9600GSO to 4830?

[xSeongminx]

I currently have a 9600GSO 384MB and am looking at the 4830s. I know that there is an increase in performance but will it be noticeable at my resolution? I play at 1440 x 900 (19" WS).

I know I can sell my card for around $50-60 and the 4830 is going for $100. If I am upgrading, should I just step up to the 4850? Thanks.

 

[AzN]

You probably want to overclock GSO and wait at that resolution but if you do have a upgrade the itch you should see 25% better frame rates if you do upgrade. If that's worth it is entirely up to you though.

 

[xSeongminx]

Sweet, thanks for the quick response. I'm running Vista ATM and have had no luck finding any programs to overclock my video card.

 

[Flipped Gazelle]

Originally posted by: xSeongminx
Sweet, thanks for the quick response. I'm running Vista ATM and have had no luck finding any programs to overclock my video card.

Rivatuner.

 

[xSeongminx]

I actually DL'd it last night and everytime I start it, it says that it cannot load the RivaTuner64.sys file. Then it goes on to say something about how driver signing enforcement needs to be disabled.

 

[BlueAcolyte]

Ok, reboot and mash f8. Then go disable driver signing enforcement and rivatuner will work fine.

 

[AzN]

If you overclock you could easily get 20~25% performance gains from your card. Those GSO's were really good overclockers considering it's a g92 downclocked for make way for 9600gt. I used to have 8800gs same as 9600gso.

I got mine to 729/1728/1060 from 550/1375/800.

You might want to run it as administrator and disable driving signing.

Here's how you disable driving signing check.

http://www.tech-recipes.com/rx...r_signing_enforcement/

 

[xSeongminx]

Thanks a lot for the information guys! I was able to disable the driver signing enforcement and am now in Rivatuner. Hopefully I'll be able to get some extra juice out of this card.

 

[Ika]

Driver signing enforcement isn't a good solution; you have to do it every time you reboot. Download a newer version of Rivatuner from guru3d.com, they now have signed Vista x64 drivers so you don't have to deal with it. If you're getting driver signing issues with Rivatuner, chances are you have an old version (probably pre-2.06 or so).

 

[xSeongminx]

Dang, how did you get your card clocked so high! I must have a dud...

 

[Denithor]

Make sure you're turning up the fanspeed somewhat otherwise temps will hold you back.

Use furmark to ensure stability.

And once you have it running faster, put it to work crunching on the Folding @ Home GPU client.

 

[quadomatic]

Yeah, make sure you max out fan speed. Even on my dual slot 9600GSO I wasn't able to push speeds to the limit without maxing out the fan speed. Unfortunately that made it rather loud, so I picked up another cooler.

What kind of 9600GSO is it? Is it a new one? Or did you buy it at least a few months ago?

You may want to get another cooler if it's not a dual slot cooler, or special in some way. Go find an Accelero S1 on ebay and strap a 120mm fan to it. It should cost around $15 to $20.

Depending on the card you might be able to get even better oc's than Azn. I did to some extent. Also, some really awesome people have put out guides for volt mods for these cards. If you have the standard reference model card, then a volt mod could be relatively simple:

http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=53910

My card wasn't based on the reference model. Fortunately, these same people are figuring out a volt mod for my card. I ordered some variable resistors and I should get them in the next day or so.

 

[Denithor]

Just a note of caution: voltmods are not for newbies and you risk completely trashing your card if the work is done wrong (or even right, if you then crank it up too high).

 

[quadomatic]

Originally posted by: Denithor
Just a note of caution: voltmods are not for newbies and you risk completely trashing your card if the work is done wrong (or even right, if you then crank it up too high).

Yeah, agreed. Definitely not the route you want to take if you don't have any soldering or hard-modding experience. I'm still not quite sure if I know what I'm doing. We'll see.

 

[xSeongminx]

I have experience with soldering and volt-mods and such but since this computer is going to be used for writing papers and school work, I want something that is 100% reliable. I did not turn up the fan speed on the card but I will definitely give it a try. Thanks for all of the inputs!

 

[AzN]

Volt modding is a waste and so is buying a new cooler for a vid card unless the cooler was super cheap or some homemade sinks. With the money for a better cooler you could have easily bought a better card.

Volt mod doesn't do all that much. Trust me I've done lot of hard volt modding in my day. Maybe another 3-5% better overclocking before the volt mod. All it does create more heat than your referenced cooler can handle, void warranty or worse even screw your card up.

 

[xSeongminx]

I agree, which is why I am not going to be volt-modding this card. I have the dual slot cooler and it does just fine. Instead of putting the money into going balls-to-the-wall with this card, I rather just put some money down on a new card.

 

[quadomatic]

Originally posted by: Azn
Volt modding is a waste and so is buying a new cooler for a vid card unless the cooler was super cheap or some homemade sinks. With the money for a better cooler you could have easily bought a better card.

Volt mod doesn't do all that much. Trust me I've done lot of hard volt modding in my day. Maybe another 3-5% better overclocking before the volt mod. All it does create more heat than your referenced cooler can handle, void warranty or worse even screw your card up.

Actually, the results that people have been able to get with volt modding are astounding. Someone on TechPowerUp was able to get some obscene oc's with a volt mod on the 9600GSO.

http://www.teampalit.com/showthread.php?t=6661

Granted, they were on water cooling, but still. Considering that with the card can probably safely run at temps up to 70 or so, and my card runs in the mid 50s on load (well it was when the fan was attached properly...right now it peaks at 61 on the furmark stability test, but my fan isn't attached to the card. It's just sort of sitting on the side and lightly blowing air on the Accelero S1. The 120mm fan doesn't let me put in my X-Fi because it takes up so many slots. I'll pick up a turbo module soon).

 

[xSeongminx]

I'll admit, that is a crazy overclock but if I was to go all out, I would just upgrade my POS machine =).

 

[AzN]

Originally posted by: quadomatic

Originally posted by: Azn
Volt modding is a waste and so is buying a new cooler for a vid card unless the cooler was super cheap or some homemade sinks. With the money for a better cooler you could have easily bought a better card.

Volt mod doesn't do all that much. Trust me I've done lot of hard volt modding in my day. Maybe another 3-5% better overclocking before the volt mod. All it does create more heat than your referenced cooler can handle, void warranty or worse even screw your card up.

Actually, the results that people have been able to get with volt modding are astounding. Someone on TechPowerUp was able to get some obscene oc's with a volt mod on the 9600GSO.

http://www.teampalit.com/showthread.php?t=6661

Granted, they were on water cooling, but still. Considering that with the card can probably safely run at temps up to 70 or so, and my card runs in the mid 50s on load (well it was when the fan was attached properly...right now it peaks at 61 on the furmark stability test, but my fan isn't attached to the card. It's just sort of sitting on the side and lightly blowing air on the Accelero S1. The 120mm fan doesn't let me put in my X-Fi because it takes up so many slots. I'll pick up a turbo module soon).

That's on 1.575 volts from 1.1 volts and for normal use that's not the voltage you want to be running for every day use. Too much for an air cooler to handle and 1 out of how many GSO's out there with volt mods? Add in the cost of the water cooler now add in the cost of the card and that card with a massive overclock still can't catch up to the G92 GTS you can get a used 1 for $100.

I've used modified CPU air coolers and volt modded in the past. The best it can usually muster is 5% and never mind it's bandwidth limited at that point to scale properly.

 

[quadomatic]

Well...I'm going to eat my hat here...I tried volt modding my card and I ended up ripping a leg off of the chip and pulling the traces up off of the pcb.

So now, I'm in the market to replace my 9600GSO as well. Funny story eh?

Anyways, I took a look at the HD4830. By default, it sits right under the HD4850 in performance, and about in the same spot as the 8800GT. Which, for a price tag of $90 AR, isn't bad.

But, after a bios flash on a Sapphire HD4830, quite the overclock can be achieved.

So, after I collect a paycheck or 2 I'll go ahead and pick up a new video card. There's a good chance it'll be the HD4830 at this point though.

There are only 2 things that console me about the loss of my 9600GSO:

1. It was a $34 card. (I bought $3 worth in Variable resistors for the mod, and an $8 multimeter, but hey, the multimeter is still useful)
2. The cooler I bought for it, an Accelero S1 rev 2, can be used on most of the cards that I would consider buying, and it's quite the cooler.

Still, really sucks that I have to replace it. You were a good card...and I barely knew ya. I'll throw the sucker on eBay and see if anyone thinks they can repair it. It's possible I suppose, if they can expose the leg of the chip and solder a wire to it and the resistor that it's no longer connected to (the trace I ripped was actually quite small).

 

[AzN]

Originally posted by: Azn
Volt mod doesn't do all that much. Trust me I've done lot of hard volt modding in my day. Maybe another 3-5% better overclocking before the volt mod. All it does create more heat than your referenced cooler can handle, void warranty or worse even screw your card up.

 

[quadomatic]

Originally posted by: Azn

Originally posted by: Azn
Volt mod doesn't do all that much. Trust me I've done lot of hard volt modding in my day. Maybe another 3-5% better overclocking before the volt mod. All it does create more heat than your referenced cooler can handle, void warranty or worse even screw your card up.

Yes yes, thanks for the salt, I'll be sure to rub it in while I'm bleeding to death

Isn't me losing my card bad enough?

 

[AzN]

I told you not to mess with it. Volt modding is no good. One mistake and you fry. The gains aren't worth it unless you go water or some exotic cooling because all that heat needs to go. With good air cooling you lucky you even get 30-50mhz out of it.

Take it as a learning experience. You lucky your only out $36. I've volt modded few cards but I did fry one as well. I killed 2 cpu's trying to put crappy thermaltake cooler on a bare athlon cpu's.

 

[quadomatic]

Originally posted by: Azn
I told you not to mess with it. Volt modding is no good. One mistake and you fry. The gains aren't worth it unless you go water or some exotic cooling because all that heat needs to go. With good air cooling you lucky you even get 30-50mhz out of it.

Take it as a learning experience. You lucky your only out $36. I've volt modded few cards but I did fry one as well. I killed 2 cpu's trying to put crappy thermaltake cooler on a bare athlon cpu's.

Again, I do remember that you said that. This is one of the reasons why the experience is so PAINFUL. And yes, I will learn from it.