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R9800 Thermal Throttling?

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aNTiChRisT

Member
Joined
Feb 25, 2004
Location
England
Hey everyone. I had some wierd problems with my new 9800pro recently.

When i first got it, i installed an Arctic Silencer on it (one of the new flashy ones) and started up my games... wow they look nice with AA and AF with constant FPS! I was dissapointed with the OC though; 378core to 400? The memory was good though -- 320 to 385.

I ran 3DMark 03 and got 4000 points... this is when i knew something was off. Before with my friends 9800NP i nearly scraped 7000marks! I thought, must be a virus, or because of my NVidia drivers previously on here. Over the next few days, my framerates lowered and i couldnt understand why!

A few more days later, well you can see the attached image of americas army...

After reinstalling DX and Cats i put it down to hardware. I was really pissed off that i had destroyed my new card... i couldnt afford a new one!

So i check it out... couldnt see anything wrong. In one last ditch attempt, i put the stock heatsink back on. It booted, and my games worked again! I overclocked to 405 core now! I have yet to run 03 but i got a lot better frames.

Today, i reinstalled my silencer... turns out the plastic "funnel" was resting on a component; looks as though the core wasnt in full contact. I'll get some photos on tomorrow. Core is up to 415 -- still pretty pathetic but nothing a voltmod cant heal :)

So yea, i put it down to thermal throttling. Im just glad it weren't destroyed. Anyone else had something similar happen? Im suprised it had thermal throttling.

~t0m
 

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I'm certain that these cards do not underclock, or compensate in any way for high temperatures - although your speed drop with the poor heatsink mount *would* seem to indicate that they do.

It's strange that this occured, although the speed drop you experienced could be due to simple overheating, I suppose.


I'm glad that your card is alright, it's an awful feeling when something's going wrong with your machine, and you can't figure out what's causing it....

I installed a stick of RAM upside down yesterday ( :santa: ), and it took me practically half an hour to figure out what was causing my computer to blare a very annoying symphony of several differently toned alarm beeps :D.
 
Try re-mounting that hsf. With my stock cooler on my 9800p i can pull about 420 core, if not higher, i havent tryed though
 
Whoops, forgot about this thread :p

Felinusz, i too make the mistake -- nearly everytime :) now i know when a ram stick isnt fitting, i just stop, turn it round, and in it goes. lol.

I've tried re-mounting. I'm pretty sure its the ATi Silencer that isnt working, because i have had the stock cooler on for several days now and no funny bugs. Shame really, cause i spent £25 on it -- about $45 :(

Oh well, i think im going to splash out on a new watercooling system...

Thanks for the replies -- and making me laugh felinusz :)

~t0m
 
Read the first post mate, DX and Cats are reinstalled :(

I've had Omegas on for a few days, so far no problems. Maybe it was a driver issue, hell knows.

~t0m
 
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