Radeon 9600 np Overclocking unsuccessfully

[psjohny]

CPU: P4 2.4c
M/B: Asus P4P800
Ram: 512 DDR 333x1, 128 DDR 333x1
VGA: Radeon 9600 Catalyst 3.8
PSU: 300w
OS: Windows XP SP1
OC Software: PowerStrip

Why after overclocking Radeon 9600 np from 324/202 to 361/230
Checking score in 3dmark03 330, it doesn't seems different.
It's original score is 2530, after OC is 2535. But I observed that cinematic in those benchmarks are running smoother.
Any Score You may post here, also please advise way to gett better performance.

[tony_j15]

Run it at stock then at OC and click the "details" button to see your fps. Jot 'em down and see how much faster it is. The actual benchmark score doesnt tell the whole story, and its fps that counts. Is that the highest you can go, or have you tried yet? 9600's can usually do 50 mhz OC at least.

[psjohny]

Yes i should try jotting down the fps, may be later.
I dare not try OC too much, so scared that my chip will be burned out. I have 2 chasis fan intake fresh air direct to AGP slot, should that be useful for OC? Do I need extra coolings for vga chips and ram?
I can't find score for Radeon 9600 with similar PC specs so I can compare how fast my machine is.

[tony_j15]

You tried the futuremark database right? (their the people that make 3dmark). Those 2 fans will help nicely. Dont worry about burning the chip. Just keep bumping the sliders 5-10mhz at a time. When the scenes in 3dmark(or a game) start to get garbled, you will know you have reached the peak. Then set em down a level. The 9600 has a.13 micron vpu, and people have OC'ed it over 100mhz.

[psjohny]

No access to the futuremark database, my copy is not licensed.
Another question, if successfully OCed, should I leave it on that tweaked mhz or downclock it to original state and do OC only when I needed.

[tony_j15]

Good question. Some programs hate things that are even slightly OC, so it really depends on that. I'd say leave it OC unless you start having problems.