ATI HD5850 Overclocking and 3DMark 11 Scores

[hopkiller]

Hey guys need some help here just ran my 3DMark 11 and got a GPU score of 3500, which from what I have been researching is fairly low for this GPU. I have tried overclocking it several times but once I hit a certain limit I can get a stable OC for awhile then I start to artifacts.

The problem is then I down clock it a bit from that point and then again it runs stable but eventually artifacts again. I can't push it past 775/1100 without getting instant artifacts.

I found a 3D Mark 11 score with those clocks that I ran and got a GPU score of 3808 which is low compared to stock 5850 settings. What is going on I can't figure this out, it appears that my GPU isn't up to par or there is something wrong. I have the latest drivers and made sure the old drivers were taken care of.

The issue is that I can't figure out whats causing it, or why I can't push my GPU very far when overclocking.

Specs:
Core i5 2500k
Asus P8P67 Pro
8GB DDR3 1333
640GB Western Digital Caviar Black
Sapphire ATI HD5850
Windows 7 Professional 64bit

Also I am using Trixx for the overclocking and temps are never going about 53 C after running at 100% activity.

here is a recent 3D Mark 11
http://3dmark.com/3dm11/2253911

 

[hopkiller]

Anyone have any idea what could be causing this?

 

[bystander]

I'm not sure that's a bad score, but the artifact problem may be a result of the memory overheating due to losing thermal pads, or even the VRM's which commonly overheated on those cards due to bad thermal pads. The next generation got heat sinks on the VRM's to fix that problem.

 

[hopkiller]

Sorry for such a late response but I got it all figured out plus got a good overclock on it now.

It was that my card, was just a little different then everyone else and just needed a little more Vcore than others, but now I have a stable OC at 900/1200 with Vcore of 1.212

New Questions: If I have it overclocked with a Vcore of 1.21V, when I am not playing or using to 100% what do I do, I know some of you have overclocked gpu, is it okay to have it running at those clocks and Vcore all the time?

 

[hopkiller]

Anyone who has overclocked their gpu give me some advice