Legit Reviews

ATI X1800XL Video Card Overclocking Guide

While the ATI X1800 XL is a very fast video card by today's standards there is always the need for more speed and that leads to overclocking. Today we overclock an X1800 XL with the goal of catching up with the higher priced X1800 XT video card. Read on to see how our overclocking trial went.

So, with a little bit of time we've been able to extract equal performance from our less expensive card. Our 624/700 settings were stable for all of the gaming sessions we put it through and no artifacts were present. If after gaming you want to return your card to normal you can simply go back to stock settings by clicking "default" in ATI Tool, and by setting the voltage and fan speeds back to their normal values.

Article Title: ATI X1800XL Video Card Overclocking Guide
Current Pricing: Live Pricing

were those with the stock cooler or water cooling? if not what was the max you could get with the stock cooler??? i really dont feel like removing the cooler off of my new card just yet. LOL


AWESOME REVIEW!!!!!!! I wet myself!!! TMI? dont care... i loved it!!!

That was all with the stock heatsink and fan running at 100%!

WOW!!!!!!!!!! for those results i dont mind that fan keeping me up!!! i will deff try this when i get home for sure!!!!!

omg i need new pants!!! LOLOL

Another thing to remember is that no card, GPU, or memory will clock the exact same as another. It's all in the luck of the draw. What I can tell you is that the results we provide here today are very similar to many others around the web.

omg i hope mine will work that good

let us know what happens!

DragonCooler wrote:WOW!!!!!!!!!! for those results i dont mind that fan keeping me up!!! i will deff try this when i get home for sure!!!!!

I look forward to hearing what your results are!

DragonCooler wrote:omg i need new pants!!! LOLOL

uhh.... no comment.

Illuminati wrote:

DragonCooler wrote:WOW!!!!!!!!!! for those results i dont mind that fan keeping me up!!! i will deff try this when i get home for sure!!!!!

I look forward to hearing what your results are!

DragonCooler wrote:omg i need new pants!!! LOLOL

uhh.... no comment.

lol i am too excited and cant WAIT to get home now, anxiety attack!!!

i am currently working on ocing it

what does it mean when you run the artifacter tester and it says delta of 364 at 8 pixles or whatever? does that mean it is artifacting or is that something else?

and why do you suggest not to use the ati tool to do the core mhz and to use the overclocker? can i use the atitool instead?

If you see yellow it's artifacting, but....the artifact tester doesn't work on the X1000 series (almost nothing works) correctly and always shows arti's.

You can use ATI Tool for clocking but some reports are that it loosens the memory timings.

ok, my problem that i have always run into is if i touch my memory in any way it crashes, even if i go up 1 mhz it crashes. do you know what is up with that? what am i doing wrong?

when i use overclocker it crashes, but not when i use ati tool to set mhz on gpu


edit// if i use ati tool it is all ok
gpu: 623.7 mhz
mem: 549 mhz

3D05- 8145

i think there was some artifacting, not sure so i am going to run the test again!


also what were the enviromnets your video card were in? was there fans blowing on it? was it out in the open? was it in a case on the floor with little circulation? ETC...

try lowering the GPU clock a bit and raising the memory. You should be able to hit well over 550MHz.

Apoptosis wrote:try lowering the GPU clock a bit and raising the memory. You should be able to hit well over 550MHz.

yeah, ATI's usually see more benefit from raising the memory and Nvidia cards get more boost from GPU OC
I read this somewhere (can't remember where) but so is my experience with video cards (had many OC'd them all )

DragonCooler have you set the fan to 100%??

DragonCooler wrote:i am currently working on ocing it

what does it mean when you run the artifacter tester and it says delta of 364 at 8 pixles or whatever? does that mean it is artifacting or is that something else?

and why do you suggest not to use the ati tool to do the core mhz and to use the overclocker? can i use the atitool instead?

Install the new 5:13 drivers first and it will fix the memory lock up.
Don't forget to up the Core Voltage

Zinn2b wrote:

DragonCooler wrote:i am currently working on ocing it

what does it mean when you run the artifacter tester and it says delta of 364 at 8 pixles or whatever? does that mean it is artifacting or is that something else?

and why do you suggest not to use the ati tool to do the core mhz and to use the overclocker? can i use the atitool instead?

Install the new 5:13 drivers first and it will fix the memory lock up.
Don't forget to up the Core Voltage

i did set fan to max and i am on the 5.13. in his review he said they didnt touch the voltage for ram and got it all the way to 700mhz. I am able to up the ram using ati tool, but anything else it wont work.

if i use the overclocker tool it does the monitor turn off deal and wont come back on. The very first time i used it, it worked but now it wont! So i have to use the ATITOOL to overclock.

i am currently looking for the best one for my setup. I dont have any extra fans blowing on it and its under my desk so i dont have much airflow.

sorry bout double and tripple posting. LOL i am trying hard with this...

you guys are lucky to get that high of speeds and must have an a/c on it because earlier it was able to get higher clocks with minor artifacting. when i came back to try again tonight im not able to get above 505 on ram and 520 on the gpu without major artifacting. LOL in 3d05 temps were abount 80c, but in game, like call of duty 2 were around 90c. LOL
I have bumped gpu voltage to 1.275 lik you suggested and taken the side off my case.

your temps are too high. cooling is the key in your case. remove the HSF and reapply the thermal compound - see if it improves. if not - you will need a better aftermarket cooler for your card (it's advisable anyway when you OC - hell, even if you don't OC) lower temps should make wonders.

Well, I have a big problem. In ATITOOL, whenever I up the voltage past 1.125, without any frequency increase, my apps lock up. I cant go to 1.2 or 1.3 whatsoever. Is this just a touchy core? At 1.100V, its can get up to 565 and no higher... my memory at stock volts goes to 1400 mHz. I just don't get it... : (

Any advice as to why this may be happening? I'm thinking it may just be atitool incorrectly adjusting the voltages (if it is at all) and causing problems? It reads as 1.2 and 1.3 whenever i set it, but for some reason just doesn't want to work... : (

I'll clarify what I mean if anyone's willing to help me... or try to... I'm new to the forum... Hello everyone! : )

AMD Athlon 3700 @ 2640 gHz (1.525v)
2GB Corsair XMS 2.5-3-3-6 (2x512MB)
Shuttle SN25P nForce4 Ultra
350 Watt SilentX PSU
Connect3D X1800XL @ 565 core (1.075v), 1404 mem (2.001v)
Sony DRU720A DVD +/- Burner
MAxtor Maxxline 300GB SATA HD
MAG Innovision 19" LCD Monitor
Logitech 5300e 5.1 System

And yes, I may be considering aftermarket cooling. I'm just kinda scared at the prospect of ripping apart 350 bucks...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6835118117

Looks nice, but somehow I doubt it would help with my problem...

Tips, advice, help?! : )

AMD Athlon 3700 @ 2640 gHz (1.525v)
2GB Corsair XMS 2.5-3-3-6 (2x512MB)
Shuttle SN25P nForce4 Ultra
350 Watt SilentX PSU
Connect3D X1800XL @ 565 (1.075v), 1404 (2.001v)
Sony DRU720A DVD +/- Burner
MAxtor Maxxline 300GB SATA HD
MAG Innovision 19" LCD Monitor
Logitech 5300e 5.1 System

What temps are you getting with the card?