x1950pro overclocking thread/guide

[mitsirfishi]

right a have a request from 517th linkin on how i overclocked my his x1950pro right well lets start with basics im using catalyst
Driver Packaging Version 8.291.1-060822a-036363C-ATI
CATALYST® Version 06.9
Provider ATI Technologies Inc.
2D Driver Version 6.14.10.6635
2D Driver File Path System/CurrentControlSet/Control/Video/{BCE2E8EE-DD76-43C2-A0FA-26A926D4AE0D}/0000
Direct3D Version 6.14.10.0431
OpenGL Version 6.14.10.6067
CATALYST® Control Center Version 1.2.2425.37188
AV Stream (T200) Driver Version 6.14.10.1074

which are the drivers which came with my his graphics card as ive tried different and later catalyst versions but they show no real support or performance gain.

right now to the overclocking part.
for when im tweaking at the moment im using the lastest ati tray tools as ati tool isnt functioning on my pc very well even with some of the older 0.25 beta's
so once you got it all installed now comes the tweaking part





Go to hardware then overclocking and will appear like so, right now to build a profile up you will want to maximise the speeds you can from your card so start off at say 5-10mhz higher than standard and test it by rendering the 3d to see if any artifacts or if vpu recoverer kicks in if your card is unstable.

here is how i set my fan temperatures may vary as ambiant temperatures and different card models come with different coolers.




once you have found your sweet spot with your x1950 then just run a benchmark and post some scores and clocks please ? hope this might help you people out there

 

[L|NK|N]

right a have a request from 517th linkin on how i overclocked my his x1950pro..

Oh sure get me into trouble..... I wish I could get rid of the stupid "517th" tag.

Anyways...to the point. Hmm, the first thing I noticed is the missing "Overdrive" tab..I guess this is due to HIS overclocking the card by default from reference speeds. Ive heard of other HIS cards doing the same thing due to the factory overclock....I wonder if not having any of the overdrive junk and processes and locks is enabling you to overclock with ATT. Ive tried OC'ing with ATT with 6.12's and got nothing but freezing when changing clocks, but I dont think I ever tried overclocking with the 6.9's on the driver disc that came with my card. Ima have to give that a shot tonight.

 

[mitsirfishi]

Well i put another pc today with the his x1950 pro and my friend had a got the overdrive in his ccc was fine so i duno my card might be unique

 

[gto78]

ok, I just got my X1950 pro today from Bestbuy- after doing another search I see that I was ripped off by about $80. Maybe the ATI brand is different? Either way I did a quick bench, still hadn't turned off my background programs, but pulled off an 8666 with 3dmark 05. I am following this thread and will update any changes and results. BTW the system is amd 3500+, 64 bit stock @ 2.2GHZ with 1GB ocz ram, seagate 15K U320 scsi, on an A8N-E board.

 

[Pinchy]

10100 in 3dmark05 @ stock
11100 in 3dmark05 w/CPU @ 3Ghz
11600 in 3dmark05 w/ CPU @ 3Ghz & GPU @ 630/800 (600/700 stock)...Overclocked with ATi Overdrive...going to the max it can and pressing "apply"

P.S. Linkin, PM W1zzard, im sure he can change it...

 

[mitsirfishi]

pinchy have you tried putting higher voltage and running a 1:1 ram ratio ? yet to see if you can get higher clock speeds

 

[Pinchy]

Its definately not RAM thats holding it back, cus i never set the RAM above 1000Mhz (and it runs @ 1050Mhz stable)

I tried putting it @ 1.5volts, didnt make a difference, so i leave it at Auto. Wont post above 420FSB, wont load up windows above 400FSB. I think its the temps tho. At 3Ghz, idle is 52*C (or so the sensors say), and at 3.2Ghz, idle goes all the way up to 59*C!

I put a desktop fan in front of the comp, to cool it down, i managed to post @ 480 FSB, wouldnt boot XP...then tried 450 FSB, still wouldnt go past XP loading...but i stopped trying, cus im not always gonna have a fan @ the comp

Im gonna make a thread about it...but in 3 days im goin on a 2 week holiday , and i gotta get my dead LCD and X800 sorted out

BTW, thanks for the concern

 

[mitsirfishi]

have you raised the chipset voltages like mch and that by 0.1 from there stock because i know i had to do it on a gigabyte ds3 on a e6300 to get at 450fsb plus

 

[gto78]

Bios Upgrade?

Is there an upgrade or mod for the bios that will help overclock the X1950? I mean, I lose my display immediately after raising the ram speed in ATI tool and I'm thinking that it needs more voltage to be able to raise the speed. Even if I only raise it 2mhz it loses the display and I get a VPU recover. I havent had a temp problem yet with the processor overclocked to 590. The idle temp is 48 C. After running 3d mark the temp was 60C.

 

[Zubasa]

Is there an upgrade or mod for the bios that will help overclock the X1950? I mean, I lose my display immediately after raising the ram speed in ATI tool and I'm thinking that it needs more voltage to be able to raise the speed. Even if I only raise it 2mhz it loses the display and I get a VPU recover. I havent had a temp problem yet with the processor overclocked to 590. The idle temp is 48 C. After running 3d mark the temp was 60C.

Read before you use ATiTool.
X1950Pro overclocking in ATiTool is simply not supported

 

[gto78]

oh! crap i didnt realize that, I'll try one of the other ones then. Thanks!

 

[Pinchy]

lmao yeah, X1950 PRO doesnt really have a stable program yet

CCC works great, but it has limits

 

[gto78]

I'm really sorry to ask the stupid question but... what is ccc? At the same time, does the forum have a link to abbreviations? Thanks

JOE

 

[gto78]

ok, Nevermind, I'm guessing ccc might stand for catalyst control center.....

 

[tofu]

WinCLK can clock the X1950PRO ram reliably, I've tried.

Get it here:
http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/339

 

[Pinchy]

yeah, ccc is catalyst

whatd you get ur GPU RAM up to?

 

[X800]

I think something strange with x1950pro when you clock the memory then the card is scoring worse.Why ? Catalyst bug or what?

 

[technicks]

He guys. Sorry for interrupting. But i have a question.

Do the 3d settings on my card make a difference when running 3dmark05?
For instance would i get a higher score if i set the 3d settings high as possible or should i set them to best performance?

Thanks.

 

[mitsirfishi]

yes if you set it to performace instead of high quality then in you might score slightly higher
best thing to do to maximise score on is get rid of all process inc anti virus open up whichever 3dmark your running open up task manager end explorer.exe then just run the bench that is how im trying to score so high on 22processes

 

[gto78]

yeah, ccc is catalyst

whatd you get ur GPU RAM up to?

I uninstalled ati tool and tried using the catalyst auto overclocking utility. After a while it determined my gpu could handle 642 MHZ and the ram was set to some insane number like 760. I tried running 3d mark and on the third test I ended up with lines all over the screen. I changed the speeds to 614/721 and everything worked great again. Until I upgrade the cooling or mess with voltages- that seems to be my safe limit. The temps stablize around 60C.

 

[mitsirfishi]

http://www.vr-zone.com/?i=4190&s=7 volt mods
Do

*
Use ATiTool 0.24 Beta 14
*
Raise PCIe bus speed.

Don't

*
Use RivaTuner 2.0 RC16.1
*
Use ATI Tray Tools 1.2.6.940
*
Use Overdrive on Catalyst Control Center with Catalyst 6.9
*
Default clock settings on ATiTool

well im using ati tray tools and havnt had no troubles so far might give this version of ati tool a blast and do the voltage mod as ive taken a look and pcb are the same from the powercolours to the his one

http://download.hightech.com.hk/driver/Radeon_8_291/8.291.1-060822a-036363C-ATI.zip this is suppodilly latest and supportive drivers from his

 

[mitsirfishi]

just tried 0.24 beta 14 didnt like it one bit maybe they ment 0.25 beta 14 give it a go people and see what you thik

 

[Pinchy]

...i used catalyst 6.9 and overdrive and it worked fine for me...

 

[gto78]

Well, I cant seem to get a decent score in XP PRO. I rebooted in windows 2000 pro SP4 and ran 3d mark 05 and got a score of 9000 without shutting down anything. But in XP I had to shut down just about everything just to get this score- 8790! Also, this score is with the PCI-E bus overclocked to 107MHZ, DDR voltage slightly up @2.65, The AMD 3500+ is normally 2.2 GHZ but I've got it @2250 (any higher and XP wont boot. Even with the cpu voltage raised, and the fan full, and CPU temp below 45 C it wont boot up.

The video settings are: AMD 7.1 catalyst drivers, stock vpu speeds (it wont overclock right now because of some reason, not sure yet)- vpu temp is 48 C.

 

[gto78]

Update

Ok, I used Winclock to overclock the VPU, got a nice improvement.