My Radeon 9800SE experiences

[Daewood]

hello all i just recieved a PowerColor Radeon 9800SE in the mail from newegg in hopes or softmodding to pro.

well i installed the omega drivers and boot into windows fine but had artifacts in the benchies and would not even bench under 3dmark03...

here is the run down of my adventures in softmodding

here is my old card (Geforce4 MX440 No Oc) benchmark:
http://www.users.qwest.net/~ajeff39/Geforce%204%20mx440%20NOoc%203dmark01SE.bmp
http://www.users.qwest.net/~ajeff39/Geforce%204%20mx440%20NOoc%203dmark03.bmp
Crappy huh i had to live with this for 4 months :bang head

here is the new 9800se (stock cooling and no OC) Non Softmodding:
http://www.users.qwest.net/~ajeff39/Radeon%209800SE%20Non%20oc%20or%20soft%20mod%20200 1%20score.bmp
http://www.users.qwest.net/~ajeff39/Radeon%209800SE%20Non%20oc%20or%20soft%20mod%20200 3%20score.bmp
not to bad compared to the previous card i had

9800SE softmodd (with artifacts) and stock cooling and no OC:
http://www.users.qwest.net/~ajeff39/Radeon%209800SE%20soft%20mod%202001%20score.bmp
note that it would not even bench under 3dmark03

so i uninstalled the drivers and deactivated the 4 extra pipes :cry:
then decided to install an artic cooling vga silencer rev.3 and see what it could do:
http://www.users.qwest.net/~ajeff39/Radeon%209800SE%20oc%20to%20475-700%202001%20score.bmp
that is what it is doing under 425/365 but i think that i need some ram sinks...

i will keep you guys posted about my progress and one question what would be the best thing to hold the sinks on? until i sink the ram i will only run it at 350mhz so if you have any suggestion let me know

edit - here is my most recent 3dmark03 score:
http://www.users.qwest.net/~ajeff39/Radeon%209800SE%20oc%20to%20475-700%202003%20score.bmp

[Kurant]

Better then my 9800 pro with a 2.8C. I get around 2890.

Nice work.

[Daewood]

thanks once i get some ram sinks i am hoping to push it higher and i think that 2890 on a pro there is something wrong

[Aphex_Tom_9]

oh my god, when i saw those first scores, i thought that was the 9800se...

[enduro]

^ Ditto. I was like " How am I going to break it to him, his card sucks......?" :) Glad I don't have to say that. Nice scores, now time to overclock it till it screams and then up it one more Mhz ;)

[Daewood]

lol thanks guys :D

anyways i was wondering how reliable is the find max core and mem option from ati tool cause i ran it for like 10 minutes and it was up to 465 on the core without any errors

[enduro]

Whoa! That's better than my card, that's for sure. I can hit 425/338 and that's about it. My card is definitely running stock right now, cause it is that bad of an overclocker.

[Daewood]

enduro have you tried the ati tool find max core option?

and how do you get the 3dmark05 fpu and cpu different scores?

[Avg]

when your score show up after the benchmark click on details, your cpu score is going to be there. Nice scores by the way.

[Daewood]

thank you and do you know about the atitool find max option is it trust worthy?

[Kurant]

What kind of scores should I expect on a 9800pro?

Dae's scored are double mine =/ Where should I start for troubleshooting?

[Daewood]

got a question i ran 3dmark03 and clicked details and my cpu score is 745 is that good for the system in my sig (main rig)? if not what can i do to up the score?

[Avg]

What kind of scores should I expect on a 9800pro?

Dae's scored are double mine =/ Where should I start for troubleshooting?

On the 3dmark03 you should get around 5500k or higher, uninstall all drivers use drive cleaner or something like it, and when you benchmark set teh 3d tab to "optimal performance" in the contol panel.

[Daewood]

does any one know if the ati tool's find max option are trustworthy? and how do i up the score on my cpu? any help would be nice

[Inceptor]

Not sure if they are or not. I can tell you that softmodded with omegas and running @ 3ghz cpu with a 5:4 my 9800se was only slightly OC'd and the best I've been able to do in 3dmark03 was a 5369.

Now I'm not sure if the 5:4 has anything to do with my score but that 5369 was while OC'd with ati tool and I marked yesterday after knocking the cpu down to 2.59 (216fsb@1:1) and loaded up the updated omega betas and the best I got was a 4790 with no OC on the card.

Now when I uninstalled the old omegas the new ones didnt come with ati tool so I'm not sure if I should download it again as I don't know if it will have any effect on the omegas or not but I plan to try later today. I'll oc the card a ways and post my 3d03 score tonight along with the oc atitool says it's at.

I'lm hesitant to let ati tool oc for too long as this card is going to pay for part of my x800xt and I don't want to smoke it and lose out.

Also I don't want to threadjack so I'll ask Daewood directly, do you still crunch for SETI when you benchmark? Because I don't stop folding when I do and I was wondering if it effects the score at all?

[enduro]

Well, some good news. My memory will actually overclock now, not sure why it's any different, but I'm at 420/370 right now. Ran a 2859 on 05 and a 20150 on 01. I believe that I had a 6700 something on 03, but I'm not sure on that one. Nice scores on that one though. I'm pretty pleased.

[obsolete]

anyways i was wondering how reliable is the find max core and mem option from ati tool cause i ran it for like 10 minutes and it was up to 465 on the core without any errors

Not very reliable.

thank you and do you know about the atitool find max option is it trust worthy?

Not trust worthy.

does any one know if the ati tool's find max option are trustworthy? and how do i up the score on my cpu? any help would be nice

Not trust worthy.

ATI Tool is known to run your card way hotter then anything else ever will & also being inaccurate. Also, once ATI Tool starts to over heat & down clock, it just keeps down clocking, this is a bug. Not sure if it still does this with newer releases, I only use ATI Tool for other things now. Start upping the gpu & memory & run 3dmark03 to see if you have artifacts. Play around with different drivers & if your comfortable, try different video card bios's.

[blackpaladin]

yeah,ATItool isnt to reliable with max core and memory. i went up pretty high on my 9800pro to xt, and it was fine. i then ran 3dmark03 and i got artifacts across the board. if you want a better way, just OC it a little at a time, and run the nature test in 03 a few times, and if you get no artifacts, chances are you're pretty good to keep ocing it. thats how i got my max core/ memory. once i get my zalman heatsink, ill have to do it all over again, but i think that i can afford to take the time :P

[enduro]

Yeah, I tend to skip the automatic tools, and just jump the core/mem by ten each and then I'll run the Canyon test in 05, which is good at finding core/mem errors. That and the Nature scene in 03. They are both very good. I went from 380/338 to 420/370 in just a few minutes and had found my max stable clock.

[jbloudg20]

On the 3dmark03 you should get around 5500k or higher, uninstall all drivers use drive cleaner or something like it, and when you benchmark set teh 3d tab to "optimal performance" in the contol panel.

Thats about what I get with my 2600+ and 9800pro

[Daewood]

Also I don't want to threadjack so I'll ask Daewood directly, do you still crunch for SETI when you benchmark? Because I don't stop folding when I do and I was wondering if it effects the score at all?

well yes and no ive done it both ways and it was about 20 points of on all my benchies cause i beleive when seti is running it is good at not tying up cpu cycles

anyways i benched my card at 465 core and 350 mem with both 01se and 03 and i got no artifacts so i am going to slap some copper ram sinks and create a fan duct to the card and see what she'll do... just have to wait for the ram sinks to arrive and i will keep you posted