Any advice for Beginners using ATI Tool?

[HareshKainthUK]

Hello everyone, first time posting, I have a few question to ask you, here is goes;

1. Ive just bought a Gecube 9800XT 256MB Limited Edition, installed the latest drivers (retail 4.12), in drivers control panel, there is no indication of Overdrive, is there anyway possible to force this feature to be enabled? And is there a program to detect this feature (bypass ATI drivers protection)?

2. Many people have said to use ATI Tool for overclocking, so ive downloaded and installed the program, before i run the program, should i enable the clock safety feature, ive checked this website for information regarding the temperatures and frequencies for the 9800XT chipset, (http://mirror.ati.com/support/infobase/4391.html).

3. How long should I leave this program to run for i.e. 10, 20, 60min or more, will this program automatically stop if it finds the maximum frequencies for the VPU or/and Memory?

4. Should I perform both tests i.e. Find Max Core and Find Max Memory?

The default core reported by this tool is as follows;
Core: 385.00
Memory: 284.00

5. From the information above, what speeds could I achieve?

Thank you. And Happy New Year to all.

 

[Simon1987]

I am also very intersted in the answers to those questions.

I have a 9800 pro so i expect the answers to be very much the same

 

[Spyder187]

Hmm...Basically I would just use ATITool to overclock your 9800's. ATITool is one awesome program especially for finding max clocks without too much trouble and time.

The way I'd go about overclocking the card would be first to do the core (memory would be fine as well). I would go into the Settings -> Artifact Scanning, and then under the "Stop scanning for maximum clock after [ 3600 ] seconds without artifacts". Put the "3600" in there (equals an hour).

And then just basically start "Find Max Core" and sit at the computer and watch in case something goes wrong .

After finding max core, you probably want to lower your core clocks a bit from the max core speed found, and do "Find Max Memory". Repeat the process for finding the max core.

After which you can slowly increase the core and mem speeds while testing with either "Scan for Artifacts" or through a benchmark program like Aquamark03 (a few runs) and 3dMark programs.

Happy new year to you guys too...

 

[Simon1987]

Thanks thats helped a lot Happy new year!

What if it doesnt find any artifacts after a hour? Do another hour?

 

[Spyder187]

Well it really depends on how many seconds you set it to increase your clocks under the "Artifact Detection" settings. I currently have mine set to "14 seconds" but I'm running an X800Pro which locks up lots of the time instead of artifacting. This locking up makes it pretty frustrating because I can't let ATITool do it's thing. So I usually set it at like 300 seconds to help it find artifacts at the lower clock before increasing the clocks to much to the point of locking up.

For you, the 3 seconds that's preset may very well work out for you. So basically, it probably won't not find artifacts after one hour. After it finds artifacts during "Find max core" or "Find max Mem" and reduces the clocks back down, then just basically wait for it to be stable for an hour without artifacts. I've often let it go for 2 hours instead because I've found artifacts after like 72min of scanning, so you may prefer to set it for 2 hours.

Good luck.

 

[HareshKainthUK]

OK, thank you for your reply, can you please clarify this (if you can), ive been reading up on many many many forums and found this same information regarding the 9800XT specification;

1. 9800XT has a themal dioide (which is LM63 chip) which detects the temperatures of the card (ie. the core).

2. The default settings should be as follows, the core is 412 and the memory should be around 365.

So why are the drivers not reporting the temperature (ATI Tool does not report the temperatures either) and why are my defaults so damn low?

My core is 385.00 and memory 284.00 (this is what ATI Tools and RivaTuner reports)? When they should be, 412 for the core and memory should be 365.

Can i just force the card to accept these new (should be default) values? Without doing the Find Max procedure or is this too dangerous to do?

Thanks in advance.
(Im a total newbie)

 

[Spyder187]

I'm not so sure about why you have lower clocks.

Firstly to make ATiTool show the temps, you'll need to go into the Settings and go into Temperature Monitor. Enable it to measure the temperature on the card. By doing this, it should show the temperature through ATiTool.

Then I would use Find Max which will slowly increase your clocks to XT speeds. I would probably stop when it reaches the proper clocks for both the mem and core before trying to increase for more.

One thing though, are you sure you have the 9800xt? Technically it should be showing the XT clocks. Could you possibly be mistaking it for a different card?

I'm just speculating as it is weird that you are seeing much lower clocks to normal.

 

[HareshKainthUK]

Ive checked everything, manual, VGA card, the box, drivers, and every tool that ive used, says ive got a ATI Radeon 9800XT 256MB card.

Shall i send this card back, i bought this card bout a month ago, also i can't see the option in ATI Tool, that allows me to enable or disable the temperatures.


Thanks replying....

 

[Spyder187]

Well first to check the temps, do as follows:

1. Click "Settings" in the lower right corner of ATITool.
2. Then at the top there is a pull down menu. Choose "Temperature Monitoring" under that pull down menu.
3. Now click the check box beside "Measure card temperature".
4. Alter the other settings to your liking.

Hmm... about the card. You may really want to consider sending it back. If it's default clocks are basically like the 9800Pro's clocks, you may have the wrong bios on the card, which could be adversely be causing you to be running basically a 9800pro instead of the reknown 9800xt.

So in short, I would probably be sending it back. If you paid for the 9800xt, you should get the xt. If there's the pro bios on there, it wouldn't be fair for you to have to flash it up to xt (something could go wrong).

Good luck and I hope everything works out for you.

 

[HareshKainthUK]

Theres no temperature setting in the drop down list, so I will be sending this card BACK.

Thank you Spyder187, u've been a great help which i much appriecate.

Again thank you.

 

[Fahim]

GeCube 9600XT limited editions don't have any thermal diode and therefore can't be monitored via ATI Tool. As for the clocks, it seems like the "limited edition" edition is a value for money card than normal speced 9600XT.

 

[HareshKainthUK]

You serious, aww man, i thought the limited edition mean't it had that game. The manual says the the 9800XT chipset has the temperature thing, which allows me to use the Overdrive feature.

I can't believe it. Thanks buddy. Next time im sticking with the normal prefixs.

Thanks again.

 

[Spyder187]

Hmm...I notice how Fahim was talking about the 9600xt.

So do you have the 9600 or 9800?

btw, your very welcome...

 

[Simon1987]

is it okay to listen to music and stuff when its finding max mem/core settings?

 

[Spyder187]

Well I find sometimes by having doing something else on the computer, more artifacts are found. This is probably hugely because my power supply isn't doing very well for my setup. Not very sure, will have to see what happens with other members.

But generally, it won't do any harm doing something else while it is artifact scanning. The computer slows down quite a bit though but if you can take the slow down it's alright. I personally listen to the computer, chat and still try to surf the net a bit.

 

[Malenko]

yeah hareshkainth i would stay clear of gecube, i bout a 9800 xtreme off them 2 months ago, and it had really low clock speeds even tho in the desktop properties and that it said that it was a 9800 xt, then a few weeks ago the card fried itself on these low clock speeds, and no i didnt touch the speeds cos i hadnt started overclocking back then, but in my xperience they r a dodgy brand using sub standard HSF's, so they wouldnt be good for overclocking, i would recomend staying with well known brands like sapphire and that

 

[HareshKainthUK]

yeah hareshkainth i would stay clear of gecube, i bout a 9800 xtreme off them 2 months ago, and it had really low clock speeds even tho in the desktop properties and that it said that it was a 9800 xt, then a few weeks ago the card fried itself on these low clock speeds, and no i didnt touch the speeds cos i hadnt started overclocking back then, but in my xperience they r a dodgy brand using sub standard HSF's, so they wouldnt be good for overclocking, i would recomend staying with well known brands like sapphire and that

Your card fried! How is this possible, im in the same position you were in. I havn't overclocked the card yet (and its still working at the mo). What happens when a card is fried - does this damage the computer..

Now im really worried. I was going to re-flash the BIOS with another 9800XT BIOS - thinking this could enable the OverDrive Feature.

I've become really frustrated with this card -
1. Its not to the ATI standard, this card is "underclocked".
2. It pumps out alot of heat, yet its underclocked.
3. It does not have the standard features such as OverDrive - which the feature should be there on all 9800XT cards.
4. The game that came with it, isn't graphically intensive.

What shall i do, overclock it or not to overclock it?

Thanks

 

[Malenko]

personally i would take it back and try and swap it for another brand if it isnt too late, i like i said i used the underclock as a fault and got them to replace it thatway with the x800, but with 9800 i sold it to mu cuz but when it fried u could smell it right thru the whole house apparently, as far as i am aware there was no damage to the pc, but i think thats cos he got to it in time, if u really wanna overclock it i would strongly suggest changing the HSF, cosi believe this was the contributing factor with the frieing, but its up to u if u wanna risk it, but the dodgy HSF coud have been just with those two cards that i got, but lets us know how it turns out when u do it, i am interested as to how it turns out,


and i just recently overclocked my sapphire, with the stock hsf i overclocked the core by 53.5 mghz and the mem by 60.25mghz so now i am running it at pe clocks and like i said with my pe i couldnt even bump the mem clocks up 15mghz with out artifacts so i am very impressed with sapphire and not so impressed with gecube, but good luck