Oc'ing and that other stuff I dont understand

[Clab2021]

I just put a Radeon 9600xt. With your guys help. Thank you!

Ok so I am interested in this overclocking stuff. From what I understand it is basically making your card out perform its current abilitys at a cost of a shorter life span?

Well, could someone explain all this "soft mod" stuff to me or point me in a directioin that I could learn about it. As well as any other cool info on fun things you can do to or with your cards.

Thanks!

[Jeordiewhite]

Well you wont yeild a huge performance in your card as most aren't really able to be pushed very hard.
They make a noticable difference in benchmarks mainly, however it still can be fun
You can get a nice tweaked out set of drivers from here:
http://www.omegacorner.com/

In them you will find a few things to over clock your video card built right into the drivers.

When over clocking(if you persist on doing so) do this at increments of 2-3mhz at a time to see how high you can go before you notice any video artifcating. They even have a built in test with them too.

If you do try these, You take full responsibility in trying these out. I am and never will be responsible for ruining your system, giving you cancer, making your games look prettier ruining your eye sight from stairing too long and of coarse blowing yourself up!

[DallasDon]

Google is your best friend. Just plug in your exact model, and the keyword overclock, (that will also find overclockING), or mod.

You are pretty much right on about the shorter life span. Without a complete understanding of what you are doing, it could be like another two minute life span.

If you are happy with the performance now, might wait till you are ready to upgrade anyway before "overclocking". besides, a "burn in" period , followed by a gradual boost, it the best way to go.

[tony_j15]

Give it to him straight guys! You need to download the Rage3DTweak, available at http://www.rage3d.com This simple little program will let you push your card to the limits. You dont necesarily need the Omega drivers, the standard ATI catalysts work fine.

Ok so I am interested in this overclocking stuff. From what I understand it is basically making your card out perform its current abilitys at a cost of a shorter life span?

Not true. Even if it did shorten card life(whic has never been proven, basically its an excuse from the squemish) by the time the crad gave out, it would be like 10 years old at least, and by that time you wont want it anymore. Anyways, have fun and pop back if you need more info.

[Starfury_2260]

of course if you speed it up enough that it gets too hot that might decrease it's life span, if you didn't add extra cooling to it.

[Clab2021]

Hey well I got 3dMark2001se and tried the benchmark thing
5658 or something like that.....
I had other programs running, and my computer had not be shutdown for at least 2 days
I have a P4 2.6
512 ram
Oh also I think I did it with my cards settings turned up. Thoses numbers dont look good to me
Ill try agian later after a re-boot, no programs running, andcard settings all the way down.

[Jeordiewhite]

Well if you turned up things like antialiasing and anisotropic filtering, then they will tend to kill your score quite a bit. Try turning those off and running it at the default settings like at 1024x768, try not to touch anything if you can.

[Clab2021]

I ran it agian and got 1211 is that decent?

[R1ohsorry]

well shorter lifespan? Does it matter in the next year there will be something even better so why not abuse what you have today, and buy the new 2marrow?