9600XT, can't seem to overclock the core

[Jayavarman]

I have a PowerColor Radeon 9600XT which comes default at 500/337(676). I can overclock the memory to 371(742) mhz, but the core does not like to be overclocked at all! I tried 515 and leaving the memory at default and games would crash or hang. If I put the core back to default everything is great again. So right now I have it running at 499.5/364(728). Can someone tell me why I cannot overclock the core? I would think it can at least do 515. This doesn't make sense at all. I am using Catalyst 3.10.

Thanks,
Jay

 

[Blastman]

What are you using to overclock with?

 

[Jayavarman]

I am using Riva Tuner. I also tried Radclock and Powerstrip (trial version). All with the same results. Could the Overdrive feature interfere with overclocking the core? I've never heard about it though.

 

[Blastman]

Will the GPU overclock at all anything??...even a little ...like to say...505 or something?

 

[Jayavarman]

I haven't tried 505. I tried 550 off the bat. It hung hard, had to power cycle computer. I tried 525, hangs the minute it tried to load games. Tried 515, same, UT2003/Rise of Nations/Halo/etc.. hangs either at splash screen or during loading. I didn't try anything lower as I didn't care about it. But I can try when I get home. It's strange, something is holding me back.

 

[Blastman]

I?ve never heard of 9600XT cores being locked so that shouldn?t be a problem. That?s why I?m asking if it will overclock any amount at all. Trying to narrow the problem to software or hardware. If all you can get is a very small overclock (ie it?s not locked at 500Mhz) then my thinking is it?s possible the hsf isn?t making good contact with the GPU (ie the factory messed up the assembly).

Perhaps reinstalling the drivers may help if it?s software related.

 

[Jayavarman]

Good point. I'll try 505 and see what happens. As far as heat issue, I removed the heatsink and applied Antec Silver heatsink compound on it. My computer case has great ventilations. I don't think it's heat related as 515 isn't all that far from 499.5. Yet at 499.5 (default) there's absolutely no problems. I tried to uninstall Catalyst 3.10 and installed Catalyst 3.08, but that didn't help any. My next move is to reinstall Windows. I need a new reinstall of Windows anyways.

 

[Blastman]

Have you tried the newer versions of your overclcoking software (like rage3dtweak), the old ones may not support a 9600XT.

As far as overclocking the core, I?ve seen anywhere from 550 to 615 and usually in the 575 range so it would be odd if you didn?t make at least 550.

 

[cockeyed]

I recently built a machine for someone else and used the Powercolor 9600XT; same as yours. Just for the heck of it, I wanted to see if it was running at 500/667 as advertised, so I installed Radcloker. Radclocker showed the core at 250. Try Rage3Dtweak, which gave me the correct readings; maybe the OC utility you are using is reporting the wrong info..

 

[Jayavarman]

Blastman,
I installed Rage3DTweak (pretty nice utility, think I'll stick with it) with the same results. I can overclock the core to 506 however. With RivaTuner, it's either 499.5 or 513, nothing would stay in between. Anyways, using Rage3D it was stable at 506. However, by stable I mean was able to run 3DMark2003 through 2 cycles and played Halo for about 30 minutes. I tried 513 and 3DMark2003 locked after ~2 minutes. Didn't hang the PC, it kicked me back to Windows and Catalyst reported a VPU problem and recovered the error and asked me to reboot and restore defaults. I don't think it's any software issue. I believe this core is right near it's limit at spec'd speed. I am seriously considering RMAing it. I mean, right now, I'm not 100% sure that it will be stable at stock speed. This morning I reset my PC to default speeds, so that I know the system is 101% stable. And I set the 9600XT to defaults also. I launched 3DMark2003 and have it run in loops. I will see what happens when I get home. If 3DMark03 crashed, it's RMA time. If it doesn't, I will keep the card. I'm very pleased with the memory as I now have it running 369(738) and very stable. The core speed doesn't concern me too much. But when the default core speed is running near it's max headroom, I am concerned. Sorry for the long babbling.

Cockeyed,
Yep, RadClock showed the core at 249 for me too. I didn't even bother with it when I saw that. I only used it for about 2 minutes to oc the memory with it, then I uninstalled it and used other apps. By the way, were you able to overclock your core much at all?

Thanks,
Jay

 

[cockeyed]

Unfortunately, I didn't try to OC it. Since this was a machine I built for someone else, I was only interested to see that it was running at the advertised speed. The Cat10's didn't have the overdrive tab, so I don't know if that funtion works. If you could only get 506, I wonder how overdrive would be able to work on your card. If the overdrive function would take it up 3%, that would be 515; at 5% it would be 525. Maybe there is more to the overdrive funtion than we know about. I emailed Powercolor and asked why there was no overdive funtion as advertised on the box; no reply from them yet. Maybe the result you are seeing has something to do with overdrive. BTW, the card seems to run real good; fast and great IQ.

 

[Blastman]

Ya, then, with all that info I would be considering a RMA too. If it?s that close to being unstable at 500MHz now hopefully when it gets hot in the summer it?s ok. If it?s just a BIOS problem not alowing the overclock then it?s probably fine.

For more info you could search the forums at rage3d ...

http://www.rage3d.com/board/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=22

Couple last ideas ? ?

- could try reinstalling hs.
- run the AGP at 4x instead of 8x if you haven?t already tried that or are already at 4x.

 

[Jayavarman]

OK,
When I got home turned on the monitor, 3DMark2003 crashed. It didn't hang but crashed with Windows XP error dialogue box saying something about running out of virtual memory, and the hard drive light is constantly on and the hard drive was thrashing like mad. This seems to point to Windows/software problems rather then GPU puking to me. I reboot and let 3Dmark run again and it ran for 4 hours before I exit the program.

I tried 4X AGP, still the same, cannot oc the core. I already reinstalled the hs (heatsink) twice and even lapped the heatsink. I'm thinking the core clock is locked in the bios. I tried to search for Powercolor radeon 9600xt bios on the web to no avail. The bios I have is dated 11/25/03. I just cannot believe that the core is running with such low, low headroom. I'm running out of options. I don't think I'm going to RMA it, too much hassel. Plus I love the memory being so good. If anyone have any more suggestions, I'm open to anything. If you know where/how I can update the bios I;d like to know also. Thanks guys.

 

[NEVERwinter]

hey... that happens to me too. I have that Powercolor 9600XT as well. I can push the RAM memory to around 366-370, but I can only overlock the core to 515. Anything beyond 515 will instantly hung any game I ran.
Say.. if I flash the BIOS from different manufacturer (i have ASUS and Sapphire 9600XT BIOS) would it help the overclock?

 

[Jayavarman]

Neverwinter,
Thanks for sharing. I guess I'm relieved to hear that I'm not the only one. It does seem the Powercolor 9600xt is somehow clock locked. It's very stable at default speed, but the minute I overclock it slightly over the default speed games and benchmark programs starts to hang right away. I felt the card while overclocked, right on the PCB directly on the otherside of the core, and it's only slightly warm. I'm thinking of contacting Powercolor, just to see what they say.

I wouldn't use another manufacturer's BIOS. Maybe it's different with video card, but I recently flashed a motherboard with a different BIOS and the mobo is dead. I had to RMA it.

 

[NEVERwinter]

Originally posted by: Jayavarman

I wouldn't use another manufacturer's BIOS. Maybe it's different with video card, but I recently flashed a motherboard with a different BIOS and the mobo is dead. I had to RMA it.

OUCH! well... motherboards are different
I flashed my old Sapphire 8500LE with BBA 8500... it helped the overclock.

hmm... I did flash my card with Sapphire BIOS, it doesn't help. Maybe because the Sapphire 9600XT is clocked 500/324.
As far as I can find, Powercolor 9600XT has the highest memory speed by default.... ASUS 9600XT is 500/300, and i think the BBA as well....

 

[cockeyed]

Maybe some future Catalyst version will work with Overdrive, which only boosts the core. As you already know, the Cat10's do not display an Overdrive tab for this card. Printed on the back of the Powercolor retail box, it is stated that the Powercolor 9600XT is designed to work with Overdrive. I emailed Powercolor about this and got no reply so far.

 

[Blastman]

Interesting thread. Shoot, it looks like those cards are locked somehow.

I remember some thread a while back where people had trouble overclcoking some 9600np?s. IIRC it turned out that any driver past the 3.4?s would not allow them to overclock for some reason. It would be interesting to try the 3.4.s on the Powercolor 9600XT.

 

[Jayavarman]

Originally posted by: Blastman
It would be interesting to try the 3.4.s on the Powercolor 9600XT.

Uninstalled Catalyst 3.10. Installed Catalyst 3.04. Video is all garbled up in Windows. Had to power off and boot into Safe mode and unistalled 3.4. Then reinstalled 3.10 back. Whew! There goes that.

 

[cockeyed]

I got a reply from Powercolor stating that their 9600XT ( R96A-C3T) does not support the Overdrive feature. The faster memory @680 makes up for the missing Overdrive.

 

[Jayavarman]

I'm more interested to know why the core can't seem to be overclocked.

 

[NEVERwinter]

Originally posted by: cockeyed
I got a reply from Powercolor stating that their 9600XT ( R96A-C3T) does not support the Overdrive feature. The faster memory @680 makes up for the missing Overdrive.

great.... so why do they put "support Overdrive feature" on the back of their friggin' card?? *DUH....

 

[cockeyed]

Good question! I had the same thought.