Overclocking Radeon 9000

[SpeedFreak03]

I have a Sapphire Atlantis 9000, which uses the ATI Radeon 9000 (not pro) chipset. It has 128MB DDR RAM. I would like to overclock it, if possible. I installed Rage3DTweak, and plan on using that, unless you guys know about something better. For the default settings (the settings that are there when I click on the OverClocker tab), the core clock is 249.75MHz, and the memory clock is 200.25MHz. How high do you think I can go? It has a huge heatsink on it, but no fan. I have a ThermalTake HardCano II to watch the temps. How hot is too hot? I really don't know what temps are good for this card. Finally, I have 3DMark2001 SE to see how well the card "does". Is there any better products for doing this? Thanks for your help, as I'm new to overclocking video cards.

-SpeedFreak03

 

[rogue1979]

The Radeon 9000 chipset is the same for both the Pro and non-Pro versions. Clock speeds are set at 275/275 or 250/250 for most of the Pro versions, which obviously has faster rated ram chips. The 64MB version of the 9000 is notoriously bios locked against overclocking. I would think the 128MB version is also. Nobody at Warp 11 or anywhere that I have found has a cracked (unlocked) bios version. If you use Radedit to artificially change the clock speeds of the core or the memory, Windows loads up the video card as adapter default, no matter what you try.
I even tried flashing the bios version to a 9000 Pro and that still didn't work.

 

[boyRacer]

yep he's right... those things are locked down baaaad... probably to stop people with the regular version...ahem... me ... to overclock it to pro speeds.

 

[Blastman]

If you ever overclocked that 9000, I would probably want to put at least some small fan on the heatsink. Even a small amount of air moving over a heatsink makes a huge difference in temperatures. I don?t think a passively cooled heatsink would cut it at higher clock rates.

 

[SpeedFreak03]

Originally posted by: rogue1979
The Radeon 9000 chipset is the same for both the Pro and non-Pro versions. Clock speeds are set at 275/275 or 250/250 for most of the Pro versions, which obviously has faster rated ram chips. The 64MB version of the 9000 is notoriously bios locked against overclocking. I would think the 128MB version is also. Nobody at Warp 11 or anywhere that I have found has a cracked (unlocked) bios version. If you use Radedit to artificially change the clock speeds of the core or the memory, Windows loads up the video card as adapter default, no matter what you try.
I even tried flashing the bios version to a 9000 Pro and that still didn't work.

So even with Rage3dTweak, if I set it, let's say at 300 and 250, it will still run at 250 and 200? Even if Rage3D says it's running at 300/250?

 

[SpeedFreak03]

Originally posted by: Blastman
If you ever overclocked that 9000, I would probably want to put at least some small fan on the heatsink. Even a small amount of air moving over a heatsink makes a huge difference in temperatures. I don?t think a passively cooled heatsink would cut it at higher clock rates.

I'm gonna do that soon, but the problem is there is a card right under the heatsink, which is bad for cooling also. Once I find a card I don't need, I'll install a nice fan on it. Also, how would I take the heatsink off, if I wanted to? I think it's glued to the chip. One more embarrasing thing: I ran 3dsmark2001 with the card at 250/200, and got 3089 for the score! My computer is only a Pentium 3 500MHz with 384MB PC100 SDRAM, and the card runs at 2X. It sucks!

 

[Blastman]

Hmmmm, a thought - maybe they (ATI) locked it up because it?s passively cooled. Those passively cooled heatsinks run pretty hot. There?s a pretty small fan on my 7500. If I stop the fan the temperature of that small heatsink goes from barely warm to very hot in a couple of minutes. Almost too hot to keep ones fingers on - which means around 50C. If people stated overclcoking those passively cooled 9000?s they?d probably burn the cores out. LOL.

 

[SpeedFreak03]

Originally posted by: Blastman
Hmmmm, a thought - maybe they (ATI) locked it up because it?s passively cooled. Those passively cooled heatsinks run pretty hot. There?s a pretty small fan on my 7500. If I stop the fan the temperature of that small heatsink goes from barely warm to very hot in a couple of minutes. Almost too hot to keep ones fingers on - which means around 50C. If people stated overclcoking those passively cooled 9000?s they?d probably burn the cores out. LOL.

That's true, I just tried overclocking it with PowerStrip (I like it better than Rage3D) from 250MHz core/200MHz memory to 275/225 and the temp shot up like 5 degrees (C) just sitting at the desktop. I turned it back down quickly! It's finally cooling down now, I was getting worried that I screwed it up.

 

[Blastman]

I ran 3dsmark2001 with the card at 250/200, and got 3089 for the score! My computer is only a Pentium 3 500MHz with 384MB PC100 SDRAM, and the card runs at 2X. It sucks!

That?s actually a pretty good score for only a P3-500. My Sapphire 7500 64MB DDR 270/183 gets 4303 on my Celeron-T 1.0A @ 1.33.

 

[Blastman]

Also, how would I take the heatsink off, if I wanted to? I think it's glued to the chip.

I read someplace that you freeze the card and then the heatsink will just ? ?pop? ? off when you stick something under it and pry it (using wood or something to protect the board from damage). I would probably just want to leave that heatsink on and find a way to mount some small fan on it or find a way to get some airflow over it.

 

[rogue1979]

I would check your benchmarks, even if powerstrip says its overclocked it probably isn't.

A 40mm fan will fit on the heatsink with small screws nicely.

Your Pentium 3 500MHz is more than likely cpu limiting the Radeon 9000 at stock speeds, I wouldn't worry to much about overclocking it until you get a faster system.

 

[SpeedFreak03]

Originally posted by: Blastman

Also, how would I take the heatsink off, if I wanted to? I think it's glued to the chip.

I read someplace that you freeze the card and then the heatsink will just ? ?pop? ? off when you stick something under it and pry it (using wood or something to protect the board from damage). I would probably just want to leave that heatsink on and find a way to mount some small fan on it or find a way to get some airflow over it.

Yeah, I was looking at the card last night, I have a fan were the holes line up perfectly between the fins on the HS.