Overclocking video cards is an inexact science, though the benefits can be long-lasting.
When it was released to market, the GeForce 7600GS from nVidia was designed to be a high-end video card for use in PCs used for heavy gaming or multimedia purposes. Even though it was released with high-end hardware specs for its time, as newer software is released, the card becomes more and more out of date. You can extend the life of your GeForce 7600GS by overclocking the card's GPU, a process made easy thanks to nVidia's own software.
Instructions
1. Install the nVidia Control Panel program on the driver disk for your video card. If you do not have the disk, you can download the software directly from nVidia.
2. Open your Start Menu and type "Regedit" into the search bar. This will open your "Registry Editor" window. In Windows XP, open your Start Menu, click "Run..." and then type "regedit."
3. Double-click the "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE" folder, then open both the "Software" and "NVIDIA Corporation" folders. Now open the "Global" folder before finally double-clicking the "NVTweak" folder.
4. Double-click on the "CoolBits" option. This will open a small window where you can input a numerical value. Enter the number "3" and click "OK" to set the new value. When done, close your registry editor window.
If you do not have "CoolBits" listed, right-click an open area, select "New/Dword Value" to open the "Edit DWORD Value" window. Enter "CoolBits" as the value name, and set the value itself to "3" before clicking "OK."
5. Open your nVidia Control Panel, either by clicking the icon on your desktop or by right-clicking on your desktop and selecting "nVidia Control Panel" from the list of options. Once this opens, locate your video card on the right-hand sidebar, click to open the submenu and double-click the "Clock Frequency" option.
6. Adjust the sliders to your preferred settings and click "Okay" to set your new speeds. If you aren't familiar with overclocking, you can either utilize the "Test Changes" option to see if your overclocking numbers are able to be handled, or you can click "Auto overclocking" to have your software automatically detect the maximum settings for your video card that will increase productivity while also keeping the card stable.
Tags: video card, your video card, Control Panel, nVidia Control, nVidia Control Panel, your video