9800 np oc'ing and heatsink

[tweakmaster420]

ok i got a 9800np , the highest i can get the mem is 325, i know that. but how far should i be able to oc the core? i replaced the stock cooling with crystal orb and arctic silver but dont know if this is a good idea.. should i put stock cooling back on and use the orb on my chipset?
the reason that i put an orb on it cause its fan was bigger and it is of copper/nickel design. but it also has less cooling surface...
and i know that i shouldnt flash it w/ the pro bios cause of infineon 3.0 ram,, but if i do flash and underclock the ram,would it give me more headroom on the gpu for oc'ing futher?? any help would be appreciated, just tryin to get as close to a pro as posible without overheating or damaging my card.. thanx in adv.

 

[Regs]

The core should reach between 400-420 before it starts causing graphical problems and instability in games. You might be able to surpass 420, but I wouldn't recommend stressing the card that high for little gain.

I doubt the Pro Bios will help you over clock the core any more. Maybe the memory however with looser timings. Infineon 3.0 ram can maybe reach 315-320 before showing some artifacts during the game. I hit a wall at 315 mhz. It would be a long shot to see any significant over clock from Infineon memory just by updating the bios.

 

[Robor]

I run my core at just under 400 and my memory at just under 350 but I have the Samsung 3.3ns stuff.

Edit: Oh, my card is flashed to a Pro also.

 

[tweakmaster420]

ok,, well i flashed with the modified pro bios that sets core to 378.90 and mem to 315.5 stock. got the mem to 324 with no artifacts.. my last 3dmark2001 score running 400/324 is 17493. what my main concern now is the cooling i put on it as i read mixed reviews on it.... crystal orb is on my gpu. is the stock better for overclocking??? the crystal orb is nickel plated copper with a bigger fan, but stock cooler has more fins for air flow cooling but with smaller fan..and its aluminum.. so im confused as to which is better for trying those upper clock speeds of 410 or 415 with out damaging my gpu with heat.. are you using stock cooling???

 

[Lonyo]

You might as well try overclocking to the Pro BIOS.

Even though the RAM won't handle it now, the Pro BIOS, IIRC, boosts the memory voltage, which may allow it to reach slightly higher speeds, you can also just underclock the RAM from Pro speeds, if it can't handle it.

With the GPU, why not just see what's the max you can hit with the new cooler, then stick on the stock cooler, and see if you can hit the same speed. Nothing better than trial and error to find out which gives best performance.

 

[Maddscientist]

Think the crystal orb is the way to go. It puts out like 10cfm the stock fan is probably like 3cfm more is always better, although I have to admit the stock coolor is pretty damn cool I dont think im ganna replace it anytime soon.

BTW I did not flash to the pro bios and am currently running 391.50 Core 330.50 Memory with no problems. Was running it slighty higher but got articfacts in Vice city. And I also have the 333mhz Infinon ram.

Also another thing I'll add is I saw this in your sig "3dmark2003:5659" I wonder how its possible I can get a 5990-6000 or so score and your hardrive\ram\cpu are all faster than mine? wierd....2200xp @2.1 768 DDR 2700 OCZ 9800np? I often wonder how reliable benchmarks are when stuff like this crops up?