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Sapphire x1800xt help, this graphics card is driving me nuts.

Soldato
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I've had countless problems with this card my first ever ATI, no need to talk about previous problems but I think its not the card itself hardware wise but the crappy ATI software and the 3rd party software being preety much useless also.

Ok anyways, when running this card in games - it randomly clocks down to 475/700 somtimes (default is 600/700).
Anyone else get this bloody problem? I think I might have sorted it by disabling two ATI things in services but cant say for sure.
Now I'm wanting to overclock this card, so I use ATI tool as CCC is horendous and ATI Tray Tools doesnt overclock x1800 cards and ATI Tool doesnt work when ATI Tray tools is installed, yeah even more problems.
So I run ATI tool, overclock it, to my surprise the clocks actually stay and dont revert back to 475/700 and stay at the clock I set of 635/825 on stock volts.
I'm preety pleased at this point then I try and watch my digitv, screen goes black and pc doesnt respond - OK so I have to downclock everytime I go 2d mode, what a pain!

Is there anyway I can set ATI Tool to overclock everytime to 635/825 without having to start it everytime I start windows, and anyway I can watch vids without the card crashing under these clocks?
 
Man of Honour
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Sorry if this isn't much help but in Coolbits(the Nvidia equivalent) you can set different clocks for 2D mode and 3D mode so I'd assume ATI would have something similar, you aren't advise to set different clocks for Nvidia even though it is possible as it can lead to problems.

So does it let you watch digitv at stock speeds? If so I'd suggest working from that point before attempting overclocks as it doesn't sound like you have the most stable card in the world unfortunately :)
 
Soldato
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The card is completly stable overclocked trust me, its just that when u try and watch a video it goes all weird, the screen goes black but everything is running, it has something todo with the crappy software.

And there is no 2d/3d clock just the one its bloody stupid i'm going to turn into a nvidia fanboy lol, this card runs games a dream but todo this everytime I play a game is just annoying.
 
Soldato
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Hahaha, yep I use CCC Overdrive. It's horrible, but I can't get my head around disabling 2D/3D switching for ATi Tool and need to use either CCC or ATT for managing profiles and Catalyst A.I. :(
 
Soldato
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CCC is easy, you just unlock it and then push the sliders up to the speeds you want it as when it enters 3D Mode. It will say the current clockspeed is still the same, but when you go into a game or 3D application, it will then perform the overclock.

Alternatively use the auto-overclocking button, and it'll probably set both sliders to max when it's done and allow you to watch the temperatures. It'll only go to 690/800 though, unfortunately. :(
 
Soldato
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Exsomnis said:
CCC is easy, you just unlock it and then push the sliders up to the speeds you want it as when it enters 3D Mode. It will say the current clockspeed is still the same, but when you go into a game or 3D application, it will then perform the overclock.

Alternatively use the auto-overclocking button, and it'll probably set both sliders to max when it's done and allow you to watch the temperatures. It'll only go to 690/800 though, unfortunately. :(

It said my card was stable at 690/800 but it wasnt :/
 
Soldato
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Well it wasnt ATI Tool stable, i'm goint to uninstall everything and just set everything to max via CCC and see how I go, if I ever decide to get a better cooler than I may start pushing volts etc.
 
Soldato
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Yeah, try with CCC Overdrive. I never thought I would ever recommend CCC, but it might be able to get better clocks than ATi Tool because it's by ATi themselves so may have much better compatibility with clocking these cards.

My plan is to stick with CCC until ATi Tray Tools has X1*00 support.
 
Soldato
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Hmm I just used CCC and i'm not entirely convinced it actually overclocks as far as it does, I just went to 690/800 straight away, ran 3dmark 05 scored 9294, fair enough.
But I had already ran 3dmark05 like 5 mins before that with ATI Tool at 635/825 (significantly lower clocks) and scored 9326.
 
Soldato
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I dont think its the card, its ATI being ***** if you ask me, just have to use it like this for now, then once ati tray tools is sorted use that.
 
Soldato
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Yeah that's what I meant. The card sounds fine, but Catalyst Control Centre might be a liar with pants on fire and actually exaggerating the clockspeeds that it is setting.

I'd still give ATi a telling-off if it were me. :p In fact if I could get ATi Tool to work at all I would test it out myself and then email them about it.
 
Soldato
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Doubt they'd care to be honest, wish I had gone for the 7900gt now, for a extra £20 I would pay that to save the hassle.
 
Soldato
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Well TBH overclocking is not officially supported by ATi in the first place, so you've got your money's worth. Really though, this is far more hassle than it should be, for anybody, and I think that this could be a serious issue with Catalyst Control Centre that needs to be exposed.

If I were you, I'd go back to the lower clocks in ATi Tool since they give higher 3D Mark scores and see if they actually give better in-game performance too. If that works, then I'd stick with that until a better version of ATi Tray Tools with X1*00 support is available.
 
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