Ati Tool

[Lithan]

Is ATI tool artifact tester reliable? I ask because I just DL'ed it and It artifacts @ ~50-100mhz lower on mem and ~50mhz lower on gpu clocks than 3dmark 06 does.

 

[taltamir]

that just means it puts more stress on your system.. the TOOL isn't what artifacts.. the VIDEO CARD malfunctions and creates artifacts. if it is 100mhz lower then 3dmark 06, then that just means that SOME games (ones as intensive as ATI tool) will artifact at the lower speeds, while other games (ones as intensive as 3dmark) will not artifact at that speed.
Generally speaking, if its artifacting its putting too much strain on your card and likely to cause it damage over time. I will take the LOWEST speed that is absolutely stable on EVERY test thrown at it, and then lower it a bit more (because there can be real world apps that are MORE intensive then even the most intense artificial test, and I don't want to degrade my hardware)

 

[Lithan]

So, it's reasonable. Atitool is that much more stressful than 3dmark? That's all I need to know.

 

[error8]

Originally posted by: Lithan
So, it's reasonable. Atitool is that much more stressful than 3dmark? That's all I need to know.

It should be more stressful then 3dmark, but you have to put some time in artifact testing. The thing with 3dmark is that it makes some pauses between rendering 3d scenes, so the card has time to cool down and not show artifacts.

But ATI tool has its limitations. I've recently OCed my card and tested it one hour with ATI tool and showed no problems, but after playing assassins creed for 30 minutes I've lost the signal on my monitor and then a corrupted screen appeared, followed by a BSOD. It seemed that I've went some 10 mhz higher then I should have on the core.

So don't trust it to much, use it with caution.

 

[n7]

It's far better for finding issues than 3DMark...but pretty everything is better than 3DMark for testing.

Crysis is good for checking stability, or oddly enough, Gears of War was the best for finding issues in a hurry for a friend of mine (actually found issues ATiTool didn't, & Crysis didn't).

 

[Lithan]

Originally posted by: n7
It's far better for finding issues than 3DMark...but pretty everything is better than 3DMark for testing.

Crysis is good for checking stability, or oddly enough, Gears of War was the best for finding issues in a hurry for a friend of mine (actually found issues ATiTool didn't, & Crysis didn't).

3dmark has always been very good for me for artifact checking. Mostly because I don't have to do anything and can watch for the things. Crysis timedemo is worthless. According to it my card does 1166mem(max allowed by nvidia o/c tool) and 780 core just fine. 3dmark was good @ 1150/760 and atitool made me go down to 1100/700... it was finding artifacts due to the core o/c too... which I've never seen happen before, so I'm guessing it was actually the shader (had the clocks strapped) that was causing them.

 

[Sylvanas]

I wouldn't rely on Ati-tool to detect artifacts.....your best bet is to play games and if they lock up then its unstable, if they don't then good you are stable, simple- don't bother with 3dmark or other junk. I personally find Crysis to be the best stability tester, but you could substitute any UE3 game in there to determine much the same thing.

 

[Lithan]

The problem with relying on lockups is that lockups are usually only caused by exceeding the cores capabilities. Shaders and memory cause artifacts, which can be hard to spot in some games, but extremely obvious in others. ATItool seems very effective in my testing at finding them...

Incidentally, I was right about it being the shader clock causing artifacts, unstrapped em and I'm @ 760 core again now, no artifacts so far.

 

[jaqie]

Although it's a good deal outdated now, I actually still use Q3A for artifact/stability testing of video cards. I turn the res up to the highest the monitor supports, turn FSAA and ANISO up to the max, set Q3A's max framerate to 10,000, and then set up a 0 max kill 0 time limit (neverending) botmatch in the foggy level. Ten hours later, if the card has any issues, it shows up in Q3A. Almost always, it shows up in either the decals (bulletholes and scorchmarks on the walls that go away over time) being wicked colors, or the overlay of the score being corrupt in every way imaginable. I have actually found this to find more problems then ATitool. The insane max framerate ensures a full load on a vidcard... but I have never had to test SLI so I have no idea if it would test that properly.

 

[Lithan]

Uhh... Wow... I dont even know if I still have my q3 disk.

 

[jaqie]

I still play Q3A botmatches quite often, it's excellent anger management

 

[Lithan]

Think I threw Q3 out shortly after I bought UT 04.

 

[taltamir]

I stil prefer the ORIGINAL unreal tournament. best shooter ever made!

 

[jaqie]

are you talking about stress testing systems or playing? if you mean playing, I still play UT and UT2003 quite often, as well.

 

[andrei3333]

whats the latest version of ATI TOOL ? is it the same as ATI TRAY TOOLS ? link ? thanks

 

[Tullphan]

Originally posted by: andrei3333
whats the latest version of ATI TOOL ? is it the same as ATI TRAY TOOLS ? link ? thanks

Right now they're on 0.27B4.
The latest stable version, 0.26, was released Dec 06.

 

[BlueAcolyte]

Ati Tray tools is different than ATiTool