Overclocked ATI 2600HD?

[wheezy]

I've posted a few times on my ATI card woes, and now I have a curiousity. I bought a refurb MP at the end of September and it works awesome. My only problem was the standard ATI card would 'moo' with the fans speeding up and down constantly. The sound drove me nuts.

Applecare sent me a new ATI card to replace it and it's silent - I love it.

However, now Call of Duty doesn't play nearly as smooth. Is it possible the previous owner of my refurb overclocked the ATI card and that's what caused the moo'ing?

I've since adjusted my game settings but I find it odd that two (supposedly) identical cards would have such a noticeable difference in game play on the same game with nothing else having changed on the system.

 

[MacVidCards]

Even overclocking a card will only buy you 10% gains or less...so a "noticeable" difference in gameplay is doubtful.

And I have never understood this fear of fan noise. Is the Pro sitting on your desktop right by your ears? Try putting it under your desk.

Or why not just turn up the game volume? The fans going up and down is in relation to heat. In the past, fans just ran at 100% all the time, noise be damned. We have gotten rather spoiled I guess.

Find one of those OEM 3870s...I have a feeling they didn't suffer the noise of a single slot/2 wire 3870 Retail.

 

[wheezy]

Even overclocking a card will only buy you 10% gains or less...so a "noticeable" difference in gameplay is doubtful.

And I have never understood this fear of fan noise. Is the Pro sitting on your desktop right by your ears? Try putting it under your desk.

Or why not just turn up the game volume? The fans going up and down is in relation to heat. In the past, fans just ran at 100% all the time, noise be damned. We have gotten rather spoiled I guess.

Find one of those OEM 3870s...I have a feeling they didn't suffer the noise of a single slot/2 wire 3870 Retail.

Actually, the MP is right close to me, so I did hear it all day long. I had it under my desk but all my cables were too short and it sat right at my feet and not facing out, so putting in a DVD or even plugging an external in required me getting on my knees and using a flashlight. Down there I could faintly hear it, but not bothersome. Up top where it is now it was very bothersome.

I hope to bump up to the 3870 in a few months. I'm not a heavy gamer by any means, I'm just curious why the same game runs differently on two of the same graphics card spec for spec.