now that I have my BBA x800P...

[g03tz0r]

I'm new to the world of OCing and just had a couple of questions regarding my new x800P - here are my system specs.

P4C 3.0@3.15-3.6 air cooled||BBA X800P||2x512MB (twinx) Corsair 3700 (DDR-466)||250 GIG 7,200 sata 8MB||2x74gig WD Raptors in raid0 config ||WinXP pro SP1||Asus P4C800-E||

CPU running idle @ ~33-37 degrees C depending on how cranked my room AC is

Ok, I've gotten some very nice overclock speeds via ATiTool (Version 0.0.20)
510/550 - 513/513 - @ both no AA/AF and 4xAA/16AF. Given that I havent had much time to run these speeds for hours on end (just got the vid card last night) to test its stabilty I have a couple questions:

1. Just how damaging is it to the card when I try a really high OC setting and the machine/card locks up where my only resolve is to hit reset?
2. Should I not run ATiTool w/AA/AF enabled?
3. Anyone recommend a stable OC speed with the x800P(BBA)/ATiTool thats been tested over time?
4. I played C&C Generals last night with all the candy turned up - ran a 510/550 OC w/4xAA/16AF enabled and played the game for about 40 mins until the machine locked up - just how damaging to the card is this kind of behavior?
5. Does the card have some kind of saftey mechanism which is what causes the lockup when its run too hot/too high an OC?

I'm planning on turning down the speeds today and testing as well as running the Find Max Core / Mem for some time to see what results I get there. I just got the card and don't want to fry it (if thats possible w/ATI tool) but reading about all these performance gains accross the web makes trying out OC speeds too tempting

Hoping to have farcry/ut2k4 to mess around with this weekend.

Many thanks for your guidance/comments/replys to this !

 

[TStep]

I don't have too much experience with the ATI tool, but when I used it to find the limits of a 9800, it gave me results that were way too high. Massive artifacting and had to reset clock speeds. I personally will not trust it after that episode.

I just overclock by eye 10mhz at a clip. Core separate from memory. When I reach the limits, jack up the core and memory to 5-10mhz less than the max oc each produced separately. Test it out for a few hours of gameplay or looping. If all is well, I set it and forget about it. So far I haven't killed a card, but who knows. However, I do replace the thermal pad with AS Ceramique on my cards, for peace of mind if nothing else.

 

[Corporate Thug]

1. not very, it has happened to me many times
2. no reason not to
3. they are all going to vary 550/580 seems to be a nice high OC
4. not very
5. overdrive?

 

[DerwenArtos12]

1. It is not that damaging. you will need a new card for speed before this one butns out.
2. YES, there is no reason that card shouldn't run any game out now with al the goodies.
3. nope can't sorry.
4. Didn't we already answer this 1? it is more damaging to yoru save game than to your card.
5. I do not know about the X800 series but previous series had VPUrecover that would reset the card to it's bios original setting if the card stopped responding, can often keep you from having to reboot.