OK, I hear what you're saying, but what gain do you get a what cost?
Well the cost is nothing. THats what makes it so appealing.
The thing is there are crazy overclocks and then there are no
brainers.
Crazy OCs are when you have very little info and you are trying to
push something just for the heck of it. Especially if most say they
cant push the same CPU/graphics card higher. And you end up spending
a lot of money to do it with elaborate cooling.
A nobrainer is like he mentioned. For instance the AMD 2500 Barton and
2400 mobile chips --- by that time the yields were very good so
actually it seemed like all or most of the 2500 bartons or 2400 mobile
sold much cheaper than a 3200 barton and yet it was virtually
guaranteed you would get 3200 performance at a much lower price. You
just set it like it was the 3200 and you got the extra performance for
free.
Its kind of the same with many ATIs now. However you have to know
which ones and another precaution is to use ATI TOOL. Its a software
program that ups your mem and your core until you start getting
artifacts. You can set it to run for a while. If it seems ok at the
higher settings and you hear others say they got it to work at higher
settings then its pretty much a no brainer.
See what I did was ---- I was OCing and then I reflashed my
9600Pro/XT. That worked fine. I flashed the pro to a XT and as
everyone said it would , it worked as described.
I have TWO cards :
a) 9600PRO which I flashed to a XT level 500/300
as I said that worked fine. I tested it and flashed it.
It still works. No problems.
b) 9600 non PRO ---- I also have this card. This card
CANT BE FLASHED to a higher OC. It says right at the website
I was reading. I didnt intend to flash this.
Its not a case of flashing as recommended and it going dead.
What happened was I had been flashing the the first card which has
worked perfectly before and after flashing. I was trying to then
test the effects of two graphics cards - one XT level another non-pro
level combined with two levels of systems/CPU --- one an AMD 3200 64
and the other a Athlon 1600 XP.
I was playing the new Quake 4 with the athlon 1600 (ancient CPU) -
and the pre flashed 9600 Pro ---- it paused a lot and the setting was
640x480. I was curious because many online claim they can play new
games with winpy cards as low as the 9250. So I wondered what was the
load split - CPU and Graphics card. Obviously Quake 4 which is brand
new doesnt play that well at all in my experience with a 9600 PRO
level and an ancient 1600 XP even at lowest setting. The 9600 Pro is a
higher end card vs a 9250 etc that some list online in consumer
reviews as being OK with such games . Well I flashed it to a 9600 XT
cause I knew it could be done from other posts as I said. And as I
said this worked no problem. The amazing thing was the jump from PRo
to XT enabled the ancient 1600 XP to work OK at 800x600 now with most
pauses gone. It was a huge improvement which surprised me.
Next I wanted to test the 9600 non pro in the compaq 3200 AMD 64 to
see how much the CPU would add to thegame performance. Since that had
to be the key since others said a 9250 could play many new games at
med settings. In other words I switched cards.
Remember the 9600 non pro they say CANT BE flashed to anything else.
I didnt intend to flash it. This is late at night.
So I get home the next day --- having completely forgotten I switched
the cards and flicked my compaq on. Ive got 3 PCs. Im still stuck on
the idea that my Compaq has the 9600XT. I look and it says 9600 when
Im looking under device manager messing with a new tv tuner card I
got. I think " The darned thing reverted back to a 9600 !" DUHHHHHHH
I think somehow the flash didnt take and it actually fell lower ---
was the insane thought I had in Twilight Zone fashion. I then
proceeded to flash it to a 9600XT again I thought. Of course I was
flashing the WRONG CARD.
This thread isnt really about the dangers of flashing. Its about the
dangers of being an idiot. If you read the websites and get good info
you shouldnt have any problems and not get greedy and start thinking
you can REALLY push it to get FREE extra performance. Just do
reasonable flashes and you wont get burned in general.
And there is a standard fix for bad flashes -- use a PCI card to
bootup with your bad AGP flashed card in the slot too. According to
many sites this works. Havent tried it yet.
I dont use the other systems that often - my main system is another
AMD 64 with an 800XL ATI.
Anyway Im going to try another idea.
I generally have my main AMD 64 networked with my Compaq AMD 3200 64
so that I can control it remotely. I do this so I can do system
intensive things on separate systems like converting video - the dual
core idea except I have two separate systems.
So wouldnt that work? Or am I missing something? Does the other video
card have to be functional anyway? I can see whats on the other
systems and control it right? If that doesnt work Ill go the PCI card
route.