[BLOG] An old X850 and a lot of patience - Part 1
I hate to admit it, but its true. I'm sitting here running a system at complete stock frequencies. For those of you who have known me for the last few years, this is unbelievable. Once upon a time (2003-2006) I had an unquenchable thirst for overclocking. I bought the latest gear, and pushed it to the limits. I dabbled in high-end water cooling and even phase-change cooling. I voided warranties, removed heat spreaders, lapped heatsinks and CPUs, you name it.
As "extreme" as I thought I was, I always had somewhat of a sanity check in my methods. The problem: I paid a lot for my gear. I never quite crossed that bridge of picking up a soldering iron and really pushing the envelope.
In February of 2005, in the height of my hardware enthusiasm, I made a large purchase. I bought a brand new ATI Radeon X850 XT. It was on sale for $639. Not a bad deal considering the $700 price tag of the "Platinum Edition". At the time, I was running a pretty high end water cooling system. I had a high flow pump and a BIX2. I had always included my old 9800 Pro in the loop, and was planning to do the same with the X850—but I couldn't do it. That precious warranty protecting the six hundred dollar "investment" just seemed too much to overlook. So it sat there, running it's stock cooler. I still tried to overclock it, but to my frustration, it did miserably. I was never quite able to squeeze more than about an extra 40MHz out of the core and only about 50MHz out of the memory.
Well, times have changed. If you look around on for sale forums, you'll find cards four times faster than that X850 XT that cost about $50. If I had to guess the actual going price for a used X850 XT, I'd peg it somewhere around $25-30. I just can't bring myself to sell it—after all, I've had quite the history with this card.
So, the good old X850 is going to be the center of a multi-part overclocking blog series. I've been itching to overclock something. Not 24/7 happy overclocking—I'm talking ludicrous, flaming video card overclocking. It is a fitting end and tribute to an expensive card that served me well for two years. Nothing lasts forever, and this time, there is no warranty to worry about.
Insane, worry-free overclocking. Check. Now what?
High volts and low temps. That is the formula for success. It is also, unfortunately, a total recipe for disaster. I'm not going to be going to all this trouble and have my precious X850 go up in smoke before finishing a single 3DMark run. I'll be doing my homework, and sharing my experiences here.
Here is a rough list of things I'm planning to do:
I honestly have no idea how well this card will fair with large doses of voltage and phase cooling. I'm not planning to break any records, but if I can get in the top 10, top 20, or even see some impressive numbers, I'll be happy. Above all, I hope I'll learn a thing or two. It will be a fitting farewell to my old X850 regardless of the outcome!
Stay tuned!
As "extreme" as I thought I was, I always had somewhat of a sanity check in my methods. The problem: I paid a lot for my gear. I never quite crossed that bridge of picking up a soldering iron and really pushing the envelope.
In February of 2005, in the height of my hardware enthusiasm, I made a large purchase. I bought a brand new ATI Radeon X850 XT. It was on sale for $639. Not a bad deal considering the $700 price tag of the "Platinum Edition". At the time, I was running a pretty high end water cooling system. I had a high flow pump and a BIX2. I had always included my old 9800 Pro in the loop, and was planning to do the same with the X850—but I couldn't do it. That precious warranty protecting the six hundred dollar "investment" just seemed too much to overlook. So it sat there, running it's stock cooler. I still tried to overclock it, but to my frustration, it did miserably. I was never quite able to squeeze more than about an extra 40MHz out of the core and only about 50MHz out of the memory.
Well, times have changed. If you look around on for sale forums, you'll find cards four times faster than that X850 XT that cost about $50. If I had to guess the actual going price for a used X850 XT, I'd peg it somewhere around $25-30. I just can't bring myself to sell it—after all, I've had quite the history with this card.
So, the good old X850 is going to be the center of a multi-part overclocking blog series. I've been itching to overclock something. Not 24/7 happy overclocking—I'm talking ludicrous, flaming video card overclocking. It is a fitting end and tribute to an expensive card that served me well for two years. Nothing lasts forever, and this time, there is no warranty to worry about.
Insane, worry-free overclocking. Check. Now what?
High volts and low temps. That is the formula for success. It is also, unfortunately, a total recipe for disaster. I'm not going to be going to all this trouble and have my precious X850 go up in smoke before finishing a single 3DMark run. I'll be doing my homework, and sharing my experiences here.
Here is a rough list of things I'm planning to do:
- Build up a suitable benchmarking rig. Not a problem.
- Baseline the X850. I want run some benchmarks to know where to draw the line in the sand.
- Find the maximum 3DMark stable overclock for the CPU and Memory on the benchmarking rig. Who knows how much time I'll have with the card once it is fully modded, so I won't want to be trying to figure this out after the fact.
- Ghetto air cooling. I'll be replacing the pathetic air cooler with a modded CPU heatsink of some kind. Something that will allow me to at least test the voltmods to come without the card on ice. I'll install ramsinks on the DDR3 as well as the card's power regulation components.
- Install variable resistors on the X850 to overvolt the GPU and memory.
- Run some benchmarks on the new air-cooled monster. Test some moderate voltage increases to see how the card behaves with the extra juice.
- Install insulating foam and other condensation prevention measures on the card.
- Modify my Vapochill LS socket 939 mounting kit to fit the X850. Fire it up and test for stability.
- Benchmark!
I honestly have no idea how well this card will fair with large doses of voltage and phase cooling. I'm not planning to break any records, but if I can get in the top 10, top 20, or even see some impressive numbers, I'll be happy. Above all, I hope I'll learn a thing or two. It will be a fitting farewell to my old X850 regardless of the outcome!
Stay tuned!
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