doing something wrong or just a bad clocker?

HicRic · 3 Aug 2006 at 22:14

Trying to overclock my X1800XT (the connect3D one from last weeks special offers) and not having much luck! Stock speeds are 625/750, my best artifact-free overclock is 645/800. I suppose I don't really mind the 50MHz gained on the memory but I'm a bit disappointed with the core. It literally can't go higher, tried 650 and it's no good.

I'm using the ATi Tool latest beta, as the non-beta doesn't have x1800xt support. I'm also at stock volts as I don't really feel confident about bumping them up - this overclock is more just recreational than "I need more power!" as I'm only running games at 1024x768 (stupid 14'' TFT!) so everything is great at stock (except Oblivion, which is often fine but in dense foliage...8 fps.

that's with HDR, 4xAA, 8xAF, all max graphics sliders though).

Just a bit sad that the core won't go up more than 20MHz. It isn't temperatures that are the problem, as I've tried fiddling with the fan speed. The overclock won't go any higher whether the core temp is at 65, 70, or 80. I'm on stock cooling btw.

So, am I doing something wrong perhaps? Or will I need to start pushing up voltages to get somewhere? Guess it's just not a very good clocker perhaps..

FreeStream · 3 Aug 2006 at 22:19

HicRic said:
Trying to overclock my X1800XT (the connect3D one from last weeks special offers) and not having much luck! Stock speeds are 625/750, my best artifact-free overclock is 645/800. I suppose I don't really mind the 50MHz gained on the memory but I'm a bit disappointed with the core. It literally can't go higher, tried 650 and it's no good.

I'm using the ATi Tool latest beta, as the non-beta doesn't have x1800xt support. I'm also at stock volts as I don't really feel confident about bumping them up - this overclock is more just recreational than "I need more power!" as I'm only running games at 1024x768 (stupid 14'' TFT!) so everything is great at stock (except Oblivion, which is often fine but in dense foliage...8 fps. that's with HDR, 4xAA, 8xAF, all max graphics sliders though).

Just a bit sad that the core won't go up more than 20MHz. It isn't temperatures that are the problem, as I've tried fiddling with the fan speed. The overclock won't go any higher whether the core temp is at 65, 70, or 80. I'm on stock cooling btw.

So, am I doing something wrong perhaps? Or will I need to start pushing up voltages to get somewhere? Guess it's just not a very good clocker perhaps..

Set a 105mhz PCI-E speed, and then raise GPU voltage

1.5V should be fine if its kept under 70C, better under 60C

HicRic · 3 Aug 2006 at 22:27

Only problem is I can't really keep it below 60 degrees at load - the fan is terribly loud at 70-100%, so I'll be deaf trying to keep it at 60 degrees! I suppose I could do it just to see what the card can do, but there's no chance of getting some gaming done on it. Of course the obvious step would be a nice aftermarket cooler, but I can't really afford to spend a penny since I got the new rig.

What are the chances of damage to the card by increasing voltage? Also, I show my newbie colours further by asking: how would I go about changing the PCI-E speed? BIOS?

iraiguana · 4 Aug 2006 at 11:30

well as u are wanting to oc i would strongly suggest that u try and find the money to get either the zalman vf700 or 900 otherwise always try and find a cheap artic cooler for it, should only be about £15.

Yes to increase the pci-e is in the bios.

good luck and u are at a slight risk of damage by increasing the voltage, but only due to the higher temps again that u will be seeing.

good luck.

HicRic · 4 Aug 2006 at 11:42

Nah, I don't want to spend any money, just want to see what extra I can get for free really.

I'm just about ready to abandon it (for the time being) unfortunately. My BIOS does not have any options for PCI-E speed changing (or, I noticed, cpu vcore) although I doubt I have the latest version.

The final nail in the coffin is that when I tried to load FEAR to use the built-in benchmark the computer went strange, just black screen + "no signal" and then monitor standby, although I could hear the computer still running. Had to do a hard reset. Happens every time I try and load the game with ATi Tool running at anything other than default clocks - which is the underclocked 2D mode!

I don't have 3D detection on ATi Tool turned on, and I don't have the CCC installed, and I've disabled those two ATi services as well. Strange thing is, 3dmark05 is happy to run all the way through several times with changed clocks. I guess there's some kind of conflict going on. Ho hum!