7600GS, and on-die thermal diode

[phatic]

Hi all. I currently have a 7600GS, overclocked quite nicely, and would like to go further. I am a little confused about a couple of things however. Let me illustrate with a screenie.

In the system tray is the GPU temperature from ATITool - 66°. However, in RivaTuner, the temp is 57°. I noticed this difference after enabling the "on-die thermal diode" plugin in the RivaTuner setup. I also did some googling, and found that the on-die thermal diode would be the most accurate sensor for reporting temps. But this is confusing, since it reports lower temps than the "built in data provider". Could someone perhaps shed some light on this one?

Many thanks.

[dsio]

In all honesty both are very inaccurate. Are these load temps, or idle temps by the way? because 60ish load is great for a 6600GT, while 60 idle isn't that good.

I would definitely lean more towards the rivatuner temperature though.

[Gizmo]

In all likelyhood, the Rivatuner reading is a direct diode reading, whereas the ATITool reading is a 'calibrated' reading, meaning that there is some offset or scaling applied to it to account for variations (both real and imagined) from unit to unit. I'm with Dsio, I'd tend to trust the Rivatuner reading more, but they are both going to be suspect. Without some method of calibration, you aren't going to get closer than about +/- 5 degrees of the actual temperature.

[phatic]

Alright, cool. I thought the thermal diode would be more accurate, but was just confused since it reported temps lower than the other. That's good - means I can o/c the core a fair bit more.

Those are load temps. It idles at around 30°C.

Hmm. Considering that both of these are inaccurate, what do you guys think would be a safe maximum temp, according to the Rivatuner thermal diode reading?

Thanks.

[MONKEYMAN]

Till it artefacts

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Originally Posted by MONKEYMAN

Till it artefacts

Ok. Artifacts hit at around 70°, so I'll stick below this. Managed 750Mhz on the core - a nice increase over the 450Mhz stock level.

Thanks for the help all.

[Rondog]

WOW. Is the 7600GS AGP?

I want stock 3dmark scores and overclocked!

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Originally Posted by Rondog

WOW. Is the 7600GS AGP?

I want stock 3dmark scores and overclocked!

Nay, PCI-e.

3dMark is too big for me to d/l on 56k. But you can check this review for 3dmark scores of a 7600GS with very similar speeds.

At stock, mine was 450/800. After o/c, it is 750/900. So the o/c speed is very close to the 7600GS in that review.

[phatic]

Ok, I stopped being lazy and d/l'ed 3dmark03.

System specs are Sempron 2800+ @ 2.7Ghz & 512Mb RAM @ 225Mhz.

450 / 800: 9200

750 / 900: 10950