Overclocking a Mobility HD2600.

[daehxxiD]

Hey guys,

for my first post here in this forum I would like to come with a rather delicate question. I would like to overclock my Mobility HD2600 in a Toshiba A200-17O. It's more of like a habbit than wanting the actual performance I presume, but it still won't let me sleep at night, knowing I could go MUCH higher with this card, as it seems to run below stock clocks (500mhz core is ok but the 400mhz Ram is 200 mhz too slow). It scores an acceptable 3170 3dMark06 1.20 with the modified Catalyst 7.9 but the only higher clocked Mobility hd2600xt appears to be scoring at 4700ish. No tool but the AMDGPUClocktool, which I got from this site, seemed to make any effect or crashed (AtiTool and Powerstrip would show me the Clocks but simply don't overclock the cards, ATT crashes my computer and I believe Powerstrip doesn't work with r600 at all, yet).

However, unfortunatly, the AMDGPUClock-tool ain't exactly working in a stable way. I managed to get a 100mhz increase on ram once (3500 3dmark06) but to be honest it's more of a hit-and-miss afair since the the tool tends to lock up my Card when changing the clocks, even reverting them to default, (with the screen going from dark too very bright and nothing responding any more; the GPU was once resetted by Vista after this happening though.) Since I don't like torturing my PC like this (crashing in mid operation can't be good, no?) I'd like to ask if there is any other, safer or even perfectly working method out there. Perhaps the new ATITool beta brings support for the 63x cores on Vista?

Anyway, here is my Sys:

Intel C2D Santa Rosa 1.8ghz
Ati Radeon Mobility HD2600 (Core 500mhz, Memory 400mhz) @7.9 modded for mobility.
2024mb ram
Windows Vista Home Premium 32bit (meh, I know kind of a obstacle for overclockers and useres alike )

and that's about all the relevant info I can think of.

Please do not say anything about how "bad" it can be to overclock laptops, I am aware of the risk and don't want you to have to worry about it. Had my former Laptop overclocked from 1.8ghz (Pentium M) to 2.14ghz via SetFSB and my GFX-Card (Ati x700 mobiltiy) overclocked from 350 core to 400mhz core and the 300mhz memory to 365mhz Memory with no hick-ups what so ever. (and a performance increase of perhaps 30% )

I just don't believe the CPU is bottlenecking the GPU so I think I would be fine with just overclocking the GPU for now (considering I don't find the correct PLL yet for the PM965 ^^)

Thanks for any constructive reply

 

[daehxxiD]

I've just managed to overclock my GPU successfully; what do you guys think? :
http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/5104/overclockedut1.jpg

I think this is pretty good for a 950€ gaming/multimedia laptop.

Perhaps I could go even a bit higher with the GPU-Core clock (haven't tried that yet) but the memory seems to be at an end at 580mhz (most likeley it is undervolted or something like that, as afaik the standard clock for the Mobility hd2600 should be 600mhz and it gives me no artifacts or anything at it's peak. The display card gets simply resetted at 600mhz as soon as I start a 3D-Application)

So how did I manage to overclock it? Simple: The Tool would hang up if I either overclocked just one of the two at a time or if I inputted the mhz without the comma (e.g. 607 instead of 607.50).

Perhaps this helps someone else who is desperatly trying to get some more out of his Laptop. For now, I'm the happiest man in the world and can finally sleep in peace

 

[daehxxiD]

So hey again guys, I feel like I'm pretty much talking to myself here but, as they say, the hope is the last to die. (the hope for a reply to this thread that is )

I was just wondering if there is a way to increase the voltage on the memory and would that even be usefull (to bring it on 600mhz from the 570mhz I'm currently at) or would I have to go much further (like 750mhz) to have some use out of further overclocking this?

Is it even a sign for low voltage if the GFX-Card just stops responding when there is a serious demand for bandwith (e.g. Anti Aliasing on Colin McRae Dirt) and has to be reset by the driver?! Or have I already reached the RAMs hardware limit with this? For the Core, I managed to overclock it to 700mhz, effectivly having the same clock as the Mobility 2600xt (which has 750mhz of ram though). Interestingly overclocking the Core doesn't bring all that much more Performance though (well, I managed to break the 4k barrier in 3DMark 06 and got 4150 Points now).

The reason I ask for this is because I have the feeling something is bottlenecking the GPU on higher resolutions, either it is the CPU (1.8ghz Core 2 Duo T7100) or it is the Ram on the GPU, I presume.

Perhaps someone who is well informed in Overclocking might be able to explain and answer some of my Questions?

 

[pt]

hi and welcome to the forums
a bios mod can give you more voltage, or maybe a vmod, but on a laptop (the vmod) is prob not worth it, and can you run 3dmark05 and 03?
hd26/4xx discussion thread btw:
http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=35142&highlight=2600

 

[Urbklr]

Very nice man.....i always wondered what the mobility 2600's could do....now i have a anwser

 

[daehxxiD]

Thanks for the answers guys. I think I'll pass on increasing the Voltage for now, I'm a bit of a coward after all .

I'll go post all the results I've got in 3dMark 03, 05 and 06 over at the HD2600/2400-Thread.

Thanks again.

(On a side note: How come the gpu only runs hotter than at standart clocks while under load? When it idles the fan behaves exactly the same way as if it's on standart clocks (not powersaving clocks))... ? [On load it gets substantially louder...]

 

[mnl87]

hey i just tried to overclock my own mobility 2600 but i dont really know how to save the changings using amd gpu clock tool... catalyst still shows the standard 'toshiba' clocks and if i restart amd gpu clock does so too.. so how do i save the new clocks?

 

[daehxxiD]

Hmm...

I would try to turn off Ati Powerplay first. Then launch the AMD Gpu clock tool and click on the box "show current clocks". You should get 500mhz and 400mhz now (almost at least). Now uncheck the box again and set the clocks you want in the Tool (e.g. 600mhz (600.00) core and 500mhz (500.00) memory). Now click on the "Set clocks" tab and it should set the clocks you chose. Unfortunatly, even though leaving the comma and doing everything else like I just said, I still had some lock ups of the system even when resetting the clocks to default.(don't get a shock if that happenes to you, but be sure not to have anything unsaved running in the background).

Hope this helps. Happy overclocking.

(Btw. you might also try using the official Catalyst 7.9 drivers if this doesn't work for you and mod them with the MobilityModder.NET tool from driverheaven (otherwhise you can't install them))

 

[mnl87]

the new catalyst drivers are installed i disabled powerplay but it does the same thing all over again whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

 

[daehxxiD]

I really wonder... It should actually work. Are you restarting the computer after doing the overclock? The settings will only remain for one session.

 

[mnl87]

yeah i restarted it but only because the catalyst did not change its hardware information before the restart

 

[daehxxiD]

yeah i restarted it but only because the catalyst did not change its hardware information before the restart

Oh, I see. You won't see the change on the Catalyst (it'll always show the Bios defaults), so just right after the you overclocked with the AMD Tool you simply must have the selected clock.

Best thing to try if all worked would be to once run 3dmark 06 without O/C and once with O/C. If you get more points after the OC you know it worked. (To run 3d Mark 06 you have to remove or rename a file. Check out the FAQ at Futuremark.com)

I'll be heading to bed now, I'll wish you luck with the overclocking in the meantime

 

[mnl87]

ah ok ill check if theres any difference while running 3dmark and theres no chance to save the settings so that they will not only last for one session i guess?

 

[daehxxiD]

ah ok ill check if theres any difference while running 3dmark and theres no chance to save the settings so that they will not only last for one session i guess?

I'm afraid there is no chance to do this yet... (I don't think the Clock tool supports any batch commands either...) Best thing for that would be to wait for the new ATITool. Perhaps this'll enable overclocking on the R6xx-series...

Bye bee...

 

[mnl87]

i tried to overclock to 600mhz/550mhz now and as soon as i saved the settings and hit the start button i saw colourful pixelthingies appearing ^^ i obviously stopped overclocking... but how did you manage to reach your values?

 

[daehxxiD]

i tried to overclock to 600mhz/550mhz now and as soon as i saved the settings and hit the start button i saw colourful pixelthingies appearing ^^ i obviously stopped overclocking... but how did you manage to reach your values?

Hi,

do you have the same Laptop as I have? Maybe the Memory on your Laptop is even more undervolted than mine? If you have colorfull pixelthingies already in windows it's most likely a Memory problem (not enough voltage). The same thing happenese to me if I set the memory to 650mhz or the like (with a total reset of the Display adapter if I launch a 3D-Application). Just for the record you could try overclocking only the Core.

Right now I'm having my OC (700mhz core and 570mhz memory) running even in Windows since it doesn't produce more heat at all in idle... I just undervolted the CPU too (from 1.288v to 1.100v @1.8ghz) and the fan/temperature stays really low.

However, if it really is the case, that your memory is undervolted so much, you should hope for a new ATITool with voltage control for HD2600 to be released as the Memory is pretty much the thing that bottlenecks our card the most.

 

[mnl87]

hm ok i solved that problem by simply overclocking to 648mhz/513mhz ... 3dmark runs fine until the part with the airship and the seadragon or whatever it is comes up... during this test i noticed a number of green and red flashes popping up every now and then therefore i aborted 3dmark temperature cant be responsible because it was at ~43°C

 

[daehxxiD]

Hmm... I can't really explain this. Ever tried seeing how hot the GPU runs? Mines at 35°C in idle and 55°C after intesive gaming. You can measure that through the Termal sensors-tab in AMDGPUClocktool.

 

[mnl87]

yes i did that and it was 43°C after i had arborted the benchmark .... i do not have the exact same laptop its the a210-14s with turion x2 1,8ghz 2gb ram and the hd2600

 

[daehxxiD]

yes i did that and it was 43°C after i had arborted the benchmark .... i do not have the exact same laptop its the a210-14s with turion x2 1,8ghz 2gb ram and the hd2600

I see, all that is diffrent is that I have a Core 2 Duo T7100 1,8ghz... Very weird indeed... Perhaps I had luck and they installed HD2600xt components instead, but I don't think so. It might just be other Voltage settings, considering you most likeley have another bios than I do because of the diffrent Motherboard.

I'd say you should try and find the max. for now and then, as soon as a new ATITool with Voltage control comes out, try again.