Overclocking your Radeon 9700- Possible Probs?

[94transam]

Hey Guys,
I was thinking about overclocking my 9700Pro just a little. Maybe 390/360

What are the possible problems? What are the most serious problems and how likely are they to happen?

Thanks in advance guys!

Rob

 

[BoomAM]

Gettting the speeds that you want. No card, apart from gainward GF cards, will definately do a certain OC`d speed. You might have two cards, identical, one might overlclock very well, where as the other might not.
Anyway, if you overclock too high, you might get graphical artifacts or a less stable system, or constant reboots.
Also, heat is a problem. Make sure the card and the rig as a whole has good internal ventilation.

Oh, and welcome to the AnandTech Forums.

 

[94transam]

Thanks Boom.
So really there are no Severe problems with it. No Permanent damage?

I have very good ventilation. I have a 5" bay mounted three fan HD cooler, Two rear ehaust fans, one side intake fan, dual fan 480w PSU, the radeons stock fan and the New Dream HSF by Cooler master which keeps my CPU at around 36-39c depending upon the room temp.

 

[rbV5]

No Permanent damage?

Permanent damage is certainly possible with overclocking.

 

[BoomAM]

But rare.
The cooling in your PC seems fine, more than fine in fact, does your rig hover? lol.
Mine does, im getting a rear 120mm fan soon, and attaching it to a control rod, so then i can use my rig as a hovercraft!!! lol

If a graphical artefact caused by OCing occurs, then back it down (the OC)until the artefact goes away.
The most common problem caused by excessive OCing is prehaps constant rebooting, and sometimes, completly garbled displays, including in Windows, but all that can be fixed by returning to stock speeds or lowering the OC.
You`d have to be extremely unlucky to trash your card.

 

[BoomAM]

Just noticed 94transam, You`ve got a typing error in your sig.
Ive never heard of a Asus V7V8X. I think you meant A7V8X.
Just thought that i`d point it out for you so you dont go around looking like a plonker.

 

[Noid]

390/360 is NOT a realistic OC.

Where did you get the idea you could get that OC?

Do a look around ...

I think you'll find most Core speeds lose any advantages in benchmarks over 350 on typical oc

... and mem typically loses its advantage after 346.

AND ... thats after core and memory cooling modifications....

so ... your planning on using some water cooling? or maybe you want to burn up that new card?

I recently turned down my oc from 346/346... cuz after running Prime95 and 3dMArks demo on LOOP on NON-DEFAULT with sound ON ... I got huge nasty artifacts after 5 minutes.

I just finished running that test for over 12 hours ...

currently 336.70 / 339.88

 

[94transam]

I actually got that from a review site like this one. I cant remember which now. They were using gigabytes new 9700 pro and seeing if the fan held up during OC. the fan wasnt much better than the stock but the did overclock to that.

Thanks for catching that BoomAM

 

[Noid]

My test used 32 bit at 1024 x 768 with Application preferences turned on.

This was also using a 189.4 FSB on my KX7-333.

So .. the AGP is running 94 Mhz

Depending on your other configurations... your going to have your own unique results.

Those overclocking reviews are bull. ... Do a real world search thru this forum and other forums.

Dont believe a review that OC a card for a few minutes.

I dare anyone to try my test above for 12 hours ...

 

[BoomAM]

Im afraid that Noid is right.
Gettings the core to the speed that you want even with volt mods, is an unrealistic target.
He`s also right about the memory speeds as well. Even now, the bandwidth on the 9700 stock is amazing and the are no games now, or in the forseable future(excluding Doom3) that will tax the bandwidth enough that the extra bandwidth provided by OCing will be advantagious. If you use alot of FSAA/AF then you might see a sizeable increase in fps, but apart from that, its not worth it.

If i was you, then i`d save the OC for when the 9700 cards are considered mainstream and/or they start to struggle in games.

 

[94transam]

That explanation definatly helped. Still learning a little about the OC stuff.

Thanks both of you.
I'll be happy with my current 3Dmark score of 11089 til I get the Athlon 2600

 

[Noid]

Your welcome ... and welcome to the forums too...

Drop me a PM when you drop that 2600 in there ...

Im .....soooo temped to pick up a new MB ...