Sum it up. 9800 nonpro!

Hurk · Dec 28, 2003

Hi, I am selling my Softmoddable 9500 to get a 9800 non-pro. My question is, I am looking through the forums and the way to overclock these things is you have to flash the BIOS to a Pro BIOS. However this will detect it as a 9800 Pro, instead of a non-pro. (I want it to be detected as a non-pro for 3DMark03 results.) Do I need to flash it to overclock it? Can I just install the Omega drivers and overclock it? I see some people have overclocked the np's without flashing it. Am I insane?

Also, I searched the forums but really didn't comeup with any answers. The 9800 np is faster, slower or equal to 9700 Pro's. Both overclocked, which is faster. I think most people are going with the 9800np's and are happy. (That's why am I getting it) The np and the 9700 Pro are the same price. Any suggestions?

Strida · Dec 28, 2003

Why can't you use Rage3d or Powerstrip to overclock it? I've never heard of them not working on a card before.

wpmegee · Dec 28, 2003

You don't have to flash the bios to unlock it, but the pro bios has looser memory timings and may let you clock the ram higher. However, if you want it to be detected as a pro, then yes you must flash it.

At equal clock speeds, the 9800np will perform better than the 9700 Pro because of architectural differences. Also buyer beware when buying a 9800. Don't get the SE, they have half the pipelines.

shortbus_ · Dec 28, 2003

my 9800np got detected as a pro out of the box :/

Cow2kie · Dec 29, 2003

shortbus, it says 9800 pro.. but to tell if it dedects it as a pro or np.. is the clockrates it reads it at. i dont remember the exact.. i think np is 320:290 and pro is 370:330 I could be wrong on those its been awhile since I even looked at them. I dont ike ocin memory much on my vid card.

Compliance20 · Dec 29, 2003

Well let me say that i have the 9800np i love this thing. my Core is Oc'ed higher then the XT, and if it wasnt for the fact that i got Infineon ram on my card that would be high up there too. i love mine. just make sure that you get a card with out the infineon ram.

__TRONIK__ · Dec 29, 2003

where are you selling your 9500? for how much?

Cow2kie · Dec 29, 2003

yes ifineon ram sux

__TRONIK__ · Jan 7, 2004

I dont think it sux that bad. I had it at 600-620, round 9700 pro speeds, which is maybe 80mhz less than common 9700 pro overclocks with the diggity dank sammy 2.8ns. that's a gap to be sure, but I still squeezed 20k 3dmarks out of a $140 card. Wouldn't make any sense to throw great mem on every 9500 and 9800se / 9800np out there. (though some lucky ones....)

Now you wanna see some crappy mem? check out the 2.8ns etrontech on sapphire 9800pro "lite" on black pcb. An abomination unto the ram gods.

Mustanley · Jan 7, 2004

The 9700Pro and 9800np perform almost the same (within 5%) but the 9800np core will OC much further. Hard to say how the memory will overclock becuase it depends on which modules the card uses (will probably be Infineon). Pretty sure 3dmark will detect the card properly unless you flash the bios.
At max overclock, if I remember correctly, the pro bios netted me all of 100 more points in 3dmark03 over the np bios. Not very substantial that's for sure.

SoulSnatcher · Jan 7, 2004

__TRONIK__ said:
I dont think it sux that bad. I had it at 600-620, round 9700 pro speeds, which is maybe 80mhz less than common 9700 pro overclocks with the diggity dank sammy 2.8ns. that's a gap to be sure, but I still squeezed 20k 3dmarks out of a $140 card. Wouldn't make any sense to throw great mem on every 9500 and 9800se / 9800np out there. (though some lucky ones....)

Now you wanna see some crappy mem? check out the 2.8ns etrontech on sapphire 9800pro "lite" on black pcb. An abomination unto the ram gods.

Hmm... my black "lite" has the samsung... that must explain the 9800XT speed.

__TRONIK__ · Jan 7, 2004

indeed I believe it does. I was artifacting badly at only slight overclocks, and while this likely had something to do with the pee poor heatsink, and I knew I could imorive cooling/voltmod, I did not want to do all that work modding it to get it to do what a regular stock 9800 pro would. plus, if it did nor work well, I would have a heavily modded card impossible to return and difficult to sell.

POL-tec2002 · Jan 8, 2004

hmm...im thinkin of a 9800np is this a good one

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProdu...8&manufactory=BROWSE&type=Refurbish&section=1

Mustanley · Jan 8, 2004

POL-tec2002 said:
hmm...im thinkin of a 9800np is this a good one

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProdu...8&manufactory=BROWSE&type=Refurbish&section=1

Looks like a good one to me. Better jump on it before it disappears since you can't beat that price.

__TRONIK__ · Jan 8, 2004

i jumped on it - they have more too. also have the 9800se w/256bit, but for only a couple bux less why take the chance it doesn't softmod?

TruckyJ · Jan 8, 2004

__TRONIK__ said:
i jumped on it - they have more too. also have the 9800se w/256bit, but for only a couple bux less why take the chance it doesn't softmod?

Agreed. 256bit 9800se's cost alot, and its a pretty big risk given the price of the cards. Its better off just to get a guarenteed 9800pro.

Sum it up. 9800 nonpro!

Hurk

Member

Strida

Member

wpmegee

Member

shortbus_

Member

Cow2kie

Member

Compliance20

Member

TRONIK

Member

Cow2kie

Member

TRONIK

Member

Mustanley

Member

SoulSnatcher

Registered

TRONIK

Member

POL-tec2002

Member

Mustanley

Member

TRONIK

Member

TruckyJ

Member

Similar threads