[How-To] Overclocking ATI cards in Linux - Overclock.net

Melcar · 06-04-09

This is a small guide for overclocking your ATI card under Linux. This guide targets Ubuntu, but it should be the same for any distro.

Pre-requisites:

- Working fglrx driver
- Card supported by Overdrive (last time I checked only r6xx and up were supported, mobile and integrate chips excluded)

If you type the command aticonfig in a terminal, you will get several config. options that you can use with the driver, including Overdrive options; the proper synthax is aticonfig <option>. This is a list of Overdrive related options:

Code:

--od-enable
        Enables Overdrive. 

  --od-disable
        Disables Overdrive.  You need to restart X for clocks to go back to defaults.

  --odgc
        List your card's current core and memory clocks, the current peak clocks, and the range by which you can overclock (Overdrive locks are applicable).

  --odgt
        Gives out a core temperature reading.

  --odsc={NewCoreClock|0,NewMemoryClock|0}
        Specify desired clocks fore core and memory.

  --odcc
        Apply the new clocks specified by the setclocks command

  --odrd
        Restores default clocks.  You need to restart X for changes to take effect.

Steps for overclocking:

1. The first step obviously is to turn on Overdrive:

Code:

aticonfig --od-enable

If your card is not supported, you will get a message saying so.

2. Next we get the current clocks and the valid overclocking range for your card:

Code:

aticonfig --odgc

Default Adapter - ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series
                            Core (MHz)    Memory (MHz)
           Current Clocks :    500           750
             Current Peak :    625           993
  Configurable Peak Range : [500-700]     [750-1200]
                 GPU load :    2%

3. Now we can specify valid frequencies for our overclock:

Code:

aticonfig --odsc=700,1000

Default Adapter - ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series
                  New Core Peak   : 700
                  New Memory Peak : 1000

4. Finally we apply the new frequencies:

Code:

aticonfig --odcc

5. Check your new overclock:

Code:

aticonfig --odgc

Default Adapter - ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series
                            Core (MHz)    Memory (MHz)
           Current Clocks :    500           750
             Current Peak :    700           1000
  Configurable Peak Range : [500-700]     [750-1200]
                 GPU load :    2%

You can also use Overdrive for Crossfire setups. The process is identical, with the difference that you need to specify the device being overclocked. Example:

Code:

aticonfig --list-adapters
#each card will be given a number that you append to the normal Overdrive commands

aticonfig --adapter=0 --odgc
#and so on...

Stress Testing:

There is also a stress test available for Overdrive. For me this never works and I have yet to get an answer on this from any ATI dev. But you can try it and see if it works for you:

Code:

atiode -P 60 -H localhost:0; echo $?

#runs a stress test for 60 seconds; you can specify whatever time in seconds you want

After the test finishes it will spit out a number. Each number corresponds to a certain status:

Code:

   
0: Test successfully completed.
1: Invalid command-line parameters.
2: Test failed because of rendering errors.
3: Target adapter not found.
4: Test aborted due to unknown reason

Another way of stress testing is to run furmark. It works perfectly under WINE (just make sure you have Compiz off).

Other Tools:

If you don't like the command line, there is also a third party GUI that you can use. Same pre-requisites still apply, since this is just a frontend for Overdrive:
http://www.phoronix.com/forums/showthread.php?t=17331

It's pretty self explanatory. The latest version also has support for Crossfired cards.

thiussat · 06-04-09

Good work Melcar. We should get all your ATI tutorials stickied since ATI questions come up so often.

SilentPixel · 06-05-09

yeah, great guides, I'm sure they'll help out a lot of people with linux/ati related issues

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[How-To] Overclocking ATI cards in Linux

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