Will overclocking increase 2D performance?

[rjd]

Hi All

Although I often visit the forum this is my first post so please bear with me.

I have a Sapphire Atlantis Radeon 9600 128mb card as I didn’t want a card with a fan and only normally use 2D applications and games.

The 2D quality is excellent and it is fast enough in general use.

I have used Riva Tuner v2.0 to overclock the Core by 2% and the Memory by 4% as they were originally slightly underclocked at 324MHz and 196MHz respectively.

There is a wired temperature probe on the AGP slot above the card. It’s normally around 8 or 9c above room when surfing etc and only goes up another 2 or 3 degrees when under load e.g playing HD wmv files.

My queries for you experts are:

How much would I need to overclock to notice any real/worthwhile difference in 2D?

What are the safe maximum settings for Core and Memory?

Would overclocking help when playing HD wmv files?

If I do overclock, am I right in thinking that temps would only rise under load and would not change when idle or surfing?

Providing the temps don’t go up too much (how much?) would overclocking reduce the cards lifespan much/at all?

Any help or suggestions will be appreciated.

Thanks

 

[rjd]

Thanks for the wecome and your replies.

I think I will leave it slightly underclocked rather than running Riva Tune.

Thanks again.