Scored 9031 3DMarks!

Nighthawk has broken the 9000 3DMarks barrier!

After overclocking my BFG 8800GTS graphics card to match the specs for the BFG 8800GTS OC (overclocked) model in my previous post, I increased the GPU Core Clock to 575 MHz in the Geometric Domain (resulting in 1350 MHz in the Shader Domain) and the Memory Clock to 850 MHz in my first step to match the specs for the BFG 8800GTX model (Core Clock of 575 MHz and Memory Clock of 900 MHz).

I figured out why Everest Ultimate did not reflect the same clock values as ATITool 0.26 - I forgot to refresh the Everest Ultimate GPU display, wrongly assuming that it automatically refreshed like the "Sensor" display.

As usual, I ran the ATITool 0.26 "Check for Artifacts" for over 2 hours with no errors detected. I also ran the three Nvidia 8800 Tech Demos (Smoke, Adrianne, and Froggy) to visually check for artifacts and to monitor the GPU temperature.

My wife happened to walk in the room while I was testing with the "Adrianne" demo. She innocently asked: "Who is she and what are you doing staring at the screen?"

In response, I nonchalantly said: "Just testing your new computer, my love."

Speaking of the "Adrianne" demo, I have heard a rumor that it contains an "Easter egg" that strips Adrianne down to her earrings, necklace and the "chopsticks" in her hair with the correct combination of "secret" keystrokes. Don't ask me for the secret combination because I do not know. I don't even know whether there is any truth to this rumor.

But, back to overclocking.

I ran the 3DMark06 benchmark three times at this new overclock setting for my BFG 8800GTS and I was pleasantly surprised to see Nighthawk score a high of 9031 3DMarks - an increase of 284 3DMarks over the previous overclock settings equivalent to a BFG 8800GTS OC model. Here is the 3DMark06 comparison.

My next objective is to raise the Memory Clock to 900 MHz with an intermediate stop at 875 MHz. Achieving this would match the specs of a BFG 8800GTX model. However, keep in mind that the 8800GTX has 128 Stream Processors versus 96 Stream Processors for the 8800GTS.