How far is too far?

[myth]

I never invest much time in OCing my GPU... I ran ATI Tool a long time ago, it detected errors at 385 core! Could I take it further? When I was OCing my CPU I just put it as high as it would go... All that matered is that it booted and was stable... However will OCing it beound the point of errors cause any damage to my graphics card ? It has a Artic cooler on it... no ram sinks... Perhaps I should set it at 450 and see what hapens...

[MAS]

Overclocking isn't bound to cause it damage if it's done properly. It may shorten its life a little, but then again you'll have upgraded long before that becomes an issue.

I'd strongly suggest that you go with whatever ATI Tool tells you. IME it can detect errors and artifacts a long time before they're visible to the human eye. If you OC it beyond the point of errors, yes, eventually you'll seriously damage the card.

[myth]

I must have the worst card out there! It wont OC!

[MAS]

[myth]

well at a core of 400 I see fire works! looks like a giant sparkler!

[pre]

In general ATitool max clock stable for 1h without errors will be 110% stable in everything else because it heats up the gpu/memory like nothing else.

Whether you run your CPU prime stable or not is what you should chose to decide to run your ATi.

[steve threlfall]

Dont whack it right up for heavans sake, it need tosettle in. You need to go up in increments of 5-10mhz checking for stability sparklies/other errors. Take it s l o w mate

Btw if you set it to high vpu recover will kick in to save you toasting your card- DONT deactivate that unless you know what you are doing.

[SilentDeath]

Ignore all of the above.

Your cooling is simnply not good enough. Firstly check the back fo the card. If it burnsyou, or infect hjust if it feels hot, then its too hot. Arctic cooler will be a good idea (MUCH better than stock cooler - I cant belive youd overclock an ATI card with those CRAPPY stock coolers. A pierce of turd cools better (runny turd anyway, water has a high specific heat!!!!!)

Stock voltage for your card is ~1.7v which is ok for 400-450 on a lot of cards, 9700's ually manage, but 9800's seem to need slightly more. If your cooling is good enough you can vmod it. If your not skilled enough to do vmods then imho you hsouldnt be o/c atall!

[myth]

It has a Artic cooler on it... no ram sinks... Perhaps I should set it at 450 and see what hapens...

Ignore all of the above.

Your cooling is simnply not good enough. Firstly check the back fo the card. If it burnsyou, or infect hjust if it feels hot, then its too hot. Arctic cooler will be a good idea (MUCH better than stock cooler - I cant belive youd overclock an ATI card with those CRAPPY stock coolers. A pierce of turd cools better (runny turd anyway, water has a high specific heat!!!!!)

Stock voltage for your card is ~1.7v which is ok for 400-450 on a lot of cards, 9700's ually manage, but 9800's seem to need slightly more. If your cooling is good enough you can vmod it. If your not skilled enough to do vmods then imho you hsouldnt be o/c atall!

lol.. I guess you missed that post! It runs very cool.. It just refuses to OC at all! I can get 15 MHz on the core and 10 on the DDR 2! I got lucky on my P4, but my card sucks!