How Much To Overclock?

[Fireblade2K4]

I've got a BFG 6800 UltraOC and was wondering how far I could overclock this already clocked card?

The rest of my system is clocked, got a 146 Opty running stable at 2.5Ghz on stock volts and thought about clocking my graphics card a bit, any ideas how I would go about doing this, how far to go and the best ways to test it?

At stock it is currently running 425Mhz/1100Mhz

Thanks

Stu

 

[Dutch Guy]

It is already clocked high so I don't think it will go much further, perhaps 450Mhz.

Best way is to increase the core to 440Mhz and run FEAR and play that for a few minutes, if all looks well increase to 450Mhz and test again etc..

 

[Fireblade2K4]

Hmm something I can try I guess, doubt I'd see much of an increase in performance with such small increases in settings.

How much of an increase in terms of performance does the 7800GTX offer over the 6800U as the clock speeds are almost identical?

Stu

 

[Vegeta]

ATI tool detects artifiacts before games will, some games can run fine even when gfx is pushed past its best - but ati tool will test it properly for 100% stability

 

[Fireblade2K4]

ATI tool detects artifiacts before games will, some games can run fine even when gfx is pushed past its best - but ati tool will test it properly for 100% stability

ATI Tool with an nVidia graphics card, does that work?

Stu

 

[Dutch Guy]

How much of an increase in terms of performance does the 7800GTX offer over the 6800U as the clock speeds are almost identical?

I went from a unlocked 6800NU that was overclocked to 385/860 to a 7800GT and was also thinking that the difference would not be big.

But as it turns out the difference is massive, the 7800 is so much smoother and just runs a lot faster, the difference with a 7800GTX would be even bigger.

But the 7800GT(X) cards are PCIe only, so if you have a AGP mobo now that also means a new mobo and perhaps new CPU.

 

[Vegeta]

ATI Tool with an nVidia graphics card, does that work?

Stu

Yep, they changed the software to accomodate for nvidia cards now, shouldnt call it ATI Tool anymore I suppose - but its the name thats most well known so it will probably confuse people if they change now.

 

[Zefan]

they changed the software to accomodate for nvidia cards now

OH MY GAWD.

/DL's Ati-tool.

 

[Dutch Guy]

ATITool works well, I also found that FEAR shows artifacts when I overclock my 7800GT too far and the auto overclock is very close to the maximum core overclock.

 

[fullfat]

fear is being used as a very good indication of how well and stable a overclock is be it on a cpu or gfx card.

 

[Zefan]

Just tried Ati-Tool auto-clock on my 6800gt vf700 and it locked up giving the typical "That's too much" green yellow and pink lines. Does it every time without fail. Auto-mem works though. I feel they need to tweak it a little more until nVIDIA's will work completely.

 

[Fireblade2K4]

But the 7800GT(X) cards are PCIe only, so if you have a AGP mobo now that also means a new mobo and perhaps new CPU.

Well I have an AGP slot and also a PCI-E slot as well on my motherboard, Asrock Dual SATA2 so that isn't a problem.

I just wondering what to do now, whether to hold on to the 6800U a little longer as it still steams through games, or wait until the next generations comes out, or even look into possibly getting the current top of the crop cards like the 7900GTX-XXX or 1900XT-X although I've never owned an ATI card, always gone for nVidia for some reason, maybe its time for a swap

Stu

 

[Dutch Guy]

If your games play good enough with your current card there is no point in upgrading, but if you would like a higher resolution or more AA/AF then upgrading to a new card like a 7900/X1900 is a good option.