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How to overclock an S3 Virge?

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First post, by murrayman

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I have an STB Nitro 3D 1.3 S3 Virge GX 4MB PCI in my Packard Bell system (see sig for specs) that's doing me a nostalgia - I've been playing the S3 versions of Descent II and MechWarrior 2 as of late, as well as Hellbender in D3D. I'm using the superuni fast D3d drivers, and all is stable. However, now that I've digested the low-framerate high-polygon mid-90s nostalgia, I'd like to know how to play around with overclocking the card. I've seen old threads on forums and a couple of YouTube videos that make it clear overclocking is possible, but none of them detail how to do it. I'm currently running Win95 OSR2.1 and have Powerstrip running to keep things locked at 60hz. I see I can adjust the memory clock from Powerstrip, but I'd like to know: Is there any "better" way of overclocking the card, and does anyone know what good figures are for a GX card? Thanks!

P3B-F 1.04, PIII 1k, 512MB PC133, GF DDR 32MB + DM3DII 12MB SLI, SB0100
P3B-F 1.03, PIII 700, 384MB PC100, V5 AGP, SB0160
CP 5170, PII 350, 256MB PC100, Rage LT 2MB, ESS 1869
PB M S610, PMMX 233, 128MB EDO66, DM3D 4MB, Aztech

Reply 1 of 6, by The Serpent Rider

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I see I can adjust the memory clock from Powerstrip, but I'd like to know

S3 Virge core and memory clocks are tied. I think, EDO cards are working with 1:1 divider and SGRAM with 3:4 divider. So if you card has SGRAM you probably can overclock it up to 90-110 Mhz (67-83 Mhz core). If you card has EDO memory, you can overclock it up to 70-80 Mhz.

I must be some kind of standard: the anonymous gangbanger of the 21st century.

Reply 2 of 6, by murrayman

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The Serpent Rider wrote on 2020-02-21, 03:58:

I see I can adjust the memory clock from Powerstrip, but I'd like to know

S3 Virge core and memory clocks are tied. I think, EDO cards are working with 1:1 divider and SGRAM with 3:4 divider. So if you card has SGRAM you probably can overclock it up to 90-110 Mhz (67-83 Mhz core). If you card has EDO memory, you can overclock it up to 70-80 Mhz.

Got it. I know that mine currently has a memory clock of 75Mhz, so I’m guessing it’s SGRAM? What’s a good way to confirm this?

P3B-F 1.04, PIII 1k, 512MB PC133, GF DDR 32MB + DM3DII 12MB SLI, SB0100
P3B-F 1.03, PIII 700, 384MB PC100, V5 AGP, SB0160
CP 5170, PII 350, 256MB PC100, Rage LT 2MB, ESS 1869
PB M S610, PMMX 233, 128MB EDO66, DM3D 4MB, Aztech

Reply 4 of 6, by The Serpent Rider

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If that is your card, the divider should be 1:1.

I must be some kind of standard: the anonymous gangbanger of the 21st century.

Reply 5 of 6, by murrayman

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Alright, confirmed that it's EDO. Now, is there any way to overclock the card beyond just Powerstrip?

P3B-F 1.04, PIII 1k, 512MB PC133, GF DDR 32MB + DM3DII 12MB SLI, SB0100
P3B-F 1.03, PIII 700, 384MB PC100, V5 AGP, SB0160
CP 5170, PII 350, 256MB PC100, Rage LT 2MB, ESS 1869
PB M S610, PMMX 233, 128MB EDO66, DM3D 4MB, Aztech

Reply 6 of 6, by zyga64

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Yes. Use MCLK for DOS http://files.mpoli.fi/unpacked/hardware/displ … 3b.zip/mclk.txt

Scamp: 286@20 /4M /CL-GD5422 /CMI8330
Aries: 486DX33 /16M /TGUI9440 /GUS+ALS100+MT32PI
Triton: K6-2@400 /64M /Rage Pro PCI /ES1370+YMF718
Seattle: P!!!750 /256M /MX440 /Vibra16s+SBLive!
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