9800 o/c help

[blockdoc]

I'm just an o/c newbie. I have a 9800 pro and I've started playing with o'cing with the rage3d tweaker. According to Anandtech's review of this card, they didn't have trouble o/cing it to 420 core/380 mem with no artifacts. The review doesn't say if they did any cooling mods to the card, but I assume it was stock. Using the rage3d tweaker I can take it up ~ 20 MHz for both, but past that I'lll get artifacts running 3dmark2003. Should I increase AGP voltage? Any other thoughts?

Thanks.

Ferd

 

[PreservedSwine]

Artifacts usually mean your memory is overheating. Try upping the core clock a bit more, while backing off the memory overclocking. Don't run the clocks in sync.

I don't think voltage is an issue at those speeds, and I wouoldn't reccomend upping the voltage.

Happy overclocking

 

[Enigma422]

The AGP voltage is not going to help you OC your graphics card. It is there to make your system stable if your running your AGP bus out of spec at high FSB speeds. What brand ATi card do you have? Not all cards are created equally and you maybe at the limit of your OC with your particular card, but as PreservedSwine said try upping the core clock while easing off the memory clock. Also how good is your case cooling? If its not good heat may also be holding back your OC.

 

[blockdoc]

I have an Antec plus case with 2 front and 2 rear case fans and a side fan next to the pci/agp slots. I have a Radeon 9800pro. I'll try the suggested changes and report back.

Thanks,

Ferd

 

[bafbrian]

We gotta know the brand of the card, it will help us "diagonse the problem" of your Clocks.

Remember, not every card is the same, just because it says Radeon 9800Pro, doesn't mean it necessarily built by ATI.

 

[blockdoc]

I spent a couple hours tinkering with my system and made some interesting observations. With my stock cooling on the cpu and radeon card my system seems to be stable as follows:

Clock @ 154 Mhz which gets me to 2.9GHz and cpu idle temp ~ 40C, cpu load temp between 46-48C. cpu voltage @ 1.525 and mem @ 2.5 (both are default).

My video card is set at 366.75 mem/420.8 core.

With this setup I'll hit 5900 with 3dmark03. What's interesting is tweaking just a few Mhz will result in jerky video during the benchmark testing.

If I leave video at these settings and change to mobo clock speed to 156 Mhz I'll get jerky video. If I increase video core speed above this I'll get jerky playback.

Is there anything more I can do?

Thanks,

Ferd

 

[blockdoc]

BTW the card is a retail ATI radeon 9800 pro. Got it at BestBuy.

Ferd

 

[PreservedSwine]

What's interesting is tweaking just a few Mhz will result in jerky video during the benchmark testing.

Tweaking a few mhz more than the already overclocked 420/734, or tweaking a few MHZ over default values?

If you're talking more than 420/734, you may need to volt-mod the R9800 to squeeze a bit more out of it.

Nice overclock, btw

 

[blockdoc]

Thanks. When I tweak a few Mhz above my already o/c'd card I get some jerkiness in the video playback. I don't know enough to volt mod a video card.

Can you clarify your comment on my memory speed though. I reported mem at 366.75 Mhz. Multiplied by 2 that gives 734, but why is there a multiplier?

Also, why would changing my bus speed so little also affect video playback on this benchmark? I could o/c the cpu to 3.1 GHZ with load temps < 48C, but would then get the jerky video playback. No other artifacts were noted.

I think I could hit 6000 w/ 3dmark03 without doing any other cooling mods. Should I expect jerkiness in the video display at increased h/w speeds or should the different game tests always scroll smoothly?

Thanks

Ferd

 

[PreservedSwine]

Can you clarify your comment on my memory speed though. I reported mem at 366.75 Mhz. Multiplied by 2 that gives 734, but why is there a multiplier?

The RAM used is DDR, Double Data Rate. To put it simply, it gives effectivley twice the bandwidth of SDR, tranfering data up and down the bus.

Also, why would changing my bus speed so little also affect video playback on this benchmark? I could o/c the cpu to 3.1 GHZ with load temps < 48C, but would then get the jerky video playback. No other artifacts were noted

I don't know

 

[blockdoc]

I've learned a few more things since my last post. I read that nice article on building a system and o'cing. I ran prime95 and found that my system wasn't stable despite xp booting up and running.

After tweaking fsb speeds I'm currently at 156Mhz = 2.97G w memory running at 390. With these settings prime95 runs stable. When I run 3dmark03 video playback is smooth and hit 5983. GPU is @ 425/734. CPU voltage is @ 1.6 and dram voltage @ 2.6. I just installed a Zalman CNPS7000 cpu cooler and at idle my temps run 39-40C and 50-51C @ full load.

Unfortunately I think I'm at the limits of my hardware. My BIOS won't let me increase cpu voltage > 1.6 and the system isn't stable above a fsb 160 since I can't increase voltage. In addition my memory doesn't like being run @ 400Mhz. If I change the clock ratio to 2:1 to give me 320Mhz @ fsb of 160 my 3dmark03 score goes down since I think my memory speed becomes a bottleneck. The BIOS on this mobo doesn't give me any advanced options to tweak memory speed more precisely.

With regard to my 9800 pro, if I increase mem speed to >367 I start to get artifacts. I have stock cooling on the video card I'm not sure if I can increase the core clock much more since I don't know how hot the gpu is. What will I see displayed if I set this too high?

I'm somewhat disappointed that I couldn't break 6000 on this benchmark, but I have enjoyed my first experience with o/cing my system.

Ferd

 

[PreservedSwine]

What will I see displayed if I set this too high?

Usually the game will simply crash, freeze, or the good old BSOD. I've never heard of anyone actually damaging their hardware by increasing the core or memory clock in small increments to find a stable limit. As I understand it, the R9800 fan and heatsink do a much better job of cooling the gpu than the R9700PRO's cooling solution. Most have been able to hit at least 400, some even 500 on stock cooling and voltage. The average seems to be between 420 or so. Have fun