# How to overclock a GeForce 7300SE?



## Fuzzy91 (Apr 18, 2006)

Hey there, firstly I hope this is the correct section for this, sorry if I'm wrong. 

Right! Here's my question,

Can I/How do I over clock my GeForce 7300SE 512MB.

MY system specs are:

Pentium D 2.80Ghz Dual Core
1.00 GB Ram
GeForce 7300SE 512MB
Windows XP Media Center

The computer itself is an Acer Aspire T650, specs are as were when bought, nothing has been changed. I believe the graphics card is the 'bottleneck' of my system, as the other specs seem good enough to be running games on a fair setting, where as the card seems pretty pathetic.

I want to over clock the card to *Hopefully* improve performance when running games. So is this possible? How do I do it? How hard is it? Is it safe? Will I need more fans? + Anything else you feel I may need to know.

Also, is that 512MB using the system's RAM? As I can't imagine a card like that can really have 512MB of it's own memory? Otherwise games should be performing better than they do, surely?

Well that's all for now,

Thanks,

-Fuzzy :grin:


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## ebackhus (Apr 21, 2005)

In this case I'd just suggest purchasing a stronger card. If this PC has PCI-Express slots then I'd pick the 7600GT. A lotta power without breaking the bank. It doesn't seem to have shared RAM, but lower-end cards were often given large amounts of video RAM to make them look impressive.


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## Fuzzy91 (Apr 18, 2006)

ebackhus said:


> In this case I'd just suggest purchasing a stronger card. If this PC has PCI-Express slots then I'd pick the 7600GT. A lotta power without breaking the bank. It doesn't seem to have shared RAM, but lower-end cards were often given large amounts of video RAM to make them look impressive.


According to Nvidia, the card's PCI-E so it could possibly be replaced with an upgrade, but at this moment in time i'd rather not, rather just over clock it and test that before considering an upgrade.

Also, is it possible to find out what Watt my PSU is? 

And how is the processor on this machine? I know it's not great, but if I were to say upgrade to a 7800/900, or a card around that, would I be badly bottle necked by the processor? 

Thanks,

-Fuzzy


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## ebackhus (Apr 21, 2005)

I won't give any advice on overclocking as I do not approve of it.


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## TheMatt (May 9, 2006)

To find out how much power your PSU can put out, you have to look at a sticker on the PSU. Your processor shouldn't be a bottleneck.

I would consider looking at a a new PSU because pretty much any upgrade will require a PSU upgrade to accommodate it.


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## jflan (May 29, 2005)

Unfortunately, your card is very weak and is not worth trying to overclock. 
It's OK for a budget-box but that's about it.
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/132 
Note your card and the one ebackhus recommends. 
They are in different leagues. 

For future reference, keep an eye out for slow cards that have been "adorned" with excessive amounts of memory. 
As ebackhus states, this is done to make the card more sale-able, because the marketeers know that many people buy cards on their memory "amount" only.
Memory quality and GPU quality is secondary to this group.


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## b1gz (Aug 2, 2008)

Hi everybody.
Firstly, sorry for my english, but i have something for you 
I have the same card, the same question and i tried to find out what this card know.

A few words about my system:

cpu: intel c2d [email protected]
mobo: msi bullsh!t (sorry, i dont know the p/n)
ram: samsung 512mb ddr2-533mhz
vga: asus geforce 7300se 256mb
os: windows xp pro x64 edition

The original clocks are: core: 450 mhz, vram: 520 mhz (2*263).
Originally this card has a passive cooler, but i changed it to a 260 gramm beast with a GlacialTech fan (7 cm).
With the ref cooler the idle temp. was 60, and the load was 90+.
With the new cooler the idle temp. is 50, and the load is maximum 60.

This is the ref cooler:










And this is the new one:









The appropriate cooler is needed for the overlock.

So, take a look at my clocks:
The maximum core clock is 742.50 mhz, overclock: 65%.
The maximum vram clock is 729.00 mhz, overclock: 38%.











And this is what the everest write about the card:









I think the vram can be faster, maybe 740mhz or more, if the core is 600mhz or something like this. Maybe.

In the future (after when i buy my new card ), i will try to do a bios mod with a 7300gs or 7300gt bios.


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## TheMatt (May 9, 2006)

Impressive. I would run 3DMark05 a couple times and see what score improvement you get and also to stress the card.

Drivers can also make a difference. I got a significantly higher score in 3DMark06 by updating my drivers from the 158.22 drivers to the 162 series.


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## b1gz (Aug 2, 2008)

I will, but i think only at lower rates, maybe 600-700 will be great, or just a bit more for the higher score.
I don't want to stress the card the maximum clock rates, i think it's understandable 
Anyway, i don't advise to play games when +1mhz (for ram or core) makes the card to make an error 

The programs what i use to overclock:
RivaTuner v2.09
nTune 5.05.54
NiBiTor 3.4a

Drivers:
ForceWare 169.21 (maybe i will try the latest)
DirectX 9.0c

Test programs:
3DMark05 v1.0.0
ATiTools 0.27 (yep, ati, but works with nv card too, and this pluss cube can stress tha vga really good )

*
3DMark05 options:










Original rates (450/520):










630/621:








*

I would like to stress the card with the ati tool at 648/648, but it crashed when i started to stress and when i'd like to close it. I think it isn't like my os or i don't know what was wrong..
Anyway, i tryed 3dmark05 at 648/648, it looks great, i saw higher fps in the first 3 test, but at the test with the sea monster modell the fps was only 2, and after this test it was crashed.. black screen.
The temps was: core 60, surface 39-40.

OK it was the benchmark and the stress test, BUT i tryed 648/648 in half-life2:dm, and it works good, no pixel errors, no nothing.
It was interesting, but i didn't want to kill it .

I think the answer is that the artificial tests stress the card at 100% usage, while the games don't , so i can play at 648/648, but anyway i don't do this 

It can be faster, at the limits, but i don't have time and patience to set the clock rates step by step 

When 3DMark05 crashed:


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## TheMatt (May 9, 2006)

That's a good improvement. I haven't noticed a difference in performance between the 162 series and 169 series of Forceware.


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## b1gz (Aug 2, 2008)

I've got a new clock record  (with a new mobo, gigabyte ep45-ds4)










ray: gigabyte


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