9700 pro overclocking

[dpbement]

Just ordered a 9700 pro 325MHz w/2.8ns memory. What should I expect roughly to be able to overclock it to? I have never really tried to overclock but it seems like everyone of you do. In general, do people leave it overclocked if it runs stable or do they only overclock when they want a boost in a demanding game? It would seem that just because it benchmarks successfully without artifacts or hanging up doesn't mean that the GPU's life wouldn't be shortened by doing so.

In any case, I can't see any game making it necessary for me to overclock this card until Doom III comes out. :D

[-=Gib-McFragger=-]

I get 344/688 on mine. Any faster than that, and I start to see some minor artifacts :afro:

[muzz]

It all depends on how well the HSF is making contact with the core...
Of course there is luck of the draw, but core contact is paramount....
If you get a good one and the hsf is making good contact you should see 360-400 core, maybe 340-370 mem.....
No guarantees of course, but those numbers are not that uncommon.
I had a rather weak core but with vmod's I got 440+ and 365 with water cooling and ramsinks... wasn't the best, but it did much better than at stock.

[zsynth]

ATI 9700 PRO @ 360/702

Took off hsf, lapped it (was definitly concave), used AS3. Have 2 extra fans mounted below v/c (in slot 1 pos), one 80mm fan on top, and one 120mm on side.

AbitKR7A133-raid XP2100 @ 1,876.92 mgz
Antec550 True PowerPSU Win98se
1 gig PC3200(Samsung) (512meg ram drive)
LiteOn 48x24x48
AOpen DVD
(1) WD 80gig w\8meg buf
(3) 40gig Maxtor's ATA 133
ATI 9700 PRO @ 360/702
TB Santa Cruz
Hauppauge TV card
D-link NIC

[GlowStick]

You could consider getting a preformance heatsink, the Zalman makes a very popular one. The heatpipe one.

I saw people get really good results with the Zalman and they put a slow running 80mm or 60mm fan blowing on it and presto chango, you have an overclocking machine!

[dpbement]

Do you guys leave the board overclocked at all times then? What games are you playing that are requiring so much horsepower? Or is it just to see if it CAN be done and how much the benchmarks can get up to? It's all cool stuff but I am not aware of a game that can push this at all....unless you're preparing for Doom III?

[gokickrocks]

i leave mines at 411/351 at all times, i could hit 472/374 with no vmods, but as you may have guessed, its only stable enough to survive a bench test (almost survived the 3dmark03 test, but i crashed on the 2nd sound test...just 2 tests away from getting a score! and those tests dont even count!)

[zsynth]

I am not into benchmarking myself. I'll run through a benchmark just to see what it looks like. The majority of the games out today don't need a lot of horsepower, but some do, if you want to crank up the filtering and game details, to the max. I like FPS and simulations, which can bog down with all details maxed, but the 9700 handles it very well. IL2 Sturmovik looks real pretty.
I had a GF4 TI4400 (Leadtek) which served me very well, I only purchased the ATI 9700 Pro when I seen it at Comp USA, marked wrong (went back the next day, they were marked back to the normal price). I was lucky and now I have a v\c that is DX9 capable, and I'm happy with it. I ALWAYS remove ANY hsf assemblies, lap 'em, and reinstall with good thermal compound (AS3), as I have yet to find one that didn't need it. It makes a big difference in overclockability and stability. I haven't pushed my card to the limit, don't need to, it runs all my games very well at the present time. Maybe when Doom 3 does come out, I'll be tweekin some more (hooked on max detail-addict). 'Till then, I'm going back to the "unfriendly skies".