't change when I added the powerful Honeywell fan. At the time of testing the room temperature was 83.3慚. I knew the fans wouldn't cool the video card, but they would prevent it from getting much hotter than the outside air if all went well.

With the cooling in place, I decided it was time to adjust the clock speed...

Ha! You think I'd really try this?

I was thinking of my own advice as I proceeded to jump up the clock speed -- a few MHz at a time is the best way to decide what's stable and what isn't. How high did it go? Page 3!