How to Force Max clock speeds (ATI Cards)

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From the 4xxx series onwards all ATI cards will automatically clock down to save power when not being used in a full screen DX or OpenGL app / game.

I might be wrong but I'm pretty sure that if you ALT-TAB out of game the card(s) will power down which may explain why you'll see the clock speeds lower than max.

They should go back to maximum when the game is running in full screen mode again.

Using AMD Overdrive you can force the card(s) to run at full or overclocked speeds all the time no matter what type of app or resolution your using.

Also don't be fooled when you've got two GPU's in Crossfire mode, one card will always run higher than the other when idle, but both will fire up when you run a game. Unless of course you "Overdrive" them.