Easy to damage 4850 when overclocking?

[geoffry]

So last night I decided to let CCC do the auto overclock on my 4850, it took it to 690 / 1088, exactly what legitreviews got.

Then I decided to check for artifacts using ATI Tool.

After 30 seconds I went to brush my teeth, I came back and the entire screen looked like a grey and green flannel shirt, lol.

I restarted the puter and completely took away the OC.

I'm relatively new to overclocking vid cards, the only card I did before was my GTS 320, any chance I did damage to it? I personally don't think so, I booted a game up after and it was fine and the OC settings weren't insane (I find it hard to believe CCC would be capable of killing a card).

Thanks in advance.

 

[shangshang]

nah you didn't do any damage to it, but way back I've had an aTI 9700 PRO die a slow death due to overclocking... slow in that after a year, the card would give me more and more artifacts during gaming, and eventually, I had to UNDERCLOCK the core and memory to get it to work for 3-4 more months before it die. It served me well for over 2 years though. Right now I think you're ok. If I were you, I would back down to stock speed and just leave it there.

 

[geoffry]

Ya, I took it back to stock right away last night. Due to the heat it doesn't go too much above stock anyways, performance increase would probably just be a few FPS.

Thanks for the response.

 

[TaylorTech]

If you're willing you could look into some thermal past for the GPU core and an aftermarket cooler.

Depends on how desperate you want to OC though.

 

[geoffry]

Originally posted by: TaylorTech
If you're willing you could look into some thermal past for the GPU core and an aftermarket cooler.

Depends on how desperate you want to OC though.

Not too important.

I see myself keeping it at or near stock and then crossfiring it down the line if I run into a few demanding games.

The way prices are falling I'd rather do that then spend $40-50 on aftermarket cooling for maybe a 10% increase in performance.

 

[error8]

Never, ever do NOT let any overclocking program to increase your clocks automatic. It's the most dangerous thing you can do with your card, because these programs are not able to find any stability problems with the values they've got.

If legitreviews took the card at 690 / 1088 that does not mean that you can take it there yourself. Every card is different and overclocks different, just like CPUs. Up the frequency 10 mhz at a time, then take a 30 minutes scan with ati tool and up the clocks again and so on, until you "strike" green/white dots on the cube. After that take the clocks lower a bit and make a big 1 hour scan, if it's stable throw some games and see what happens. And, remember to keep the card cool. The hotter it runs, the lower the overclock will be.

 

[geoffry]

Originally posted by: error8
Never, ever do NOT let any overclocking program to increase your clocks automatic. It's the most dangerous thing you can do with your card, because these programs are not able to find any stability problems with the values they've got.

If legitreviews took the card at 690 / 1088 that does not mean that you can take it there yourself. Every card is different and overclocks different, just like CPUs. Up the frequency 10 mhz at a time, then take a 30 minutes scan with ati tool and up the clocks again and so on, until you "strike" green/white dots on the cube. After that take the clocks lower a bit and make a big 1 hour scan, if it's stable throw some games and see what happens. And, remember to keep the card cool. The hotter it runs, the lower the overclock will be.

Ya, when I did my GTS I did it slow with Rivatuner.

As far as I know CCC is the only thing for 48xx cards right now, and being a boop I tried auto, lol.

Like I said, I booted up a game for about 15 minutes and it seemed fine, no artifacts or anything. As long as it doesnt die within 12-18 months I'll be happy.