Video card problem

[J-M v2.5.5]

I reinstalled my PC yesterday, and of course I also had to install drivers for my video card again. I installed ForceWare v93.71 (latest version of nVidia's video card drivers) followed by the (unofficial) Coolbits 2.0 Registry Hack. This registry hack unlocks some features in the ForceWare drivers that are normally hidden. After you use the Coolbits 2.0 Registry Hack, you can change your video card's core and memory clock speeds (amongst other things).

A normal GeForce 7800 GTX has clock speeds of 430 / 1200 (core / memory). My XFX GeForce 7800 GTX has clock speeds of 450 / 1250 (standard for the XFX version). The XFX GeForce 7800 GTX XXX version has clock speeds of 490 / 1300 (standard for the XFX XXX version).

Of course, the nVidia control panel (after having installed Coolbits 2.0) always told me that my video card's clock speeds are 450 / 1250.

But not today. For some reason, the nVidia control panel tells me my clock speeds are 450 / 2500. As you can see, the memory clock is twice as fast. I'm about to stress my videocard (while I monitor the temperature) to see if it gets too hot (so I can find out if the clock speeds really are higher). If it gets too hot, I will (obviously) have to downclock to 450 / 1250.

The thing is: I want to know why the clock speeds are showing up incorrectly.

The only thing I know is this: before I reinstalled my PC, I had the 91.33 beta drivers installed.

So to sum it up:

Before:
ForceWare v91.33 beta
Coolbits 2.0
Clock speeds: 450 / 1250 (= correct)

After:
ForceWare v93.71 non-beta
Coolbits 2.0
Clock speeds: 450 / 2500 (= incorrect)

Why...?

 

[Blasto121]

glitch in the system?

It could be any number of reasons for reporting it wrong, I would assume its just a glitch and restarting your computer should get it to report correctly. If your memory is really twice the speed it should be you will see some serious problems when it starts heating up, hot memory will cause crazy artifacts in games.

altho it could be an installation error....

 

[J-M v2.5.5]

Two reboots did nothing. If all else fails, I'll just try to reinstall the drivers.

 

[J-M v2.5.5]

I just stressed my video card (insanely) with the "Azure Temple" Quest 3D demo (look here: http://www.quest3d.com/index.php?id=15 it even has HDR!!!1!) and the temperature peaked at 79 degrees Centigrade.

Before I reinstalled my PC, the Unreal Engine III powered game RoboBlitz (yes, Unreal Engine III powered) managed to stress my card so much that it peaked at 83 degrees Centigrade. I haven't reinstalled that yet.

Anyway, my video card does appear to be a bit cooler. And trust me, that "Azure Temple" Quest 3D demo is really hard on videocards. Try it yourself (if you have a Shader Model 3.0 enabled video card).

However, I think I'll just reinstall the drivers right now anyway, just to be safe.

Edit: I didn't see any artifacts.

 

[Blasto121]

wish I had a card good enough to stress test to that level, my dual 6600gts are becoming quite old really fast... never did like how short a computers life was before needing another upgrade. Well at least my computer can still play the new games that are releasing.

 

[J-M v2.5.5]

Yesterday evening, I reinstalled the ForceWare v93.71 drivers and the Coolbits 2.0 Registry Hack twice and my video card's clock speeds are still showing as 450 / 2500.

Ah well, as long as I don't have any problems, artifacts, or overheating issues, I guess everything's fine.

 

[HobbitG]

I'm almost certain it's not actually running at 2500. the memory actually runs at half the clock speed they say it does. the DDR part of GDDR3 stands for "double data rate." it basically means it moves 1250mhz worth of data over 625mhz of clock speed.

My guess is that for some reason that hack you did is telling the nvidia driver that it's running at 1250 (which is correct, taking into consideration the ddr) and nvidia was expecting the actual clock, and adjusting it to 2500.

A memory clock speed of 2500 is AMAZING, it's like DDR6 speed
Your video card is running at 1250, it's just telling you the wrong number.

Also, check out a program called RivaTuner. Based on what you said about Coolbits, it does some similar things. Things like unlocking masked pixel shaders and stuff like that. I had a 6800, unlocked the masked pixel shaders, flashed its bios with a 6800gtx bios, raised the clock speed to gtx speeds, and bam, i had a 6800gtx for half the price. It might tell you the right numbers.