I have a 128-bit Powercolor Radeon 9550 256 mb AGP8x video card and was wondering if I can safely overclock it to a Radeon 9600 using the Atitool or something similar. My video card has a cooling fan on it. If I overclock it, is it necessary to get more fans or equipment? And how do I know when to stop overclocking it? What are the risks involved with overclocking the card? Thanks. 1.8 GHz Intel Pentium 4 1.0 Gb RAM, 40 Gb HD Gigabyte mobo, 350 W PSU Windows XP Pro SP2 Radeon 9550 256 mb AGP Sound Blaster Live 5.1 HP CD Writer LG DL DVD Writer

The 9550 IS a 9600, it's just underclocked...otherwise it's identical. There's no need for extra cooling. Just get the latest Catalyst driver & ATiTool, & crank it up to 325/200 (DDR400)...it'll go higher too. I saved the 325/200 setting as a profile & just use it when gaming, otherwise, I run at the default settings. Too bad you got the 256MB version...it's actually slower than the 128MB/128-bit card. http://www.computing.net/gaming/wwwboard/forum/4957.html ASUS A7N8X-X Athlon XP 1800+ 8.5 x 200MHz 1024MB PC3200 2.5-3-3-7 Asus A9550GE/TD 128MB WinME/WinXP Pro SP1

Hey, thanks. Does Atitool have to be running when you want the card to be overclocked? So if not saved as a profile, you have to set the speeds everytime?

Oh and what's all that talk about softmod drivers unlocking clock locks? Is that necessary?

When you run ATiTool, the 1st thing that'll pop up will be a warning about having a 9550 & it will offer suggestions on how to unlock it. There's even a link to the softmod if that's what you wanna do, but it's probably not necessary. There's a setting built into ATiTool under Settings/Misc...all you have to do is check the box next to "remove clock lock". Like I said, this IS a 9600...same GPU, same number of pipes, etc...the core has simply been underclocked to 250MHz. Just use AtiTool to set the core clock to 325Mhz & you have a 9600. You can also experiment with the settings using the "find max core" & "find max memory" buttons. ASUS A7N8X-X Athlon XP 1800+ 8.5 x 200MHz 1024MB PC3200 2.5-3-3-7 Asus A9550GE/TD 128MB WinME/WinXP Pro SP1