Im just learning about overclocking in general NOTE: i am in no way even thinking about doing any oc'ing on my system until i have enough information. my card has 128mb ram on board. just curious what some of you have done on your ati or other video cards.

Video cards are a great way to learn about overclocking, as they are not as dangerous as a CPU. They tell you right away (with aritifacting) if you have gone too far.

Just bump up your settings bit by bit until you get artifacts on your screen (under load) then back up a few steps.

Another thing to keep in mind is your case's cooling. Do you have a good airflow in there now?

i have 4 case fans and smart fan, although i am learning how to use it right now. so basically i can bump up my card settings without having to mess with the cpu/bus first?

I was able to get mine up to 420/750 with a VGA Silencer and RAM heatsinks. Played Half Life 2 at 1600x1200.

I think Don made a good point...Video cards are a nice "begining" for OCing. But this is not to say that there is no danger. I had a x700 in my rig (back when they were a high-mid range card) and i actually ruined the card. I pushed the timings and clock to the braking point and kept it there. I learned my lesson.

Ati tool is a very nice program, allows you to adjust both the clock speed and timings. But i would just go for clock speed for now.

Sean

TO help cool the card, i would clear and PCI devices blow that you dont need, (say an unused modem or nic) to allow some room to breathe. Also they make PCI blowers (they are like 3 bucks) that can help.