9800pro OC, this sound low?

[Gurck]

I picked up an MSI 128/256 9800pro recently, chose MSI because of the bundled software and games and, from what I keep hearing, because the heatsink on it is one of the better stock ones you can find, allowing better OCs. I can only OC it to about ~400 core and ~350 memory though before I start to see artifacting in 3kmark'03, does that sound a bit low to anyone else, or is that to be expected with the stock cooling solution? I'm wondering if maybe I should exchange it for another? Case has decent airflow, temp's generally 25-30c.

 

[Marsumane]

Did you get this from Newegg? I know that theirs is typically an R360 core and thus can be oced to xt speeds. It doesnt seem all that low for a 9800p overall. Mine is at 405/359 speeds which is barely over yours. Granted i have the ATI pcb so thats a difference but yours still isnt that low.

 

[Gurck]

Yeah, from Newegg. Stock XT speed is.. .what, 412 / 370? I was just thinking, if the card is supposed to be XT-flashable but won't hit those speeds that maybe I got a bum one... or is it the higher XT gpu voltage that allows a higher clockspeed with the 360 core?

 

[DragonFire]

Mine is a Built by ATI, I have mine at 445 / 375

 

[Cawchy87]

since it does work at stock speeds you can't rma it. newegg doesn't garentee overclocks.

 

[Gurck]

Originally posted by: DragonFire
Mine is a Built by ATI, I have mine at 445 / 375

Are you on stock cooling? And is it a 128/256 9800pro, not flashed to XT?

Any thoughts on whether flashing to XT (which includes, among other things, a jump from 1.7v for the pro to 1.8v for the XT (to the core)) would allow for a higher OC?

 

[Cawchy87]

It would make a bit of differance, but if your artifacting because of heat then it would only make it worse. Try bumping it up in your bios before you try a flash as it may not be successful. And before you do all this ask yourself "Do i need to overclock my 9800pro?" For almost every game the answer is no.

 

[lilkiller]

I can get my 9800np to XT speeds in beyond. A pro should go even farther I would think.

 

[DragonFire]

Originally posted by: Gurck

Originally posted by: DragonFire
Mine is a Built by ATI, I have mine at 445 / 375

Are you on stock cooling? And is it a 128/256 9800pro, not flashed to XT?

Any thoughts on whether flashing to XT (which includes, among other things, a jump from 1.7v for the pro to 1.8v for the XT (to the core)) would allow for a higher OC?

I have the 128MB version. GPU is watercooled with hentsinks on the memory. I also have a fan blowing on the memory but even without it 375Mh is the max I can do without artifacting.