Overclocking a 9600XT

[\\¯`·.¸biz¸.·´¯/]

Hi again

Having just installed new Sapphire Radeon9600XT 256mb (no heatsink - just a
basic fan) What would be the best options (if any) for overclocking?

I tried the Redline software that came with the card, and upon restarting
the graphics failed and forced a VPU recovery before just going into vga
mode.

Any good progs for this card? Is it safe to Overclock?

thanks in advance

biz

 

[Ben Pope]

Hi again

Having just installed new Sapphire Radeon9600XT 256mb (no heatsink - just
a basic fan) What would be the best options (if any) for overclocking?

No heatsink at all, you sure?

I tried the Redline software that came with the card, and upon restarting
the graphics failed and forced a VPU recovery before just going into vga
mode.

Well personally I always turn off VPU recover, it seems to cause me problems
when drawing windows menus and makes some games drop out.

Any good progs for this card? Is it safe to Overclock?

Redline should do it, R3dTweak is one of a few others. (I think)

Ben

 

[\\¯`·.¸biz¸.·´¯/]

No heatsink at all, you sure?

Well unless the fan's metal casing is some sort of heatsink itself, then
no.
The card can be viewed in a review here:
http://tinyurl.com/2652v

Well personally I always turn off VPU recover, it seems to cause me problems
when drawing windows menus and makes some games drop out.

hmmm, I'll try turning that off.
What about the Fast Write settings? advisable to turn that off too?

Redline should do it, R3dTweak is one of a few others. (I think)

I might try the Redline again, but if it screws off at me, I'll try the
R3DTweak

Thanks for that Ben

biz

 

[Ben Pope]

Well unless the fan's metal casing is some sort of heatsink itself, then
no.
The card can be viewed in a review here:
http://tinyurl.com/2652v

It does:
http://www.overclockercafe.com/Reviews/VGA/Sapphire_9600XT-256mb/1006.htm

hmmm, I'll try turning that off.
What about the Fast Write settings? advisable to turn that off too?

No. I believe that for the XT's specifically, fast writes should be on.
They work fine for me on my 9800 Pro. Usually the advice is to turn it off
for stability... I'm not sure why the XT is different.

I might try the Redline again, but if it screws off at me, I'll try the
R3DTweak

I suspect it was VPU recover (probably pushed it too far), rather then
redline itself, although anything is possible.

Thanks for that Ben

No probs

Ben

 

[\\¯`·.¸biz¸.·´¯/]

It does:
http://www.overclockercafe.com/Reviews/VGA/Sapphire_9600XT-256mb/1006.htm

So the fan case IS the heatsink? As that pic is just the bottom of the fan
case (with a TINY bit of thermal paste).

Im new to the whole graphics card thing, Ive upgraded twice in 2 weeks, and
my previous card - pny geForce2 400mx (that was a mistake, was just a
hurried buy! lol) had a heatsink which I removed today to have a look at,
and the paste was still "runny" but there was lots of it, nearly covering
the base of the sink and on the chip.

No. I believe that for the XT's specifically, fast writes should be on.
They work fine for me on my 9800 Pro. Usually the advice is to turn it off
for stability... I'm not sure why the XT is different.

write, I mean right, ok

I suspect it was VPU recover (probably pushed it too far), rather then
redline itself, although anything is possible.

So what is the alternative?
If it is "pushed too far" and VPU recover isnt enabled, what is the likely
outcome?
just overheating? frying the fuqqer? loss of use?

 

[Ben Pope]

So the fan case IS the heatsink? As that pic is just the bottom of the fan
case (with a TINY bit of thermal paste).

Well... if it has thermal paste on it, it must be the case that they are
trying to transfer heat from one mating surface to the other - since the
chip will be hottest, the metal case will sink the heat...

So what is the alternative?
If it is "pushed too far" and VPU recover isnt enabled, what is the likely
outcome?
just overheating? frying the fuqqer? loss of use?

Well when the memory is overclocked too far, you tend to get white or
incorrectly coloured pixels randomly, with the GPU overclocked too far, you
tend to get artefacts that extend over more pixels and is usually a little
less obvious.

You should be able to notice any problems long before you do damage to the
chip.

Ben