Safe Overclock?

[MurphmanL]

I have finally gotten round to overclocking my 9700 Pro using ATI Tool
I have only overclocked the core so far and have reached 375mhz with Artic cooler.
Is this safe?
Has anyone achieved higher than this?
I shall try memory later...

[GreenPiggy]

Don't know what that particular card should be capable of but i'd just keep going till you get artifacts on the screen. Your cooling should be sufficient to get to the limits of the card.

[SilentDeath]

Yes Ive achived higher
Check the back of your card, if it reaches 70c its time to stop, however lower is better.

If your willing to do a volt mod, your card will be that much closer to a 9800pro. heres a guide if you want to do it: http://www.madshrimps.be/gotofaqlink.php?linkid=2401
gpu is easyest, and the only one ive bothered to do... vmem might help, but then you might need to do vref, which is KNOWN to b0rk cards.
9800 stock voltage is 1.7. Yours will be 1.5 - thats the main difference between the two cards.

Strangly enough, at 1.7 you should be able to reach far past 400mhz, most reach around 450 but at this point it is compleatly dependant on cooling.

You will also need to cool the alu heatspreader on the back of the card somehow to stop it burning. This will also give you about 15mhz more overclock.

[Flash]

I think the ATI tool is best for overclocking. Simple reason you can see when the artifacts kick in.

[SilentDeath]

No, really its not. People use ATI tool and EXPECT it to show artifacts, but it is really crap at stressing the card and wont tell you where you artifact.
For me, overclocking mem for example, it goes upto 330 even though the limit for my card is somewhere around 315, past that it starts to artifact when there is load. ATI tool goes so far past that it corrupts the mem, the screen then gets garbled. becuase of this it starts to lower it, mine went down to 240!

the best way is to use lots of recent games, 3dmark (both 2k3 and 2k1), and as many apps as you can find for testing.

You then have to work out WHY its artifacting. There are plenty of causes: gpu too hot, power not stable enough, not enough voltage, not enough capacitance near the gpu, etc... once you know this you can fix it and get it further.
Mine for example is no.2 - power not stable enough. This is becuase I took off the heatspreader at the back, and dont have anythign good enough to replace it with atm, so just using a flat peice of alu. Mine could also do with more power so I will be adding a capacitor to with the vgpu measure point (which is where they are needed - in parrelell with the other cap).

Then I will do the vmem, vref and vddq mods... soon after I will upgrade to an x800XTPE and wish I never bothered...

[iranu]

I have oc'd my 9700 pro to 360 core, 330 mem (with stock cooling) using the overclock tool built into the omega drivers. Radclocker iirc. Usually there is an artifact tester included in the omega software/drivers.

Although I have to admit that 3dmark2003 seemed to be a better indicator (than the artifact tester) of when I had gone too far. i.e. it just locked up!!

http://www.omegadrivers.net/

[SilentDeath]

iranu - thats definatly heat limiting you with that, get an ACS and it should goto ~400

[Flash]

No, really its not. People use ATI tool and EXPECT it to show artifacts, but it is really crap at stressing the card and wont tell you where you artifact...

I stand corrected sir!