Can't overclock past 470/635 under Vista (8600M GT GDDR3)

Does anyone know how to fix this? Apparently I'm not able to overclock my cards past 470/635 in Vista. I can downclock my speeds, but I can't overclock past that limit. In XP I used to be able to overclock as much as I want, but not anymore in Vista. All the programs I tried (nTune, ATITool & RivaTuner) won't let me do so.

I'm using 174.74 drivers btw.

 

Some driver versions seem to stop overclocking being possible. I have no problems using Rivatuner and the 174.16 drivers. I don't overclock the core just memory as I don't like the extra heat for little performance gain I get on my notebook.

 

Well 174.74 is one of the best drivers for overclocking. = =

 

But not on your system eh?

 

Well, the actual clock speeds for my GPU is 375/502. Therefore setting my clocks to 470/635 is actually considered overclocking. I just can't seem to go past that. I managed to, like 3 hours ago, but now it's just limitting me to 470/635 everytime.

 

That seems low. Mine is 475/400 standard with a gddr2 board. Is it because you are using a macbook and they keep the GPU temp down by underclocking it?

 

Yea, they underclock it, but that's totally not the point.

 

Can you overclock further with other drivers? Try the new 175.16WHQL ones.

 

I'm tried 169.04 & 175.12. No luck either. Do you think the 175.16 might help?

 

for what it takes to install. Give it a go it can't hurt really.

 

They seriously downclock the 8600M on the MBP?

 

I guess they do underclock it... I thought they stopped that after they moved from the x1600. I can't even OC the one in my laptop as I can't get working drivers that support the card AND allow it to be OC'd.

Anyway, Cathy I hope you are using your MBP on a laptop cooler.

 

174.82 , 174.93 and 175.15 should definitely allow extreme OCing.

 

Kinda half understood the problem...I seem to be able to clock higher in some games, whereas I can't for others.

In CS:S, I can only clock up to 470/635. If I clock higher it doesn't increase framerates. In TF2 I can clock up to 585/880, but for some reason the minimum frame rate I get for both 375/502 & 585/880 clocks are ~25 fps. Weird...

For COD4 however, I don't seem to have any problems overclocking. I was getitng about 27 - 32 fps at the starting of 'The Bog' mission, which is the same as what I got in XP with my 600/900 clocks.

I don't really use a notebook cooler though, for the main reason that my overclock speeds are sometimes cooler than my underclocked speeds in different games. My fans don't bother to kick in for non-CPU + GPU intensive games, so my temps hit up to 86 or 87 C. For COD4 the fans cool my GPU down to 82 C if it's overclocked, or 80 C if it's underclocked.

 

Anyone found a solution yet? My cards also clocks at 470/635 when running games even if I set the 3d perf. setting up. It goes for 470/635 to 3d perf. to 3d low to 2d clocks.

 

Never Bootcamped Vista on my MBP but I'm using nTune on XP now for a mild overclock on 175.19 drivers.

 

Not all cards are created equal. If you can clock higher in one game than you can the next that proves that its not a driver or restriction issue its a limitation you hit.

If you find that your FPS stays the same from a low clock on the card to a higher one you may have hit a bottleneck with your cpu, if the cpu doesnt get faster it wont keep up with the gpu and your frame rates stay the same. I have a bad cpu bottleneck on my desktop with a quad core, just because only 1 core is used most of the time.

As far as once you get past the drivers issue and you find the cards limits different games will use the gpu/cpu at varying intensities. Crysis is pretty much the gpu killing game while something like FSX or Supreme Commander are known to be very cpu intensive.

If you have a temp issue get a cooling pad or something similar, if its the cards clock limit you just have to deal with it and realize overclocking is just a bonus but not a guarantee.

The last time I updated my drivers I think I am on the 169's and they allow me to set any clock speed. If you have drivers problems, and you consider yourself an enthusiast you can always look into modifying the bios of the card. Then drivers wont matter anymore and you can have any speed you want, you may even be able to boost your fan speed if its based on the gpu bios and not your motherboard.