Overclocking a 9500 pro (Is it worth it, is there a chance I ruin my card..and HOW?)

[mug]

Overclocking a 9500 pro (Is it worth it, is there a chance I ruin my card..and HOW?)

Ok, I never planned on overclocking this card...
but tell me
does it degrade the card?
must I get a new fan?
How high can I overclock it without taking ANY chances on overheating or ruining the card?
how do I overclock it? must I flash the bios?
how do I flash the bios?
Ive heard people try to tell me, Ive read the info on the net about how to do it
but I dont trust any of it

who HERE with 9500 pro's has succesfully, and UNsuccesfully flashed thier bios and overclocked thier 9500 pro?

Is there ANY other way to over clock it?

and is it really worth it? do I take the chance of ruining my card?

whats the best flash bios program? what should I do to my PC before trying to flash it?
How should I go about doing this? etc....

Thanks ahead of time, for anyone who could tell me any of this...
you gus rock.

 

[SuperDave1685]

Welcome to the forums!

1) Yes- overclocking DOES degrade the card- but very slowly!! You wouldn't be able to notice it probably unless you did a microscopic analysis on the Video Card's core

2)Depends on how far you wanna Overclock it. Generally speaking, a newer, more effecient fan is favorable, but on some 9500Pros, I hear that the stock fan is pretty decent. Just to be on the safe side though, I would buy a high performance fan for your card

3)As to how high you can overclock it, well It all depends. What your motherboard manufacturer is and you FSB and your AGP settings. Also, specific brands of the same card have differnt overclocking potentials. Its different for everybody. Your experience will vary from others. BUt if it has fast RAM, you might be looking at a decent overclock.
-note-: whenever you overclock anything, you're ALWAYS taking a chance

4)To overclock it you could download a program called RivaTuner or Powerstrip, but I'm unfamiliar as to how they work with ATi's drivers.

5)How to flash the BIOS? I reccomend you read this thread HERE

As for your other questions, I have a nVidia Geforce 4 Ti4200, so I'm afraid I can't tell you about any personal experiences with a 9500 pro. Before posting a long string of questions like this, as you're new, please use the SEARCH function. You will find a lot of your questions already covered

 

[Matt761]

It isnt really much of a risk in flashing ur bios. Ive done it a couple of times before on a 9500np. Just make sure you save your old bios. Just follow Super Dave's link.

 

[Legend911]

Momentarily

At the moment I am loving the way that my ATI 9500 Pro is perfoming that I purchased from one of the members on overclockers.com. I don't plan on overclocking it because I don't know how much better the games I am playing can look. Not that big on 3dmark scores though I have done them.