I just happen to know what the memory chips and other components on the card will do so we skipped about 10 steps in testing and went right for the meat and potatos.
Ah, this explains a lot.
I was wondering, since you kicked the chip frequency to 600 in the first run - seemed a little odd to me.The correct way to do it is use a base increase (for that card) of about 50Mhz per clock, then raise it 10-20Mhz steps using a scan tool to check for temp and artifacts between each increase. The correct process takes about a day to do it right and about another 1/2 day to load scan the final numbers to insure no overheat and artifacts may appear.
Do you think the ATI Tool can do this well enough?
P.S: Since the 8800GTS are all based on one and the same reference design...could those values also be used for an XFX 8800GTS?
Not necessarily. The reference design is a BASE for the actual production run. The distributor -can- order upgrades to that design to fill their order but the card run must meet the minimum reference design standards placed on it by Nvidia. Some manufactures, like Gainward, and a few other will order the runs with upgraded components.
What I usually find is they play a game. The first production run may be ordered with upgrades so the initial release of the product has a significant impact in the review world and the chatter on the message boards. The second order the skimp on and make more money because by then everyone is buzzing about what that product can do... it increases sales and the cost is dropped so it increases profits. Since overclocking means you void the warrantee, they don't care. All they want it the marketing profit.
Yes, ATI tool -v26- will do the job HOWEVER it may NOT properly raise the memory clock on the new Nvidia cards and it MAY try to change things in its settings the card will not like so it needs to be set up right. v26 is said to correct the lack of 7900-8000 memory clock control but I can not verify that. You can not have ATI Tool running and use the Nvidia control panel to raise clocks at the same time. The tool must exit and sometimes the system rebooted to enable the NV panel to have control back for card clocks... at least that is how it worked in the past..
I also understand that with the 8800 the "find max core" and 'find max mem" features may not work. I do not use those anyway.
In the settings I set up the tool to monitor temps every 10 seconds and turn off the change PCI Latency feature in the misc settings area. I then set the core and memory for 2D, low 3D and high 3D, load them, save that as a new profile and then adjust the high 3D value and run the "SHOW 3D VIEW" which heats up the card. After a good 3 minute run in 'show 3D view" I click "Scan for Artifacts" and let that run for about 10 minutes. If artifacts are found the timer will reset to zero and you will know either the memory or core is too high.
Using the tool take practice and an understanding of how core and memory work for a specific card with respect to their estimated high run values.
If everything checks out I will then stop the artifact scan, raise the core and memory 10 or 20 MHz, and allow the 'show 3D view' to heat it up for 3-5 minutes, then run the artifact check and repeat the process.
Once I start to see the artifact timer reset, then I back off the memory and core by 50 MHz and then test each one separately until I find the max on each. Once I have those numbers I will then set up 20 MHz shy of the max and run a 1/2 day load and scan. If more errors show I back them both down by 10 MHz until not errors appear.
All the wile the heat must be watched. I will usually not run a newer Nvidia core past 80c in those tests because real use and a load test are 2 different things. If the core reaches that temp I will not even try to go further even if I can. At that point I would probably replace the HSF and install memory heatsinks.
I can confirm that version 26 of ATI Tool is working on my 7900 for core and memory and the 'find max values' works too!
I do not know about the 8800 cards though.
I did have to reboot after install for it to work
So since we are clocked now I guess the next thing is to start flying and see how traffic and heavy weather does. Good day to do it at KSEA. It
