Leadtek FX5900XT has 2.2ns Hynix chips, and ROCKS with a simple mod!

[DoobieOnline]

Just received my Leadtek WinFast A350XT TDH and it has 2.2ns chips! I was hoping for this after reading about it in the shootout at FiringSquad, so I ordered one from Newegg for rebuilding my second rig. You're probably asking yourself, why not pay $20 more for the 9800 Pro or a few bucks less for a 9700 Pro? Well, I already have a 9800 Pro in my main rig and a 9800 non-pro in my system at work, so I wanted to give Nvidia's new drivers a shot and kept my fingers crossed about the 2.2ns chips. I'll come back this weekend and post some scores for it.

Doobie

Edit: Flashed to Leadtek 5950 bios and things got interesting! Here are some 3DMark03 scores for a few different clock rates...

stock bios & 390/700 - 4972 3DMarks
5950 bios & 450/900 - 5579 3DMarks
5950 bios & 475/950 - 5803 3DMarks
5950 bios & 485/985 - 5929 3DMarks

 

[Dman877]

I was surpsrised they coulnd't get that ram to run any higher (over its rated speed, I don't mean over stock), maybe the chips need better cooling.

 

[DoobieOnline]

Well, I was pretty excited at first but now it's just ho-hum. I installed coolbits and when I auto-detected the overclock it hit 517/956. That put a smile on my face until I ran 3DMark03 and had artifacts like crazy. Now it only hits about 419/750 on the auto-detect. I'm gonna keep toying with it and may try the 5950 Ultra flash. Will post more later.

Doobie

 

[modedepe]

I guess they just rate them higher than they'll run. Too bad, that'd be great if they were truely 2.2ns.

 

[KGB1]

^

If you saw the card at Firingsquad you would have seen those 2.2ns chips had no heatsinks covering them. I know the whole argument that those chips should theoretically run at 910 and they don't. Even though they have a new packaging system for the memory. If you saw some of the other cards, there WERE heatsinks over the memory. Now if Doobie got some wicked ram sinks and artic silver epoy... then he'd be happily hitting 920+

For Samsung to put a 2.2 rating on the chips and the system not being stable is fraudulant on their part. They require extra cooling that is all.

 

[Pete]

Is the problem insufficient cooling or power? I suppose you could try an 80+mm fan blowing across the card to try to partially rule out insufficient cooling as the limiting factor.

 

[DoobieOnline]

Alright, now we're back in business. I flashed to the Leadtek 5950 bios, nibbled a blowhole in the side panel, slapped a 32cfm 80mm fan in it (with a fairly kewl biohazard grille and rubber molding - looks awesome) and down-clocked it to 450/900 for right now. I haven't even tried 475/950 because I think it's just too high without ramsinks, but I may order some this weekend and squeeze every bit out of it that I can. The stock Leadtek cooler actually does a fine job for how quiet it is, so no plans to change that as it maxed out at 46C during Desert Combat. Here are some results so far:

3DMark03
Stock (390/700) - 4972
5950 bios (450/900) - 5579

I wanted to run it at 450/900 with stock bios, but it wouldn't pass the built-in "tester" in coolbits so I couldn't even try it out (which was weird because it initially "auto-detected" speeds of 517/956 but that didn't work out at all). Oh well, things are back on track and I'm sure I'll get a little more adventurous with it this weekend. I just played half an hour of Desert Combat and it was schweet! I'm going to play DC online for a few hours tonight with this rig to give it a really good workout.

Doobie

Edit: Ok, I couldn't resist taking it to the max even without ramsinks. Here's the max OC coolbits will let me "test" and set her to... 485/985! Pulled 5929 3DMarks at those settings and she maxed out at 47C. Now I gotta tell ya, that may have been what the built-in temp probe was reporting, but I put my finger on the back of the card behind the graphics chip and each of the memory chips for several seconds during 3DMark03 and the skin would have blistered if I'd left it there a little longer. Everything is cool to the touch right now (front and back), and it's showing 40C at idle. I'm gonna do some more runs at 475/950 and see if I really feel like I need to order the ramsinks. If I like the way she runs at that speed, that's where I'll stay. It's been a fun day tinkering with this thing! Next thing on the agenda is to try out the different ForceWare releases, as I'm using the official 53.03's at the moment. Did I ever mention that I highly recommend this card?

 

[DoobieOnline]

I've decided no ramsinks are needed at 475/950 as the "finger test" proved that it wasn't nearly as warm, front or back, while 3DMark03 was running at that speed. 475/950 is where I'm at, and it's where I'm stayin'.

 

[Keysplayr]

Kewl!! But what will you do if the card burns out?

 

[DoobieOnline]

I'll have to buy another one cuz this thing is just too much fun to mess with!

 

[Corporate Thug]

thats interesting, based on the firingsquad link you provided, it seems that the leadtek has a fairly simple cooling solution. i wouldnt expect it to OC that well simply based on the pic

 

[DoobieOnline]

I'm absolutely floored by the stock cooler. You can barely feel any air coming out of the fins but surprisingly it's doing a good job. Some of the air from my side fan is hitting the back of the card so I'm sure that's helping out, too.

Doobie

 

[Ketchup]

The card may have a standard 5900 core instead of the "XT" core, which would explain the good overclock. Most XT cards don't hit any higher than 450, and most of them have better cooling than the Leadtek. I am wondering if this is a sure thing, or if Leadtek is only selling some of their cards this way.

 

[DoobieOnline]

A lot of people are wondering the same thing about the memory and several have ordered it from Newegg over the weekend. We'll probably see them posting results in the next few days.

If you look at the overclocking/temps page in the review mentioned above, the Leadtek ties the Chaintech in temps under load and only loses out by 1 degree at idle even though the Chaintech had the fastest spinning & loudest fan in the review. That means one of two things - either Leadtek's cooling is very efficient, or they're using better cores that put out less heat and their heatsink/fan isn't quite as good as the setup from Chaintech.

I downloaded and ran the Aquamark 3 benchmark over the weekend, and core temps hit an all-time high during one test yesterday - 57C when the room temp was a little warmer than usual, about 78F. Aquamark definitely puts more stress on the gpu than 3DMark03 or playing hours of Desert Combat. I think I'm going to slap some bga heatsinks on the memory after all, and maybe do a mod with an 80mm fan so it's blowing directly on the front of the card. This thing's a champ and I wanna keep it running for a while!

Doobie

 

[Gagabiji]

How does it compair to your 9800 Pro?

 

[DoobieOnline]

I think the last time I ran 3DMark03 in my main rig with the 9800 Pro at 400/360 it hit just over 5900 3DMarks. Of course, that system has 2 Raptors in RAID 0, Mobile 2400+ at 10x230, DFI Ultra Infinity A+, and a gig of BH-5 in it. If I put the 5900XT in that system, I'm sure it would pop 6000 easy at 475/950. You've got me curious, so I may have to try it tonight and see if it deserves a permanent spot in the main rig. Here are the specs of the system the 5900XT is currently in: Barton 2500+ at 11x200, Asus A7N8X-DLX, Hitachi 80GB SATA, and 2x256MB Buffalo PC3200 in dual channel.

Doobie

 

[nordlaw]

I need to eat some spinach. Feeling a little wimpy.

Nice Job, Doobie!

 

[DoobieOnline]

Gracias mi amigo! I'm gonna leave the 9800 Pro in my main rig until I decide for sure on better cooling for the 5900XT. I feel pretty lucky that it OC's so well, so I'm not gonna kill it before I get my money's worth.

Doobie