Overclocking my graphics card?

Hi all,

I just purchased a toshiba satellite, model A215-S4757, which seems to be a pretty good comp which can also play some games, from what I can tell. So far I've tried Halo (could run better, but does fine), half life 1 (runs damn near perfect) and half life 2 (harder to get to run smoothly especially during action sequences, but still runs pretty well at high detail levels with no antialiasing).

I'm happy with how/what it plays, but I want to overclock the graphics (and/or memory, since I'm a little new to this) to see if I can get the annoying lag out of things like halo or hl2. However, I'm a second-year college student, and completely broke, so this has to last me for several years.

So, my question is twofold: one: What is a good program to overclock the graphics or memory with (graphics preferably, I think), and, more importantly, how much can one safely overclock a graphics card (not exact, just a ball-park figure) without significantly shortening the life of the card or processor?

And two, of course, would be: which would be some good FPS's that I can play with this computer? Like I said, I can play hl2, 1, and halo so far, with few problems.

Specs: Radeon x1200 graphics card
AMD 64 x2 processor
2 gigs ram (don't know the speed)
250 gig hd 4800 rpm

If you need more than that let me know. Thank you in advance for any help you can offer....

 

unreal tournament 2004.

 

second that!!! and u should give F.E.A.R. or BF2 a shot. if my buddy can play those on a GMA 950, u should be able to play it with ur GPU.

 

The BF2 deluxe edition is really cheap nowadays. Far-Cry is also a good game. I was able to snag the unreal anthology for 10 bucks from game stop. COD 1 will work, Maybe COD2. Advent Rising is a third person shooter, but (IMHO) was a great game, even with the input issues. Quake 4 is always fun.

 

FEAR barely strings along at the lowest possible settings and BF2 does not work on the Gma950 period so.....

There are loads of fairly modern FPS games that will run well on that card, such as Unreal 2004, Call of Duty, Far Cry, Vietcong....much newer titles like Battlefield 2, FEAR and Call of Duty 2 will also run, just not so great....and by that I'm referring to graphical settings, they will run smooth no problems provided you adjust settings accordingly.

You can use something like Ati Tool to overclock your card, just be careful, raise the frequencies very slowly and try to test each new settings as extensively as possible. Keep an eye on temperatures too.

Also you mentioned that you want to get rid of the choppiness in Half Life 2, well, the simple answer there is to tone down whatever settings you're using until it remains smooth to your liking - after all the X1200 is, at the end of the day, a very low end card, you can't expect too much from it.

 

He's lying.

BF2 might work on the X1200 ok, but at lowest settings. FEAR will be the same, lowest only.



As you don't have any dedicated ram to overclock on the X1200 the only thing you can clock up is the core speed. For this powerstrip works well. Download, install, run and go into performance profiles (or similar) and there's a clock slider. Make sure to only up it incrementally and to stress test at every level.

 

Thank you guys for your help.....just trying to get the overclocking software figured out right now, (having issues getting atitool to work), then I'll start trying a few of those games you recommended. (I don't suppose anyone has any insight as to whether or not half-life 2: ep. 1 or later will work ok?)

Yeah...I was seeing that the games I've tried thus far work ok even without overclocking, but I'd like to have the option to do it if I want to tweak the performance a bit.....not enough to shorten the card's life or anything, just when I'm playing a graphics-intensive game and want to see it at slightly higher quality.

I know this isn't the right forum for this question, but: does anyone know (or perhaps, know of a forum where I could ask) where I would start if I was trying to buy a cheap desktop that would have a good initial processor or other sensitive components? My goal is something that I don't have to build from scratch, simply because for the most part I'm computer ignorant as well as a full-time student, and have no time for a large project....but I'm wondering because I'd like eventually to have a pc that can play graphically-challenging games with no difficulty.

 

i have a Toshiba A210-ST0

AMD X2 TL-60 2.0 GHz
3 gigs ram (stock 2 Gigs)
x1200 ATI GPU


i can run far cry maxed, FEAR max CPU settings, medium high GPU settings 50% at 40FPS, Company of Heroes medium, Dawn of war maxed, command and conquer 3 medium as well as a multitude of other games on medium high settings, including world in conflict no problems at all.

and i cant wait for the ATItool to support the x1200 and vista properly

 

Wow, look, it`s Pinocchio!

 

If BF2 runs the GF FX5200.....

With the new H&L drivers, the GMA 950 can run BF2, although it's not pretty and worse performances than the FX5200

 

Sure, and I can play Crysis on Very High...

Well, I guess you can do that in 320 x 240.

 

Actually you can on mix of nearly all Very High, just don’t expect too much.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bxeFdaKUoE

On a serious note though, don't try to fool anyone smca the X1200 cannot handle those games at the particular settings you are referring to. Hell my old X1600 only managed to play acceptably (not including world in conflict) at those settings.

 

You have got to be kidding me here...plz say you are ?

 

How old is this thread????

 

too old.should`ve been burried by now.