ATI Radeon X1K Refresh: X1950 XTX, X1900 XT 256MB, X1650 Pro, and X1300 XT
Overclocking The New Radeons
For our next set of performance metrics, we spent a little time overclocking the Radeon X1950 XTX and the 256MB Radeon X1900 XT using the clock frequency slider available within ATI's drivers, under the "Overdrive" tab.
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To find each card's peak core and memory frequencies, we slowly raised their respective sliders until we begun to see visual artifacts on-screen while running a game or benchmark, or until our test system was no longer stable.
Radeon X1950 XTX Overclocked Speeds: 695MHz Core / 1080MHz (2.160GHz DDR) Memory
256MB Radeon X1900 XT Overclocked Speeds: 640MHz Core / 725MHz (1.45GHz DDR) Memory
Radeon X1950 XTX Overclocked Speeds: 695MHz Core / 1080MHz (2.160GHz DDR) Memory
256MB Radeon X1900 XT Overclocked Speeds: 640MHz Core / 725MHz (1.45GHz DDR) Memory
We had limited success overclocking the 256MB Radeon X1900 XT. It seemed like our particular sample was right on the edge of being stable. We were only able to increase its core clock speed by about 15MHz and its memory wouldn't budge. If we increased the memory frequency by even a few MHz, our test system blue-screened almost immediately after applying the new settings.
Our experience overclocking the Radeon X1950 XTX was much better. Even though the X1950 XTX already features the fastest memory to ever grace a graphics card, we were able to take its memory all the way up to 2.16GHz. And the card's core hit a respectable 695MHz.
While overclocked, we re-ran a couple of benchmarks to see just how much each card's performance had changed. The 256MB Radeon X1900 XT's scores hardly changed because of its modest overclock, but the Radeon X1950 XTX gained a few frames per second in both tests.
