Graphics Card Options

[kermit]

Hi All

Can anyone tell me what a really good graphics card would be for BC2. Im currently running a AMD quad core 3.0ghz 8gigs of ram with a nivida 8600 card. Any useful would be great

[McJaffa]

Well, I spot 2 things first off:

1) It looks like you may still have Speedstep or C1E setting still ON, as your multiplier seems to be 6x = 1600MHz? Is the Q6600 not meant to be 9x = 2400 MHz. So it has dropped your multiplier(6) and your core voltage (1.12v) to reduce speed/power. This should be turned off for stable overclocks.

2) Am I right in seeing 3 x sticks of DDR2? 2 x 1G pair and 1 x 1G extra? If so this can also be a limiting factor in overclocking. 2 sticks will always be easier than 3/4 as it is less strain on the memory chipset. You can confirm this by taking it back 2 the 2G pair just to test it. That's why I went with 2 x 2G instead of 4 x 1G.
From the screenshots it seems to say slot 1 is 1GB cas5 and slot 2 is 1GB cas7. You would need to check to make sure it is all running at the lower setting or its a recipe for disaster. If you only have those 2 sticks then things don't look promising TBH, if you have 2 of the cas5 good ones, I would personally remove the cheap cas7 one.

Easy way to see what your cpu/mobo is capable of is:
Take it down to matched pair of dimms, or just a single if you dont have a pair
Turn off C1E/speedstep in bios
Turn on Auto core voltage
Turn down memory speed (to remove the ram as a possible cause of errors) ie: run the 1066 ram at 800 maybe.
Lock the pcie freq to 100
disable any boost settings
Turn frequency up in steps of maybe 20MHz at a time, testing as you go with orthos or prime
** Keep an eye on temps & voltages as you go and don't forget as you increase the FSB to check that your ram doesn't go above its rating by lowering its divider if necessary.