X800XL OC'ing - Worth it?

T

Toilet Duck

Limp Gawd
Joined
May 22, 2005
Messages
190
Right now, I have one of those cheap Connect3D X800XL 256mb cards, with the stock cooler. I don't have any complaints about performance at the moment, but since the card doesn't appear to have any built in temperature monitoring functions I can't really be sure how warm it's getting. I haven't reeeeally been hard on the card yet, mostly an hour or two of BF2 here and there. Once I'm back in broadband land it'll be getting a lot more use.

I'm considering getting an ATI Silencer 5 to put on the card, but figured I'd ask first: Is it worth it? $35-40 bucks for a new HSF seems a little pricy, seeing as to how I haven't been getting any heat-related problems at the moment. Therefore, the only way I could really justify the purchase would be through OC'ing the card... Not that I really "need" more speed out of the card, but heck, if you can get it why not get it?

Eh, I'm rambling.. the question is simply whether or not a X800XL can be OC'd decently, or rather decently enough to make a Silencer 5 a worthwhile purchase. Alternatively, I guess I'm also asking whether or not people are having trouble with the stock coolers should they decide not to OC...
 
Toilet Duck said:
Right now, I have one of those cheap Connect3D X800XL 256mb cards, with the stock cooler. I don't have any complaints about performance at the moment, but since the card doesn't appear to have any built in temperature monitoring functions I can't really be sure how warm it's getting. I haven't reeeeally been hard on the card yet, mostly an hour or two of BF2 here and there. Once I'm back in broadband land it'll be getting a lot more use.

I'm considering getting an ATI Silencer 5 to put on the card, but figured I'd ask first: Is it worth it? $35-40 bucks for a new HSF seems a little pricy, seeing as to how I haven't been getting any heat-related problems at the moment. Therefore, the only way I could really justify the purchase would be through OC'ing the card... Not that I really "need" more speed out of the card, but heck, if you can get it why not get it?

Eh, I'm rambling.. the question is simply whether or not a X800XL can be OC'd decently, or rather decently enough to make a Silencer 5 a worthwhile purchase. Alternatively, I guess I'm also asking whether or not people are having trouble with the stock coolers should they decide not to OC...
Click to expand...

After getting the Arctic Cooling AT5 rev 2, I was able to overclock to 430/550- Increasing my 3dmark05 score from 5,150 at stock to 5,505. :D
 
Thanks for the response. Not an unbelievable increase, but enough to justify the purchase/experience of doing it. I think this comp scored somewhere in the 5050ish range as it currently is... a 30/50 mhz clock increase while remaining stable and perhaps just as cool can't hurt anything.

That being said... one other lil question: How large is the clip that holds the thing on the vidcard? Using an Ultra-D with an XP-90 mounted in the processor, I only have 1/4th of an inch or so space between the vidcard and the HSF assembly. I suppose I could just move the whole card to the other PCIe 16x slot, though..
 
Toilet Duck said:
Thanks for the response. Not an unbelievable increase, but enough to justify the purchase/experience of doing it. I think this comp scored somewhere in the 5050ish range as it currently is... a 30/50 mhz clock increase while remaining stable and perhaps just as cool can't hurt anything.

That being said... one other lil question: How large is the clip that holds the thing on the vidcard? Using an Ultra-D with an XP-90 mounted in the processor, I only have 1/4th of an inch or so space between the vidcard and the HSF assembly. I suppose I could just move the whole card to the other PCIe 16x slot, though..
Click to expand...

Hmm, well I can say the cooler is fairly large. The actual screws are thick and tall, they got in the way of my northbridge hsf (the one that's over the bios chip, I believe). No problem though, I unscrewed 3 of the 4 screws on the northbridge fan, and swiveled it slightly so my card could sit in the PCI-E slot. I'd show you a picture, if I had a camera. As for the actual clip, I guess you're talking about the huge metallic brace-thing. The clip combined size of the clip and the tall screws raises the card's area about 1/2 an inch.

I'll see if I can get you a picture of my setup to give you a better idea.
 
Violator said:
Hmm, my Sapphire does 445/555 with the stock cooler ;)
Click to expand...

Mine got a high overclock on stock cooling, but at close to 80 deg C :eek:

With my AC cooler on it, I now have load temps about what the idle temps were with the stock cooling.
 
canis said:
Mine got a high overclock on stock cooling, but at close to 80 deg C :eek:

With my AC cooler on it, I now have load temps about what the idle temps were with the stock cooling.
Click to expand...

Well mine hits about 60-61C under load. So not too bad I guess.
 
I hit 440/550 on stock cooler. although it hits an uncomfortable 71c load though. someday I'll get an AC5 on it...but until then, stock speed is plenty fast for me.
 
CleanSlate said:
Only reason to OC is if you need more performance than stock...

~Adam
Click to expand...

That, and it's a hobby for most.

Hmm, my Sapphire does 445/555 with the stock cooler
Click to expand...

But I paid about $100 less. :D

Best friend works at BestBuy. ;)
 
Well, letting ATITool dink around trying to find the max core on this one, I started getting seriously wonky performance issues at roughly 420 core. It didn't ever get artifacts, but the entire system started stuttering horribly. ATITool would report 100+FPS easily, but I was seeing maybe 2-3FPS jittery style. So chances are I just got a card that won't OC well to begin with.

And.. weeell.. if the HSF is that large I'd probably have to move it down a PCIe slot so it wouldn't hit the XP90.. blarg.. and for now I haven't seen anything that would require any more speed. Maybe I should just leave it alone until the time comes where I need to re-explore the option. Meh.. is there a way to check the temps on a card with no built in temp monitoring? Or does this Connect3D one have it? I certainly didn't see it on the CatControlCenter thing (on my 9600xt it was under "overdrive" or some such.. that was a Sapphire card though).
 
SPARTAN VI said:
That, and it's a hobby for most.
Click to expand...

No it's not a hobby for most people, the hobby is increasing performance by increasing clockspeeds. Anyone who thinks OCing is a hobby, when they dont want more performance is just being superfluous.

~Adam
 
CleanSlate said:
No it's not a hobby for most people, the hobby is increasing performance by increasing clockspeeds. Anyone who thinks OCing is a hobby, when they dont want more performance is just being superfluous.

~Adam
Click to expand...

Wow you are certainly in the minority with that opinion my friend. Of course they "want" more performance - they just don't need it in most cases. Especially with CPU's.
 
CleanSlate said:
No it's not a hobby for most people, the hobby is increasing performance by increasing clockspeeds. Anyone who thinks OCing is a hobby, when they dont want more performance is just being superfluous.

~Adam
Click to expand...

I want it because it performs better; But realistically, all that time and effort will I notice the extra 2 FPS I'm gaining? Or the extra 30 msecs faster it'll be when I'm loading up Firefox?

Not a chance, but I spend the time and money researching the best parts to overclock and to get my bang for buck really because it's more a hobby. Hobby as in attaining higher performance at a lower cost with lower end products.
 
It makes no sense to increase clocks just to do so, the point of it all, and the hobby in it all is increasing performance.

For instance if increasing clock speeds no longer mattered for performance and rather increasing voltage was all you had to do to get higher performance out of your stuff without increasing clock speeds, everyone would be trying to increase their voltage.

The point is that the hobby and the time well spent rests in the relm of INCREASING PERFORMANCE, not increasing clock speeds.

~Adam
 
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