Bitcoin Forum

OC'd to 950 I see artifacts pop up but it can still hash and the temp is rock steady at 67 after stabilizing (checked with MSI afterburner and GPU-Z)

Artifact free at 925, which is what I'm running right now.

if it is a VRAM issue at higher OCs am i going to damage my card running it that fast?  like I said it still hashes and temps are low.

getting 342Mh at 925 core 310 memory

iirc stock speeds for a 5850 is 725. Just because temps are low doesn't mean the card is happy, and 225MHz (31%) overclock is quite large. Overclocking stresses hardware even at lower temps, but it shouldn't kill it in the next few days if that's what you're worried about.

I was kind of wondering the same thing - this 5850 seems to clock up to whatever you set it at and work.  So whats the "safer" bet.

Also anyone who has the quick and easy way to underclock the memory on the card please let me know

MSI afterburner underclocked it for me. 

I was hoping for a command line program - not an msi board

don't need an msi board.

MSI Afterburner is what the clocking software is called.

MSI AB download http://event.msi.com/vga/afterburner/download.htm (http://event.msi.com/vga/afterburner/download.htm)

Running a 31% overclock 24/7 for mining is not sustainable over the long term. You will lose out financially in the end when the VRM & hardware fails faster than it would have at a mere 0 to 10% OC at stock voltage.

5850 is fine/stable at 900+ core.  Lots of people on oC related forums have hit higher numbers messing with the voltages.  I'm running stock voltage.

OC causes damage is overblown.  Every serious hardware person I've asked says the wear difference is negligible.

Don't listen to nazgulnarsil, xonar. They are probably undercover evangelists, read: Astroturfers for ATI, the company probably responsibly for this whole BitCoin thing.. lol. Just kidding, but wanting to make you think about the enourmous waste of resources of this project and who is the real benefitor; at the moment at least it is the hardware companies, foremost Foxconn ( https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Foxconn#Controversies ).

I have the Sapphire Xtreme 5850 since 3 days now with Artefacts all over my Desktop, both in Linux Fedora Core 15, with or without Compiz and in Windows. I plugged the powercable of my high-end Enermax PSU and gave it a 15 minute rest, still seeing artefacts, a lot of them. I mean it's really really ugly, I can't see anymore.

This is all it took to destroy my poor Sapphire (RIP)  :'(

Clock to 890 (core),1000 (mem)
Agression=11
Fan=60
Temps: 60°C

Let it run 24h on that settings.

The card is now longing for the trashbin. The damaged VRAMs probably will cause damage to my not-so-cheap-either 1155 board, too.

Underclocked the card now to 300 (mem) and overclocked exactly 10% to 797MhZ (core). This gives me 15% less hash rate return, however a 100% return on my $199 investment in the 5850.

Send the card back, clearly defective from the start if what you are saying is true.

cough, errrrm, sig, cough

Agreed.  98% of other overclockers here run their cards at the very ragged edge of stability for months at a time without issues.  If the card was defective or borderline from the beginning, overclocking will expose it quickly.

RMA it.