Software Overclocking the Asus C90S

Hey everyone!

This is a thread to help myself who's pretty new to the Asus C90S overclock with software tools correctly.

I'd like this thread to be about what tools to use, what drivers to use, and how to do it so that others can follow along.

Right now I am using the stock Asus CD drivers. I not seem unable to install anything but these. Previously I had 169.04 up and running but now all it does it crash shortly after booting.

I have successfully over clocked my 8600m GT - but there is a catch.

I can create a "OC" profile which will be loaded by ATI tool and windows which successfully OC's my GPU. That's all well and good but there's one problem.

When I switch to any other mode using Turbo Gear I lose the OC.

So I guess my question to all of you have have been OC'ing. How do you get your OC to "stick"?

Do your different turbo gear modes disrupt your OC?

And finally, does your power mode underclock still work?

In a perfect world I'd like Power save mode to function as it always has.

I'd like standard mode to function at 500 / 450.

I'd like Gaming mode to use a slightly higher OC

And OC Mode to use an even higher GPU OC.

Has anyone successfully done this?

-Towels

 

I have never used the ATI tool. I use ntune and it works quite good for me.
TurboGear is using the "Enhanced VGA Driver" (if installed) which I think is overriding your ATI tool settings. I could be wrong, though.
Try overclocking with TurboGear before using the ATI tool or nTune and see if your settings are sticking with you that way.
I am using the 169.12 driver for Vista Ultimate 64Bit and the 169.09 for XP Pro SP3 which I both downloaded from www.laptopvideo2go.com using their modded inf's.
I overlocked my GPU 525/520 and my CPU (e6600) to 2.93Ghz using Turbogear and ClockGen.
This way I got 4318 points out of 3DMark06 with my 8600GT 512Mb. Stable in games was only 506/505.

 

I tried downloading nTune and using that to overclock, but after I restarted it the clocks would go back to normal.

Also, what do mean try overclocking "with" turbogear? I had it on gaming mode originally when I set these clocks.

-Towels

 

Just tried 3DMark with current swoley2k drivers on OC mode.

Scored 3200- not great.

EDIT:

Just loaded the 169.09 drivers. Which resulted in shortly after loading windows- the screen went blue and white and started flashing repeatedly.

I also tried another driver recommended on some other forum: NGO Optimized Nvidia driver v2.15822. That also resulted in flashing inoperable screens.

-Towels

 

Whoa....those drivers I put up are extremely dated now thus the performance is subpar with recent and current drivers. If anyone wants to use them then fine but I dont recommend them at all. Please edit your post to express that.

 

I think you post sums it up just fine?

Maybe you should edit your post to reflect that for those who read it?

-Towels

 

Not many people read entire threads. I want you to edit your first post because people are much more likely to read it than mine.

 

I NEVER advocated using them, anywhere. I simply STATED I was using them.

It's edited now. Alrighty?

But again, I think you should edit the source thread I got the info from so other's won't follow suit since you seem so against it. That would make the most sense to me.

-Towels

 

well, I figured out why my system was crashing.

Since I had used ATI tool but it wasn't working properly, when it started to work properly with the installation of new drivers. It was too much and causing it to glitch out.

After discovering that in safe mode, and disabling it. I updated my drivers to 174.16 for Xp 32 Bit and score

Initial Test: 3895 3DMarks.
2nd Test (I "oced" it in the Rivatuner, but it dosen't say it's overclocked?): 4028.

Hopefully with some OC I will yield in the 4000's.

Now, according to RivaTuner, ATI Tool, and GPU-Z. The 'overclocking' is not taking via software.

Can someone please inform me how to overclock via the bios?

-Towels

 

war I dont want you to think i was upset with you because im not. im the last person that would be like that because there is way too much negativity and pointless arguments going on in all messge boards on the internet. believe me im the last person to act that way. I just want you to make sure people know that those hybrid drivers are old. I dont believe most people will pay attention to the date of the thread with the drivers in it. thats why i wanted you to acknowledge that the drivers were old since this is a new thread. its nothing against you I just dont want people to think the drivers are bad and waste time. honestly, im even suprised that you are using them. i cant even recommend them for testing anymore. i hope you arent going off of the 3dmark scores i got with them cause they were done with some extreme overclocking which I also cant recommend. pretty much I just want to make sure that all associations with those drivers are marked PLAINLY that they are old...there are a lot of people that dont pay attention to dates...mostly newer members. like i said im not upset

 

also if you run the auto install from the c90s driver cd it automatically installs the enhance vga turbo gear driver which changes the gpu clock and can be disrupting your overclock. try installing turbogear manually off the driver cd. also, there may be a conflict with the hybrid drivers as most of my overclocking I did with them were from me flashing the gpu bios versus software overclockign like what you are trying. in other words...they may not allow correct software overclocking. you could try newer drivers, manual turbogear installation, OR flashing the gpu bios (read up on it first)...those are some good options. i can get around 575 core 550 mem with gpu flash in xp but be very careful and test those clocks before you flash. theres some info about testing in some old post ive made and also there is a gpu bios flash guide somewhere in the forum

ALSO, you can try using different software overclocking programs....rivatuner, atitools, ntune. im not sure but I think i used ntune with the hybrid drivers to test before flash....ntune or rivatuner

 

Im currently on some newer drivers, instead of those old hybrids.

Version 174.16 which have given me a excellent 3DMark scores (3800-4000) stock.

But I'd now like to OC, and this driver doesn't allow for software over clocking.

Would you happen to have a link somewhere that describes how to OC via bios? I've searched, but haven't found anything that's current or useful.

-Towels

 

Well, during video playback I had been experiecing some video "Flashing". It was non existant on small video files, but anything over 1gb started to make the screen artifact like crazy.

I went into the nVidia control panel and changed the screen refresh rate to 59. Strangely, that alleviated all my problems.

-Towels

 

Got it to hardware OC ^_^

Current hardware OC:

500 Core
500 Mem
1000 Shader

3866 3DMarks

CPU Score (Standard Turbo Gear) 2057

Current (software OC)

540.20 Core
525.14 Mem
1000 Shader

4093 3DMarks

CPU Score (Gaming Mode): 2228

-Towels

 

Hey Wartowels, just curious have you considered using profiles within Riva tuner that will automatically set the GPU OC.
All you would have to do is choose you turbo mode and select the program from a list and it will launch both the GPU OC and the program at the same time.
I choose this option since there is really no benefit for me in running an OC'd GPU for non 3D apps.

 

Not a bad idea, I'm new to RivaTuner so I haven't fulled explored it yet.

Right now I have a hardware OC which OC's the GPU until I change turbo gear modes. Most games don't need a CPU boost so what I've been doing is just restarting my computer when I want to play a game.

Changing turbo gear modes for me sets the clocks back to 500/450 or lower depending on the turbo gear mode still.

Either way, I can deal with it.

-Towels

 

It's what I have found to be the most flexible. I just use the "Launcher" option with a game profile that has the OC profile I've already saved, I have it set to revert upon exit to save on heat while in 2d modes.

That way you can do whatever you want with turbo gear and be certain of specific gpu speeds in a game or application.

However, if you change turbo gear modes after launching the rivatuner OC it will revert.

 

its my result with OC

Graphic Card:
550 Core
500 Mem

Gaming mode

I have de 6700
http://img228.imageshack.us/my.php?image=3dmark06c90sjd0.jpg

 

Nice scores!

Which drivers are you using?

-Towels

 

its was a litle time ago

but i think that was the 169.01 version.

Your drivers are only to 9600 version isn't it ?

 

Um, I think they are for the 8600gt.... that's what I'm using them with lol.

-Towels

 

After that i put the post, the new drivers were working, they are quite good!

Look are you working with vista or xp ? Because a have problems with the turbo gear.But i think that with vista there is no problem.

 

I'm on Windows XP Pro, and I'm not really experiencing any "problems" with my turbo gear?

-Towels

 

That, is because, you have the E6600, the problems are only in the E6700. I don't know for sure.

 

No, the problems are not isolated to e6700 cpu's only. It's is suspected that incompatible memory is also to blame for the crashes. My system has only BSOD'd to the poor webcam driver, nothing else.

Throwing hollow statements out like that is just going to convolute the actual issue.


Thanks for saying that you're not sure, but unfortunately the way people are, that won't even be considered.

By the way people, you need to look at what resolution the 36Mark06 was run at for a actual comparison.

 

Sorry but my laptop only support 1280x800.

With crashes i mean in Game Mode.

As i can see, you have the E6700 CPU, do you have crashes (blue screen) in Game Mode? I read that the Turbo Gear have some problems with the XP. You have the vista, maybe you don't have this kind of problem.
Do you think that the crashes are from the memory? I don't think so..

Can you give same useful information about my problem? What do you think?

 

No need to apologize, it was meant for those looking to compare scores.

NO BSODs the only time I've ever got one is because of the webcam driver.
Everything else works fine.

Have you tried in with only 1gb of memory? Also do you know what revision your e6700 is (sSpec Number ?

Also I don't remember ever reading DDR2 800 being officially supported, although I have read of people running them with 0 problems.

I assume yours is not a U.S. Model.

 

I had the same problem with the webcam, but wen the new driver was release, everything works fine.

With the memory i will try.

My revision of E6700 according with CPUZ is B2 ( i don't know if this is what you ask) and the sSpec Number i must open to see it ( SL9S7 or SL9ZF).

In the beginning the official site of Asus tell that the c90s support the DDR 2 800, but now they changed because don't support, maybe the old chipset don't help.

 

If your C90S is crashing in Gaming Mode with the E6700 I can easily say that it's a memory issue. I've had the C90S with Corsair Value memory prior to my Apacer modules and they did the exact thing your experiencing. They were perfectly stable on Standard and Power Saving modes, but once I turn it to Gaming mode, it would crash momentarily. So I switched the modules to Apacer 1GBx2 and has been stable since.

Eventually I went up to 3GB with a single Apacer 1GB + Transcend 2Gb module.

So I stand behind what Sgt. Hollywood is saying and that the issue isn't the processor but the memory.

 

Copy that. That issue has been hashed and rehashed around here for quite a while.

 

My sSpec Number its SL9ZF Malay revision B2.

So you are saying that with single Apacer 1GB + Transcend 2Gb module, you don´t have problems in game mode., i must try. Thanks