MSI StarForce 822 Retail GeForce3 64MB

Overclocking

With such a unique cooling solution (the only other card we have seen with a similar setup is the ASUS V8100), we were quite curious to see how the MSI StarForce 822 performed when overclocked.

We first set out to overclock the core. Using Powerstrip, as we have done in the past, we found that we could get the StarForce 822 no higher than a 230MHz core speed. This leaves the StarForce 822 about average when it comes to overclocking success: the majority of cards were able to hit around 230MHz or 235MHz when overclocked and the 5MHz difference is not very much at all.

One interesting thing to note is that the previous StarForce 822, the one without the elaborate cooling setup, was actually able to hit the highest core speed we have seen yet. We were able to push the first generation card up to a 250MHz core, making it the fastest we had seen. With the great success of the first StarForce 822 card and the average success of the latest StarForce 822, it becomes clear that luck plays a huge role in overclockability.

We suspect that it was luck, not a cooler operating temperature, that allowed us to reach a higher clock speed on our first card compared to the second. The cooling solution of the new card seems to have more surface area, although the fan is smaller, and is attached with efficient thermal grease. With this in mind, the new cooling setup should perform just as well, if not better, than the old one. Since overclocking success tells a different story, we can only reason that we had a very good chip on our first StarForce 822 and only an average one on our second one. It seems to be a large matter of luck.

We were relatively certain that the addition of the RAM-sinks would allow us to reach a higher memory clock speed when compared to the first generation StarForce 822. We were right. In fact, the new memory heatsinks allowed the StarForce 822 to reach the highest memory clock speed we have seen yet: a full 545MHz. This outperforms our previous best of 530MHz and shows that the 3.8ns EliteMT RAM can hit higher clock speeds than those it is speced at (530MHz).

When finished, we had our StarForce822 running at a 230MHz core speed and a 545MHz memory speed: among the fastest we have gotten a card. The two clock speeds should provide some interesting overclocking performance results.