[HOWTO] ATI Radeon overclocking

Message

Hasw · Post by **Hasw** » Sun May 29, 2005 4:34 pm

Because I haven't found a program to overclock my Radeon 9700 I've written one to do this. It's in an early, experimental stage, but
it's working on my 9700 and a 9500 Pro without problems.

First get the current version from http://www.hasw.net/linux, extract and compile it:

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hasw@hasw hasw $ tar jxvf rovclock-0.1a.tar.bz2 
rovclock-0.1a/
rovclock-0.1a/rovclock.c
rovclock-0.1a/radeon.h
rovclock-0.1a/pci.h
rovclock-0.1a/Makefile
rovclock-0.1a/rovclock
rovclock-0.1a/README
rovclock-0.1a/COPYING
hasw@hasw hasw $ cd rovclock-0.1a
hasw@hasw rovclock-0.1a $ make
gcc -O2 -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes  -o rovclock rovclock.c
hasw@hasw rovclock-0.1a $

Because there's currently no code to detect the Xtal frequency, it's possible to specify it manually.
First try to check if the core and memory frequency are correctly calculated:

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hasw@hasw rovclock-0.1a $ sudo ./rovclock -i
Radeon overclock 0.1a by Hasw (hasw@hasw.net)

Found ATI card, device id: 0x4e44
I/O base address: 0x9000
Xtal: 27.0 MHz
Core: 283.50 MHz, Mem: 290.25 MHz, RefDiv: 12
hasw@hasw rovclock-0.1a $

If the default Xtal frequency of 27 MHz does not lead to a correctly calculated core and memory frequency,
you can specify another (in kHz), try 1432 or 2950:

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hasw@hasw rovclock-0.1a $ sudo ./rovclock -x 2950 -i
Radeon overclock 0.1a by Hasw (hasw@hasw.net)

Found ATI card, device id: 0x4e44
I/O base address: 0x9000
Xtal: 29.50 MHz
Core: 309.75 MHz, Mem: 317.13 MHz, RefDiv: 12
hasw@hasw rovclock-0.1a $

Setting a new core and memory frequency is simple (don't forget the -x option if you need it):

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hasw@hasw rovclock-0.1a $ sudo ./rovclock -c 360 -m 300
Radeon overclock 0.1a by Hasw (hasw@hasw.net)

Found ATI card, device id: 0x4e44
I/O base address: 0x9000
Xtal: 27.0 MHz
Core: 357.75 MHz, Mem: 297.0 MHz, RefDiv: 12
hasw@hasw rovclock-0.1a $

You can use glxgears to measure the difference (restart it between the changes, otherwise it takes a while until the new FPS is calculated).

Don't set the memory below 200 MHz otherwise it's possible that you get screen corruptions (at least on my card).

GhePeU · Post by **GhePeU** » Sun May 29, 2005 10:12 pm

it works with my radeon 7500 too

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KazeNoTani rovclock-0.1a # lspci -v
0000:01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon RV200 QW [Radeon 7500] (prog-if 00 [VGA])
        Subsystem: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon 7500
        Flags: bus master, stepping, 66Mhz, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 16
        Memory at d0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=dfec0000]
        I/O ports at a800 [size=256]
        Memory at dfef0000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
        Expansion ROM at 00020000 [disabled]
        Capabilities: [58] AGP version 2.0
        Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2

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KazeNoTani rovclock-0.1a # ./rovclock -i
Radeon overclock 0.1a by Hasw (hasw@hasw.net)

Found ATI card, device id: 0x5157
I/O base address: 0xa000
Xtal: 27.0 MHz
Core: 290.25 MHz, Mem: 229.50 MHz, RefDiv: 12
KazeNoTani rovclock-0.1a # glxgears
9431 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1886.017 FPS
9467 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1893.247 FPS
9465 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1892.815 FPS
9467 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1893.291 FPS

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KazeNoTani rovclock-0.1a # ./rovclock -c 320 -m 260
Radeon overclock 0.1a by Hasw (hasw@hasw.net)

Found ATI card, device id: 0x5157
I/O base address: 0xa000
Xtal: 27.0 MHz
Core: 319.50 MHz, Mem: 261.0 MHz, RefDiv: 12
KazeNoTani rovclock-0.1a # glxgears
10649 frames in 5.0 seconds = 2129.773 FPS
10584 frames in 5.0 seconds = 2116.624 FPS
10602 frames in 5.0 seconds = 2120.344 FPS
10610 frames in 5.0 seconds = 2121.926 FPS

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KazeNoTani rovclock-0.1a # ./rovclock -c 170 -m 150
Radeon overclock 0.1a by Hasw (hasw@hasw.net)

Found ATI card, device id: 0x5157
I/O base address: 0xa000
Xtal: 27.0 MHz
Core: 171.0 MHz, Mem: 150.75 MHz, RefDiv: 12
KazeNoTani rovclock-0.1a # glxgears
5901 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1180.152 FPS
5886 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1177.168 FPS
5877 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1175.208 FPS
5889 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1177.389 FPS

Hasw · Post by **Hasw** » Sun May 29, 2005 10:41 pm

GhePeU wrote:it works with my radeon 7500 too

Good

It should work upwards from chip versions R100/RV100.

I updated to version 0.2a which gets the reference clock from video BIOS.

NewBlackDak · Post by **NewBlackDak** » Mon May 30, 2005 3:51 am

Are you going to do a gui frontend for it, or leave that to the rest of us?

Hasw · Post by **Hasw** » Mon May 30, 2005 12:40 pm

Yes, a small GTK interface with core/memory frequency and RAM timings, profiles for games/programs and maybe some test pattern generator to detect errors.

riven · Post by **riven** » Tue May 31, 2005 12:58 pm

Sweet dude.

I can confirm its working on my Saphire Radeon 9000

Default: Core: 249.75 MHz, Mem: 200.25 MHz

glxgears: 9059 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1811.800 FPS
9045 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1809.000 FPS
9053 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1810.600 FPS
8920 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1784.000 FPS

OC: Core: 261.0 MHz, Mem: 220.50 MHz
glxgears: 9892 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1978.400 FPS
9891 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1978.200 FPS
9893 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1978.600 FPS
9891 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1978.200 FPS

I'll try playing UT2003 on the OC settings.

riven · Post by **riven** » Tue May 31, 2005 1:15 pm

Got a stable OC of 270/230. a little higher gave me corruption in UT2003. Definate increase in FPS.

Brilliant program mate.

DualCpuUser · Post by **DualCpuUser** » Thu Jun 09, 2005 2:04 am

I threw it in my local.start for my 9600 AIW.

ericxx2005 · Post by **ericxx2005** » Fri Jun 10, 2005 3:02 pm

No go on a radeon 9500 pro. Says 'No ATI card found.'

lspci detects my card as a 9700 Pro.

Any workarounds?

Hasw · Post by **Hasw** » Sun Jun 12, 2005 2:42 pm

Yes, currently only the second and third PCI bus is checked for a AGP device. Can you please post the lspci output (the section with the 9700)? I'll then fix the detection routine to search for more busses.

ericxx2005 · Post by **ericxx2005** » Sun Jun 12, 2005 5:29 pm

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0000:03:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon R300 ND [Radeon 9700 Pro] (prog-if 00 [VGA])
	Subsystem: ATI Technologies Inc: Unknown device 0002
	Flags: bus master, stepping, 66Mhz, medium devsel, latency 255, IRQ 5
	Memory at d0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable)
	I/O ports at d000 [size=256]
	Memory at e5000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
	Capabilities: [58] AGP version 3.0
	Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2

0000:03:00.1 Display controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon R300 [Radeon 9700 Pro] (Secondary)
	Subsystem: ATI Technologies Inc: Unknown device 0003
	Flags: stepping, 66Mhz, medium devsel
	Memory at d8000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [disabled]
	Memory at e5010000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [disabled] [size=64K]
	Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2

Hope that helps. If I remember right, I needed to flash the BIOS with a different one to get overclocking to work for this card.

Hasw · Post by **Hasw** » Sun Jun 12, 2005 9:07 pm

Ok, it's on bus 3. I updated the program (0.4a) to search from bus 1 to 9, should work now.

lego86 · Post by **lego86** » Sun Jun 12, 2005 9:10 pm

Great piece of software. More FPS in ET;) It would be great if you would make an ebuild.

stupidfool · Post by **stupidfool** » Sun Jun 12, 2005 11:38 pm

Same problem as ericxx
A 9500Pro with a moddet bios
rovclock-0.4a could not detect the card

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 Bus  3, device   0, function  0:
    VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon R300 ND [Radeon 9700 Pro] (rev 0).
      IRQ 5.
      Master Capable.  Latency=255.  Min Gnt=8.
      Prefetchable 32 bit memory at 0xc0000000 [0xc7ffffff].
      I/O at 0xd000 [0xd0ff].
      Non-prefetchable 32 bit memory at 0xd6000000 [0xd600ffff].
  Bus  3, device   0, function  1:
    Display controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon R300 [Radeon 9700 Pro] (Secondary) (rev 0).
      Master Capable.  Latency=32.  Min Gnt=8.
      Prefetchable 32 bit memory at 0xc8000000 [0xcfffffff].
      Non-prefetchable 32 bit memory at 0xd6010000 [0xd601ffff].

Hasw · Post by **Hasw** » Sun Jun 12, 2005 11:55 pm

Sorry, found the bug. Has only searched bus 1...

Version 0.4b available: http://www.hasw.net/linux/rovclock-0.4b.tar.bz2

stupidfool · Post by **stupidfool** » Sun Jun 12, 2005 11:59 pm

Oh wow

This was fast
Thanx great job. works now

ericxx2005 · Post by **ericxx2005** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 12:05 am

Still no go, same error. Thanks for the quick update and updating your program for me though:D

update: sorry, didn't see 4b, I'll give it a try.

ericxx2005 · Post by **ericxx2005** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 12:17 am

It works! Thank a lot! brought it up from 276 270 to 310 305 with ~300 fps increase in glxgears! I'm going to bring it up some more and report back.

Hasw · Post by **Hasw** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 1:02 pm

Mostly RAM on this cards are more limitated than the GPU. On my card the RAM goes from 280 up to 310, the GPU up to 380. When I increase the voltage, it reaches 440/350

racoontje · Post by **racoontje** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 1:22 pm

/me kindly asks for an ebuild

Hasw · Post by **Hasw** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 2:05 pm

racoontje wrote:/me kindly asks for an ebuild

Have never written one before. I'll try it this afternoon, have to read the howtos first

ericxx2005 · Post by **ericxx2005** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 3:52 pm

Hasw, is that after volt-modding the card, or did you just change the AGP bus voltage in the BIOS? I haven't tried raising the voltage, since everywhere I read online it said that it made no difference. My RAM tops out around 310 and gets major artifacts and needs a reboot. The GPU can go up to 350-360 though.

Hasw · Post by **Hasw** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 4:53 pm

After hardware-modding the card. I don't think that increasing the AGP bus voltage helps a bit in this case. Maybe if you overclock the AGP bus, but not when overclocking the GPU core.

mirko_3 · Post by **mirko_3** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 6:53 pm

Nah, AGP voltage does 2 things:
1-Increase chipset voltage
2-Increase AGP voltage (of course)
Both only help you reach very high FSB speeds (like in my case, where I have 180FSB on a 133 board).

ericxx2005 · Post by **ericxx2005** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 8:10 pm

That's what I thought. I remember a good howto for volt-modding a 9500 Pro a while back (1-2 yrs.), anyone have the link? My soldiering skills are not the greatest, but I fixed my wireless usb card after having the usb part ripped off from it:P

Would I see significant improvements (~ 400 core/350 mem) without major cooling necessities? If not, I will just stick to what I have untill I go the PCI-express route.

I gotta say though, this card still rocks!