OCing Radeon 9600 without fans

[kepler]

is it safe to OC the Radeon 9600 with just the stock heatsink and no fans blowing directly on it?

i'm running an AMD 64 3000+, with 2 case fans

thanks :)

[wazzledoozle]

yeah, just scan for artifacts and test stabability every 10-20 mhz increase.

[coolmig77]

You can use Atitool and let it overclock with Find Max until it finds a max OC frequency (I think 20-30 minutes are enough), then lower a few MHz (3-5) to ensure error free overclock with full load on games. Just check your heatsink temp with your finger after OC and if it's too hot you may put on a little fan over it, it's very easy to put on one and that could give you some more MHz of safer and error-free overclock on your core. :cool:

[Ramine]

without fan i can get like 550/310, not much more than that, just tried it for you, with me fan on, with stock cooling, i can get like 580/340,

Thought that might help!

Ramine

[Nobru_rv]

And connect3d radeon 9600 has HOLES for making active coller connectable to the card directly.
I will post some pics theese days so maybe you can find theese ho9les on your card also.


BR

[kepler]

will running the card hot shorten it's lifespan?

i know some people were saying two transisters close the to the heatsink get extremely hot, one said in the 50C range, and one in the 60-70C range...

i'd rather run the card at normal speed for 5 years than to have it run fast for 1 year :)

also, how long should i be scanning for artifacts for?

[sersalpha]

Running something hot or out of spec 24/7 will probably shorten it's lifespan. However, using ATITool's 3D Profile feature so that you're only running out of spec when you need to should minimize burning out. Better than stock cooling will also help keep your card from dying prematurely.

As for artifact scan time, I recommend 7200 seconds for both Find Max Core & Find Max Mem. It does take a really long time, but you're almost guaranteed rock solid stable speeds.