overclock 9800pro?

[Davegod]

Looking to overclock the 9800pro. my previous card (GF3ti200) was nuts, went up like 30-40% ram and core, but I'm guessing it'd be more than a little optimistic to hope for that.

1. What are typical -- conservative, and good -- overclocks for 9800pro's?
2. Are ramsinks really worthwhile?
3. There much difference between the method/software to overclock? I was thinking of using Radlinker built into Omegadrivers.
4. Is the Radlink option "sync rates" a good or bad idea?

fwiw I have the 128mb crucial board with artic silencer rev2 on it.


Thanks for any help

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: Davegod
Looking to overclock the 9800pro. my previous card (GF3ti200) was nuts, went up like 30-40% ram and core, but I'm guessing it'd be more than a little optimistic to hope for that.

1. What are typical -- conservative, and good -- overclocks for 9800pro's?

You'll have to try around, but most seem to hit 9800XT speeds (415 core, uh, 365 memory?). That's not an enormous OC from 380/340, so maybe start there? Or else just bump up by 5mhz at a time until you hit a limit.

2. Are ramsinks really worthwhile?

Mixed results from what I've seen reported. Haven't tried it personally.

3. There much difference between the method/software to overclock? I was thinking of using Radlinker built into Omegadrivers.

I use Radlinker separately, and it works fine for me. Never tried the others. AtiTool can attempt to find the maximum non-artifacting overclock, but this apparently doesn't always work well.

4. Is the Radlink option "sync rates" a good or bad idea?

On most cards, the core will OC more than the RAM, so I'd adjust them separately.

 

[Davegod]

thanks
I'll maybe chuck it up to 400/350 or so and take it very cautiously from there.

 

[fbrdphreak]

I just got a BBA (Built By ATI) Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB from Best Buy a week or two and finally got around to playing with it. I used ATI Tool to find Max Core & Mem OCs. I am stably running 430 Core and 374 Mem (748 DDR). I looped 3DMark03 for quite a while, seeing no artifacts while I was watching it and coming back to a perfectly stable system.
I plan to up the clock a couple Mhz at a time while running 3DMark03's and Far Cry to test for artifacts & stability, but I believe that I have reached the limit.
Two different programs (ATI Tool & Everest Home Edition) have confirmed that I have an R350 core, but I have not confirmed visually because I'm still using stock cooling.
3DMark03 Score went from 5875 to 6419 with default settings on the A64.

 

[Davegod]

I just noticed "atitool" in the program group for omegadrivers

says chip type "R350", 256bit mem bus, active pipelines 8? - this right yeah?
cant see any temp readout tho?

 

[Chesebert]

Ramsink works great if you have adequate airflow over them. If not then pointless.

my card came with ramsink, I once tested with a fan blowing directly over the ramsink, and I can clock the ram from 340 to 385.

no airfow, and the best I can do is 365. shuttle case..thight and hot inside.

 

[Marsumane]

Originally posted by: Davegod
I just noticed "atitool" in the program group for omegadrivers

says chip type "R350", 256bit mem bus, active pipelines 8? - this right yeah?
cant see any temp readout tho?

yea those are correct

 

[Davegod]

R350 means my card has the normal 9800pro gpu right, so maybe not so great overclocker?

edit - because I was getting confused with all the google searches calling R350 a 9900pro I thought I was wron and R350 was 9800XT GPU but R360 is 9800xt

 

[HKSturboKID]

By using the ATiToosl to O/c, what are the consequences? Will it fry the card if its clocked too high?

 

[fbrdphreak]

There is always a risk of that with OCing, but little to that extreme. Before it fries, you'll see "artifacting" (where there are glitches in 3D) or if you go too far you may even lock up Windows in 2D. The nice thing about ATI Tool is that it will automatically increase the clock rate while scanning a 3D image for artifacts, effectively doing everything for you. Mine worked great, but others have said ATI Tool didn't work well for them. Try it and see. But as always with OCing, there is ALWAYS a risk.

 

[HKSturboKID]

Originally posted by: fbrdphreak
There is always a risk of that with OCing, but little to that extreme. Before it fries, you'll see "artifacting" (where there are glitches in 3D) or if you go too far you may even lock up Windows in 2D. The nice thing about ATI Tool is that it will automatically increase the clock rate while scanning a 3D image for artifacts, effectively doing everything for you. Mine worked great, but others have said ATI Tool didn't work well for them. Try it and see. But as always with OCing, there is ALWAYS a risk.

Thanks for the reply. I've just try ATI tools to find the Max and here is what I got.

Stock on my 9800 is 378/340
ATI tools is able to increase it to 399/357.

It also detect mines as r350.

 

[Hankysmoo]

I have about the same results as HK, what kind of memory does ur Radeon 9800 have?

 

[mato7742]

i have ramsinks on mine and it makes an enormous difference when overclocking. i also bought a vga silencer, which cut temperatures by 50%.


i would definitely buy ramsinks and a better heatsink for your card.


it's very possible to damage the fragile samsung memory on those cards.

 

[Schadenfreudex]

Any program you use to check the core is just reading the info from bios. So if you do have R360 core it will still show up as R350. As any 9800 Pro will have Pro bios saying it's a R350. Only way to know for sure is to look !

 

[Giscardo]

Originally posted by: mato7742
i have ramsinks on mine and it makes an enormous difference when overclocking.

Your memory is only at 378, what did you get without ramsinks? I would guess around 360-365, so it doesn't seem like that big a deal to get 12-17 more mhz out of the memory. I mean, that's good and all, but I wouldn't call it an enormous difference.