Hey all, I just had a question about some overclocking I did recently. I overclocked my 2.4 (800 fsb) to 2.7 Ghz (900 fsb). To do this I would overclock 5 mhz then boot up windows to see if it worked and I eventually got to 2.7 as I just said. Well after 2.7 ghz my computer restarted during boot up after increasing by another 5 mhz...so I backed it down to 2.7 once again. Everything seemed to work fine with windows so I ran 3dmark03 to see how my overclock would handle it. The first 4 tests ran perfectly but then came the cpu tests...while those ran I could see lines going up and down the screen at random points. I let 3dmark finish all the tests and my score was actually 160 points higher then before, so the overclock worked in that sense. I tried increasing the voltage a TINY bit and that didn't help. Now the agp/pci bus was locked at 66/33 and the problem had nothing to do with heat (temp never went above 40). Is this supposed to happen or does my processor just suck :/. Thanks for the help all. Asus P4P800 P4 2.4c Zalman CNPS7000A-Cu HSF ATI Radeon 9800 pro 1 GB OCZ pc 3500 ram Sound Blaster audigy LS

that's perfectly normal, temperature isn't the only factor when overclocking. As you saw though, o/c'ing your CPU makes very little difference in a graphics benchmark like 3dmark. To really boost your 3dmark score you need to o/c your graphics card.

hmm, I'm a little confused. Are you saying the lines that appear during the cpu tests are normal or the temperature is normal because I already knew 40 celcius was a good temperature. "that's perfectly normal, temperature isn't the only factor when overclocking." Asus P4P800 P4 2.4c Zalman CNPS7000A-Cu HSF ATI Radeon 9800 pro 1 GB OCZ pc 3500 ram Sound Blaster audigy LS

Hello, 3dmark 01 is directed more towards the graphics side of testing PCs. 3dmark 03 is directed more towards CPU side of testing PCs. When a graphics card is pushed to hard you get whats known as "artifacts"(little dots) on your monitor. Personally im not an Intel man but id suggest you have pushed your cpu a little to far.. Try backing off a little and test untill the lines disapear. ....................... Abit NF7s V2.0 Mobo Radeon 9800xt 256mb, AMD 3000xp CPU @222x11, Antec 550w psu, 2X512 xms corsair Pc3500 in dual channel, Twin 10k Raptors (raided) waterchill cooled..

I tried to find an old post from when I asked the same question on another forum, but I can't find it. I remember the answer was basically that when you start o/c'ing quite high, you may find that you get artifacting (or your pc doesn't even post) even though the core temp is well within limits. I can't remember the technical reason behind it unfortunately. I get the same with my PC, if I crank the FSB higher than about 185mhz, it won't post (even from cold, when the cpu is barely above room temperature). I would definitely agree with Overclocking_Freak, however, that you should throttle back a bit if you are getting artifacts. I have to disagree about 3dmark 03 being mainly a CPU benchmark though. 3dmark 03 is designed primarily to test the 3d capabilities of your PC. i.e. GPU, not CPU. Of course CPU will have some bearing on things, but the effect is not that pronounced as the GPU is doing most of the work. When I changed my 2400 for a 2800 my 3dmark 03 score only went up by a couple of hundred points. That's why Futuremark also created PCMark - this is specifically designed to benchmark your CPU (and RAM, HDD, etc). dannyboy

3dmark03 is not mainly a CPU test.... its directed more on the cpu that 3dmark01.. and although they both test graphics you get alot less for your overclocking in 3dmark03 than 3dmark01.. If Frosty tested his PC on 3dmark01 he would not get any "artifacts" because 3dmark01 does not test the cpu as much as 3dmark03...hence 3dmark01 being more directed towards graphics than cpu.. .................. Abit NF7s V2.0 Mobo Radeon 9800xt 256mb, AMD 3000xp CPU @222x11, Antec 550w psu, 2X512 xms corsair Pc3500 in dual channel, Twin 10k Raptors (raided) waterchill cooled..

sorry dude, I misunderstood you I see what you're getting at now :)