OC'ed my 9700np--Hit a roadblock

[thatsright]

My Power Color Radeon 9700 NON-Pro was running @ 277core/270mem with CRAPTASTIC Infineon 3.3ns RAM. I flashed the Locked BIOS last night and used the RadLinker.

@ Stock I was getting
3DMark2001SE= 15,510
3DMark2003= 4400

With my max stable OC, and Omega Drivers/RadLinker I was able to get my max stable speeds up to 351mhz Core/295mhz Mem. I am not using any RAM Heatsinks or extra Core cooling; just the default HSF.

@ new OC speed I'm getting
3DMark2001SE=17,819
3DMark2003= 5,413

I've never OCed, so I'm not sure if these are good scores? Is this a good OC, considering what I'm working with? What would a stock 9800 Pro scores get? How about a 9800XT or 9600XT?

Thanks

FYI: Heres what I'm running the Vid card on:
ABIT IC7/P4 2.4c @ 3.0c w/ stock voltage/ 1GB Kingston HyperX PC3500 @ 2-2-2-5/XP Pro SP1a

 

[Killrose]

It appears you increased your benchies with your overclock so you are fine there. Next step is to get some ramsinks on those inferiorneon 3.3ns ram chips, I think you could see a 10MHz increase pretty easy. 351MHz on the core ain't too shabby.

I just sanded down my old HS/fan from my 9700 that is going on a 9500np (which minor artifacts with the 9500np>9700 mod ) and the surface was concaved in right where the core sits! No wonder they use that thick yellow gorrila snot under there. I was having problems when the core heated up using some Antec TIM material which is thinner.

 

[thatsright]

Well with my Craptacular Infineon RAM rated @ 3.3ns, I think that the Max speed of these chips is like 303mhz or maybe 305mhz-not 100% sure but pretty close to that.

You know I was thinking of buying some Ramsinks, but since I'm pretty much @ the limit of the Ram, I don't think it would improve my chances. Before I set my RAM to 295mhz, I was running it @ 301mhz and I was able to run 3DMark2003 through, but when I would play 10 minutes or so of FarCry, I would get checker pattern and 'dots' all over the screen. So I think the RAM is really at its safe limit running @ 295mhz

You know, I was thinking of buying one of those Arctic Coolers to replace the stock Core Heatsink, but when playing a game like FarCry, I don't think the extra 30Mhz increase in core is going to do me any good with a game like that! And if/when I do ever get something like the Arctic Cooler, at that point its just time to break down and buy a new 9800 Pro Or, hopefully by years end the X800 Pro would of maybe come down to $300 or so (yeah, probably wishful thinking )

Anyone else let me know what you think of my scores. Thanks

 

[Insomniak]

I get a whopping 1596 in 3dmark03 with my Ti4400.












It still runs everything just fine though. DirectX9 what?

 

[thatsright]

Originally posted by: Insomniak
I get a whopping 1596 in 3dmark03 with my Ti4400.












It still runs everything just fine though. DirectX9 what?

Are you being sarcastic, or is this actully a good score for a Ti4400?

 

[Yurkinator]

I get 17605 with my flashed 9700 and 2.2ghz barton and 1gb ram.

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=7693139

 

[thatsright]

Originally posted by: Yurkinator
I get 17605 with my flashed 9700 and 2.2ghz barton and 1gb ram.

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=7693139

WOW Man, VERY NICE!!!

What Ram chips do you have on your card? Who's the manufacture. Are you using any extra cooling to get those speeds?

 

[Insomniak]

Originally posted by: thatsright

Originally posted by: Insomniak
I get a whopping 1596 in 3dmark03 with my Ti4400.












It still runs everything just fine though. DirectX9 what?

Are you being sarcastic, or is this actully a good score for a Ti4400?

That's pretty normal for any GeForce 4. We can't do the 4th test because we don't have DX9 support, so that really eats our score. A system with a GeForce 4 getting over 2000 3DM03 is a major event.

Seriously though, everything does run fine. Battlefield Vietnam runs great at 1024x768x32 with medium-high effects and 2xAA. Far Cry is fine at 1024x768x32 with medium effects and no AA. There really isn't a game yet that *truly* challeneges a GeForce 4 that's well fed from the processor and system memory. You may have to drop effects levels a bit with the latest stuff (Far Cry mostly), but NV25 can still take pretty much any game out there.


Of course, this will change IMMEDIATELY when Doom 3 and Half-Life 2 roll out.

 

[Killrose]

My 3.3ns infineon would top out at 297MHz before I added ramsinks, now i'm 308MHz max stable.

 

[otispunkmeyer]

Originally posted by: Killrose
My 3.3ns infineon would top out at 297MHz before I added ramsinks, now i'm 308MHz max stable.

my infineon 3.3ns ram on my 9500pro does 300mhz all day long and has even had 315Mhz for a couple of hours and im still being impressed with how high the core on this totally reference connect 3d card can go.....i mean 381mhz with stock cooling aint bad

 

[VIAN]

Your speeds look ok.

Without additional cooling on my 9700 Pro, from 325/310:

350/335

With VGA Silencer and RAMsinks:

370/345

These are not final, my case gets very hot:

2700+ @2.3GHz and 220FSB

If my case ran a big cooler, didn't have all that hot air inside. I might be able to OC my CPU to 2.4, maybe get 5MHz extra out of the FSB/RAM and get about 10 extra MHz on the RAM of my 9700 PRo. The core I think is the big drawback, even with the big heatsink it gets all messed up at high clockspeeds.

 

[Concillian]

I'm getting a little over 5500 in 3Dmark03 at 360/340 on my 9700np.

Looks like you're right in the ballpark with your setup... Overall, not bad.

 

[thatsright]

Well for a while, things were good. Last time I was running the card @ 351Mhz Core/295Mem. Then after about 45 minutes of FarCry @ 1280 with ALL eye candy on (it was actually quite playable avg. about 28fps) in the Carrier level, I was 'walking' down the hall and I start to see 3 inch blinking blue triangles on screen.

Does these flashing triangles indicate the Mem is clocked to high, or the core?

Earlier, I ran ATITool to test the speed, and Core topped out @ 351mhz, then two hours later I started getting Checker pattern in my XP desktop. So I restarted @ default speeds and ran ATITool again to test max Mem, and it got to about 296mhz, and then REALLY BAD corruption started, with heavy checkerboard pattern, and heavy triangle flickering in the ATITool 3D test window. So I restarted, and here we are back @ default core/Mem.

Yeah, heat is not my friend. Right now it's 81 degrees in my room, and there is only 1 intake fan, 1 exhaust fan, and 1 case door fan blowing out. Right now, my CPU core is running @ 50c with case temp of 34c. I'm not running any 3d games, just a few IE6 windows, email, CD.

I'm really, really thinking of getting a VGA Cooler for $16 or so on newegg.com. More than anything, I like that it will take the Video Card heat made by the fan, to the OUTSIDE of the case and not just let everything build up anyway. I'm not really sold on RAM Heatsinks. If I get the VGA cooler, I'll see how far I can go with that.

BTW, I bought a tube of Arctic Silver 3, 13 months ago. Would it still be okay to use it?

 

[Concillian]

Originally posted by: thatsright
BTW, I bought a tube of Arctic Silver 3, 13 months ago. Would it still be okay to use it?

God I hope so, I still use some Arctic Silver (original) on non-critical stuff. I use AS5 on anything serious, but like friends/relatives get AS as most of their stuff is not overclocked, super high heat, etc...

 

[VIAN]

Does these flashing triangles indicate the Mem is clocked to high, or the core?

If the triangles are black, it's the memory. If the core is clocked too high it generates black pixels.

Yeah, heat is not my friend. Right now it's 81 degrees in my room, and there is only 1 intake fan, 1 exhaust fan, and 1 case door fan blowing out. Right now, my CPU core is running @ 50c with case temp of 34c. I'm not running any 3d games, just a few IE6 windows, email, CD.

Sounds like you need to get rid of all that heat before you can get the maximum OC out of your gpu.

 

[SickBeast]

Originally posted by: VIAN
Sounds like you need to get rid of all that heat before you can get the maximum OC out of your gpu.

Thatsright.

 

[thatsright]

Okay guys, as I mentioned above I have hit a roadblock with my Power Color 9700np OC. I thought I could run fine @ 351mhz Core/ 295 Mem, but no dice. So what I will do is probably buy a Arctic Cooling VGA silencer sometime this week. Only $16 from NewEgg with free ship; not too shabby! It sounds like I will have to remove the Shim around the core, and if anything this makes me 100X more nervous than the prospect of replacing the stock HSF Unit.

But before I get the new VGA Silencer, I will try to lower my Overclock. I will start with the memory, and if that still is giving me problems, then I think I will bring the core down to about 335mhz.

I'll keep you guys posted for anyone who's interested in my 'saga.' Thanks again for everyone's help :thumbsup: