Overclocking Radeon 9600

[mike_w]

I was curious as to how far I could overclock my Sapphire 9600 (non pro). Are there any particular programs I should use, or just the overclocker that comes bundled with the card? And just how far should I be able to go. Still not sure whether I'm going to do it now or later (or at all!)

Thanks

Mike

[Theo]

Download some shiny omega drivers from www.omegacorner.com, these come with an "artifact tester" which helps you figure out whether you've overclocked too far.

In terms of overclocking, try rage3dtweak from www.rage3d.com. Cracking bit of software, really - it has a built in overclocker, and various directx/opengl tweakie things to play with.

When overclocking, I think I remember people saying to overclock the memory first, leaving the core at stock speeds. Increase it by 4mhz each time, and test thoroughly - eg 3dmark02/03, artifact tester, your favourite games, etcetera.

Do this until you get artifacts on your display, and when you do - reduce the clock speed by 1mhz, retest - still get artifacts, reduce by 1mhz, retest, etc. Do this until you don't get artifacts. The speed you get is your max stable clockspeed.


Next:

do the core! Same thing again. Test test test, increase, test test test, increase, etc.

I had a 9600np in my main system (very similar to the one in your sig) until last week. Although I seriously can't remember how far I managed to overclock it. It clocked quite well though, if I remember correctly!

[SilentDeath]

I would aviod rage3dtweak. radlinker/radclocker is bundled with teh latest omegas anyway which is what I use.
When overclocking make sure the side of your case is off. you WILL need to touch the back fo the gpu to make sure its not overheating if you intned on pushing the card more han 20mhz over stock. You want to be able to touch the back of gpu for atleast 7 seconds with firm pressure against it. Longer is pointless as by that time your finger gets used to the heat...
When you hit the limit of your card its because of either of these things - It wants more voltage, or its overheating. A better hsf than the stock one is recommended.

I find 3dm2k1 car chase high detail to reveal if the mem is artifacting, while 3dm2k3 attle of proxycon and trolls lair, aswell as any other things that make heavy use of the dx9 shaders, are best for the gpu.
I would start about 3/4 way between stock and what most people with the same card have, are achiving. It is usefull to bench after each change so that you can see how much it helps. When the "performance gain/extra clocks" becomes very small, it would show the card is overherating.