Hardware GPU overclocking vs software?

Hello everyone,
Some people say that the difference between both types of GPU OC is not that big, but my case proves the opposite.

I have an Asus G71GX laptop with GF 260m GTX (factory underclocked to 500/1250/800, and factory undervolted to 0.9V /0.85/0.85/0.85). Have been reading all about other Asus owners overclocking their 260m GTX with Nvidia System tools to 600/1500/950 and even higher clocks without any problems.

When I try to OC my card using Nvidia system tools (I have the latest version and latest nvidia Vista drivers ) even to the standard 550/1375/900 (not even 950) I get some kind of green or purple artifacts usually in the corner of the display or in the corner of some window. 3D Mark 06 freezes in the middle of the second test. That always happens, even with older drivers and the system tools revisions. Same in Win7 x64.

Didn't want to flash my vbios (months ago flashing didn't even work, because nvflash under DOS was giving me some protected mode error), but recently decided to give it a shot again and it worked. Stable at 550/1375/900 and with the same load temps ~ 78C in 3Dmark 06 and Vantage and ~83 in most GPU demanding games. Even undervolted to 0.9/0.8/0.8/0.8V.

So my question - why is it working perfectly with the flashing and doesn't work with software OC? Is my extra voltage too low?

Before I had a laptop with 9600m gt and OCing with Nvidia system tools was a pice of cake achieving ~20% OC without a hiccup.

 

The software one just isnt as good with overclocking, but by changing the bios settings you can probably achieve higher clocks than those.

 

it looks like you have multiple variables in your experiment. did you notice that you undervolted in the hardware OC and did not in the software OC?

 

Have you tried software overclocking since the reflash? Also, all chips are not made the same, even with the same line at the same factory. Your results could vary wildly. Could be that the exploit that software OC uses simply won't work for your particular GPU. Hardware OC is the more stable way to go regardless.

 

Actually, first I did the undervolt - 0.9V/0.8/0.8/0.8 at 500/1250/800 (Asus factory clocks). Same artifacts with the Software OC. Later on decided to OC to the normal 260m gtx clocks in the vbios with the same voltages which proved stable. But still I never changed the extra 0.9V that came from the factory, only changed the low performance states.

When I try to software OC on top of the mild HW OC even with 10 Mhz I get again the artifacts.