X1950 Pro Overclock?

[morfinx]

Has anyone found a stable and surefire way to overclock an X1950 Pro yet? I see a lot of threads floating around the web with everyone having the same problem. Whether using RivaTuner, WinClk, ATITool, or ATI Tray Tools, chaning the core or mem just slightly causes the screen to go completely blank. You can google "X1950 Pro overclocking blank screen" to pull up some of those threads on various forums. Anyone had any success with theirs?

 

[Snakexor]

im in the same boat, curiosity bump

 

[memories2002]

I thought this was an isolated problem with the Sapphire one, because the core VRM would overheat...

 

[Snakexor]

i have the visiontek card with a zalman vf-900cu on it

bump for higher clocks!

 

[morfinx]

Originally posted by: memories2002
I thought this was an isolated problem with the Sapphire one, because the core VRM would overheat...

No, do the google search like I said and you will see people with Asus and Powercolor also have the same problem, not just Sapphire. And I have HIS, Snakexor has Visiontek. So it's pretty much a universal problem with X1950 Pro. It's not heat related, as the screen goes blank as soon as core/mem is adjusted.

 

[swamyg1]

yeah i have the same problem too with my Asus x1950pro... there must be someway around this, is it possible someone will release a hacked bios that makes this puppy more overclockable?

 

[acruxksa]

I've been able to successfully oc my HIS x1950 Pro to 649/1526 (from 634/1485) w/ ATI Tray Tools v1.2.6.968. The key is to change the "Overclocking Method" in Hardware/Overclocking Settings from "Low Level" to "Driver Level". Seems to work fine after that. I've had my system to 656/1526, but any higher on the core and the screen blanks and the system resets. Haven't found the limit of my memory yet though. This is all at stock voltage.

 

[morfinx]

Originally posted by: acruxksa
I've been able to successfully oc my HIS x1950 Pro to 649/1526 (from 634/1485) w/ ATI Tray Tools v1.2.6.968. The key is to change the "Overclocking Method" in Hardware/Overclocking Settings from "Low Level" to "Driver Level". Seems to work fine after that. I've had my system to 656/1526, but any higher on the core and the screen blanks and the system resets. Haven't found the limit of my memory yet though. This is all at stock voltage.

Driver level overclock doesn't work for me at all. The slider snaps back to default after I hit apply. I did find another way to go about doing it though. I used "WinClk" to change the core/mem, and use ATI Tray Tools and 3DMark to test for artifacts. WinClk doesn't cause the screen to blank out. However, it seems my core is tapped out at 621, I did get get my mem up to 1525 though. Your stock core is 635? That's strange, mine is 621, and I think we have the same card?

 

[acruxksa]

Originally posted by: morfinx

Driver level overclock doesn't work for me at all. The slider snaps back to default after I hit apply. I did find another way to go about doing it though. I used "WinClk" to change the core/mem, and use ATI Tray Tools and 3DMark to test for artifacts. WinClk doesn't cause the screen to blank out. However, it seems my core is tapped out at 621, I did get get my mem up to 1525 though. Your stock core is 635? That's strange, mine is 621, and I think we have the same card?

Yep they're factory oc'd to 634/1485. When I bought them I originally thought they would be 620/1480, but imagine my surpise when I learned they were actually running 634/1485. There doesn't seem to be much more head room on the gpu, but my memory has run stable 24/7 with the memory @ 1526 (running folding@home gpu client).
I like these cards, they run pretty cool too. Mine hover around 50c @ full 3dclocks with f@H running. Just had to tweak the fans w/ ati tray tools so they kick it up a little sooner.

We seem to have the same cards, so I'm pretty surprised that ATI Tray Tools at driver level didn't work for you.

 

[morfinx]

Originally posted by: acruxksa
Yep they're factory oc'd to 634/1485. When I bought them I originally thought they would be 620/1480, but imagine my surpise when I learned they were actually running 634/1485. There doesn't seem to be much more head room on the gpu, but my memory has run stable 24/7 with the memory @ 1526 (running folding@home gpu client).
I like these cards, they run pretty cool too. Mine hover around 50c @ full 3dclocks with f@H running. Just had to tweak the fans w/ ati tray tools so they kick it up a little sooner.

We seem to have the same cards, so I'm pretty surprised that ATI Tray Tools at driver level didn't work for you.

Mine came 621/1485. That's strange that our stock core speed is different. Even more strange it's already maxed out. I feel so cheated lol

 

[swamyg1]

Sweeeet, ATI Tools is working at driver level for me... can you guys tell me what are the recommended max temps? Thanks!

 

[mikek753]

Hmm ....
ATITryTool doesn't work forme at driver level, when I press Apply all settings go to default.
with low level I can just bump up cpu to 610, but nothing can do for mem, after apply I get black screen.

I have ATI x1950pro and use cat 6.12

what else I may try?

 

[morfinx]

Originally posted by: mikek753
Hmm ....
ATITryTool doesn't work forme at driver level, when I press Apply all settings go to default.
with low level I can just bump up cpu to 610, but nothing can do for mem, after apply I get black screen.

I have ATI x1950pro and use cat 6.12

what else I may try?

See my post above.

 

[swamyg1]

Is there a way you can set WinClk to startup with windows?

 

[morfinx]

No, after I set the clocks with WinClk, I saved them in a ATI Tray Tools profile. ATT loads them fine.

 

[mikek753]

anyhow bump up gpu core volt?
I don't see 3rd Volt tab in atitry hardware overclock dialog; just two tabs speed and fan

I set gpu to 614 via winclk and then run 3dmark06, but it hangs around frame 470 in proxycon.
I use cat 6.12

 

[Andolin]

I used the ATI Catalyst's built in overclock button. It ran for about 10 minutes trying different settings and finally stopped at 621MHz core/796Mhz memory. It has been running solid since then.

Original specs
Powercolor x1950 Pro AGP running at 575MHz core/690MHz memory
3dMark05 - 8200

Overclocked specs
Powercolor x1950 Pro AGP running at 621MHz core/796Mhz memory
3dMark05 - 9400