Safe temps for X800 Pro?

Cryomorph · 2 Aug 2007 at 18:25

I am just starting to take my first tentative steps into OC'ing and I decided to start with my GPU. I am using AtiTools for this. However, I am unsure as to what idle temps I should be looking at. Sure I can push it further and have it be stable, but I want it to be usable for gaming.

Its idle temp at stock is 40-41 degrees

Radeon X800 Pro AGP (HIS Excalibur IceQ II Cooler).
Chip: R420
Core clock: 475MHz
Mem clock: 450MHz

So is it all a question of trial and error? Keep upping the freqs in 5MHz steps until the games show artifacts or other undesirable effects?

The last thing I want is melt my GPU in the middle of a gaming session (or any time for that matter).

Does anyone have any experience in clocking this card? I'm just looking for some advice so that I don't do something stupid.

TIA

Cryo

Wingz · 2 Aug 2007 at 18:35

what are your load temps? upping the core slowly then testing it for artifacts is what I usually do, when you get to the point where artifacts appear drop it down by 5Mhz and you should be good, then start clocking the ram.

Cryomorph · 2 Aug 2007 at 19:08

Thanks for the reply.

I noticed artifacts for the Core clock at around 80 degrees when testing with the max core feature. More and more artifacts appeared as the MHz went up and it crashed the card. I had to reboot.

When I restarted, AtiTool reported that the last stable freq was 555.43 MHz

So I should now set it to 550.43 MHz right?

Last daft question (for now at least) - Suppose, it is stable at this setting. Is it ok to have it running at this speed/temp for extended periods, say 3-4 hours of intensive gaming?

Wingz · 2 Aug 2007 at 19:40

have you removed the cooler and applied some better thermal compound and have a good case air flow? ATI says upto 95°C is safe so 80C is fine however i would try to reduce the temps if possible.

Cryomorph · 2 Aug 2007 at 20:57

I haven't removed the cooler to apply thermal paste as it comes fitted with the ICEQ II cooler (takes up 2 pci slots) which has a fan with cover that exhausts the heat out of the back. So hopefully, it should be cooler than the basic X800 pro cooler.

The airflow in my case isn't too bad. Cables are tidy and there's not too much in there to generate heat. The Asus software that came with my mobo reports that the case temp is 33 degrees (at idle).

I'm hoping to squeeze up to the X800 XT levels of performance out of it. But I suspect that mine only has 12pp will hold it back somewhat.

I've also started using Riva Tuner to make my tweaks as AtiTool has had some bad feedback in some of the threads in this forum.

kirbz · 3 Aug 2007 at 10:49

Sorry to hijack the thread but I also have an X800 on Pci-e, I'm using ati tool to OC, what are safe temps and what can I use to monitor it? using speedfan atm?

Edit: I see your using riva tuner I'll give that a blast