Overclocking Radeon 8500 jeebes

[iggybaseball]

I just got this beautiful card and i feel that it is an obligation for me to overclock it. however i am not familiar with overclocking video cards and i acnnot in any way afford to loose this one. Also i just want to see how far i can get w/o ramsinks and the standard fan. it is oem 250/250 and i just to get it to 275/275. well my question is that if u overclock ur're vidcard a little too much, can u restart it or go back down a setting like when u clear a cmos on a mobo? how do u know when ur'e safely hitting ur're limit w/o ruining ur card?

[RainMaQer]

You'll know you've hit the limit if the comp locks up... I have yet to here of someone frying their card by ocing it... Just restart and bump it down a little... the GUI doesn't put too much stress on the card... not enough to lock up.

[funnyperson1]

ok, raise the speed up 5-10 mhz then run a 3dmark run...look for artifacts..if you see none and your computer doesnt crash..go higher.....video cards dont get damaged unless you try too high say 350/700 (:))......also if it crashes you will be able to set it bck to default unless you oc using the vcard bios.....use pwerstrip and tell it not to save settings when booting up windows until you are sure of the oc....

[Silversinksam]

Iggy,

What speed of ram is on your Oem?

http://www.entechtaiwan.com/images/Clocks.gif

Second when your raising the core and memory if you use Powerstrip just record the 249.5/249.5 as default and should you run into a lockup or what not the speed can be reverted to 249.5/249.5, Just go slow like Funny mentioned.

[iggybaseball]

i believe it is 3.6ns at 250/250 and i just want to get to 275/275 so i have the same speed as a retail 8500. can i get some links to download these programs?

[funnyperson1]

www.entechtaiwan.com

also 275/275 if you can get it you should be able to go straight for it...if it doesnt work then go up by 5-10mhz increments ....

[iggybaseball]

ok, im downloading it but i noticed its shareware so i can only use it for a limited time?

[Silversinksam]

Iggy,

The only difference between the Powerstrip Free trialware and the Paid version is the 6 sec start up screen.

Thats all

[iggybaseball]

well i started it up and it said it was running at 230/230. I ordered from www.mwave.com and they advertized it as 250/250. Well i just got it up to 260/260 and i stopped to test it. i don't have 3dmark2001 but i played maxpayne fine. does that mean it's ok? now for 275/275. oh yeah, since i got past 150/150 does that mean i got the good oem card and i can flah it with the retail bios? Thanks

[funnyperson1]

yeah, max payne is a good stress test seeing as its the same as 3dmarks engine.,.....also you should only flash if you can reach 275/275....

[iggybaseball]

uggh i just noticed artifacts and lowered it to 250/250 and it still shows artifacts. i'm not that mad though. It still is a very beautiful card compared to my onboard video 8mb before.Thanks for the help

[funnyperson1]

try running AGP 2X when you oc i found it really helps on my rage Fury Pro...

[Silversinksam]

Iggy,

Double check your memory again it will say 36 on the chip if its 3.6

Many if not most of the OEM 230/230 shipped with 4 ns mem and that will make it difficult to flash to 275/275

Pinky has the 8500 retail bios in his download section/ Don't forget BACK UP YOUR CURRENT BIOS if you try to flash it.

[iggybaseball]

Originally posted by Silversinksam
Iggy,

Double check your memory again it will say 36 on the chip if its 3.6

Many if not most of the OEM 230/230 shipped with 4 ns mem and that will make it difficult to flash to 275/275

Pinky has the 8500 retail bios in his download section/ Don't forget BACK UP YOUR CURRENT BIOS if you try to flash it.

It does say 36 but i don't think i'm going to flash since i get some artifacts at 250/250.

[Mojoman]

COOLING :)