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ATI Radeon X1800 GTO 256MB
Overclocking... and Unlocking?
Overclocking The default clock speeds are 500MHz / 500MHz (1.0GHz DDR). ATITool was used to overclock the X1800 GTO. First I ran the Find Max Mem test, and it went up to about 605MHz before I started to see artifacts. I like to back it off a little from the last stable clock, so I took the memory down to 590MHz (1.18GHz DDR) and left it there. Next, I ran the Find Max Core test. At 585MHz, the system froze and I had to hard reboot. There were no artifacts leading up to the freeze. I backed the clock speed down to 570MHz and left it there. To check stability I ran my usual test runs (3 times each) in F.E.A.R., Quake 4, and Half-Life 2. So, that's an extra 70MHz / 90MHz out of the video card while maintaining stability. I'm actually a little disappointed in my overclock, since I've seen reports of reaching over 650MHz / 650MHz (1.3GHz DDR). But as always, overclocking is going to be different for everyone. Let's see how it impacted performance. 
F.E.A.R. @ 1024 x 768
(Show All Graphs)
41
36
0
FPS
120
33
30
0
FPS
120
F.E.A.R. @ 1600 x 1200
(Show All Graphs)
18
15
0
FPS
120
15
13
0
FPS
120
F.E.A.R. @ 2048 x 1536
(Show All Graphs)
10
9
0
FPS
120
8
7
0
FPS
120
Quake 4 @ 1024 x 768
(Show All Graphs)
89
88
0
FPS
120
74
66
0
FPS
120
Quake 4 @ 1600 x 1200
(Show All Graphs)
67
58
0
FPS
120
43
36
0
FPS
120
Half-Life 2 @ 1024 x 768
(Show All Graphs)
98
97
0
FPS
120
95
93
0
FPS
120
Half-Life 2 @ 1600 x 1200
(Show All Graphs)
87
82
0
FPS
120
68
64
0
FPS
120
Half-Life 2 @ 2048 x 1536
(Show All Graphs)
70
61
0
FPS
120
36
34
0
FPS
120
As you can see, I didn't get much of a performance benefit from the increased clock speeds. Other people have been able to push the X1800 GTO further with increased performance, but as I said, no two cards are the same. Unlocking In addition to overclocking your X1800 GTO, there remains another option to increase performance. Since the X1800 GTO is simply an X1800 XL with 4 pipelines disabled, there exists a way to re-enable those pipelines. Here's the catch: it doesn't work on 100% of cards, will definitely void your warranty, and may turn your video card into a paperweight... If you're feeling daring, what you need to do is flash an X1800 GTO with an X1800 XL BIOS. I didn't perform this operation myself, but if you'd like to try it yourself, download this zip file with the modified BIOS. Don't forget to backup the existing BIOS before you try this. And for good measure, have a backup of the backup! Note: TheTechLounge can not be held responsible for any damage done to your hardware or warranties voided as a result of overclocking the card or modifying the BIOS. You should also know that your warranty be voided as a result of such actions.
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