Overclock HIS ATI 4850 IceQ

A

Alan

Honorary Master
Joined
Sep 30, 2005
Messages
62,474
Reaction score
2,588
So in the ATI panel there's an overdrive option. How much of a difference in FPS can one expect if you use it? Also will it void the warranty. After an hours work load the temp of the card goes up 65C. How high can the card safely be pushed

If I honest my card is not performing as expected. It's performing below what others are getting in games according to benchmarks by about 5FPS or more IMO. I've tried without vsync and it's no better. Could my 6400 CPU or 2 gigs of Ram be bottlenecking the card. I use 1680*1050 and Crysis is struggling to keep the FPS above 30 on high. Even Far Cry 2 on high/very high often drops into the low 20s :o
 
Last edited:
only 5 FPS difference? hm.... so?
1680x1050 for crysis and ur moaning about it averaging 30fps?
 
You have an IceQ card so you can get a pretty decent OC out of it. You should see around 5FPS (pretty much a random guess, but it isn't huge) increase for a moderate overclock. They say anything under 100C is okay for these cards. but that must be measured under load, not just after load.

Most reviews from hardware would be using much better CPU's and more RAM than your system, so their results will be slightly higher.
 
Keeper said:
only 5 FPS difference? hm.... so?
1680x1050 for crysis and ur moaning about it averaging 30fps?
Click to expand...

I was being generous it's more like 8FPS. Playing at 22FPS compared to 30FPS there is a very noticeable difference. I just want to take the sting out the tail so to speak. Even out the steep drops in FPS that are so frustrating

As for Crysis it's supposed too handle it so am I wrong in expecting it too perform as advertised :rolleyes:


Ekhaatvensters said:
You have an IceQ card so you can get a pretty decent OC out of it. You should see around 5FPS (pretty much a random guess, but it isn't huge) increase for a moderate overclock. They say anything under 100C is okay for these cards. but that must be measured under load, not just after load.
Most reviews from hardware would be using much better CPU's and more RAM than your system, so their results will be slightly higher.
Click to expand...


That's what I'm thinking. I don't want to overclock the card when it's fine but being held back by the CPU. I risk damaging the card for nothing. But how to otherwise tell which is the culprit :confused:
 
Ummm nothing handles Crysis especially all high at 1600, drop your settings even my crossfire 4870's struggle :)
 
You don't really risk damaging the card at all, even if you go over the top (which the ATI Overdrive won't let you do afaik) you'll just have to reset and bring the clocks down again. Permanent damage to your card isn't very likely.

A good OC'ing tool is Rivatuner, it lets you monitor the temps during load in the background and increase the fan speed if you don't mind a little more noise.

Available here: http://downloads.guru3d.com/RivaTuner-v2.11-download-163.html

If you check the Rivatuner forums at that site you'll get a lot of help with your card.
 
Last edited:
like Ekhaatvensters said, maybe they have better performing ram than you, better cpu, etc....

even a HDD's defragmentation can affect fps by a frame or two.

my advice - set crysis to a bit lower res - it's the most requiring game how can you expect to get 60FPS on that res with all settings on?

although, i'd say get more ram!!!! !!!! !!!!
 
QX6700RULZ said:
Ummm nothing handles Crysis especially all high at 1600, drop your settings even my crossfire 4870's struggle :)
Click to expand...

37FPS on high at 1600

http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.p...sk=view&id=189&Itemid=72&limit=1&limitstart=6

For me it's around 27 and later on in the game 23 average

Keeper said:
like Ekhaatvensters said, maybe they have better performing ram than you, better cpu, etc....

even a HDD's defragmentation can affect fps by a frame or two.

my advice - set crysis to a bit lower res - it's the most requiring game how can you expect to get 60FPS on that res with all settings on?

although, i'd say get more ram!!!! !!!! !!!!
Click to expand...

ROFL I don't want 60. I want it not to dip into 20 and high teens all the time. Defrag HDD. Definitely considering more Ram. Does WinXP handle 4GB
 
Last edited:
I have the exact same card. Crysis is not a good benchmark for ATI cards anyway. I get about 35-40 FPS on high at 1680. You running DX10 or DX9? Vista or XP?

I have an e8400 and 2 gigs ram as well.

Also I have overclocked the card about 10-15% already with no change in temp so go for it,
 
alanf85 said:
For me it's around 27 and later on in the game 23 average
Click to expand...

They might run the gpu benchmarks located in the game directory (gpubenckmark.bat I think, same location as the .exe), not actual gameplay. Try those out to see what FPS you get, the benchmarks might run less intensive maps or simply get higher FPS than in game. Also make sure you have the 8.10 Catalyst drivers and the latest version of Crysis if you really want to compare.

alanf85 said:
ROFL I don't want 60. I want it not to dip into 20 and high teens all the time. Defrag HDD. Definitely considering more Ram. Does WinXP handle 4GB
Click to expand...

Only 64bit OS's (XP or Vista, but if you're asking this question you'll have 32bit XP) handle more than around 3.5GB, but it's still worth buying 4GB even on plain XP.
 
Crysis should be smooth on HIGH, 2x AA at 1280x1024, ..bt when you switch it to 4x AA it lags. Should be pretty much the same for your res.

What speed is ur CPU running at?

I'm running 4gb on XP performance edition. Ye, it recognises 3.5GB.
 
Last edited:
venom said:
I have the exact same card. Crysis is not a good benchmark for ATI cards anyway. I get about 35-40 FPS on high at 1680. You running DX10 or DX9? Vista or XP?

I have an e8400 and 2 gigs ram as well.

Also I have overclocked the card about 10-15% already with no change in temp so go for it,
Click to expand...

XP DX 9. Certainly nowhere near 40 FPS :o
 
Must be your cpu then and you can't go wrong with more ram. I just bought another 2gigs and i'm upgrading to 64bit.
 
I would overclock the CPU rather than the GPU in your case, and consider buying an extra couple of gigs of ram. If it's a CPU bottleneck you aren't going to get much more headroom by oc'ing the card. Try stepping up to 2.7-3.0 ghz and see if it makes a difference.
 
cerebus said:
I would overclock the CPU rather than the GPU in your case, and consider buying an extra couple of gigs of ram. If it's a CPU bottleneck you aren't going to get much more headroom by oc'ing the card. Try stepping up to 2.7-3.0 ghz and see if it makes a difference.
Click to expand...

I think I'll do that. Overclock the CPU and buy another gig of ram and see what happens

When buying Ram do I have to consider dual channel or not bother?
 
Last edited:
alanf85 said:
I think I'll do that. Overclock the CPU and buy another gig of ram and see what happens

When buying Ram do I have to consider dual channel or not bother?
Click to expand...

What is your current RAM configuration? This is only really important for how many slots you have left, dual channel isn't that important. In fact it would be better to just buy a 2Gb stick. They go for around R350 so it's well worth it.

btw do you run Crysis with any AA enabled? That would explain your FPS vs benchmarks without AA.
 
Compare apples to apples and if you do not have the exact configuration that is used in the benchies then no point comparing.
 
Ekhaatvensters said:
What is your current RAM configuration? This is only really important for how many slots you have left, dual channel isn't that important. In fact it would be better to just buy a 2Gb stick. They go for around R350 so it's well worth it.

btw do you run Crysis with any AA enabled? That would explain your FPS vs benchmarks without AA.
Click to expand...

I have Patriot DDR2 800Mhz Ram running at 5-5-5-16. They're out of stock now

Definitely no AA in Crysis
 
I read up somewhere that crysis needs at least a 2.2ghz core2duo for the cpu not being a bottleneck.

And that rises to 2.4ghz for vista.

Think u just need some cpu overclocking ;)

Everything else is fine, overclocking ur gpu now wont change a thing
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X