Cooling needed for basic Radclocking of 9800pro?

[BespinReactorShaft]

Another question. Once I use Radclock to OC my 9800pro card, is it strongly advisable to install extra GPU cooling and/or replace the stock fan? My impression is that a cooling overhaul is only when you do things like flashing a Pro to an XT.

Or are there people out there who are happily gaming with a stock fan OC'ed card?

Thanks.

p.s. My card: a non-OC'd 9800pro 128MB (ATi OEM, R350 core, GPU at stock 380MHz).

 

[AristoV300]

Radclocker is a very simple ocing tool to up the memory and GPU cores. I would suggest bumping up in 5mhz increments and running like 3d Mark 03 until you start getting artifacting. My 9800 pro is a pretty poor ocer and I get 399/351.

 

[BespinReactorShaft]

^ (new question; pls see first message)

 

[Megatomic]

There are people out there happily overclocking with the stock cooling, I was one myself. But I attached an Arctic Cooling VGA Silencer to my 9800P and now I can get higher clocks and my system is quieter.

I got mine for $15.99 shipped from NewEgg.

 

[LocutusX]

I had a closer look at the ATI Retail (maybe OEM too) stock fan and it seems to be sucking air away from the card, rather than blowing air down. Doesn't that seem wrong? I mean, the heatsink isn't like a friggin' Alpha or anything... why would it be sucking? It should be blowing air (down) across the fins. Am I on crack?


Anyways, a while ago I tried oc'ing with Radclocker. Got up to 375mhz memory and all was fine. Actually the program itself got up to 383mhz before *it* started cracking up and showing "noise"; while 375mhz was the stable/perfect-visuals limit of the MadOnion 3D benchmarks. Since I wasn't even using ramsinks, I guess I'm one of the lucky ones!