1st time OCing with Artifacts Question

Ok, so I decided to OC my ATI Radeon 9600 Pro VGA using ATI tool. I did an inital run of tests to find my max values (about 3 trials each for core and mem). I got 474 MHz Core and 333 MHz Mem. Looking at other peoples values these seemed to be the average so I was happy. I went out and bought a VGA Silencer 3 cooler along with some RAM heatsinks. Allowed for a good 7 days to pass and let AS5 settle. I go back and redo all my tests. I get the same values as before. No biggie, i figure I just hit the limitations of my video card. At least now with all my added cooling I will feel safer that my card wont burn up.

When i use ATI Tool, it finds the max core speed of 474 MHz, and then quickly detects and error. It then lowers the speed and starts again. However, it seems like i unlocked the flood gates and I start getting the errors popping in. I have gotten my speed to drop by atleast 10 - 15 MHZ.

So FINALLY to my question. When i receive these errors is that a really bad thing??? Lets say i decided to keep my video card clocked at 474MHZ and I start playing Halflife2 and I start to get errors. Will my computer totally lock up, or will i just get a bunch of distortion on my screen everytime an error is encounterd. Basically, I want to know if I need to run a scan for artifacts for a few hours and make sure i dont get any at all. Or if it is ok to have an occasional error pop up.

Thanks

What kind of errors are you getting? I'd say go and try it out, oc a bit more, and do benchmark, most people stock OC'ing when they see artifacts, sometimes Ati tool detects artifacts that we can't even see..

Dan

in half-life2,if my card is a little unstable the screen will blink once for a split second every few minutes.it is weird.never seen artifacts in that game before but your card might.and no your games wont lock up unless your card is really unstable.on that card you will probably see a number of artifacts first.i would recommend running at 465/325 for everyday gaming but if your running a 3dmark test push it to the limit seeing i used to have a 9600.

the limit is the best...for 3dmark...
i say do what RAMMAN said...
and btw those clocks arent bad at all...really...