New to ATI tool

Chris Himself introduced me to ATI tool and I have been trying to learn it all morning. I've read almost the whole wiki, and been looking on other forums and such s well, but I just dont seem to be getting it. I have an x1900xt. First thing I did was to change the fan settings to ATI Tool's default "dynamic" settings. Then I tried running find max core. It works for a about a min and then Black screen! I have to restart. This happened twice. I'm posting my logfile here so you can see exactly whats going on. Any help would be great, and if I'm missing something totally noobish, please forgive me



2006-12-18 10:52:23 D Successfully connected to driver, version 130
2006-12-18 10:52:23 D Scanning for ATI VGA Cards...
2006-12-18 10:52:23 D Found ATI device: 0x1002 0x7249 bus 1 dev 0
2006-12-18 10:52:23 D fbPhy: 0xC0000000, mmrPhy: 0xFF6F0000.
2006-12-18 10:52:23 D mmapped mmr to 0x1830000
2006-12-18 10:52:23 D BIOS at 0x0
2006-12-18 10:52:23 D fixing bios address to 0xC0000
2006-12-18 10:52:23 D mmapped bios to 0x1840000
2006-12-18 10:52:23 D LM63 temp chip detection: success (0x1)
2006-12-18 10:52:23 D Temperature monitoring: LM63
2006-12-18 10:52:23 D VT1103 chip detection: success (0x23)
2006-12-18 10:52:23 D Device initialized successfully
2006-12-18 10:52:23 D Scanning for NVIDIA VGA Cards...
2006-12-18 10:52:23 I Forcing 3D clocks
2006-12-18 11:11:10 I Find Max Core started...
2006-12-18 11:11:15 I Clocks set to: 627.75 / 720.00
2006-12-18 11:11:18 I Clocks set to: 634.50 / 720.00
2006-12-18 11:11:21 I Clocks set to: 641.25 / 720.00
2006-12-18 11:11:24 I Clocks set to: 648.00 / 720.00
2006-12-18 11:11:27 I Clocks set to: 654.75 / 720.00
2006-12-18 11:11:30 I Clocks set to: 661.50 / 720.00
2006-12-18 11:11:33 I Clocks set to: 668.25 / 720.00
2006-12-18 11:11:36 I Clocks set to: 675.00 / 720.00
2006-12-18 11:11:39 I Clocks set to: 681.75 / 720.00
2006-12-18 11:12:12 I Clocks set to: 688.50 / 720.00
2006-12-18 11:17:47 D Successfully connected to driver, version 130
2006-12-18 11:17:47 D Scanning for ATI VGA Cards...
2006-12-18 11:17:47 D Found ATI device: 0x1002 0x7249 bus 1 dev 0
2006-12-18 11:17:47 D fbPhy: 0xC0000000, mmrPhy: 0xFF6F0000.
2006-12-18 11:17:47 D mmapped mmr to 0x1830000
2006-12-18 11:17:47 D BIOS at 0xC0000
2006-12-18 11:17:47 D mmapped bios to 0x1840000
2006-12-18 11:17:47 D LM63 temp chip detection: success (0x1)
2006-12-18 11:17:47 D Temperature monitoring: LM63
2006-12-18 11:17:47 D VT1103 chip detection: success (0x27)
2006-12-18 11:17:47 D Device initialized successfully
2006-12-18 11:17:48 D Scanning for NVIDIA VGA Cards...
2006-12-18 11:17:48 I Forcing 3D clocks
2006-12-18 11:30:47 I Find Max Core started...
2006-12-18 11:30:51 I Clocks set to: 627.75 / 720.00
2006-12-18 11:30:54 I Clocks set to: 634.50 / 720.00
2006-12-18 11:30:57 I Clocks set to: 641.25 / 720.00
2006-12-18 11:31:00 I Clocks set to: 648.00 / 720.00
2006-12-18 11:31:03 I Clocks set to: 654.75 / 720.00
2006-12-18 11:31:06 I Clocks set to: 661.50 / 720.00
2006-12-18 11:31:09 I Clocks set to: 668.25 / 720.00
2006-12-18 11:31:12 I Clocks set to: 675.00 / 720.00
2006-12-18 11:31:15 I Clocks set to: 681.75 / 720.00
2006-12-18 11:31:48 I Clocks set to: 688.50 / 720.00

That's a problem I had with my X1600 and an older version of ATI Tool. Basically it tests to find the max core / max mem and I think it has issues with certain cards, pushes them too far, and forces them to reset. So try some manual settings, going up at like 10MHz a time, testing for artifacts for a bit, then going up another 10MHz...

ok i manually pumped it up to 661.5 from 621 on the core, and 756 from 720 on the mem without any artifacting. It seems to be running at about 70-80C while artifact scanning with these settings, and I have them set so they only go into effect during 3D apps. I played Oblivion like this and there were no issues. Is this a decent OC and are my temps ok? I dont really know what to expect to get out of my card.

Theoretically you want your temps as low as possible. That being said, my X1600Pro runs at 70-75C during gaming, non-overclocked, while my old 9600XT ran at only 45C. Look at the temps it was running at stock, then compare them to the overclocked temps. I would go more than 10-15C above your stock temps. Basically you are overclocking your card and burning it up, so it's gonna crash faster. With that said, most cards last 5 years, so by overclocking your could be cutting off a year or two, but by that time you will probably have a new card, so you really don't have to worry.

I would keep pushing it till it artifacts, but keep in mind, if you permanently damage your card, the warranty is voided because of your overclocking. (You can get around this, but it's just something to keep in mind)