Overclocking
By far one of the nicest features on the NVidia chipsets is software controlled overclocking. The new geForce2 is no exception as it caters to speed freaks out there with
properly cooled systems. There's actually two separate sliders that you can adjust. One for the core clock speed, which runs at a default speed of 200mhz and can be overclocked
up to 250mhz. The other for the DDR RAM speed, which defaults at 333mhz and can be adjusted to 420mhz.
I was able to successfully overclock to 225mhz/370mhz and run a few Quake 3 benchmarks. I tried several different resolutions but didn't notice any significant advantages
over the benchmarks. In a second attempt for even more speed, I pushed the card slightly harder and began to notice obvious affects immediately. The software forces
you to test your new settings before applying them and short of locking up my system, my display quickly became littered with mis-colored pixels. A quick reset to defaults
and we were a-ok.
Anti Aliasing
While officially unsupported by Hercules/Guillemot, the option for openGL and DirectX based anti-aliasing is none the less there, and we can't ignore it. While 3dfx handles
their anti-aliasing via hardware, the geForce2 does it by software. Depending on your FSAA needs, you must enable anti-aliasing for openGL or DirectX, or both. There are
separate options for enabling each and each produces their own unique results.
A quick check of the openGL "Full Screen Anti Aliasing" box and it was off to Quake 3 for testing. Initially, the first thing I noticed was a 40% framerate drop from 90fps
down to around 45-50fps. It would almost be worth the hit if the anti-aliasing was spectacular, but it wasn't. I can best compare it to a 1 pixel motion blur rather than
true AA.
DirectX anti-aliasing gives you a little more control, but for a price. Under the More Direct3D options for the video properties, you are presented with an innocent looking
slider in which you can adjust the level of anti-aliasing you'd like. After setting it to MAX and firing up Half-Life, the AA was quite impressive. The quality was right
up there with 3dfx's hardware based AA, until I moved my mouse. Not only was I down to an unstable 5-10fps, but input from my USB mouse was lagging. I would move in a
direction, wait a few seconds, then actually turn. Clearly not an option for gaming... back to defaults.
