new overclocking tool: AMDOverdriveCtrl

[sunstar]

Hi,

I need some adventurous people who dare to try a new overclocking tool I just finished. It makes use of the AMD Display Library API and therefore needs the proprietary catalyst drivers.

It uses the wxWidgets framework and was developed with the codelite IDE.

Features are:

- setting overdrive values (GPU / Memory frequency and voltage)
- reading temperature
- reading / setting fan speed
- fan control mode (using fan speed characteristic curves)
- application profiles
- long term monitoring of temperature, fan speed and performance level

As I'm new to this forum, I'm not allowed to post any screenshots or URLs. But if you like, you can find the tool at SourceForge.net. Just search for "AMDOverdriveCtrl". There I have posted the source code and a 64bit deb package.

Any feedback would be appreciated. Right now I don't have any documentation, but most things should be more or less obvious.

Dependencies:
- wxWidgets 2.8.x
- libdl
- libpthread

Tested with a Radeon 4870 and Catalyst 10.11, 10.12 with Ubuntu 10.10.

As every overclocking utility - use it wisely. Don't fix the fan speed at a low level and turn up the frequencies!

regards,
Thorsten

p.s.
Sorry for my English - I'm not a native speaker

[Mr James]

Great. One stops OCing when one, for example, starts to see tearing in video playback among other things. Basically, this means we'll start seeing tearing in our tearing.

[Michael]

You should be able to post links just fine, they just go into a moderation queue until you have a couple of posts.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/amdovdrvctrl/

[energyman]

oh great - a tar bomb. Please, the next time put everything in a directory before you tar it up. Not fun to hunt down all the files that were just dumped into my sytem.

[PsynoKhi0]

Great. One stops OCing when one, for example, starts to see tearing in video playback among other things. Basically, this means we'll start seeing tearing in our tearing.

Yo dawg! I hear you like tearing, so we put tearing in your tearing, so you can watch videos while you watch videos!

(Too good to pass )

[sunstar]

some more info about the tool

I think I should add some more info on how the tool works.

The Catalyst driver chooses a performance level according to the GPU load. For example most of the time for normal desktop use the low level is active and only sometimes the level is raised for a second. I have compiz enabled and for me this happens now and then if I move the mouse over my AWN dock.

With my tool you can change the frequencies and voltages for each level (low, mid, high). But there is one thing you should obey:

Keep the memory frequency constant in all three levels. Otherwise you will see some flickering when levels are changed. I guess this is a problem of the video HW (at least with the 48xx series). My suggestion to solve this problem are application profiles.

Create a default profile for desktop usage with low frequencies and low voltages to save some energy and to keep the video card cool and the fan quiet. Then create a high performance profile for games and other demanding applications. Go to the AppProfile tab and add the combination of your game and profile to the list. Don't forget to tick "enable". Now, whenever your game starts, the high performance profile will be activated and the screen only flickers once. When you quit the game, your default profile will be activated again.

To create an app profile, just set all the frequencies, voltages and fan profiles you want and save it as a *.ovdr file.

@energyman:
Sorry for the tar problem (I will correct that). Meanwhile I suggest to use the git repository also found on SourceForge. If you want to compile the sources you also have to get the ADL SDK from AMD. It is not included in the tar ball or the git repository because I don't know if I'm allowed to put it in or if AMD restricts the distribution of the SDK to their download site.

[sunstar]

tar problem corrected

Extracting the tar archive will now create a separate folder.

[sovok_kpss]

The program crashes after launch

% make -f AMDOverdriveCtrl.mk
(compiling without errors)
% ./Release/AMDOverdriveCtrl

(AMDOverdriveCtrl:13657): Gtk-CRITICAL **: IA__gtk_range_set_range: assertion `min < max' failed

[sunstar]

more info needed

The program crashes after launch

% make -f AMDOverdriveCtrl.mk
(compiling without errors)
% ./Release/AMDOverdriveCtrl

(AMDOverdriveCtrl:13657): Gtk-CRITICAL **: IA__gtk_range_set_range: assertion `min < max' failed

The error means one of the gui sliders is not setup correctly. As I'm just using the values the ADL gives me, we probably have an initialization problem.

What is the exact model of your video card? Only cards supporting Overdrive Version 5 will work. Right now the tool does not check this.

Which catalyst driver version and which distribution do you use?

If possible try to debug with codelite and tell me where the assertion occurs.

[stlifey]

The program crashes after launch

% make -f AMDOverdriveCtrl.mk
(compiling without errors)
% ./Release/AMDOverdriveCtrl

(AMDOverdriveCtrl:13657): Gtk-CRITICAL **: IA__gtk_range_set_range: assertion `min < max' failed

In my laptop have the same issue.
GPU:Radeon HD4570
Main Board chip:AMD M780G+SB700
System:Archlinux 32bit
In compiling process have no errors.

And aticonfig -odgt can't get temperature.........