Artifacts already?

While playing around with ATITools last night, I was a little confused/disappointed at how far I could tweak things before I started getting artifacts.

I'm not sure what's going on, but apparently it's the memory that's giving me problems. I ran the find max core just to see how far it could go while I was busy doing some paperwork, and it could easily be pushed over 600 with no artifacts showing. I reset to default once I had time to really play around, and started tweaking myself. I got the core to about 550, and then started bringing the memory up. I only got to about 440, however, before I started detecting artifacts. This seems really low compared to what others have been overclocking this card to (8600m gt). I lowered the core and tried tweaking just the memory and got even nastier results. After about 500 mhz, the atitool's 3D model went crazy and eventually was completely solid yellow. My screen started going nuts and eventually things started freezing. I quickly shut it down though, and haven't tried tweaking again since.

What the heck is going on?

 

What notebook is this?

Some 8600GTs are armed with DDR3 while yours might be DDR2 which might be the cause of the low score.

 

Newsflash: Overclocking is not guaranteed!

There's a reason your card was sold at the speed it was. Overclocking yields different results from card to card, even of the same model. That's just how it is. If the card could *reliably* run, say, 50% faster, don't you think Nvidia would have sold it at that speed?

You might get lucky, you might not. It also depends quite a bit on sufficient cooling (and airflow), and on stable voltages from the PSU.

 

Yeah...like Jalf said, every card is different.

 

Yeah, I already knew it was DDR2, the default speed is 400 mhz.

Right now I have it at 575/435 and it's perfectly stable. I'll just keep fiddling with the core I guess since the memory doesn't seem to wanna go much higher.

In another thread I asked about controlling fan speeds, and somebody said you could do it with RivaTuner. However, there are no fan settings to be found on RivaTuner. (I'm using 158.45 drivers, btw.) I would really like to be able to change the fan settings though, but haven't been able to do so as of yet.

 

you went too high thats why it freezes. that happend to me once when i went too high. how long did you run the test?

 

not everyone understands this for some reason.

also, for the OP..you may have found your ceiling already..

 

I understand every card is different and can't all overclock the same. I was just curious, because getting artifacts after only increasing 400 - 440 seems pretty low. Oh well, just luck of the draw I guess.

I do have my core up to 600 now and still running fine though. I'm STILL trying to find a way to change my fan settings, but it looks like there aren't many options for Vista atm.

 

i overclocked mines from 675/1008 to 702/1095 max. any more than that will get artifacts

 

I got my memory up to 500 on my DDR2 8600m gt, didn't notice any problems.

 

again, just because you got up that high, doesnt mean he will. just because you hit those ceilings, doesnt mean that someone else wasnt able to go higher.

 

i don't understand those numbers.

core / memory? i think it starts at 475/700. why are you overclocking "from" 675/1008

 

I'm stopping at 635/435. Runs just fine and in some games it doesnt even go over 70 degrees. I start getting a teeny bit of artifacting after 640-650 core, but I don't want to take any chances.

 

Remember, the other half of the reason the parts arent sold at that speed in the first place is that it greatly affects the longevity of the part. I went through 5 gfx boards in 3 years in my desktop due to OC'ing to just under the onset of artifacts.

So even if you max out the OC until you get no artifacts like I had with my desktop, dont expect something as weakly cooled as a regular laptop to last too long.

Not to mention, if it makes the thing unusable and you send it in for warranty repair, your reseller can tell if you've OC'd it and not honor the warranty. It breaches the 'typical use' or 'intended use' mumbo-jumbo. Sooo... thats why you shouldn't OC, kids.

If you do, do it with an OEM desktop (dull) where you can just whine for a new part and they never bother to examine the thing beyond making sure it doesn't work. Like I did.

 

Yeah, I thought about the longevity part. However, I don't really game that much, so my gpu won't be getting near the use that other people's do. I'm also not using a warranty, instead my laptop is covered through our home owner's insurance, so it doesn't really matter what I do to it.

 

By the way, take it from someone who overclocks everything, find what you think is safe, and will never get artifacts, then lower it by about 20mhz.

Believe me, the extra life your hardware will have is far greater than that extra 1 fps.

And like others have said, OCing is unpredictable, not every card will OC the same.

From 400 to 600 is a 50% increase. With the fact that your notebook wasn't made for that high of an OC, or mearly any OC at all, is somewhat dangerous.

Keeping it that high, even if it feels safe now, can lead to artifacts even at stock clocks later in the future, like say 1 or 2 months from now.