# ATI Tool: Confused on Documentation



## JoeyRoland (Oct 28, 2005)

Hello,

This is my first post here, so please be gentle.  

I currently have an *ATI 9250se Radeon*.  With CoD2 available, I was looking to boost my graphics card performance - at least until the holidays.  However, I think I'm lost here. 

I have successfully downloaded and installed the software - version 0.24.  

Per the documentation, I went to find my "Max Core."  I watched as the ATI Tool took my Core up to roughly 270, (laughable I know), and then received an error.  From there it came down.  According to the documentation, it continues to go down until no further errors are found. In my case, it went down beyond the default core of 200.  

Does that mean my card isn't stable at the default level?   Also, I'm aware that I must also find the Max Mem as well. The only reason I didn't do that is because I wish to clarify my previous step.

Thanks for any help anyone can provide. And please feel free to talk down to me!   Oh, and on a side note, my ATI Tool only ran for about 18 minutes to get from 200 to 270 ish.  That's why I figured that I should let it go down since the documentation explains that some allow for at least an hour.

Thanks!  

PC Specifications
AMD Athlon XP 2400+
512MB DDR RAM
ATI 9250se Radeon: 8x AGP 128MB
WindowsXP Professional, SP2


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## wazzledoozle (Oct 28, 2005)

Since it goes up to 270 then down below stock, I would guess that it is overheating after being stressed for a certain amount of time. Maybe prop a case fan up under the card, and take some of the case slot covers out for some fresh airflow.


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## JoeyRoland (Oct 29, 2005)

No, no, no!   Don't say that!  

Yeah, that's what I was scared of.  I thought I had read that the program continuously goes down - period.  But, I was quite sure that I read that the program documentation that it said it would go down until the card became stable.  

That's more or less why I was wondering if I was doing it right - since it went below default Core.

Also, just of note, after I overclocked the adapter to 260, (to be safe), and played Call of Duty: United Offensive, I kept getting "spots."  I believe these are aritfacts?  Perhaps I'm wrong.

Anyway, after setting my levels back to default, I continued getting these spots. Finally, I rebooted my PC and walla - everything was fine again.

Am I missing something?  

THanks!


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## W1zzard (Oct 29, 2005)

it seems your gpu doesnt like to be overclocked beyond a certain clock speed .. once that speed it reached something goes wrong and stays wrong even if you reduce the clocks.
this is nothing to worry about, it just makes things a bit more complicated ... 
observe when atitool starts detecting artifacts then manually keep trying lower frequencies until you see no artifacts (may have to reboot in between to "clear" artifacts)


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## DR.Death (Oct 30, 2005)

no i tryed to overclock mine i had my core at 260 and the mem at 250 and it started to artfact so i brought it down to around stock . core 230 and the mem was 225 somthing like that and it worked fine for a wile but after prolonged gaming it started to artafact so i put it at stock ia it has been fine scnce
my advice buy a new card thats what i am doing if u are in canada or the usa u can get a 9600 pro vivo for only 103$ here http://www.greenlyph.com/product_info.php?cPath=198&products_id=190


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## JoeyRoland (Oct 30, 2005)

Okay, so I think I have it tweaked....

I watch until I get errors during the Max Core test.  As mentioned, it's generally around 270. So, I lowered the clock to 260 and rebooted my PC.  I then ran ATI Tool and created the OC Profile mentioned in the User Guide. Then, I played Call of Duty: United Offensive.  I messed with some settings and everything seemed to be fine.  I played for almost an hour too!  

I'll be adding a CPU Fan to the card in the next week or so as well.  I think DR. Death made a good point about purchasing a newer card.  I actually have plans to do so - but not until the holiday season.  Currently, this isn't the greatest card but it's certainly plenty functional for both Halo and CoD2 - just released.  Until I crash my system,  , I think I'm gonig to stay with this little guy.

Anyway, I just wanted to say that I'm very thankful to all of your replies!  I sincerely appreciate your help!  

Perhaps when I get another card, I'll probably go ahead and overclock that as well.  

THANKS!


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## ShadowFlare (Nov 1, 2005)

One thing that you can do if you know that your gpu messes up beyond certain clock speeds is setting a maximum gpu overclock in ATITool.  I do that with my GTO2, since anything much beyond 520 will cause it to lock up.  Actually, it even eventually locks up at that speed under heavy stress.  Anyway, if you do that, you can test stability in ATITool for speeds that are not beyond that speed.

Also, if you are going to run ATITool unattended (even for just a minute), you should set minimum clocks, too.  Sometimes artifacts can stay on the screen and make ATITool continuously detect artifacts and continuously decrease your clock speed.  In this case if you have no minimum set, it will keep going down until it crashes.  I had this happen once on my X700 when testing the max memory overclock and I left it for only a couple of minutes.  When I got back, the display was all messed up and I restarted the computer.  It had serious full screen artifacts even in 2d mode when starting up and even after turning off the computer and turning it back on!  I was able to get it to work O.K. by taking out the card and putting it back in, but I think it may have permanently damaged the memory on the card such that artifacts would be more likely to appear.


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