my rediculous graphics card

My 9800m GTS will artifact every 5-10 minutes or so in ATITool at 640/1600 clocks. I'm sure the memory isn't the problem. Now is artifacting so bad that I should use 620/1550 over 640/1600? Does ATITool produce artifacts better than a real game (despite that the GPU usage percentage is 85-89%)?

 

If your GPU is truly stable at any given clocks/voltages, it shouldn't artifact at all, period. Lower those clocks.

 

I could be wrong but it sounds like electronic degradation. As you keep the chips at the bleeding edge the electronic gates start to leak more and more. This may or may not be seen as overheating, so that itself is an unreliable indicator.

You can try redoing the TIM's for the GPU and memory. This can help some what. Your best bet though is once you have done this never run the chips at the bleeding edge. You should always run about clocks 5% or more under that.

Even at 5% you are still vulnerable to degradation but hopefully at a slower rate. This is the reason companies usually stock clock at quite a bit higher rate. This alows for chips that are not at 100% optimal to still survive and for them and the rest to usually last through at least their waranty period if not further. This also is the reason why most manufacturers will void the warrenty once you overclock.

 

Well I guess I will keep the card at 620/1550 . I probably have had some degradation, because before I knew about ATITool I was running the clocks at 660/1650. Now about the memory. Is it safe to run it at 900MHz or more?

 

Ok, my card has been stable in ATITool at 620/1550/900 for an hour, so I think I will keep it at that.

I read this forum where this guy would overclock more in some games than in others be cause the high overclock that he used in some games would make him artifact in others. He must have really damaged his card, because I found that it is basically impossible to see light artifacting in games (why I used to run 660/1650).

 

I just thought that I got this motherboard from the Acer repair place and it could be a used one where someone damaged the graphics card.

Tanware, are you sure that an overclock, even if completely stable, degrades the card? What about a CPU undervolt where I am right on the edge of stability?