# Can I damage my 9800SE



## M&M (Sep 9, 2004)

Hi 
I yust bought Powercolor Radeon 9800SE and unlock 4 pipelines. It works great!
Now I would like to get higher frequency on GPU and Mem. I heave instaled AtiTool and now I want to know how far can I go? I heave stock cooler. I can not se the temperature of GPU so i am affraid to klick on "FIND MAX CORE" and "FIND MAX MEM"! Is it possible to dammage the card just with this test!? Probably the card is getting hot when do that test?

Can anybody please explane this to me!

THX


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## sersalpha (Sep 9, 2004)

It is not possible to damage your card using _Find Max Core_ or _Find Max Mem_. ATITool works by increasing clock speed until artifacts are detected. Artifacts are pixels that are rendered incorrectly as a result of instability in the core or in memory (usually caused by heat). Once artifacts are detected, ATITool lowers the clock speed until no artifacts are detected. Think of it as automatic overclocking - you're guaranteed the highest possible and 100% stable clock speed. Let it run for over 3600 seconds on each test.


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## M&M (Sep 10, 2004)

Is this mean, that there is no way to overheat my GPU by clicking on find max core. I repeat, I heave STOCK COOLER. Will the test stop, when GPU will overheat!? And is that mean, that with better cooling frequency will go higher!?


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## sersalpha (Sep 10, 2004)

There is no way to overheat your GPU by clicking on _Find Max Core_. The test will not stop until you stop it. When the GPU starts to overheat, ATITool will automatically adjust the clock speed so that it stops overheating. With better cooling the frequency will probably go higher.


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## Frozen (Sep 11, 2004)

WHAT THE HELL! THIS IS WORSE THAN OCFAQ!

Findmax can kill your card. Does ATItool not say use at your own risk on the page?! If you let Findmax run forever, the card will hover at high clockspeeds and may overheat.Findmax DOESNT back down very far. Say your max mem is 390. Itll hit 391 about, then go down to 385, back to 390 and attempt to hit a higher speed. SOmetimes....ATItool will screw up, and constantly increase clockspeed because of a bug. So in short, ATItool can be a real helper, or a killer. There is NO 100% safe overclocking tool aout there.


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## Chiseanne (Sep 11, 2004)

*Atitool 022 HAS a bug !*

Frozen is so true! I tried the find maxcore function from Atitool today and almost killed my Radeon 9550SE. At about 430 core freq the tool didnt update the actual core freq anymore but went ahead with testing until I had massive artifacts all over the screen. I turned my computer off and let it cool down, started new with that artifacts still and when it reached Windows all was good again. Just a warning : Dont use findmax and go away from your computer  -  it seems to be bugged !


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## wazzledoozle (Sep 11, 2004)

Well what if your card runs very cool and you just push it too far and break it!?!?!?!??!


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## Chiseanne (Sep 11, 2004)

*???*

...
 
...


Well...what kind of answer was that ?


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## kRaZeD (Sep 11, 2004)

idea: use ATiTool as long as u can afford to replace broken hardware!


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