Best driver for 9800 pro

[cuti7399]

Hi all,
I have a BBA 9800 pro and would like to get the best out of it. What is the best driver that I should use? I am looking to overclock it, doing so how do i know if it has a r350 or r360 core? What is the best oc software for this card? Thanks in advance for any help?

 

[49erinnc]

I'm using Cat 4.8 with good results so I would probably recommend that release. As for your other question, if you're feeling brave, you can remove the HSF (not that difficult actually) and the chip will be marked R350 or R360.

As for OC'ing...I use both Radlinker and ATITool. Personally, I like Radlinker better because it's much more simplistic. ATI Tool has more bells/whistles, including an app that will run a stress test to find your maximums. I prefer to manually tweak my core/memory with Radlinker though.

Edited to note that some of the 9800Pros with the R360 will automatically be detected as a 9800XT when you install your drivers. That's what happened with my particular card so I didn't have to remove the HSF.

 

[BW86]

im using the beta 4.9 cats

you need to take the heatsink off and than clean off the thermal paste to see the core. remember this voids your warranty.

If you dont care about voiding your warranty than you should get a arctic cooling vga silencer.

i use atitool to overclock my card

 

[Marsumane]

I reccomend the cat 4.8's. Reason? They are official and the 4.9's are still beta (i believe). Also, i reccomend them over the 4.7's because the 4.8's have geometry instancing in the driver. This will be useful in farcry (v1.2) and future games. Just be careful about reading up on the 1.2 driver if you want to play w/ it on farcry. i played through the entire game w/o errors. U just have to do it right. Also, they have more recent bug fixes over the 4.7's. I have had no issues with the 4.8 driver at all.

 

[Delorian]

I'm using Omega drivers due to the softmodding of my 9800 se to a 9800 pro but they are very stable and in a lot of benchmarks have proven to be slightly faster on most tests than the cats. Also Omega comes with a bunch of tools like ATItool and Radlinker.

 

[Bateluer]

Cat 49s are out now. Officially.

 

[cuti7399]

i am using cat 4.8 and ati tool now. Is there any other way to find out the core w/o having to remove the heatsink? What are you guys getting stable when you overclock? I got stable at 400/350. Have not try to push further.
Thanks for all reply

 

[nOObBooB]

I have had problems wiht ati tool where it seems like it doesnt really push my video card to teh fullest. i ran it one time for like 20 mins and it said that i should oc to 405/352. But i decided to oc my self useing aquamark03 and i was able to push higher to 420/360 easily. I ran doom 3 with my 9800 oc to those speeds with no artifacts or anything. so i dont know what is goign on wiht ati tool.

 

[Fern]

Originally posted by: cuti7399
i am using cat 4.8 and ati tool now. Is there any other way to find out the core w/o having to remove the heatsink? What are you guys getting stable when you overclock? I got stable at 400/350. Have not try to push further.
Thanks for all reply

I use the Rage3D Tweak. I run 24/7 @ 415/385 (w/no artifacts in Doom 3 too )

Fern

 

[jiffylube1024]

Originally posted by: Bateluer
Cat 49s are out now. Officially.

^ Exactly. Get them - debate over.

 

[amdguy10]

hey cuti you can find out the core of your radeon by going to the atitool log file same directory as the .exe file then it should tell you the core in case is a r350 which blows ass

 

[Feep]

except the thing in ati tool that tells you the core isnt accurate