Benchmarking and Overclocking Q9650 Part 2

After our previous feature on overclocking the Q9650, we've been wondering how much we can push this CPU. We won't be bothering with water cooling solutions, as we want to see how much we can get with the air cooling solutions. So, time to see how much we can push the Q9650 on air.

We used a Gigabyte UD3LR EP45 motherboard with 4GB DDR2 Memory Kit from Kingston, a 1000W PSU from Coolermaster and a GTX295. As we said in our previous feature, in order to achieve a 4.0Ghz frequency we needed 1.45V VCore. That was before our latest tweaks. After messing with the CPU Termination, MCH Core and MCH Reference we managed to achieve 4.2Ghz with 1.4125V Vcore. This had a huge impact in our temperatures, so we strongly suggest not raising your Vcore above this value. Still, 1.4125V is quite high and you will definitely need a good CPU cooler.

Nvidia ForceWare 266.58 Drivers Released

Nvidia released today the much anticipated 26x.xx drivers for all their cards. These drivers are WHQL, so grab them if you were hesitant about trying the beta versions. The 266.58 have similar performance with the 266.44, so if you didn't encounter any problems with those drivers, there isn't any reason to move on. The same goes for the PhysX software, 3D and SLI profiles. Nothing is changed. Some users had encountered AA problems with the previous betas, although we didn't encounter any with our GTX295. Still, if you're one of them, we strongly suggest trying these latest drivers to see if your problems are resolved.

Enhancing the video playback quality

Due to the minor PC games releases of the past few days, we decided to include a simple guide to demonstrate how you can enhance your video playback quality. The easiest way is by buying the BluRay version of your favourite movie. But what if there isn't any high-definition version of it? And what if your camera can't record in HD?


We won't be using the various codec packs, like K-Lite. This is a simple guide after all. Instead we'll use the video enhancements of your GPU, provided you have an Nvidia card. For starters, you'll have to enter your Nvidia Control Panel. Simply click the left mouse button on your desktop and choose the 'Nvidia Control Panel' option. Your control panel will then open. Next, scroll down, find the 'Video' section and double click on it. You'll see two new options, one for the color and one for the image settings.