Overclockers Australia - nVIDIA Video Card Overclocking with CoolBits

nVIDIA Video Card Overclocking with CoolBits
10-April-2002 - Article by James "Agg" Rolfe

This article is in response to a question I get asked fairly often: How do I overclock my GeForce x? It's not a complex topic so this is not a complex article, but it's easier to explain with screenshots and examples than it is to do in a normal email. Hopefully this article will help some of you guys out!

I know this isn't the latest and greatest topic and I'm absolutely not claiming to have invented this tool or technique - I'm not even sure who did, but I assume it was leaked or even officially released by nVIDIA. However, this is the technique I use for overclocking nVIDIA-based video cards in my reviews, so it's easier again to just put a link to this page than to explain the whole CoolBits thing in every review. There are a few software products out there that will let you increase the core and memory speed of your video card - PowerStrip is one, it lets you overclock non-nVIDIA cards and has a bunch of other additional features too. However, if you just want a simple, free way of overclocking your nVIDIA-based card with virtually nothing to download, CoolBits is to my mind a better option.

So, let's get into it. The first thing you need to do is download the CoolBits registry file. Well, that's not strictly true - the first thing you should do is backup your critical data, make sure your house and contents is insured, eat a balanced diet, exercise regularly and realise that you're doing this, as with pretty much everything else, at your own risk. CoolBits has worked just fine for me on many many video cards, but if it makes yours explode and kill you or something equally horrible, it's your problem, not mine and not OCAU's. Stop now if you're not happy with that.

Installation:
CoolBits should work on any Windows operating system that they have DetonatorXP drivers for. It used be be that there were separate versions of CoolBits for Win9x or Win2k/NT, but that's not the case any more - this file should work fine on both O/S families. Some DetonatorXP versions, particularly WHQL ones, don't support CoolBits apparently (every version I've tried does). There are countless leaked versions and you may be using a specific one because it provides better performance for your card than the "official" ones. As a general rule I use the latest ones available on nVIDIA's website and haven't seen any that CoolBits didn't work on.

Anyway, download this registry file to begin. It's tiny, only 100 bytes. It'll probably take you longer to move your mouse to the link and click it than it will to download, even over modem:

www.overclockers.com.au/files/CoolBits.reg

You'll see this:

Click "Open this file from its current location" - you can save it if you like, but it's only 100 bytes so you can come back here and grab it anytime. Opening it now lets you get on with things. If you do save it, then find the file where you saved it and double-click on it.. either way, you should then see this:

Click Yes. You will then see:

..which means CoolBits is now installed.

Usage:
Now the fun begins. You do have to wade through a bit of a maze of buttons and tabs to get to the overclocking section:

Right-click your windows desktop and choose Properties.
At the top right is a Settings tab, click that. That should bring you to a window showing your current desktop resolution, colour depth etc.
Press the "Advanced" button at bottom-right. The advanced properties will open and you should see a tab at the top listing the chipset of your video card.

Here are example "Advanced Properties" windows from a GeForce4 Ti4600 and a TNT2 Ultra:

click images to enlarge

Now, if you DON'T have that tab available, most likely you need to re-install the DetonatorXP drivers or try a different version. I often find when I change the video card, even though I have a supported DetonatorXP version installed and CoolBits was working fine, I now no longer have that tab available. Simply reinstalling the same DetonatorXP's over the top and rebooting will bring it back. Sometimes you will then have to re-install CoolBits, too. So, just a little more clicking:

Click the tab with the chipset name on it, to bring it to the foreground.
Enjoy the animated nVIDIA logo (varies with driver version)
Click the "Additional Properties" button at bottom-left.

Some example "Additional Properties" windows, again from Ti4600 and TNT2U:

click images to enlarge

Ok! The "Clock Frequencies" tab is the thing we've been frantically clicking towards. If you've gotten to this point and there is no "Clock Frequencies" tab, most likely your installed DetonatorXP drivers don't support CoolBits - I'm told there are some, but not many, versions that don't - mostly the WHQL versions. As I said before, I usually run the latest stable ones available from nVIDIA's website and I haven't personally seen a version that didn't support CoolBits. Either that or your card isn't powered by nVIDIA. :)

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