G400 max overclockable ?

[ccoltas]

I don't really play 3D games much (yet) but I was wondering, is the G400 max overclockable or what?

[ayoub_ibrahim]

yes it is! use the MGA tweak utility which is available on MURC homepage at top right. if by any chance you are using an uncertified Matrox driver, then instead you can use Matrox tweak utility 1.12.

[ccoltas]

OK. Now I'm confused. What is an uncertified and what is a certified driver?

My G400 max is setup like this:

driver =4.1101.1410
BIOS =1.5-22
Direct X=7

So what drivers and bios would you recommend I go with? I probably won't upgrade them until I install on my new system. Right now I have a K7M and 550, but i'm migrating to an Asus or Abit and a T-bird 1.1 or higher.


So what does the Matrox run at normally and what can you overclock it too?

[ayoub_ibrahim]

a certified driver is one which gets microsoft approval(MS WHQL certification). it is not necessarily the latest driver!
what OS are you using?
certainly,your bios can be updated as I think it's 2 versions below the latest,as well as your dx7 to dx7a or dx8.

[Thundrchez]

I could only tweak out an additional 5% with my G400Max. I'm using w9x, dx8, pd6.10, and mgatweak. mgatweak is somewhat painful to get setup right, especially if you go into tweaking the memory timings.

[ccoltas]

OK, I'm using windows 98 SE and my drivers are like I said.

So what ARE the certified drivers for the Matrox G400 Max right now?

[ayoub_ibrahim]

the most recent certified driver is version 6.04. paradoxially the latest driver 6.10 doesn't appear to be certified but does not support matrox tweak utility 1.12. matrox describes this in their driver release notes as not supporting "overclocker".
driver version 5.52 definitely supports tweak utility 1.12.
MGA tweak apparently supports all ihe above versions.

[rylan]

Yes, it is definately overclockable.

I'm using MGATweak and have it set to 330PLL (165/220 core/mem speed), basically a 10% overclock
I slapped heatsinks on the memory and a fansink behind the core to get rid of any artifacts due to the high overclock.

[roadie]

thye MAX is a good overclocker. i use powerstrip and a slot cooler to get my MAX to 165/220 and a 3dmark score of 3170 with an athlon 600 @ 660 and 128mb of cas 2 pc100 sdram. however i do not know anyone who has got higher than this. perhaps dr matrox did with his 'case + card cooling project'

[Brian R.]

I've had two MAXs oc to 180/240 stable with Powerstrip. One of my MAXs would not go over 158/210. No additional cooling was added to any of them.

[rylan]

wow..180/240? Thats nuts

[Maggi]

nope ... it's faaaaaaaast ...

[CollegeManMan]

10% seems to be the average overclock. Mine manages 11%.

[alessandro]

Mine goes up to 176/220 with no artifacts in 3DMarks 2000.

[ccoltas]

So I should get the most recent certified driver and the MGA tweak utility and give it a shot?

Anything I should look out for or be careful about? Don't won't blow it up!

BTW, what are the stock clock rates? (Man I sound like I'm talking about bikes or motorcycles or cars or something!)

[This message has been edited by ccoltas (edited 21 December 2000).]