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Posted: June 20, 2002 Written by: Adam Honek Visiontek Geforce4 x 4 Visiontek Xtasy Geforce4 MX440 overclocking (stock speed 270/400MHz) Could a MX440 do us more justice by offering that little extra more speed? Yes it could and our findings were quite satisfying. Being equipped with 5ns DDR RAM which is 400MHz DDR effective we were pleased to get it running at 470MHz before either causing the system to lock-up or artifacts to appear on screen. This is not a bag achievement on its own claiming up to nearly 20% more memory bandwidth, ideal for higher resolution gaming. Next on the list was to take the default 275MHz core speed to as high as it could go. 312MHz was what it gave us in the end, also a pleasing score. This is even more impressive when you take into account the MX440 only uses passive cooling. Screwing on a fan on the heatsink would almost surely allow for at least 320MHz. These results make what is a budget orientated card excel in more games that Visiontek would care to admit. At the low end of the spectrum so it is, but the MX440 is not all that dull in making an impression for budget conscious buyers. Visiontek Xtasy Geforce4 Ti 4200 overclocking (stock speed 250/444MHz)One might have thought the little baby of the Ti series wouldn't fair so well as far as overclocking was to be concerned. The truth of the matter is that it managed the highest core speed out of all three Ti cards, impressive in its own right. 316MHz on the clock was what we managed with our sample, a clear 66MHz more than the default speed. Some of this ability must have been thanks to the blue orb cooler which in our opinion cools better than the Nvidia design model. The memory faired not so well MHz wise but did overclock by around 1/3rd up from 444MHz to 570MHz. As with other Ti cards it did not feature any RAM sinks thus perhaps a little more could be obtained should one decide to install them. The results as they stand are great making the Ti4200 an excellent overclocker considering the 4ns RAM it includes. The verdict proves that a baby it might be but given the right treatment it can soon grow in power. Visiontek Xtasy Geforce4 Ti 4400 overclocking (stock speed 275/550MHz)Those of you hoping to buy a Ti4400 and change it into a Ti4600 by the simple task of overclocking maybe in for some disappointment. While our sample doesn't represent what all cards out there can operate at MHz wise it still gives a fair idea of what to expect. The facts are a little bad and good news mixed together. The good is that this Ti4400 of ours could do 301MHz for the core. The bad news is that the memory could only do 628MHz before artifacts started to be visible on screen. This puts it slightly below Ti4600 performance largely due to a lower rated RAM needing an extra 22MHz to match the default of the Ti4600 series (650MHz). So as the saying goes you get what you pay for. Indeed some Ti4400 will overclock to 300/650MHz matching that of the Ti4600, but one must also remember that a Ti4600 can overclock considerably enough to outperform any overclocked Ti4400 too as we point out below (especially when comparing memory bandwidth results). Visiontek Xtasy Geforce4 Ti 4600 overclocking (stock speed 300/650MHz)Taking the fastest card out of the pack to new heights didn't prove overly problematic. Given the small fan enclosed within the Nvidia cooling system we still reached a steady 315MHz for the core. This represents a 5% increase in clock speed. Memory wise things were better; the card would happily run at 737MHz DDR. This in itself calculates down to 12% increase. Both these results were not all that bad considering the card doesn't feature the best stock air cooling system out there and neither does it poses RAM sinks. Should there be some modding to this card in the form of implementing better cooling we're somewhat sure the memory could do 750MHz and the core 325MHz. The core itself is the A2 stepping which has now been surpassed by A3 stepping chips which are set to overclock 5MHz more without further cooling. Overall Visiontek overclocks well if not wonderfully well and the extra memory bandwidth should aid in increasing the frame rates that a little higher. ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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