ATI N00b. Quick overclocking question

[Bottomsup]

Hi,

I just upgraded from a 6800GT to a Powercolor x1900xt. What is the best tool to overclock and how high of clocks can i expect to get?

Also is voltage adjustable on these or do you need a bios flash or hard mod?

[BossBorot]

look through http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=440151 for lots of info on overclocking your card. You should use ati tool or ccc to overclock.

[Merlin7777]

since this is kind of a newbie question I thought I would ask it here.

Okay here goes.

When overclocking your graphics card, or cpu for that matter, is it safe to jump up the voltage straight away? or do you want to up the voltage as you up the clocks? And I know that you want to adjust your fan speed acordingly. But what is the worst that could happen, does the voltage jump only produce heat, or can it fry something else?

[BossBorot]

Generally speaking unless you know what you are doing, through first hand experience, it's best to make sure your system works under load at stock speeds before attempting anything. If you overclock or change voltages most likely you are voiding the warrenty. If your hardware doesn't work in spec to begin with, and then you overclock it you will not only cause massive problems but will have voided you warrenty.

Also generally speaking adding more voltage is only important to add stability to otherwise unstable overclocks. Adding more voltage will make the component produce more heat so adding more voltage is to be avoided unless the system is not stable.

So when overclocking increase the fsb, mem speed, or core speed until that component gets to hot, or it becomes unstable. If your computer is running to hot stop! When the overclock becomes unstable, but heat is still acceptable, then you should/could try adding more voltage. However after certain points adding more voltage could begin to be very dangerous for your system even if your components are still cool (same goes with continued overclocking). If temp was the only limiting factor vapor phase cooling would never run into limits.

If you are new to overclocking first read into results others have achieved, on the same hardware, to get an idea as to where you should stop overclocking or adding voltage.

Also running anything out of spec can be dangerous, especially if using a cheap psu, but if you read into what you are doing first the risks can be greatly reduced.

Ceaper components are also more susceptible to failure when extra voltage is added. This is especially the case with MOBOs and PSUs which are generally the key hardware components to unlocking the potential of your cpu or gpu. Without a good psu and/or mobo, even if you have the best cooling around, you will not be able to overclock well at all, and may even fry your system.

Hardware can be compaired to cars, some of them will fail at stock speeds no matter what, but this number is usually minimal. Car and hardware manufacturers come up with a level of performace for their product at which a minimum of products will fail, so that they dont to lose to much money and customers. They need to make something that is almost guaranteed to work for your inexperienced grandma should she choose to buy it, if they intend to make a profit that is. That being said, to do this, their products generally only come at 75-90% of their potential in stock conditions, sometimes even less. If you know what you are doing you can get most of that untaped performace back, and often times even push it past the max the product can do in stock conditions when adding more voltage or new cooling options (or in the case of cars modifying the engine, transmition, suspension, reducing weight, etc...)

[Merlin7777]

Ok, thank you very much for the information. Since I have been reading alot about overclocking lately I would only push the voltage up to reported results, to be safe. This is just a precaution until I am comfortable in my overclocking skills.

It is good to know that there is a limit on pushing the voltage. I wasn't sure from the materials that I have read. Thanks for the cleaning up.:)