My Radeon 8500

[DaedalusX]

I bought a Radeon 8500 from the company known as ...Invado
well it seems to work well but I have no way of knowing what the actual gpu/ram mhz/mhz is.

Is there a program I can download? I have SiSoft Sandra 2001, but that gives me EVERYTHING but the gpu/ram speed. The card is OEM and I'm pretty sure it's the LE not the LELE so I'm betting on 250/500 (250/250).

If this is true how would I go about knowing how to clock it back up to retail speeds? I know that in most cases the hardware is the same and all I would have to do is replace the BIOS. But since I just bought this card and am out of $$ I don't want to take any chances.

Any suggestion? Thanks

[-Exi|e-]

You can always download Powerstrip to know your speeds or, you can go to www.rage3d.com and download one of there tweaking programs, which will tell you the speeds and give you the option of tweaking your card.

[FrozenInHI]

sisoft sandra also will tell you

[TranceBear]

Originally posted by -Exi|e-
You can always download Powerstrip to know your speeds or, you can go to www.rage3d.com and download one of there tweaking programs, which will tell you the speeds and give you the option of tweaking your card.

Powerstrip is the one to use

[Wega!]

Originally posted by DaedalusX
I bought a Radeon 8500 from the company known as ...Invado
well it seems to work well but I have no way of knowing what the actual gpu/ram mhz/mhz is.

Is there a program I can download? I have SiSoft Sandra 2001, but that gives me EVERYTHING but the gpu/ram speed. The card is OEM and I'm pretty sure it's the LE not the LELE so I'm betting on 250/500 (250/250).

If this is true how would I go about knowing how to clock it back up to retail speeds? I know that in most cases the hardware is the same and all I would have to do is replace the BIOS. But since I just bought this card and am out of $$ I don't want to take any chances.

Any suggestion? Thanks

Take a look at your RAM's.... What are the two last numbers in the code on them? if it's 36, you will have a very big chance of being able to overclock your card to 275MHz/275MHz. If it says 40 in the end, you might have a little troubles getting 275/275...
Use Power Strip.

[Maximus Nickus]

Most OEM's will hit Reatil speeds but no more.

[Silversinksam]

Originally posted by nick_cw
Most OEM's will hit Reatil speeds but no more.

Nick, There are alot of people I have come across that are having trouble getting thier OEM to retail speeds.

Depends on the memory and more importantly, it depends if the OEM has crippled GPU and VMem resistors.

[DaedalusX]

okay, so my ram chips all end in 36 (after I read that post about the 36/40 thing I was really crossing my fingers when I went to look) to my relief.

So I've used powerstrip, and that only lets me up the memory clock, I can't touch the engine speed. (does it auto match the memory clock?)

What I really wanna know is can I up the ram speed? I think that would most likely produce the best performance. I did the pencil thing to the two spots I was supposed to but I don't know what to do after that. I would like maybe 275/550 which I believe is retail.

Oh and could I just change the BIOS to the retail version now that I did the pencil thing? If so, how do I do it? I have a bios flash utility and the new ATI retail BIOS saved as zip files on my computer already I just need to know how to use them.

Thanks I know this is a lot of questions.

[Silversinksam]

Originally posted by DaedalusX

So I've used powerstrip, and that only lets me up the memory clock, I can't touch the engine speed. (does it auto match the memory clock?)

What I really wanna know is can I up the ram speed? I think that would most likely produce the best performance. I did the pencil thing to the two spots I was supposed to but I don't know what to do after that. I would like maybe 275/550 which I believe is retail.

Oh and could I just change the BIOS to the retail version now that I did the pencil thing? If so, how do I do it? I have a bios flash utility and the new ATI retail BIOS saved as zip files on my computer already I just need to know how to use them.

Thanks I know this is a lot of questions.


I don't understand why Powerstrip isn't allowing you to adjust the core speed, I suggest reinstalling PS

Regarding the pensil trick all I can tell you is read all you can about it and use caution.

Lastely the bios Flash isn't to difficult just save your old bios and have a cheap PCI video card handy should you have a mishap. The PCI card will allow you to flash it back to current bios.

[Maximus Nickus]

Ooops!!!

I meant to say that if your OEM has 3.6ns Ram, you flash it to a Retail BIOS and put some ramsinks and a better GPU cooler on, then you stand a good chance of overclocking it to Retail speeds.

Sorry if I confused a few!

:beer:


Nick

[DaedalusX]

Okay I've got some ramsinks on the way and the ram chips on the card end in 36... that would mean they are 3.6ns? I don't want to do anything that'll mess up my card.

Also cooling's not a problem I'm getting really good ramsinks for every ram chip, with arctic silver thermal grease, and have large fast fans on both sides of the card.

I re-installed powerstrip and still can't overclock the Engine Core, would flashing the BIOS possibly make that work?

[Wega!]

Originally posted by DaedalusX
Okay I've got some ramsinks on the way and the ram chips on the card end in 36... that would mean they are 3.6ns? I don't want to do anything that'll mess up my card.

Also cooling's not a problem I'm getting really good ramsinks for every ram chip, with arctic silver thermal grease, and have large fast fans on both sides of the card.

I re-installed powerstrip and still can't overclock the Engine Core, would flashing the BIOS possibly make that work?

I'm glad to hear you got one with 3.6ns RAMs... And with those ramsinks you should be able to overclock the card to at least retail speeds. I also think 300/300MHz in in range, but no promise made here.
I have no idea why you can't overclock the core with Powerstrip, but I do know that flashing the bios won't help you with that.
Maybe you should try to use another program to overclock with...

[TranceBear]

I started with a OEM 250/250 and was able to acheive 275/275 without any mods. Anything over 280/285 and I got artifacts. I have seen OEM's that start at 230/230 never go above 260/260. The volt mod is a very touchy thing, be careful, I have fried one already.

[DaedalusX]

What are some other programs I could try to change the engine clock other than Powerstrip?

[DaedalusX]

well the newest powerstrip worked for upping the engine clock, but what I want to know is what about the vram.... well I'm at 260/260/500 and I'd like to get 260/260/550 if not more, whaddya think?

Also what needs to be changed to get higher mhz without artifacts? I guess I would just need to know what 'causes artifacts with overclocking to understand.