thanks babalou,
i left it on last night running 3dmark03 in loops. when i woke up, there were no visible artifacts (question: i assume i am looking for white specs or out of place stuff or corruption in the screen colours?) so it had ran for quite a while.
i decided what the hell. i purchased that VGA Silencer ATi 4 cooler. currently ATi Tool has been scanning for artifacts at 520/560 for around an hour or so now. Its a bit bulky but it is overall pretty good. i like the ram cooling.
temperature reported fluctuates from 43|42 to 42|43 (GPU Temp|Temp of Temp chip) i assume this is not too high.
i admit i have used ATi tools override option and i have the fan set to 100% and i still can't hear it, so that would probably explain the lowish GPU temperature?
forgive me. i like to be 110% certain things are stable before attempting to flash it to XT speeds
P.S. am i wrong to assume that the 4 currently disabled pipelines should be error-free? (as it's a VIVO) or is it still a gamble if theyre not still erroneous? (as in, result in artifacts or something?)
thanks!
*update*
hellooooo X800XT
i see core temperature has gone up 5-6 degrees under load , with the additional 4 pipelines activated.
thank you to W1zzard, for your knowledge.