Overclocking an Nvidia 8800 Ultra/ Quad Core 2.5

I am cosidering overclocking my 2 geforce 8800 ultra's from 768mb to at least 1024mb

And i also would like to overclock my quad core 2.5 to about 2.9 - 3.0
but befroe i do, i would like to know if any has made this possible before.

Don't want to start O/Cing and something goes wrong, bearing in mind this will be my first time O/Cing.

Any help on this matter would be great.

Main purpose is to have all the settings on GTA4 on highest possible and still have memory left over to play without probs.

much apreciated.

Specs are as follows:

Vista Ultimate x64 Build 6001 with SP1
Intel Core2Quad Q9300 2.5GHz
XFX 780i SLI DDR2
8GB Kingston Hyperx Ram
2x Nvidia GeForce 8800 Ultra 768mb (XFX/EVGA)
ThermalTake 1200w Power Supply.
Samsung 500Gb SATA HDD
Samsung DVD/RW
Cooling - 140 mm Top fan, 120mm Rear fan, 12mm Front Fan, Artic Cooler Freezer pro 7

You can't overclock your Ultra like that. You can only overclock the frequency speeds, like the core speed and memory speed, not the amount of physical memory.

Overclocking your CPU from 2.5 to 3.0GHz should be easy. I overclocked my CPU from 2.66GHz to 3.0GHz easily with no problem.

Your graphic cards are fine for GTA4. GTA4 doesn't use SLI yet, and 1 Ultra is enough. A friend of mine is running GTA4 with a Core i7 920 and a single Ultra and he gets 65fps on max everything.

Core i7s run GTA4 amazingly, quad cores run it well, but still get some slowdowns on maximum everything.

Well problem is my GTA wont go full as textures are set as medium and wont go higher, and i only get 34 FPs. And yes i know about the SLI but for some reason I am getting the SLI bar come up on screen and any other game i.e. GTA San Andreas, i dont.

But thanks for the heads up.

And also is this 'Core i7' part of the card or is it program i can purchase, quite interested now about that.

Yea I get the SLI bar, too, but the game isn't scaling for SLI.

There's tweaks you can do to the GTA4 shortcut.

Go to the GTA folder and right click on LaunchGTAIV.exe and create a shortcut. Right click on this and at the end of the parameter put :

-norestrictions -nomemrestrict

And click OK.

Login to Rockstart Social Club, and launch the game with this shortcut.

You'll be able to set the graphics to what you want, and go over the memory limit.


The Core i7 is Intels latest processor, too. If you want to upgrade to it, you need a whole new motherboard and set of RAM as it's a new socket. Your CPU will be able to run it well, but putting traffic to full will cause the biggest performance loss.
I keep the traffic bar just under half, and still get around 30fps.

you can overclock the Graphics card, not not very far.. and only the Core Clock, the Shaders, and the Memory.. You can use eVGA precision. but I'd recommend not going anywhere over about 100 on the Core Clock, and not much more on the rest.

Example, the Ultra. is 612 MHz Core Clock and like 1080 on Memory, and shaders if I remember right are around 1600. I could be wrong on shaders. I know the Ultra doesn't overclock very far. so I recommend getting eVGA Precision. ALWAYS watch temps and do something like this.

666 Mhz Core, or 670 Mhz Core. But no More, or will be to hot.
1120 on the RAM.. and on the shaders I'd say raise it by around 50..

Youy may THINK you can go higher than this, but temps will be very hot, and games will crash. and it's not safe as thats an old card on a 90mn tech.. So I'd recommend not going any higher than what I've said above.

Also, the 780i SLI.. is that the SLI FTW version, or only the SLI model?

Also the Q9300 doesn't have a very good Multiplier. I'd say push it to 3.0 ghz and stop there, as the cooling isn't very good either. I'd get a better Cooler if you wanna push that Quad anywhere above 3.0 Ghz.

Also, be very careful with overclocking Either of these, in order to OC the CPU. you need Core Temp for temp monitoring. and CPU-Z for checking the overclocks. get either of those at any download place. just google it.

if you don't know how to overclock the CPU.. be careful, and ask questions first.. don't just try something. as you could damage something. So just be careful. I'd hate to have something happen to that lovely Rig.

Well i tried overclocking my cards using EVGA Percision,

Core clock - from 675 to 702
Chader clock was left on link
memory clock - form 1050 to 1775.

Worked fine and was stable, but as soon as i played a game (weather it was GTA IV, Crysis or GRID) it would either crash bac k to desktop, craphics drivers would just stop responding or (and most annoying) it would loop (i went into Taskmanager and stopped its process (the game that is) when the Loop would happen,

The loop was basicly where the graphics drivers would just stop responding then it would re-start drivers and then fail, then restart.... you get the idea.

So now i can only run my graphics at stock level,


As for the CPU (Q9300), well that had been overclocked from 2.50Ghz to 3.00GHz, ran intel burn test to test stability, and guess what, it would not run stable, so now i have this overclocked to 2.62GHz and all is well, but i will try to OC to 2.70GHz and i will post my results.



So moral of the story is.....

8800 Ultra's can not be OC'd to play games, and (Q9300) 2.50Ghz can't be overclocked very well either

ya the Q9300's aren't the best for overclocking. but you should be able to get at least 3.3 Ghz out of it... at least. and the Ultra probably was crashing at 702 because it was getting to hot. Try lower the RAM clock. as that's a Huge oc on that. I'd go from 1050 to like 1150, or 1200. there's no way it can run 1700. as that's dual channel, no GFX card can run over 3400 on Memory. I will Guarantee that is why it was crashing.

do this. go into evga precision and go ahead and do this. Set the clocks like this.

Leave Core and Shaders linked, and set the Core clock to 690, and then set the memory to something like 1150, or 1200. don't go any higher than 1200. I bet that might be to high. I'd try like 1120 or something first. and I bet it will be stable. 1700 is WAY to high for the memory.

as for the CPU. I could help you OC that better.. I need some info from you though. What's the VID of the Chip. and what type of temps do you have. Get a program called Core Temp. and tell me what it says under VID. but first you need to enter the Bios and disable Intel Speed Spectrum, and the C1E Halt State, as those lower CPU clock speeds from stock. to like 1.9 Ghz when the CPU is at idle state to conserve power, and then it goes back up when it's needed. often the C1E will drop when idle.. and that will cause a Overclock to Seem unstable. so disable those. and also after that is disabled. THEN tell me your VID from Core Temp. as the VID wont be right until C1E is disabled. Make sense.

So, get Core Temp program. go into BIOS and disable intel speed spectrum and C1E. tell me what Core Temp says for VID. and what your CPU temps are on idle and load.