How do I check/change my GPU clock speeds?

I am current using DNA-Force_4.0.16904x32 video drivers on my older Dell XPS Gen. 2 notebook. My questions are:
1) How do I check GPU frequencies?
2) What are the normal speeds for a Geforce Go 6800 Ultra?
3) How would I clock the frequencies down?
4) Does anyone else have problems with their notebook overheating after installing the 16x.xx drivers while using the the GeForce Go 6800 Ultra or 7950 GTX?

I get the feeling that my GPU is automatically being overclocked after updating my drivers. I would like to check to see if this is the case but I am not sure how to locate and change my frequencies nor do I know what the normal frequencies should be.

After using my notebook for about 15 minutes, it heats up significantly more than it used to and ends up clocking itself down. This has now happened on both of my Dell XPS notebooks after updating drivers to the 16x.xx series. The only logical conclusion is that using these drivers is screwing up the GPU operating frequencies and somehow overclocking my cards (possibly inadvertently.) One of my notebooks overheating could mean it had a hardware issue; both overheating upon the installation of new drivers points to software issue imo.

Thanks in advance for the help.

 

RivaTuner is highly recommended by forum users for its ability to control video card speeds. Download it and run then use the settings to adjust your speed. Look up Meaker's graphics card comparison thread in the sticky for the stock clock speeds of your card.

 

A way to check your graphics card specs (including clock speeds), try downloading GPU-Z, just google it.

Just incase your not aware of it, overclocking can damage your card (depending on how hard you push it) and can shorten its life.

 

ATI tool works good too

 

So I downloaded RivaTuner and GPU-Z (to double check saved settings from RivaTuner) and I found that my drivers indicated core speeds of 641/810 while default speeds for a 7950 gtx are 575/700.

I clocked them back down to 575/700, but my question now is why were they overclocked so high in the first place? Does it seem likely that new drivers incorrectly assigned frequencies, or would someone have to go in there manually and put in this kind of overclock?

 

You can download the nTune which comes with what's called the NVIDIA monitor here:

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/Video-Tweak/nVidia-nTune.shtml

This will allow you to monitor your GPU's temperature, clock speed, and graphics memory speed. Along with this, providing your computer supports it, you can also monitor the voltages of things like your CPU, GPU etc.

 

Off topic, but how much better is the M1710 at gaming than the Gen 2 ?

 

The m1710 is slightly better for games like World of Warcraft but miles ahead in any demanding game. The main thing holding back the Gen. 2 is the single 2.0 GHz core (Pentium M 760.) Intel decided that a dramatic speed decrease in clock speeds could be offset by increasing L2 cache... For MS Word and Firefox this was not a bad choice, but for everything else, its pretty lame. For example, I tried to load up an older game, you might have heard of it, called FarCry and it almost didn't install because it figured my CPU was too slow. I'm not sure I ever got it working properly on my Gen. 2 despite a 6800 Ultra (which was the top video card at the time.)

In short, the Core 2 Duo puts the bottle neck back on the Video Card in most cases, which is fine with me for the most part.