Underclockable Video Cards

RoaDKiLL617 · Post by **RoaDKiLL617** » Mon Oct 03, 2005 8:13 pm

I've been looking into underclocking my Radeon 9600 and it clocks from 325/400 down to 85/250MHz without major problems, but the card itself causes the system to reboot randomly and I need to get another AGP card soon.

Has anyone tried underclocking their cards to see how far they go, and what is the best card for this? and is there any way to calculate the wattage just like we do with CPUs?

Remember I don't play games at all, so even a Radeon 9200 or GF4 MX440 would work.

Thanks all

ultraboy · Post by **ultraboy** » Mon Oct 03, 2005 9:53 pm

If you don't play game at all, why not look for an older version of VGA card for instance GF2 series. It's dirt cheap, and mostly comes fanless, but still offer reasonably high resolution for others app.

I've just put one, GF2 something - fanless, for my parent's system (they don't play game

) - and the HS hardly get warm. No need to underclock the GPU => one less app. to load

.

As for the question on how far GPU underclock can go, my guess is it's differrent from one card to another. RachelG reports very low underclock on her VGA. My R9800 can not go lower than 60% of default, although that may has something to do with the fact that I've softmodded the card.

Cheers.

dragmor · Post by **dragmor** » Mon Oct 03, 2005 10:01 pm

Any of the ATI cards are easily underclockable. Even at stock speeds (200/200) the tiny passive heatsink (stock) on my 9550 doesnt seem to get above ambient using the finger method for testing temps.

Although if you having problems with a 9600 I dont know if you will get the same problems with the 9550.

I dont know if getting an older card would help, from memory the 9600 chips use less power than the 9200 and GF4 cards. The GF2 Ultra in my old PC runs hot with a fan.

frostedflakes · Post by **frostedflakes** » Mon Oct 03, 2005 10:34 pm

I've underclocked my 9600 to 100/100 without any apparent problems and intend to try even lower eventually. The card is based on the 9600 mobility GPU, though, so maybe it's more friendly to underclocking than your average desktop card.

Random reboots don't sound like a video problem, though. If you know somebody with a spare AGP card you may want to try it in your computer and see if you still have problems.

Sounds more like it could be power related, but who knows. If your CPU is undervolted, maybe you need the bump the voltage up slightly. Could also be a power supply issue. What are your system specs?

afrost · Post by **afrost** » Wed Oct 05, 2005 7:59 am

Is your computer Prime95 stable?

If you are certain that your reboot issues are related to video....you may want to try a registry cleaner like regestry mechanic etc.....have seen it clean up video driver problems in the past.

vine-au · Post by **vine-au** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 6:39 pm

i agree with ultraboy, if you dont play games why not just pick up an old GF2 card. shouldnt cost you anymore than $10. much lower power consumption/heat output. you could probably undervolt it too

m0002a · Post by **m0002a** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 6:56 pm

vine-au wrote:i agree with ultraboy, if you dont play games why not just pick up an old GF2 card. shouldnt cost you anymore than $10. much lower power consumption/heat output. you could probably undervolt it too ;)

I agree with dragmor. My old GF2 ran fairly hot and required a fan.

jojo4u · Post by **jojo4u** » Sat Oct 08, 2005 2:09 am

Here is my post called "extreme underclocking with Radeon 9700"

http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewto ... highlight=

Oh btw right now, the card is less than handwarm with a Zalman passive heatpipe on it.