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In the Forums... |
Updated: September 22, 1999 Written by: Dan "Tweak Monkey" Kennedy Overclocking the Voodoo3 Before you begin overclocking your Voodoo3, make sure you have a thorough knowledge of overclocking video cards. For this purpose, I have created a Video Card Overclocking Guide and FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) that answers many of the most commonly asked questions regarding overclocking video cards. I STRONGLY recommend that you read this guide before proceeding! Luckily, the Voodoo3 is very "overclockable". I have heard of instances where people have brought the Voodoo3 2000 (143 MHz) all the way up to 185 MHz and beyond. I've had my own Voodoo3 3000 (166 MHz) all the way up to 200 MHz. Of course, this was with a few fans and other cooling items. You shouldn't be afraid to overclock your Voodoo3 because 1) If you're careful, the card will be fine and 2) You can essentially have a Voodoo3 3000+ for the price of a Voodoo3 2000, a Voodoo3 3500+ for the price of a Voodoo3 3000, or even possibly a Voodoo3 3500+ for the price of a Voodoo3 2000. Finding the right program There are several programs available to overclock a Voodoo3 card. One, however, is better than the rest (in my opinion) because it is very simple to use and very easy to access. Gary Peterson's Voodoo3 Overclocker is a small, free utility that offers easy access through the display properties control panel applet (also accessible by right clicking the desktop and choosing Properties). It allows you to adjust the clock speed of any Voodoo3 card to a speed between 120 MHz and 200 MHz. It also offers controls to disable VSYNC for Glide and Direct3D applications. You can download this program by clicking here. The file size is 110K. Installing the program is very easy. After downloading it, you just have to Unzip it and run setup.exe. It will prompt you to choose which Voodoo3 you plan to use, and after that it will automatically install it to your display properties. Another program to consider (if you don't have room in your display properties) is the online Voodoo3 overclocking util. It's a simple process that is all done through Internet Explorer (No Netscape support... yet). Choosing a good speed Don't overclock until you know what speed your Voodoo3 was intended to run at:
 Click to enlarge After experimenting a bit, you will probably find a speed that is completely stable. If you overclock the card at all, I highly recommend that you attach another fan or some sort of cooling item to your card. This is because the Voodoo3 runs at extremely high temperatures. For every MHz you increase your video card, you are increasing the heat and the risk of failure. Without any additional cooling, I got my Voodoo3 3000 to 178 MHz (default is 166 MHz), and it was fairly stable. It was quite hot, however, and a few hours later the computer froze and I needed to reboot. With the TennMax StealthV3 cooler, the Voodoo3 3000 reached 190 MHz and it was only slightly hotter than at 166 MHz! Click here to read my review of this product or click here to see the TennMax homepage. Even if you are only overclocking by a few MHz, consider adding The Card Cooler [click for a review] or some other item to help remove heat from your system. Even removing the case cover can help. Conclusion With all of the BIOS settings, tweaks, and overclocking considered, you should have a significant boost in performance. I tested the before and after results with Quake2 (just as an example) using all of the default settings vs. all of the recommended tweak settings and a 180 MHz clock speed (which was stable with only the heatsink of the Voodoo3 3000). I can honestly say that tweaking the Voodoo3 gave my system a very nice performance increase, and best of all... it was free! If you have anything that you think I should add to this tweak guide, please don't hesitate to e-mail me. Thanks for reading! |
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