Radeon 8500 mod

[Frazas]

I was tired of the pathetic heatsink that comes with the card so I went "Extreme".

Check the pic here.

You can check more pics of the Radeon and my case here also: PCDB Database entry

Comments/sugestions are always welcome?

 

[Killrose]

Must make note to myself. "never buy a used 8500 from a guy named Frazas".

So how far up have you had the core?:Q

 

[Frazas]

LOL Killrose!!

It doesn't show any artifacts with the core @ 306 and the memory @ 292.

Last night I tried to raise it a litle further to 308/295 but I haven't really tested it that much but the small nature test that I made completed with a loop of 3 times. It will require more testing though.

 

[AdamK47]

Where's the voltage modification?

 

[Frazas]

I did the pencil trick but I haven't got a multimeter so I don't know exactly the values of the voltage. Sorry.

 

[AA0]

many people get their cards up over 300 for both without all the modding

 

[Tates]

<< many people get their cards up over 300 for both without all the modding >>



Yeah, but they don't have the Frazas Commando 1000 cooling system....oooooaaaaaaa

 

[Killrose]

ADAM, use a pencil to up the memory voltage on the ram. OEM's, LE's usually have 3.16volts. The retails have 3.5volts supplying the ram. Two to three passes with a soft lead pencil like on the T-Bird un-lock trick. This allows the OEM to reach Retail speeds for most, not all cards. And you make the passes across the top of the resister, just like the blue line shows. Of course you ought to measure it first, and then try to up it if it reads low.

Pencil this baby

Check your results by measuring the voltage. The neg. probe of the voltmeter to the AGP card to case mounting screw, the positive probe

HERE

On one of the pins of the big capacitor which is mounted on the other side, of course you are looking for DC voltage in the range of 3.5-3.6volts DC.

FRAZAS, you mean you can stand to be in the same room with that noisey beast? No wonder you Aussies are down-under.

 

[Frazas]

Mine is an OEM, AA0 so it is a bit more difficult to overclock it. Without any modding I could only go to 285/275 so it isn't such a bad increase.

And Kilrose, yes, I can stand in the same room of the PC..... sometimes I even sleep with it on when downloading big files. I guess I am slightly on the "deaf" side.

 

[Killrose]

I don't think the R200 overclocks that well (above 275MHz). If you can get an extra 15-20MHz with-out any artifacts, you're doing great. The OEM I had would only do 283MHz stable. But at least it did the 275/275 dance and I was happy. But I wanted a DDR motherboard and DDR ram, so off it went.

 

[AdamK47]

Killrose, I'm well aware of it. I have the memory on my Radeon 8500 retail at 3.9V using a 4.7K fixed value resistor and a 1K pot in series. Before that the memory even at 290 would display many artifacts, now at 310, it's perfectly fine. I opt for 306 to be perfectly safe though. The RAM chips also have heatsinks on them. The core remains at default voltage.

 

[Killrose]

ADAM, ok, you got a handle on it

I had the 1.5k ohm replaced with a 1.6k ohm and that brought my mem from 3.16 to 3.36, and that actually cured all my artifact problems at 275/275. Then I replaced it with a 1.8k ohm which brought it upto 3.56 (or so, can't remember) and replaced the core resiter with an 820 ohm resister which brought the core up to 1.68volts. Unfortunately, neither of the later upgrades gave me any better abilities.
I was limited by 4ns ram (though it was completely stable at 280MHz) and a not so good core 283MHz no artifacts.

 

[masterc]

Okay... I may be a bit behind on my info but what exactly is this pencil trick, and does it work on the first gen. radeons (LE) ?

Frazas... that fan must be louder than my lawnmower...

 

[Frazas]

MEM:
[L=]http://virtual5.nebula.fi/~efidata/images/macci/ati/vmem_res_pencil.jpg[/L]
GPU:
[L=]http://virtual5.nebula.fi/~efidata/images/macci/ati/vgpu_res_pencil.jpg[/L]

BLUE line = PENCIL

And masterc, if you think that one fan makes all that noise imagine the sound of 11 of them on my case!!! (Check the sig)