"Overdrive"

[Craig Coope]

Well as posted a week or so ago I have finally got a new card (X1950
Pro Agp) and I'm really pleased with it. It seemed to run ok with my
360W PSU but I got paranoid and so have now fitted a 550W. Anyway I
have been messing around with the CCC settings now I know I have the
power behind it. The card idles at around 50Deg which I'm not bothered
about as my only 9800XT would idle at 70 and max at about 85 and after
researching I found it was "normal".

Basically my question is...I take it that when you let CCC
automatically determine what your overdrive speed can be that it
obviously takes into account the temps the gpu reaches? It's just that
it has told me that my overclock settings can be almost maxed out. I'm
happy with this result but I just want to be re-assured that CCC knows
exactly what it is doing as is not gonna fry my card...

 

[First of One]

Well as posted a week or so ago I have finally got a new card (X1950
Pro Agp) and I'm really pleased with it. It seemed to run ok with my
360W PSU but I got paranoid and so have now fitted a 550W. Anyway I
have been messing around with the CCC settings now I know I have the
power behind it. The card idles at around 50Deg which I'm not bothered
about as my only 9800XT would idle at 70 and max at about 85 and after
researching I found it was "normal".

Visual artifacts represent hard evidence for identifying an overheating
card. So if you are not seeing lockups, flashing pixels or clipping
polygons, the card is not overheating. Prior to getting a vented side panel,
I've seen my X1900XT (with AC Accelero cooler) hit 110C under load without
any ill effects.

Fundamentally, the principle of video card overclocking is to crank the core
and memory speed *as high as possible*, but in small increments, until
artifacts appear in an intense game, then back down about 5-8 MHz.

Basically my question is...I take it that when you let CCC
automatically determine what your overdrive speed can be that it
obviously takes into account the temps the gpu reaches? It's just that
it has told me that my overclock settings can be almost maxed out. I'm
happy with this result but I just want to be re-assured that CCC knows
exactly what it is doing as is not gonna fry my card...

CCC *relies* on temps for its automatic overclocking algorithms, up to a
fairly conservative hard limit (~15% I think). It's harmless. At the same
time don't expect any meaningful performance boosts with it.