ATITool severely underclocks my 9600XT...

[Lateralus14]

Sorry if this is in the wrong forum. I read all the appropriate forums and could not find any posts about my problem.

I downloaed ATITool v.21 today just to check it out. I configured it for my system and then ran the 'Find Max Core' and "Find Max Mem' features to see what it had to say.

From my understanding, ATITool gradually increases the clock until artifacting or other errors starting appearing, in order to find the optimal clock frequency for a particular card.

Mine goes down instead of up. I let the Find Max Mem run until it had brought it all the way down to 90 or so, then I aborted it. I didn't let the Find Max Core run for as long, but it was going down way below what I thought it should be.

My card maxed out at 52C during the heat-up phases and under other loads, which I was told was within acceptable limits. My case has good cooling; never gets more than 37C.

Anyone know what my problem is?

Specs:
Intel Pentium 4 Prescott 2.8GHz HTT w/ 800MHz FSB
MSI 865PE Neo2-PFISR motherboard (BIOS ver. 3.8)
2x512MB Kingston PC3200 DDR SDRAM @ 400MHz in dual-channel
Maxtor 6Y120M0 120GB 7200RPM HDD w/ 8MB cache
Diamond Viper Radeon 9600XT 256MB (Catalyst 4.9s)
Creative SB Live 5.1 (driver ver. 5.14)
Enermax EG475P 470W (+3.3V = 34A, +5V = 40A, +12V = 33A)

 

[Ramine]

to behonest, it would prob be easier for you to set them yourself, i have Saffire card 9600XT 256 and with ATI tool i can get 600/350 easy at temperatures of 45-50 degrees

Thats the speeds your looking at,

Ramine

 

[Lateralus14]

to behonest, it would prob be easier for you to set them yourself, i have Saffire card 9600XT 256 and with ATI tool i can get 600/350 easy at temperatures of 45-50 degrees

Thats the speeds your looking at,

Ramine

I thought of that, but it still doesn't make sense for it to go down intead of up. Is there a problem with my copy of ATITool? Should I try downloading it again?

 

[Lateralus14]

I just tried manually increasing the core clock. I didn't touch the memory clock.

The default is 500MHz. I bumped it up to 505MHz. Then 510. 515. 520. 525. Computer locks up.

Reboot, get back to desktop, re-open ATITool to try it again. This time it makes it to 529MHz.

Why does it lock up so hard when its so low?

 

[Lateralus14]

Anyone have any idea why my card crashes before it even reaches 5% overclocked? It seems strange considering that most people with a 9600XT can overclock 20% or more without problems.

 

[Ramine]

hmm, what drivers are you using, what prograsma re running in background?

Ramine

 

[Lateralus14]

hmm, what drivers are you using, what prograsma re running in background?

Ramine

I stated my driver version in my original post. Catalyst 4.9s. The only things running are my antivirus, FRAPS and ATITool on bootup. I've tried turning everything off and seeing what difference it made. None that I could see; my computer locked up at 526, 528 and 531 for the three times I tried it.

 

[Lateralus14]

I upgraded to the Catalyst 4.10s with no noticeable difference. Is there a reason why it crashes so early?

 

[Lateralus14]

Arg. I didn't how I had to disable FRAPS. I was wondering why when I clicked Scan For Artifacts, it would continuously reset itself to 0.0 seconds.

I just tried Find Max Core again and it went up, like its supposed to. I'll report back as to whether it still crashes at the same clock as before.

 

[Ramine]

good news!

 

[Lateralus14]

It maxed out my core clock at 518, and my computer locked up when it reached 299 on memory (default is 297).

Damn this thing. Can I RMA it for this?