first time oc'ing 9550

[crow0021]

i gather there is only 2 ways to overclock my 9550. i have to flash a bios of a card that allows oc'ing or a modded Catalyst. i'm not crazy about reflashing so the Catalyst is the way to go? which is better??

[Schpeedy]

As far as i know the difference is nothing, but using the modding catalyst is annoying, hence why i flashed my 9800se to a 9800PRO, saves me having to always get the modded catalyst drivers.

[crow0021]

i got it working some with the modded catalyst. at first it start to work some, not overclocked much, about 270/220, then my screen went all crazy. had to reboot, then i couldn't overclock anymore. atitool wouldn't let me... so i just intalled the 4.12 catalyst unmodded. anybody have problems like that?? hey i picked up about 500points with the new 4.12 on aquamark3

[wazzledoozle]

Make sure you are completely removing the Catalyst drivers before installing the softmod.

[crow0021]

i did remove the driver with a program ati recommended..

[sweeper]

You can only get 270/220 ? Who makes your card? My Gigabyte 9550 128 , 128-bit can run at 390/270 with stock cooling. I have a Zalman ZM80C HP coming for it though. ;) Should be able to get the core higher.

[cfcubed]

Thought I'd drop a note... I've got an ATI (brand) 9550 w/256M running good @ 400 core / 220 mem (stock: 249 / 196) using the softmod catalyst 4.11 drv w/ATITool. Less rebate, card was < $100 & w/oc am pretty happy with it (but spending another $20 might have been a good idea too:)

GPU was getting hot, so I found an old Cyrix 686 CPU fan laying around & was able to just screw it into the stock passive 9550 heatsink pins.

[sweeper]

I tried slapping a fan on my GPU HS but it didn't help much with overclocking the core. Hopefully the ZM80C will help my core ;)

[ati.bob]

I have noticed thatn many R9550 seems to top their core speed at around 400MHz+.. maybe this is because the usage of "lower quality" RV350 chips.. :D

[cfcubed]

agree w/ati.bob, from looking around it seems one should not expect more than about 420 core / 250 mem w or w/o active cooling. Be nice to hear otherwise sweeper's results w/better cooler.

Tested sort-term, my 9550 was stable @ 400 / 220 w/stock passive cooling, but the core was too hot for my taste so I added the salvaged fan. With fan its been rock solid. My max before artifacts was about 440 / 245 & I backed both off about 10% for safety. Anyone ocing a passively cooled 9550 should give the GPU & mem chips a feel after heavy 3D.

BTW, don't think flashing or messing w/mem timings would yeild too much more than just softmod/atitool (manual maxes!) install & use (a cakewalk for my card).

[bim27142]

i have a gecube 9550 factory OC'ed (core) @ 400/250x2... OC'ed it to 410/300x2 on the stock gecube cooling (which is pretty decent already) using atitool and geniune cats as driver... so far running pretty stable in all my currently games...

[cfcubed]

i have a gecube 9550 factory OC'ed (core) @ 400/250x2... OC'ed it to 410/300x2 on the stock gecube cooling (which is pretty decent already) using atitool and geniune cats as driver... so far running pretty stable in all my currently games...

Yes, guess there is too much variation in 9550 core/mem chips to make generalizations.... Looked around & that Gecube card does seem more capable. Although ocing got my 3DMark03 (freebie) scores from 2300 -> 3000, probably still best just to have spent a bit more on the card.

PS Yep, that gecube comes with a fan where my 9550 did not.

[crow0021]

mine's a sapphire 9550 256mb. don't know if its 128bit or not. anybody know if these oc good?

[Schpeedy]

Get atitool and find max cores and memory's... i believe you also have to install the softmodded drivers aswell. Then you can tell us how well it overclocks :).

[bim27142]

how long does it usually take to find core frequency using atitool? i'm afraid to manually push mine because i was not able to find the max core... i lost patience waiting like eternity for it to scale up...

max memory scaled up quite quickly and i was able to reach 350Mhz from stock 250Mhz... though it didnt run stable at my games @ 350Mhz...

my card:
gecube radeon 9550XT 400/250x2 @ 410/300x2

[ati.bob]

You can do it manually by increasing the speed in a larger step until artifacts appear when you use the "scan for artifacts" feature.. after that, reduce the clock a little, then let ATITool scan for it.. :D

[bim27142]

aight i'll try that one...

[crow0021]

does this oc'ing improve video performance alot? as of now, i've given up, i know too easy.. lol .. but is it worth the effort again???

[bim27142]

yes, it does... @ stock (400/250) i dont like playing doom 3 on high settings because its choppy... but @420/300, it runs quite well at high settings...

my card is gecube 9550XT, genuine 4.12 cats paired with atitool...

[retroholic]

hi all..., i'm new about overclocking stuff, i have his 9550 iceq, alrealdy comes with toll to overclock it at 450/350. i thought it was the edge of this card, then i tried atiTool n i amazed dat my card can reach 510/450 and still runs smoothly n fine. thankz a lot AtiTool :):):)

[hat]

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2716