"An Adventure Into Overclocking" or "Taking It to the Limit:The 8790GPU"

Hi all,

So i decided to overclock my 8790's GPU to see what it could really handle. And i'm either not smart or just don't care so i was going until it the computer froze up.

My System: 8790, 3.0GHz, ATIMobility9700 256MB, 1024MB DDR400 RAM.
Everything Else having to do with the video hardware is stock.

I am using the Omega Drivers Version 2.5.36b. My overclocking utility was the internal Radlinker program from the ATI Control Panel. I am using 3DMark2001SE so the scores reported are in 3DMarks.

Here's what I got.

Test 0
High Performance
Everything Off, Clocked 415/280
11822

Test 0.1
High Performance
Everything Off, Clocked 450/270
12066

Test 0.2
High Performance
Everything Off, Clocked 459/288(Adam's Settings 1)
12409

Test 0.3
High Performance
Everything Off, Clocked 499.50/297.00(Adam's Settings 2)
12878

Test 0.4
High Performance
Everything Off, Clocked 499.50/328.50 Artifacts

Test 0.5
High Performance
Everything Off, Clocked 508.50/297.00
12970

Test 0.6
High Performance
Everything Off, Clocked 517.50/297
13008 (maybe slight artifacts)

Test 0.7
High Performance
Everything Off, Clocked 526.50/297
13005

Test 0.8
High Performance
Everything Off, Clocked 526.50/306
13242

Test 0.9
High Performance
Everything Off, Clocked 526.50/310.50
13282

Test 1.0
High Performance
Everything Off, Clocked 531.00/310.50
13263 Artifacts

Test 1.1
High Performance
Everything Off, Clocked 531.00/315.00
13377 ran stable but with artifacts...

Test 1.2
High Performance
Everything Off, Clocked 535.50/310.50
Artifacts...

Test 1.3
High Performance
Everything Off, Clocked 540/297
--Get Again13253

Test 1.4
High Performance
Everything Off, Clocked 540/306
13253 with Artifacts...

Test 1.5
High Performance
Everything Off, Clocked 544.50/297.00

Test 1.6
High Performance
Everything Off, CLocked 549/297
Lockup on the Nature Test
----Break for a Day-----

Retest 415/280
11970

Retest 500/300
12808

After the lockup, the machine's responses to 3DMark01SE were much lower than initially measured. But after a day it seemed to right itself.

The High Performance Everything Off settings refer to the ATI control panel settings. I put the top slider all the way to the left(Optimal Performance). And i turned Everything Down to off on the bottom sliders.

My settings kind of have no rhyme or reason, but i think they outline what the machine can do pretty well. I did most of the testing in my lab which has air conditioning, and the tests were performed on a flat surface. I found it weird that with the Omega Drivers i did not see the scaling that Adam did. His 500/300 got 13309 and mine got 12878. Perhaps there is some clock ratios i didn't observe well enough.

Anyway just posting the info for others benefit. Come back with any questions.

-j

Well Omaha,

Thank you for the compliment, I'm glad that I amaze you

Anyway to answer your "real question"(i can put quotation marks around things too), some people believe, that better numbers on testing software indicate better performance for 3D gaming.
I play 3D games alot, and i'm guessing that most people who bought this computer do. If you can eek a few more MHz for nothing, why not. The point is that they conservatively clocked this computer, Adam said it...I'm saying it now. I was able to safely overclock by up to 100 Mhz and 30Mhz on the clock and memory, respectively. That is a 25% and a 10% gain. If that kind of performance can be gained for nothing, than i ask you, if it's safe...Who would not take it?


To answer your other question about what real gains can be perceived by this effort...
Better Image Quality in Games...

By gaining this extra performance, image quality can be enhanced without a drop in framerate. Anti-aliasing and Anisotropic Filtering can be turned up/on without a decrease in fluidity. Higher texture quality can be turned on so the game just "looks" better without decrease in playability.

Overclocking used to be totally about framerate who could get more FPS. But with the newest hardware everyone can get a playable framerate. So the turn is to improving image quality.

That's it really. Thanks for the question.

-j

What do you mean Spin?