scorryuk

Not all that clued up on the whole overclocking thing and have a system that is badly in need of an upgrade but in the meantime will have to make do. Anyway, overclocked my MSI FX5600 card using coolbits and was wondering should I up my AGP voltage setting in BIOS? Currently at 1.5V. Basically been having alot of problems with graphics lately and this has meant alot of time in BIOS. So know I want to know what everything does. Been a learning experience if nothing else.
For anyone who likes a challenge in solving system probs you might have an opinion on this problem... Felt graphics have been "off lately" Thats the best I can put it- distant objects seem slightly blurred, texture lines not so straight, sometimes black is of colour in bits. All very subtle, but I know it isn`t 100% sharp. Various drivers ect didn`t cure. Nor did BIOS flash. So bought MSI FX5900 off E-BAY and at first games looked much sharper. But then the crashes started. Total lock up. No real pattern other than only in games. Sometimes took 1hr, sometimes only 5min from cold start. All the usual "fast write, Vsynch off" advice didn`t work. Felt it was between heat and power (or duff card!). But built in temp sensor in card said 58C whilst game was minimised, 42C at idle. With regard to power though, recently bought 550W PSU after last packed in. Had to buy from local retailer so only afterward did I realise it appears unbranded! Though early research on net has suggested ratings for amps in manual appear well above required. Checked voltages in BIOS and all appeared close to true value (+/- 0.03 in most cases) with exception on 12V which ran at 11.79, dropping briefly by 0.05 now and again. Any thoughts on this anyone??

Sidney

1) Used vcard from eBay is hit and miss; you don't know if you are buying other's problem.
2) 58C may be too high particularly when the temp is after a game; by the time you check the temp it is a few seconds later ..... I could only assume the temp is higher than 58C during game.
3) Try increasing the voltage; mine runs at 1.60 volt (FX5900XT) 490/785.
4) I never trust PSU wattage rating ..... how does anyone know the 550Watts output is true or not.

__________________
lazyman

Opteron 165 (2) @2.85 1.42 vcore AMD Stock HSF + Chill Vent II

kristos

messing around with LOD settings can get you that inacurate image but it shouldn't cause lock ups..

scorryuk

Ok. With regard to PSU, no I don`t trust the rating. A good 350W beats a poor 550W. But how can I be sure mine is? Amps seemed strong. Only worry about volts was the low 12V. Also can anyone clarify exactly how much affect the AGP voltage settings have on graphics card. Is their any noticable difference, is it good practice to raise when overclocking??
With regard to heat theory was minimising game with sensor runing in background so got reading really quickly. And GPU temp treshold was set at 145 so would have had to do some serious cooling in 2secs if card had exceeded this. That said a friend suggested removing heatsink and re-applying thermal paste? what do you think is the likehhod of this making any difference??

kristos

Vagp will help with getting a higher stabel fsb (we're talking close to and over 300 fsb on Intel P4 systems here).

ATI cards don't like high Vagp though...

nVidia cards can handle higher Vagp then ATI cards and I've heard it also makes a difference when overclocking the nVidia 6800 series videocard but since I never really used an nVidia card, I can't confirm this



if you're talking graphic card voltage in terms of graphics core and graphics memory... again, I have no experience with nVidia cards but I've heard most 6800 cards don't like more then 1.5Vcore

with ATI's x800 series, some cards will handle 1.8V or even more and some won't...

for the memory on these cards, I think that except for the 6800LE, they all have samsung GDDR3 memory and that memory generally wants it's Vddq voltage to be about 0.1V higher then it's Vdd voltage and it's more about finding the right Voltage rather then more is better...

CrashDrive

Also inspect AGP mobo Socket for litter, clear w/ clean sm. bristle brush & quick blast of...keyboard cleaner in a can. Check your Gold Fingers, are they worn through or thin. Check for even wear pattern , including socket contacts. Do a BaseLine test, returning AGP settings to Default then select a Game to be a "Fixed Variable" in the test equation.