Possible to Overclock Without New Cooling?

I have :
Powercolor Radeon 9250 128mb, 64bit, AGP (default: 240core / 200mem)
1.8Ghz P4 Processer
512mb DDR SDRAM
200w Power Supply

I was wondering if I could overclocked my video card without additional cooling or new cooling.. and how much would it help my gaming if i did clock it?

Yes, you can overclock anything on stock cooling really.. You just won't be able to take it very far.

Quite frankly though, its a low end, outdated card, and you wouldn't gain much more than a few fps in an older game.

I assume you are looking to gain a bit more performance in a game then? What game and at what settings?

If you really need an upgrade, you can get a pretty cheap card now that will still be substantially better than what you are running now.

well not something too new like bf2 on low but i also want to run bf2142 but it doesnt really run that well...

btw is it possible to do permanent damage to my card if i clock it without new cooling?? if so where should i stop clocking at?? also does anyone know if there is a way to log my card's temperature (ati)?

ATItool will monitor that for you.

Honestly with those games you really need some more ram too..

That would help out a good bit with those 2 games.. bf2 is very ram hungry..

But ya, ATI tool has everythign you need, temp sensor, it does have a test built in I believe as well, although the only way to be sure where to stop is trying it out in game, and seeing if you are getting any artifacts.

hmm alright thx for the help so far but is it possible to do permanent damage to my card off of clocking it without a new type cooling?

Well its possible.. but you would really have to push it... just watch the temps, keep them around 70's or below (this would be a bit high for cpu's but gpu's can handle temps better)

hmm thx so far but.. i still have one more problem... how do u use ati tool to detect the temperature?? do all cards have a built-in detector?? (mine is powercolor 9250 agp)

Oh ya.. yours might not...

Honestly I would just take it up so, test it a lot as you move your way up.

If its running fine in a game that will max it out, then I'm sure the temp is ok, just don't push the overclock too far.

hmm after experimenting (it is currently 262.73 core /219.12 memory) there are no noticeable artifacts that i spoted so far while playing my game.... but if i raise it just slightly it will have them on occasion.. so is this a stable setting that i can leave at safely without damaging my card?? or should i lower it a little more??

Take it down to the point where you have no artifacts.

And it should be fine, if you notice artifacts later you can take it down a bit more.

hmm alright thx a lot for the help but.... this is a bit off topic but i still have one more issue i dont understand... when i am using ati tool to "check for artifacts" (normally i check in a game but used ATI tool this once) and it said "Delta of 3742 in 36 pixels (103.94 avg). No errors for 02:41.12 sec." on the bottom of the screen after 2 minutes and there are also yellow spots on the picture that ati tool uses for the artifact test.. all the numbers in the message also change as u may know but still wanted to say so...

here is a screen shot i took while using ATI tool's artifact tester :

[img=http://img118.imageshack.us/img118/4403/possibleartifactalertwikn7.th.jpg]

Honestly I wouldn't worry about it too much..

Those testers are never that great...

I'll have them fail, and then take it higher and go in game and its fine, or vice versa...

uhm, guys....

radeon 9250s are passively cooled with a puny heatsink....

theyre NOT designed to play games Nor overclock....

and yes, since it is passively cooled, you have a much much higher chance of frying the card without better cooling. i would atleast put a fan on it.

and yellow dots means artifacts, atitool should automatically clock down the card if youre checking for max settings, otherwise i would back it down. depending on the game, yellow dots might mean crashing the computer. and the more demanding ones will crash the computer even if there are no yellow dots appearing in atitool. - people recomend to back down the clocks by 10 mhz on core and ram after the stable oc has been found.

The hotter the card, the less it will clock. and the more dangerous it is.

In all honesty, if you fry the card, good for you. you get to upgrade it for cheap.

but seriously, youre much better off buying a new computer if you want to play games. heck, even a simple 400$ pc from futureshop would be better than what you have now (even if they use integrated video cards like the geforce 6150 or similar.)

It is possible. But you have to keep an eye on the temperature to make sure it is below 70 degrees.