Artifacts in Overclocking

[DaHoboFest]

I started getting artifacts when overclocking mu vc at 450/382. First of all, what causes artifacts other than overclocking too high? Anything I can do to overclock even higher without getting artifacts? Also, I have the 9800 Pro 128 mb, can I raise my memory any higher? WIll raising memory bring better performance?

[Tekk]

Heat is a big problem when it comes to overclocking anything. Heat will cause artifacts to occur on an o/c'ed vid-card. Some people have had luck by putting RAM heatsinks on their video card to dissipate the heat better but its no guarentee. I've also heard of people upping the voltage of the AGP to gain a more stable overclocking scenario. Again, this is not a sure bet and changing the voltage might seem a bit drastic IMO.

As far as how far you can overclock your 9800? Well look for other people who've tried to overclock their cards. It might be a good idea (if youre really into the o/c of the card) to find out what specific ram type is on the card and then do a search for your specific brand card with that specific memory. This way you'll at least be able to see what other people are doing to get the most out of their card.

[DaHoboFest]

so, if I can cool my gpu down then, artifacts will go to a higher setting, like it will take more heat to get artifacts? (Higher core speed)

[Tekk]

theoretically. But remember, its not just the core that gets hot. The RAM gets very hot as well and may still cause artifacts to occur.

Also, you asked if raising memory speed will increase performance. Yes definitely! But just dont go hog wild with it. There is a happy medium.

EDIT:

After a simple search I came across an article where the reviewer was able to get a very stable (no artifacts) overclock speed of 429Mhz for the core and 363Mhz for the memory. That was producing no artifacts and seemed to run stable through all the benchmarks. Of course, you must remember that every card is different. So you're results may vary

[GroundZero3]

each card overclocks different. alot depends on the ram on the card. some manf put cheap ram others dont. If your gonna overclock then you need extra cooling.

but remember not all cards can overclock and some can

[DaHoboFest]

I have the Sapphire 128mb 256 bit 9800 Pro. (Redline overclocking software.)