3) Overclock Your Videocard
MAXIMUMPC APRIL 2004
An easy way to get a free performance
boost in gaming is to slightly overclock
your videocard. Beware: Overclocking
does void your warranty, but if you fol-
low our instructions, there’s only mini-
mal risk of damage to your hardware.
First, download and install
Powerstrip. You can get it from
http://www.entechtaiwan.com.
Right-click Powerstrip’s tray icon,
and select Performance Profiles, then
Configure.
You should see something that looks
like the image on the right. Two verti-
cal sliders will be on the left side of the
Performance window. The slider on the
left controls your card’s core speed,
and the slider on the right controls the
card’s memory speed.
Increase the core speed in 2MHzincrements. After
each increase, test
the card’s stability by
playing a 3D game or
running a benchmark.
Repeat until you start
seeing rendering
errors during your
testing, then crank the
core clock back down
until the card is stable.
Increase the
memory clock in the
same slow incre-
ments, making sure
to test between
each increase.
Enjoy your new,
faster frame rates!Powerstrip maKes oVerclocKing your Videocard as easy
as moVing a slider. 3o what’s your eXcuse now INGREDIENTS: You’ll need three moni-
tors, an AGP videocard with dual outputs,
a PCI videocard, and an operating system
that can cope with multiple monitors.
We’ve found that PCI GeForce2 MX cards
will work with just about any other main-
stream card, and Windows XP has the best
operating support for multiple monitors.
Before you install the PCI card, we rec-
ommend you download the video drivers
for the PCI card, and store them some-
place you’ll be able to find them later.
Then shut down your PC, install the PCI
card, and reboot. Connect monitor cables
to each output on the videocard. Make
sure that the monitor you want to use forgaming is connected to your AGP card.
Boot into Safe Mode by repeatedly
pressing F8 from the time you power up
the computer until you see the Safe Mode
menu. Once Windows has started up,
install the drivers for your PCI videocard.
Once the drivers are installed, reboot the
PC and boot into Windows.
Once Windows starts, you’ll need to
enable the second and third monitors. Go
to Start, Control Panel, Display, and click
the Settings tab. Right-click each of the
grayed out monitors and click Attached,
then press Apply. Press Identify, then
drag and drop the monitor icons on the
Control Panel until the displays on screenare arranged in the same way as your
physical monitors. From this panel, you
can also adjust the resolution and refresh
rate of each monitor.
If you’re having problems getting your
system up and running again, you may
need to make a slight BIOS adjustment.
First, enter your BIOS and go to the
Init Display First setting—it’s usually in
Advanced BIOS settings. It should be set
to either PCI or AGP. We’ve found that
some systems require that the PCI display
initializes first, while others require the
AGP display to initialize first. You’ll have
to experiment a bit.4) Set Up a Tri-Monitor Display
DO-IT-YOURSELF GUIDE
)nstall a second Videocard and add a third
monitor for mondo screen real estate