OverClocking ATI Graphics Cards

Forum for all the AMD (Previously ATI) video cards from the past, present and future!

Which Overclocking Program do you use?

Ati Tool
18
32%
Ati Tray Tools
10
18%
Ati Overdrive
21
38%
Riva Tuner
7
13%
 
Total votes: 56

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dgood
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OverClocking ATI Graphics Cards

Post by dgood »

There are four programs that come to mind when overclocking your ATI graphics card, two of which are the most prominent: Ati Tray Tools, and Ati Tool. Another is more often referred to when using Nvidia cards: Riva Tuner. The last being built into the Catalyst Control Center: ATI Overdrive.

First is Ati Tray Tools

First you'll have to install it after downloading it from the above link. Then you'll have to enable the overclocking. Start by Right-Clicking the Ati Tray Tools Icon on the task bar and following the example in the picture. Image
After doing that, you should be at a screen that looks like this.
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Make sure to save the current clocks and such as a profile like default or something so you can easily revert to the original settings if you experience problems.
Now you should make sure that the fan stays at 100% at all times at least for testing purposes so you have the maximum amount of cooling possible.
Image
You can play with those settings as you please later but start by setting it manually to 100% and saving that in your overclocking profiles also.

Now before you do any real overclocking you need to have a way to monitor your temperatures at least if you have a card in the x series or later. the 9X00 series didn't have temperature monitors I don't believe. At least not the lower end ones. Ati Tray tools offers two ways to do this. Either with a separate graph, or with system tray monitoring. I think when overclocking the graph is nicer since you can see trends of temperature and see when your card has peaked or not.
Right-Click on the Taskbar Icon and Choose hardware/Monitoring Graphing or System Tray Monitoring.
You'll see i've circled where you can find temperatures in this picture.
Image
You should get these options.
ImageImage
Image
After all of this is set up, It's Time to overclock.
Now you should open the 3D Renderer as it will test your graphics card for stability at the higher clocks.
Image
You can either tell the program to auto overclock the gpu or the memory or both one at a time of course. (if you do this do memory first and make sure it is stable as it is more likely to overclock the poorest of the two.) Or you can do small increments of each one then hit scan for artifacts after applying it and leave it testing until the temps are fine and you aren't experiancing artifacts.
Watch Your Temperatures and Good Luck. You don't want to see anything over 70's in Degree's Celcius Under Full load though most cards can handle Temperatures up to 100 C and still be alright even for day to day use though that is in no way recommended. Also if you have some thermal paste laying around you should put a new layer on your gpu before doing this overclocking as you will get better results with a clean heatsink/fan and new thermal paste as opposed to an old dust covered cooler with an old layer of thermal paste that is dried up.


Second ATI Tool

This program is very similar to ATI Tray tools, except it is a little bit simpler in the interface and the settings. Sometimes it can be used to tell you the number of pipes and exact versions of cores and available pixel pipes on your card however which can be very helpful for knowing if a mod is possible. The same website you can get it from is a great reference for different mods that can be done to graphics cards. http://www.techpowerup.com There is also a great link to a walkthrough on ATI tool a wiki for ati tool from techpowerup ATI Tool Wiki

Download and install it then open it up. Make sure the default settings are correct and save them before doing any overclocking.
Image
Much of the steps are the same as before. Once again I recommend setting the fan speed to full to find your overclock then if temperatures are good, then you can play with different fan speed configurations.
Image
The Temperatures can still be found on the program itself, but also on the taskbar where ati tool defaults the temperature instead of the icon. Also it is listed under the graph, both gpu and ambient temperatures.
Image

Once you know where all of those things are at, you'll want to start overclocking so open the 3D Renderer. It has options for Auto Finding max core/max memory just like on ati tray tools. If you do have it find max core it should do artifact testing for you.
Image
(Above is a picture of Artifact Scanning)

Take it slow and watch the temperatures even if you are letting it auto overclock. Don't be surprised with a blue screen it won't keep it running at that speed on the next start up. Also Its not unlike the catalyst control center to VPU Recover in that case, resetting everything to defaults. Some Games may artifact a lot others will run very very smooth. A good example is Warcraft III I artifact all the time with my overclock and never in any other application or game. That's It for number two.

Third RivaTuner

ATI R200, RV250, RV280, R300, RV350, R350, RV360, R360, RV370, RV380, R420, RV410, R423, R430, R480, RV515, R520, RV530, RV560, RV570, R580 or R580+ VPU based display adapter are supported by riva tuner. I usually use this on my nvidia cards though I think most of these programs now can be used for both nvidia and ati cards if you read their release notes.

To start with Riva Tuner you have to double-click on the tray icon:
Image

Then You need to select the customize option on the "Target Adapter" I believe if you have onboard video you can choose either or.
Image

After Choosing The Low Level System Settings, You get to the Overclocking Menu.
Image
The first time you enable low level overclocking, you have to detect stock frequencies or restart your computer either works just as well I usually hit detect now.

Then Change some clock frequencies and Take it slow. When you get it stable, you can save a profile and then tell it to apply it on start up.
Image

Also there is a monitoring tool for temperatures:
Image

However I couldn't find an artifact scanner so you'll have to use ati tool/tray tools or just benchmark or play games to stress the card and make sure it is stable. I usually use this with nvidia cards, but mostly out of the fact it doesn't have ATI in the name, but The others may honestly work better for Nvidia too.


Fourth Ati Overdrive

I honestly don't recommend this one, merely because it is so limited. However if you just want a very small boost of core speeds and to know that you won't have problems with temperatures, then go for it. Ati Overdrive doesn't currently support graphics memory overclocking as stated on the faq site. To get to it, you need to open up the catalyst control center in advanced view I believe, but i'm not positive as I only ever open it in advanced view.
Image
Just check the box and I think that's more or less it, it auto overclocks just the core 3D clocks based on the temperature. Also I believe it is within a clock safety range. (Feel Free to correct me hear as I haven't used it, and don't really plan on it.) I know this only works on some graphics cards, usualy the higher ones, I see it on my x800xt, and saw it on a 9600xt, but it seems that hte x1600xt it doesnt' show up on the driver version I have it on. They may have stopped using it on newer versions or just doesn't support it. I'll look around for more info on that in the future.

ATI Overdrive 3 is what the newer cards have it called and it looks more like this.
Image
Just click unlock to start using it almost like clicking enable on older cards.

Older cards before the X series Radeons didn't have temperature monitoring chips on them. So you will have a harder time knowing how far you can push them. The 9600 and a few other cards had to have the overclocking lock removed from them so Ati Tool is the best to use for those as in the miscellaneous Options it has a box to click to remove the lock. Now get out there and Overclock, then post your results here and/or on Hwbot.org for legitreviews.
Last edited by dgood on Sat Apr 14, 2007 4:32 pm, edited 8 times in total.
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dicecca112
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Post by dicecca112 »

looking good dgood, PM me when its finished and I'll clean it up and sticky it
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Post by kenc51 »

There's also a "Voltages" tab in Tray Tools, it's only available for some cards, X1*** series I think.

Stock X1900XTX

GPU = 1.42v
MVDDC = 2.086v (Core Memory volts)
MVDDQ = 2.086v (Memory IO buffer volts)

Max GPU on Air cooling is ~1.5v, using stock cooler at this voltage is pointless as it will have to be @ 100% (too noisey)
The X1900 cards LOVE GPU voltage. I've pumpped 1.575v into mine to get above 750MHz, but H2O cooling is a must.
The voltage regs on the card get very hot! So they MUST get good cooling or it will lockup.

Memory seems to like a little increase when overclocking with my card, alot of people say setting to just below 2v helped them get higher. You must experiment with these voltages as every card is different. (This is the hardest setting to get right and needs most patience, with constant lockups)

Change memory frequencies first, ~10MHz at a time. After every ~20MHz loop 3DMark 06 Forrest test with high res and AA. for ~15mins.
Benchmarks and games respond to memory overclocking more than gpu clocking. If you go over 700MHz with an X1900, you MUST overclock the memory or you'll see very little gains.

Remember to take it slow with GFX overclocking.......you can easilly go too far looking for that extra 10pts!
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Post by stopthekilling77 »

i'm tempted to mess around with my SAPPHIRE 7000 series card >.<

LOL

no seriously, i'm gonna give it a shot
Cyberpower generic case
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Post by stopthekilling77 »

well, i installed it, but when i click on the icon to get things started, the pc reboots...

GOD i need a new computer! :(
Cyberpower generic case
B450M PRO-VDH MAX
Ryzen 5 3600 w/PBO/OC
CM Hyper 212 EVO push/pull
Corsair VENGEANCE LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3600 CL16
MSI RTX 3060 Ti Ventus 3X 8G OC LHR
Samsung 970 EVO Plus 500GB
6GB Seagate HDD
EVGA 650BQ 650W PSU
ASUS VE278 27" monitor, Dell E2216HV (vertical)
Logitech Z533 2.1 Speakers, G935 7.1 or G435 headset
MS LXM-00001 keyboard
Razer Deathadder Elite, XBOX One Lunar Shift controller

I've come a long way from my original Core2Duo E6750 build y'all! :supz:
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Post by Toebot »

Since the 7.X drivers have a bug that makes the screen strobe if the card is overclocked through the overdrive tab (seems to effect rv570 and rv560 chips), I've been using tray tools. It seems to get the best results. But none of the listed programs seem to produce a really stable overclock with the current drivers. For best results, I'd switch back to the newest 6.x series drivers.
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Post by dgood »

Ok I added some more stuff, and want to know what else people want put on this. I still need some pics of the last two though they are the lesser used ones. Tell me what you think so far.
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Post by prozac26 »

I use ATI Tray Tools. Used ATI Tool too.
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Post by dgood »

My last update, Dicecca/Ken You can have it from here. At the least it's a good start I think.
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Post by kenc51 »

Great job =D> =D>
sticky ;)
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Re: OverClocking ATI Graphics Cards

Post by amdme127 »

This is really good to know
THanks a lot for the post
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Re: OverClocking ATI Graphics Cards

Post by largon »

I like ATiTool, it's compact, has almost all needed features, and in addition, updates are released often and support on developer's forum is swift.
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Re: OverClocking ATI Graphics Cards

Post by rpsgc »

I also use ATiTool. Simplicity wins it for me.
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Re: OverClocking ATI Graphics Cards

Post by skier »

im trying to use ATI tray tools and whenever i try to change anything, the screen "strobes" and it shuts down, im using Catalyst 7.7 and have CCC installed, will uninstalling the Control center let me use ATT? or should i try another program?
-Austin
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Screamin' BCLK: Image
775 System (Overclocking Platform): Q8400/Q8300/E8400/E7400/E7500 - GA-EP45-UD3R v1.1 - 4GB (2x2) OCZ Reaper HPC DDR2 1066 CL5 2.1v Corsair TX-750w
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Re: OverClocking ATI Graphics Cards

Post by PCFlip »

I can get some nice OC with my 2900xt and run different games and benchy programs and have it nice and stable but for some reason when I load the Ruby White Out benchmark it kicks the crap out of my OC, no OC I have tried that is higher then say 2% of the stock clocks would artifact, any ideas behind this or the whole eh its only that one bench that has issues with the OC?

Also awesome guide so far. :supz:
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Re: OverClocking ATI Graphics Cards

Post by IRQ Conflict »

turn the mem down 5-10 MHz then retry.
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Re: OverClocking ATI Graphics Cards

Post by Athlonite »

BTW cat 9.2's are out and there is an agp hotfix version aswell
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Re: OverClocking ATI Graphics Cards

Post by sasamkd »

ATI Tool - definitely.
stopthekilling77 wrote:i'm tempted to mess around with my SAPPHIRE 7000 series card >.<



LOL



no seriously, i'm gonna give it a shot
Bring back memories. :)
I don't use the card anymore (Connect3D ATI 9550), I gave it to a friend. It is still working after all these years of torture :P.
Had passive cooler, and I attached 8cm case fan. Default clock was GPU/RAM - 250/198 and it was rock solid up to 500/217. And to be honest, I never tried beyond 500MHz.
:)
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Re: OverClocking ATI Graphics Cards

Post by sasamkd »

skier wrote:im trying to use ATI tray tools and whenever i try to change anything, the screen "strobes" and it shuts down, im using Catalyst 7.7 and have CCC installed, will uninstalling the Control center let me use ATT? or should i try another program?
No. You don't need CCC for tray tools to work.
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Re: OverClocking ATI Graphics Cards

Post by skier »

sasamkd wrote:
skier wrote:im trying to use ATI tray tools and whenever i try to change anything, the screen "strobes" and it shuts down, im using Catalyst 7.7 and have CCC installed, will uninstalling the Control center let me use ATT? or should i try another program?
No. You don't need CCC for tray tools to work.
lol that post was only 2 years and a week old, though i did go back on an ATI card just yesterday for graphics :rolleyes:
-Austin
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775 System (Overclocking Platform): Q8400/Q8300/E8400/E7400/E7500 - GA-EP45-UD3R v1.1 - 4GB (2x2) OCZ Reaper HPC DDR2 1066 CL5 2.1v Corsair TX-750w
Gamer: Asrock Z77 Extreme4, i7 3770K @4.6GHz, ThermalTake Armor A90 modded, 2x4GB GSKILL RipjawsX DDR3 2133 CL9, Corsair HX-750w, MSI GTX660 Twin Frozr
Server2012: Q9300 - 8GB DDR2 - Asus P5QL Pro - Corsair CX430 - Mirrored 2TB Seagate's with 2TB WD cav for fileshare backups, 1TB WD for OS backups
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