Freeze problems

[danstar25]

When i run Max mem ati tool runs correctly, when i run max core it freezes, locks then reboots my computer..

[djbbenn]

Its probably just hitting its max overclock and instead of producing errors, it locks up. What are your temps like. Also try different dirvers, like Cats.

-Dan

[danstar25]

Thanks for replying to my post. I am running cats i had just not changed it in my sig. Been using them since 5.6 release. The following is when I am using Rivatuner:
Temps are stable around 60 after heavy gaming. Core 520 Mem 545. All benchmarks stabe, prime95, 3dmark03 and 05.
Now I can unistall rivatuner and install ati tool and run max mem first and it hits 546 which is right along with riva tuner. I then reset mem to 500 then back off to 490 and set it. Then run max core. It locks up at 523. Funny thing is I know the card is stable at 520/545. If I just manually set it to this in ati tool and scan for artifacts it always finds errors, even if I slide the bar all the way to the right in the settings menu. Then after a few minutes, freeze, lockup and reboot. After testing with about every oc tool made for ati cards I have just come to the conclusion that rivatuner is the best for my particular card.(Not THE best, just best for me) Note: I have tried both ati tool and rivatuner on fresh installs and got same results as above.

[djbbenn]

How do you know it is stable with rivatuner? Because Atitool, wil detect errors before you can see them. That is the reason it is such a good overclocking tool. Try lowering your core to, say 515 and scan. Does it freeze/lockup when you go above 520 in Rivatuner? Also what are your temps in Atitool durning a long scan? Atitool is made to push your card very hard, thus giving a good reading for stability. It also puches you cpu quite hard aswell, so if you have your cpu overclocked, try it without the overclock on your processor. And one more thing, makesure you have your fan set to the appropriate speed for your temps. Hope it helps.

-Dan

[danstar25]

......because its stable in 3dmark 03, 3dmark 05 and prime95 and can game for 4 straight hours. I have no hardware fans, just case fans.

[djbbenn]

Whats stable the CPU or the video card?

-Dan

[danstar25]

Card is stable on rivatuner at 520/545. I do understand what you are saying about ati tool being a strong ocing tool and pushing it very hard and I am sure you are correct. But running with my card, ati tool crashes my system everytime at these settings and rivatuner doesnt and I have no problems.

[djbbenn]

What I am saying, is with Rivatuner it doesn't stress the card when it overclocks. Kind of like how you test for satability with prime95 on a cpu. When you test to find your max core/mem with Atitool, it stresses the core/mem aswell, like prime95 on a cpu, durning the find max test. This way, you will get a frequency that is stable. Just because you set a frequency, it doesn't mean it wont produce errors. Atitool can detect artifacts before you can see them with your eye. But some cards when overclocking, will just crash when they produce a error under stress. Try lowering your clocks a bit, like 515 core, and then test with Atitool and see how it goes.

-Dan

[danstar25]

I ran at 515 core and got no errors. So, I decided to run 3dmark 03 and 05 full tests with rivatuner settings at 520/545 and ati tool settings at 515/545. That is the only pc of hardware on my machine I was running over stock settings and here are my results:
Riva mark03-9604
Ati Tool mark03-9587
Riva mark05-4285
Ati Tool mark05-4259
Someyimes I am slow at catching on to something so dont get disgusted with me if I am not understanding your point. The way I am seeing it is, although the gain in these tests are minimal by using rivatuner, I am not dealing with software that is crashing my system. Rivatuner may not stress my card like ati tool does, but it still accomplishes its mission. Unless like I said earlier that I am not understanding you, if thats the case please have patience with me. 3 questions: Will upping agp voltage help increase my cards overclock? Will it help to flash bios to X800XT PE? What about voltmods?

[djbbenn]

That extra 5MHz on the core will be minium performance increases. But now you know your card is more stable, and will have a less of a chance of crashing. Upping to AGP voltage to help your overclock, most of the time no. It can sometimes, so you could experiment with it. As to flashing to the PE, I wouldn't advise it without Vmods. If your card can't handle the extra clocks stable, then it wont handle the PE bios very stable. The PE bios also has tighter mem timings aswell to just higher clocks. You could probably get away with the flash, but it might not be stable. Vmods will help with you overclock a great deal, but will also increase your temps. Hope it helps, and if you got any more, just shout. ;)

-Dan

[danstar25]

Thanks, I will probably do the vmod. I appreciate you helping me out by answering my questions.

[danstar25]

Thanks, i successfully applied the pencil mod, then flashed bios and am at 520/560. Havent had time to run tests yet though to see how much i can get out of it.