Radeon 9600 Pro Overclocking - tips?

[Megatomic]

I have a BBA Radeon 9600 Pro, new and retail. It came with Samsung 3.3nsec BGAs. I currently have the card clocked at 432MHz core/324MHz ram using Radclocker.

My question is this, with the card completely unmodified, how high should I go? Is there a limit I should adhere to? Thanks for any tips.

 

[Gravija]

limit you should adhere to is when your card starts giving artifacts and such, otherwise i would go as high as possible
i got mine to around 500/330 or so before i switched to a 9500pro at 310/297

i'd increase by 5 or so mhz then test after you raise it, lower it if it gives artifacts and such

 

[Megatomic]

Thanks. :beer:

 

[Megatomic]

Ok, the card is now up to 441MHz core/333MHz ram. Stable after 12 hours of 3DMark2001SE benchmark looping at default test settings. I know I'll never play a game for that much time straight.

 

[sman789]

would fastwrites be limiting our OC....megatomic and i have similar OC speeds 470/340 for me

anything higher for me would have artifacts

 

[Lonyo]

Chuck the speeds up to 475 core, and see if it goes, if not, then you can just back off until you get a stable speed, or increase more if you can

 

[Megatomic]

Originally posted by: sman789
would fastwrites be limiting our OC....megatomic and i have similar OC speeds 470/340 for me

anything higher for me would have artifacts

I actually have Fastwrites enabled. First time I've had a Radeon work properly with Fastwrites. And when I receive my BGA ramsinks I'll up my ram speed some more. I might try Lonyo's idea and go for broke with the core speed in the meantime though. Thanks for the feedback guys.

 

[Megatomic]

All right, while I'm thinking about this I have a question:

I had a BBA 9800NP and I now have a BBA 9600P. Both have the same speed memory chips on them (3.3nsec). The 9800NP chips were Infineon and the 9600P chips are Samsung. The Samsung chips on the 9600 Pro are now running 15MHz faster than the fastest I could run them on the 9800NP without getting artifacts. I also get the feeling that the 9600 Pro memory will go even higher. What is different here that is causing the memory chips on the 9600 Pro to be able to run faster? Is it BIOS code or are Infineon chips crap?

 

[sman789]

samsung is awesome these chips are rated max at 350x2=700
some people can top that but some cant...i have mine at 341.36
whats ur 3dmark03
i just broke 4000

 

[Megatomic]

I only have 3.3nsec chips, max rated freq. is 300MHz. The chips are happy at 333MHz so far.

With the card clocked at 441/333, Texture and Mipmap levels set to High Quality, and AA/AF set to Application Preference

AND

With my Barton 2500+ @ 3200+ @ 200MHz FSB synchronized

I got almost 3800 3DMarks in 3DMark03. Not too bad.

 

[Hanzou]

Right now I have My ATI 9600 PRO at 510/340 and getting about 4100 on 3DMark03 with my 2500+ at 3200+ speeds. What I want to now is how I can check what type my memory is. It say Samsung 313 and then below has a bunch of numbers and letters, what speed is this? I have a feeling my card could go a bit faster.

 

[sman789]

copy the exact numbers/letters on the chips then go to the samsung website and search it

 

[Hanzou]

Thanks Sman, Looked and found out I have the stuff rated for 350MHZ. Have mine at 340Mhz right now. Is 350Mhz the fastest they put on these boards?

 

[Megatomic]

350MHz memory is the fastest I have personally seen on a video card. You have the best you'll find on an ATI card anyways. Try 350MHz and let us know how it goes please.

 

[Megatomic]

Ok, I installed the card I bought from Tphong last night. Same memory chips as the one I got from Best Buy but there is one thing much better about this card... There is no flicker on my CRT!!! This is the first Radeon I've tried since the 9700 Pro a year ago that has been flicker-free.

So on the overclocking front, I have the card now up to 450MHz core / 666MHz RAM (333MHz DDR). I did a looping run of 3DMark2001SE benchmark with the title screens turned off last night for 8.5 hours. Any ideas on how high these cards can go? I've seen some claims of 500+ on the core and over 400 on the memory but I think those memory speeds were with the faster chips. Mine are only 3.3nsec Samsung chips.