New to the ATI scene

[mynihilism]

I just purchased a 9800se off of newegg.
newegg 9800SE (http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-131-292&depa=0)

and was wondering what kind of 3dmark03 scores you guys have gotten off of this card. So far with the DNA drivers installed i have gotten 4225 without overclocking it.

I played around last night to see how high i could get the frequencies and i was able to run the core at 411 and mem at 350 but didn't push it past that because of stock cooling. (i can't believe how hot this damn thing runs)

the crappy thing is i get checkerboarding while playing Americas Army and in the 3dmark. everything else runs flawlessly.

i'm guessing the checkerboarding is cause by a faulty pipeline i unlocked.

got any links to a good vga cooler?

[TimoneX]

A new cooler won't rid you of the artifacts. It's caused by a damaged pipeline that was disabled but is now in use.

I've heard guys receive good results with this cooler:

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=35-186-113&depa=0

[mynihilism]

any clue why it only checkerboards in AA and 3dmark ? and not in Doom3, COD, BFV ?

[TimoneX]

Likely because that's when you're stressing the card the most. It's pipeline(GPU) related though and I'm certain better cooling will not rid you of the problem. Some of the 9800se cards had R350s that were undamaged and just had pipes disabled. Many of them had pipelines that were damaged so Ati disabled them and sold them on 9800se cards. I assume you received one of the later.

[mynihilism]

thats what i was thinking.

O well, works good for what i use it for. despite having to move the card to a pent 4 pc because it was locking up my barton.



are my 3dmark scores comparable to the 9800pro after unlocking the pipelines?

[Yuriman]

My friend gets about 5600 in 03, with my 9500np unlocked I got about 4600 stock, 5400 overclocked.

[mynihilism]

well that sucks, looks like that broken pipeline is killing my unlock. :mad:

[Unreal89]

Things like this are always a gamble, but hey... enjoy what you have and don't worry about it too much. If you google something like "9800se checkerboard fix" or something you can see people find some tweaks that can make the problem go away. Its worth a shot, in my opinion.

[TimoneX]

Yeah google that. There's something guys disable on the card via an Ati specific tool to minimize the effect, but the details escape me at present.

[mynihilism]

if anyone runs across the info post it here please.


I'm seeing thread that tell me to turn off the Z buffer, but they don't explain how to do it. anyone have a clue?

[TimoneX]

I just noticed the good ole ATITool has an option to remove Radeon clock locks. You might want to check that out. The program I was thinking of initially is called Hoger.

[mynihilism]

the new DNA drivers are out so i'm going to try them also. i'll post with any info i get that helps.

[TimoneX]

There are lots of Z-buffer adjustments built into the omega driver, perhaps you could minimize your checkerboard with that as well as overclock.

[mynihilism]

well i tried multiple drivers and disabled z buffering but it didn't help on AA or benchmarking.
O well, at least it played D3 and COD flawlessly with it softmodded and slightly OC'D.

when i tried the new DNA'S i actually dropped 1000 pts in 3dmark03. needless to say i reinstalled the older ones.