OC'ing a Saphire 9600XT

[Snafu]

Right this card is oc'd at 535/320 (ram not yet max'd). I have not seen anything odd with running this card at this speed. However, read in the following post on another site ( :o ) that oc'ing this card is not recommended. It does not handle oc's well.
http://www.abxzone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=77212

Anyone have trouble oc'ing this card? I heard it is the same as the ATI card (look very much the same). I have not heard anything bad about oc'ing video cards except you oc in small steps. Of course like anything else if you go to far then you can expect it to fry.

GPU and Ram cooling should help stabilise the oc (will be adding a Arctic Ice cooler and should get some ram sinks to add as well).

Wanted a sanity check before turning the oc back on this card (probably should toss it for a 9800XT but the 9800 is nearly the same price as the x800XT so it woudl seem to be a waste of $ at this moment).

Just checking my sanity before I go nuts :coocoo: .

[Snafu]

Any thoughts on this?

[Moonwizard]

If it works flawless then why not run it overclocked. As long as you don't have problems with it then go for it. :D If you've problems with the heat then go out and get better cooling for it. :D

[Snafu]

Hi Moonwizard. I see you are here too. :lol: :lol: :lol:
Thanks :thumbs:

[Moonwizard]

yeah. :D mostly here. :D

[Hybrid-Mods]

If you want some extreme overclocking, Volt mod it, I did it to my 9600 pro, and I hit 520 on the core, i just need better cooling now.. This Dynatron 1U cooler isn't enough anymore.

[Snafu]

What mods would I need :scratch: ? I have it running at 535 core and 320 mem on stock cooler with no issues (yet to add an arctic ice cooler and ram sinks).

[Hybrid-Mods]

Do you mean voltage mod wise? If so i can help you on that.

[Snafu]

I was curious if the volt mod was necessary to run 520 when it is at 535 now. :o I just realised that were talking different cards - Pro versus XT ( :bonk: ).

[Hybrid-Mods]

they are essentially the same, I recoomend using ATI Tool for using for overclocking and artifact scanning. It's real strict but works great.
It's here http://atitool.ocfaq.com/

[Snafu]

Thanks :thumb: . Downloaded v 0.0.20 and will give it a go.

[Snafu]

How does ATI Tool compare to Powerstrip?

[Hybrid-Mods]

ATI Tool allows you to scan for artifacts while it automatically overclocks your video card. Power strip can overclock but not test for artifacts, even though it yas alot mroe features. They are both made for diffrent applications. I don't use power strip because of the annoying 15 second wait each time it starts. ATI tool uses some very picky pixel shader 2.0 code to do the artifact scanning. Using ATI tool will result in having more of a true overclock. because your not going to be able to notice one pixel being a diffrent color while in a benchmark.

[Snafu]

Thanks. I'm going to give it s try tonight :thumb: .
I am getting annoyed by the wait each time it loads up the tips. It keeps getting longer and it is now up t0 25 seconds. Of course if I buy the license I can turn off the tips feature (you would think this was free with your card).
Thanks again

[Snafu]

Loaded and running. First ran "find max core" and hit 560MHz. Let it run for a few hours and stopped it (I thought it would stop automatically).
When running "find max mem" there is a warning message about the core being oc'd and if there were any artifacts then it woudl adjust core oc.
So far I ended up 558MHz core and 322MHz mem (mem still has a bit left in it I'm sure as I had to stop it prematurely).

Plan to run it a bit more so that it can settle out the max core and max mem speeds. Pretty good as the core and mem are oc'd by about 10%. Not bad with stock cooling. Wonder what it will do with a new heat sink/fan.

[Hybrid-Mods]

good oc.. with a better cooler.. it might help. With a Volt mod, your sure to get more out of it i think. your XT core is like the PRO core, but has that low-dialect-k manufacterning process, which makes it easier to hit high speeds with less power. The ram on my board isn't made to go past 300. vmem mods don't do anything for our cards.

[Snafu]

Thanks. Bit surprised with this oc. Gonna have to try to cooler. Might do the vmod once I get another card (just in case I snafu :lol: )

[Snafu]

Well I was able to oc the card to 551 (GPU) and 324 (RAM) without artifacts. This is with the Arctic Ice rev.3 cooler but without any ram sinks (will need to add some).

All was looking good until I started F@H (x2). The sytem froze an hour or so afterwards. Is it possible that the video card oc was generating enough heat to unstabilise the CPU oc? CPU temps was 52C before freezing (MB was at 38C) and I had all fans running at low speed (7.4V).

:scratch:

P.S. do not set "find max" settings and walk away. I was trying to find the max mem oc and left for work. When I returned I had artifacts everywhere (entire screen). Once I reset to stock speeds and shut down ATITool it was better but I rebooted to clear everything up. I don't think the card is toast (luckily and touch wood :bonk: )