Need help overclocking my Graphics card

[endless_n00b]

My rig:

Athlon XP 1800 (not OC'd yet)
MSI 745 Ultra
256mb Mushkin PC2700 CAS2.5
Radeon 8500 64mb (from Newegg, default 250/275) 6166 drivers (9/12/02)
XP Pro
Chieftec full tower, 2 case fans and 420W PSU

I just downloaded Powerstip and I'm not sure what exactly to do. I have begun to up the core clock and memory, but I'm not sure if there's something else I should be tweaking. So far it did 275/275 no prob, but wouldn't complete 3dmark at 290/290. 290/280 worked though.

But this still seems a bit low to me compared to what others have gotten with this very same card, am I doing something wrong or is it just a YMMV issue? Any ideas?

thanks!


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Cheap memory: $26
Unstable OS: $95
Your boss getting the BSOD late on a Friday: Priceless

 

[phsstpok]

Check your card. Make sure you got the 3.3 ns memory. Look for numbers in the lower right-hand corner of the DRAM chips. You should see something like "-33" for 3.3 ns.

Hmmm, my card goes as high as 308/340 but I need a cooling fan to do this and leave the case open. My normal overclock is 275/300 (with the case closed).

I don't think mine can do 290/290 without a cooling fan. I know mine can't do 300/300 or more without it. 285/300 mine will do. I'm pretty sure I need the cooling fan for anything higher than 285 for the GPU.

Try 275/300. How about some benchmark scores.

I get 8297 with my Tbird 1.0 @ 1.5, my Radeon 8500 at 300/325, PC150 SDRAM, Catalyst 2.3 (I forget the build number) for Windows 98SE.

By the way, I moved my PCI cards as far away from the 8500 as possible for better cooling. I also leave one slot on the backplane, the one just below the video card, open so that air will blow by the video card and out the case. My exhaust fan at the back of case probably provides some cooling for the backside of the video card.

I also bumped the AGP voltage to 1.6 volts in BIOS.

This is all I do. I can run 3D benchmarks with my 8500 for hours. (I don't usually play games for more than one or two hours at a time). It has never crashed at 275/300 using the above precautions.

Funny sig!

What does YMMV mean?

<b>I have so many cookies I now have a FAT problem!</b>

 

[endless_n00b]

I don't think mine can do 290/290 without a cooling fan. I know mine can't do 300/300 or more without it. 285/300 mine will do. I'm pretty sure I need the cooling fan for anything higher than 285 for the GPU.

Do you mean the stock GPU fan or did you add something additional? Mine just uses the stock ATI GPU fan it came with. Also are there any apps that can monitor GPU temps? My first thought was of course it could be a heat problem, so I'd be curious to see my temps.

By the way, I moved my PCI cards as far away from the 8500 as possible for better cooling

yup me too. And all unused PCI slots have removed backplate.

I also bumped the AGP voltage to 1.6 volts in BIOS.

<b>ahhh, interesting, this might be the missing link. I didn't want to mess with voltage since I'm a noob and dont want to fry my card. But higher voltage means more heat. Do I need additional card cooling to up my voltage to 1.6? Case ambient is about 29-32C depending on the day.</b>

Isn't it odd I can't push the memory higher? I'm 99% sure its 3.3ns, I checked when I first got it (~2 months ago).


-
Cheap memory: $26
Unstable OS: $95
Your boss getting the BSOD late on a Friday: Priceless

 

[endless_n00b]

Oh and YMMV = Your mileage may vary. It means just cuz you got 308/340 (at the extreme) doesn't mean I can. No two cards (or cpus, or whatever you OC) are truly identical. Production quality varies.

But I should get better than 290/280 I think!


-
Cheap memory: $26
Unstable OS: $95
Your boss getting the BSOD late on a Friday: Priceless

 

[phsstpok]

Sorry, too lazy for all the cut & pastes.

I have AGP at 1.6 volts out of habbit as do I have I/O voltage at 3.5 volts. Needed it for my overclocked Geforce256 and Geforce2 cards. Don't actually need it for my current 8500 overclock at 275/300. Not sure if I needed it for 305/340.

The extra cooling fan is a case fan taped to the edge of a video cassette cartridge. When I stand the whole rig on the edge (long edge) the fan is just high enough to blow air on both the top and bottom of my Radeon 8500.
I can get to 305/340 without the fan it's very unstable and only runs for couple of minutes. With the fan I've benchmarked for as long as 4 hours. (I didn't stop because anything failed. I just needed to use the system).

It's interesting how the extra fan makes my video card more stable but doesn't increase my maximum overclock. 340 Mhz is really the limit. Doesn't work at all at 342, with or without the fan. This was basically true with my other videos. Cooling increases stability but doesn't improve maximum overclock speed (of the memory).

With stability (without the extra fan), 285/300 is about as high as I can go. As far as I recall, I can do 275/305, 250/310, 285/300 (examples - I don't remember the real numbers) without the fan for usable periods of time. Notice how the GPU speed affects how high I can go with the memory speed. Heat is definitely a factor. My case temperatures, 27-30, are a little lower than yours.

Try lower GPU speeds and higher memory speeds. See if that makes a difference. Leave the GPU at 250 and see how high you can take the memory <b>with stability</b>.

By the way, with my other cards I took a different approach to cooling. On both the Geforce cards I installed RAMsinks. On the Geforce 256 I used wire ties to fasten a 486 40mm fan on the original heatsink (Crashman had a better idea). On the Geforce 2 I glued on (silver thermal paste + superglue) an old pentium HSF in place of the stock part.

I think both cards got about 5mhz improvement on their cores. As I said, no speed improvement for the memory, just more stability. (Stability is worth the investment if you don't spend too much).

My cooling mods were mostly free. I used stuff I had, the HSF mods as mentioned previously and I cut up a K6-2 heatsink to make RAMsinks for the Geforce2. I paid $10 for the RAMsinks on the Geforce256.

<b>I have so many cookies I now have a FAT problem!</b><P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by phsstpok on 10/10/02 04:11 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[endless_n00b]

OK ran some more benches last night. You were right, lowering the core clock enabled me to push the memory higher. 275/290 got about the same score as 290/280, about 8100. But then I got some weird results. My scores started getting lower as I went over 290 on the memory. I ran as high as 275/330 but the graphics looked blurry and I got my lowest score ever, 7732! I think my card might have overheated though, I was gaming for about 2 hours before this. And when I set it back to 290/280, it crashed after about 2 minutes, and I've been running 290/280 just fine for like 8 hours of gaming (UT2k3, heavy stuff).

So I let it cool overnight, ran a quick 275/275 before work this morning to make sure the card was OK, and I got 8009, which is nearly identical to the other day (8013) at those speeds. So I'll have to try again. Does anyone know if you can turn off some tests in 3dmark and still get a score, just to make it run quicker? I turned off the low resolution ones and after it was done it told me "not enough tests to give a score"

-
Cheap memory: $26
Unstable OS: $95
Your boss getting the BSOD late on a Friday: Priceless

 

[Greeny]

My Radeon 8500LE seemed to work best at 286/295 - at least according to 3dMark2001SE

http://service.madonion.com/compare?2k1=4628774

Gained nearly 600 3dMarks, however after a certain amount of time you'd see artifacts appear on the screen and whatnot... I was only using the stock heatsink/fan though, so I'm sure it could go higher. I had the same issues as you did where the card seemed to tire out after about 2 hours of tweaking and give lower scores... Wierd. Anyway, I think the 8500LE is one of the best value cards out there.

 

[Greeny]

BTW, check this link out:

http://www.rage3d.com/r3dtweak/

As an alternative to powerstrip, Rage3d Tweak is much simpler to use and just adds a couple extra tabs to you "advanced" settings window. It has sliders for adjusting clock/memory speeds just like powerstrip, and a keg full of other tweaking options. Worth a try, IMO.

 

[phsstpok]

Does anyone know if you can turn off some tests in 3dmark and still get a score, just to make it run quicker?

Under Selected Games click Change. Uncheck everything except Games 1-4. Note that these scores will differ from the complete test scores.

<b>I type sixty words per minute. Ten are spelled correctly.</b>