NVIDIA GeForce DDR Roundup (March 00)

Overclocking the Memory

The other clock speed which is adjustable on the GeForce is the memory clock speed. Unlike in the past, where card differences were often based on RAM used, all DDR GeForce cards use the same RAM at the same speed. This is due to the fact that only Infineon currently produces DDR SGRAM chips for use in video cards. In addition, Infineon only makes one speed of the RAM: 6 ns. This not only limits the overclocked speed that a DDR GeForce can reach, the lack of competition also limits the drive that Infineon has to increase speed and decrease price.

Due to the fact that the 6 ns chips used on all DDR GeForce cards are rated to perform at 166 MHz, the stock clock speed of 300 MHz (a result of the memory running at 150 MHz x 2) can be exceeded in most cases. It is here, however, that we really see how overclockabilty can vary from chip to chip. Overclocked speeds ranged from a lowly 326 MHz (163 MHz x 2) in the Absolute Multimedia card to a high 347 MHz in Leadtek's WinFast GeForce 256 DDR Revision B card.

Once again, individual results of overclocking will vary. In the case of the memory, we are left without any judge as to how overclockable the memory core will be. With this in mind, lets take a look at how overclocking a DDR GeForce will improve performance.