Overclock X800 Pro

[michaelof36]

I was able to flash my x800 pro (non-VIVO) to x800 xt speeds but I wasn't able to unlock any pipes though, I also added a Arctic Cooling ATI Silencer 5 to the card and installed it into my system. I have a Dell Dimension 8400 MCE 1 gig RAM 3.2 ghz P4 w/HT. How much will I be able to over clock on memory speeds and core speeds with this setup? Right now I have the speeds at 500mhz. Any suggestions/comments are welcome

Mike

Edited April 12, 2006 by michaelof36

[Albuquerque]

First rule of overclocking: No two parts overclock the same.

Second rule of overclocking: No two parts overclock the same.

Your part will overclock as much as it can, and no further. The only way to find out is to begin testing for yourself, and stop when it wants to. You might try a piece of software called ATI Tool to make your life easier in that regard, but the basics still apply:

Pick one item (GPU or RAM, NOT BOTH AT THE SAME TIME)

Begin incrementing the speed of that one item slowly upwards

Between each increment, run a full series of tests.

At some point it will cause artifacts / lockups / hiccups. Now you know what is too high.

Work your way back down until you find a level that doesn't result in errors.

Now start work on the other component in the exact same way.

It may take you several days to find the optimum overclock, and quite regularly the maximum overclock of a video card will be a balance... You can often sacrifice a bit of GPU speed for additional RAM speed, or vice versa, simply because of the limited power draw abilities of the onboard voltage regulators.

So, that's the answer to your question. Now go get started

[Aegis]

That's not necessarily the case. The 7900GT's all overclock at pretty much the same if you have adequate case cooling. That's because they are seriously undervoltaged and every core is capable of at least 300MHz more than what the stock is if they had more voltage.

[Albuquerque]

That's not necessarily the case. The 7900GT's all overclock at pretty much the same if you have adequate case cooling. That's because they are seriously undervoltaged and every core is capable of at least 300MHz more than what the stock is if they had more voltage.

No two parts overclock the same. Ever. Each assembled component (in this case, a video card) has TONS of traces, integrated components and individual chips that all will have slightly different characteristics from each card to the next. Your voltage regulator MOSFET might have a very slightly misaligned thermal grease stamp so it doesn't disappate heat as well, or three of the contact pads on the BGA array that holds one of your memory chips aren't 100% and thus will cause "flutter" at high signalling rates.

All these things aren't "maybes", they DO happen on every single board. And as such, as I've already stated, no two parts overclock the same. I know what you're trying to say, but generalities aren't factual statements.

No two parts overclock the same; end of story.

[ripken204]

you are right Albuquerque, but there is also a range that certain things can overclock to. i know with my opteron 170, all of them should hit 2.6ghz or higher on air. of coarse their are a few "duds" for every 1/100. but for the other 99/100, they all hit over 2.6ghz.

[Albuquerque]

you are right Albuquerque, but there is also a range that certain things can overclock to. i know with my opteron 170, all of them should hit 2.6ghz or higher on air. of coarse their are a few "duds" for every 1/100. but for the other 99/100, they all hit over 2.6ghz.

Hitting "over" 2.6ghz isn't really a specific overclock, is it? How far over? 1mhz over? 10mhz over? 100mhz over? 1,000mhz over? You can start generating a bell-curve statistical analysis for plotting maximum, minimum, median and mean overclocks on a given component, but the end result is still the same: there is no way you can tell someone how far their device will overclock.

The moment that "oh yeah, that chip will do 2.6ghz easy" comes out of your mouth (or flows from your fingertips into this forum) will be the moment when Jane Doe gets a chip that won't POST any further than 2.53ghz. Did you mention they need a quality power supply? They need ram that can do 1T timings? They need a motherboard that has a high quality voltage regulator? They need a room temperature not to exceed 75F? They need a minimum of 25ft/min unrestricted airflow?

No two parts overclock the same. And for more reasons than one.

[deathwarder]

about what can be expected from an x800pro, I understand no two parts are the same, but what is the average oc for this card?

[ripken204]

try 500/550

[deathwarder]

I was able to get 590/520, at 520mem it crashes, 599core it crashes,I will do a 3dmark test soon

[Albuquerque]

Some of the earlier "pro vivo" cards were rebadged XTPE's and came with 1.6ns memory -- but also had core chips that failed speed bin testing at XTPE speeds. Those usually had a lot of room for memory overclock but barely any for GPU overclock.

Most of the later "pro" cards have better cores now, but come with 2.0ns memory. As such, they do quite well at the GPU level but bite it on memory overclocks -- it sounds like you may have run into a similar situation.

My voltmodded watercooled X800 Pro Vivo (unlocked to 16 pipes) has been merrily poking along at 600/585 for the last 18 months or so. It's been a great card and I'm still able to play nearly any of my games at reasonable quality levels on my HDTV (1280x720) with some amount of AA and AF.