Can a 9800NP be OC to 9800Pro???

[extremecorvette]

Can a 9800NP with Samsung memory be OC to a 9800Pro?

RADEON 9800 XT RADEON 9800 PRO RADEON 9800

Engine MHZ 412 380 325
Memory MHz 730 680 580

Can it be OC to 9800XT speeds?

[CamH]

With Samsung memory, a NP should go beyond Pro, or even XT speeds.

[sHape oF gReY]

With Samsung mem you should be able to surpass even XT speeds.

[felinusz]

O.K. - a couple of easy questions -

How can you check for samsung memory (besides looking at the card)? Which card manufacturers make the 9800 NP card with samsung memory (powercolor, sapphire, etc.)?

How do you do the BIOS flash that transforms the card into a 9800 Pro?

Are there any difference besides the stock core/memory clocks between the 9800 NP, the 9800 PRO, and the 9800 XT ?

I'm going to buy a 9800 NP soon! :)

[Pinnacle2k4]

they all use the same core, although with the 9800xt, the core was tweaked for overclocking..

9800 Non pros price are going up too, use to be $234. Now they like $260.

I wish i had bought one when it was so cheap. Now that my great 9500np(softmod) seems dead, things can't get any worst.

[Speed_Mechanic2]

Hard to tell, since finding a Non-Pro, besides a BBA-version from Best Buy/Circuit City (which are shipping w/ mostly Infineon 3.0ns memory). Sapphire is getting a bit hard to trust with their products, with Newegg recently selling a new Sapphire product (differant then old) under the same Non-Pro name (although they took it off by now). A true Sapphire Radeon 9800 Non-Pro with a Red 9800-PCB should only have Samsung 3.3ns memory.

[felinusz]

IIRC the 3.3 ns Samsung memory is the good memory right?

What do you mean by "besides a BBA"? And is the Infineon 3.0 ns memory any good?

So basically I should look in the box at the store I am buying from, and check to see if the PCB is red, and the memory is stepped Samsung (I am buying from a local store where I can check the card).

And the BIOS flash - is it required for more effective overclocking of this card? Or will the NP card do just as well without a 9800 PRO BIOS? I am kinda sketchy about flashing the BIOS on this card as I don't know how! :p

[Pinnacle2k4]

BBA means Built by ATI.

[sHape oF gReY]

99.9% of BBA Non-Pro's come with Infineion 3.0 which you'll be lucky if you can to run stable at 360mhz.



How do you do the BIOS flash that transforms the card into a 9800 Pro?

Look here (http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?s=&threadid=33695811) ,should answer most if not all of your questions about flashing your card.


~sHaPes

[billstuck]

Just to add my experience to this thread. I have a 9800NP with infineon memory. The core clocks the same as any other card. My RAM maxes at 340. Anymore gives artificacts.

I'm happy because this is the pro speed, (technically 3mhz more ):D

But the samsung 3.3 will go 350 or more.

Samsung 2.8 is where it's at. I had that on my old 9600pro and it clocked up to 405 without artifacts.

[extremecorvette]

Are the 9600pro's cores the same as the 9800NP and 9800pro? If so then the only diffrence would be the clock speeds?

[pkrew]

If I remember right the 9600pro has a different core. It only has 4 pipelines vs 8 for the 9800 and I'm not sure, but I think it has a 128 memory interface vs a 256 interface. Either way for the money a 9600pro is a nice card and overclocks quite well.

[felinusz]

Thanks sHaPes - thankfully for me the card I am looking at is a Sapphire 9800 NP. Gonna buy on monday! :)

With water I hope to get to >XT core speeds, and PRO memory speeds.

[rxtrom]

The samsung memory!! Wow you got lucky to get that i can't find them anywhere. I heard ATI is pulling them off the shelves, or discontinuing them

[extremecorvette]

If you have both the 9800Np and 9800pro Oc will the 9800pro Oc higher than the 9800np?

[pkrew]

It depends on what memory you have. If you get a np with samsung 2.8 then its the same card as a pro

[extremecorvette]

What memory does the 9800pro retail box come with? Samsung 3.3ns ? I thought the 2.8 only can on the 9700pro?

So if both have the same memory 9800NP and 9800Pro they will OC the same?

[Mustanley]

AFAIK, all 128mb 9800 PRO cards have 2.8ns samsung memory (not the case with the 256mb cards). The average core overclock on the Pro is probably slightly higher then the non pro (10-20 MHz), but it's not substantial considering the price difference.