Questions from a first time OC'er

[naokiakira]

I recently bought a ATI 9550 256mb. Now i've heard and seen a lot of thing. some of "a 9550 being a 9600 just underclocked" so if you bring it up to 325mhz core, you have yourself a 9600. Some people have theirs to 400 etc. Now i would love to OC my card, but i'm unsure if i should, or if i should, just not too much. The card came with a heat sync, and not a fan. Playing BF2 with med graphics the card stays cool, so i'm not too sure if the sync if good or not. I've heard mixed reviews from heat syncs.

My main question is if i should OC (default settings are 250mhz core, 196mhz mem) at all. or if I can a bit, and if "yes i can" how much would you suggest?

thanks in advance

 

[Christer]

I am not an expert but I have used ATI Tool to OC the few ATI cards I have had in the past. If your card is capable of being OC'ed then that is probably the best software to use.

 

[naokiakira]

ah, alright

I ran ati tool last night and the max core went to 440. When the tool finds the max core if that the max that the card can do? or the max that the card can do without overheating, relating it to the cooling that you have

 

[Thermopylae_480]

Run ATI tool at the speeds it detects for a substantial amount of time using the "scan for artifacts" button(About how long you play a high end game), if there are no artifacts during this time than you will most likely be stable at those speeds. If you are still concerned, you can run video test on 3dmark(you can download a trial version) in a loop for as long as you want and see if it crashes.