Artifacts at all clocksettings

[da_masta]

Hi, I used AtiTool for overclocking my ATI8500 128 MB. At the stocks (250/230) settings the determine max core function runs ans gives immediately Artifacts!
After 1 hour he is still running (say at 100MHz) and then I aborted. There must be something totaly wrong with my test. Some results when I try to determine max Mem.
During playing hightech 3d games the ATI8500 runs fine...no Atrifacts at all, and the performance is great for an videocard as old like this one (>3 years).
The GPU is watercooled and the temp never raises high. After hours of playing 3d games like
Halflife 2 at high resolution I still can touch the memory and GPU...and it feels like 35 degrees Celcius. Even when I OC my videocard at 270/250.
What can be wrong?

[Demalii]

yea don't oc your core, mine can only be pushed about 15mhz when my card is 60c-65c, when it's anything more, i have to turn it down 5mhz.. so just leave it at stock speeds before you break your poor old card hehe

[da_masta]

But yesterday I played HL2 for more then 2 hours in the highst resolution using an overclock at 275/255. With no problems at all, not even 1 artifact. The watertemp stayed low.
Why does Atitool finds lots of Artoiacts even when I'm UNDERclocked at 175/150?
(I loaded the leatest driver form Ati)

Tonight I will run 3dmark, lets see what it will say.

Demalii: Do you have also Artifacts at all clocksettings running Atitool?

[Demalii]

Wow that is weird.. no i don't get any errors until 430ish.. Guess the ati tool guys don't help anyone out, that stinks..

[da_masta]

At first I wass a little troubled because I had stripped the heatsink from the card to put on the watercoolerblock. The memorychips are now on there own (not cooled in any way). See the photo.
But after 2 hours of most intensive use the memorybanks dont get overheated.
Therfor my conclusion : heat is not the issue.

[da_masta]

This is the OLD situation

[wazzledoozle]

Maybe time to buy a new card? What benchmark scores does that 8500 get?

Also what version of ATITool are you using?

[da_masta]

Atitool 0.0.22

Later on I will run 3dmark and tell you the ratings.

The whole pc configuration is 3 years old. (Epox KT3a+, XP2400@2100Mhz, 512MB,Matrox120GB,60GB,ATI8500-128MB)
Next year I will renew all parts.

[da_masta]

Tested over the weekend with 3dmark03 and using AtiTool to rise the GPU clock.
My ATI 6500-128 works fine at 295Mhz/270.
No arfifact or any fault at this speed. The temp stays well controlled.

Conclusion: the 3dapplication in the AtiTool doesn't function well (on my configutarion)

ps. I run WindowsXp Sp2.