ATI Radeon 9800 PRO

Ok I was wondering what is a good overclocking program? What can I
overclock my 9800 pro 128mb DDR to? It is the ATI radeon that you buy
from like BEST BUY and stuff I dunno what chip it has.

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Life is like a box of chocolates u never know what you'll get you might get a.....scream.

I recommend ATI's "Powerstrip" after using the ATI tool to determine your cards maximum safe setting.

If you are truly desperate you can try this link: http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=1633&page=1

be warned however, Flashing can ruin a good card..

[edit] I have powerstrip 3.57

I dunno if any newer versions are better/worse.

[edit2] this is my default setting.. I do not overclock much, but I can when I need to..

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The best things in life, aren't things.

With the 9800 pro (I had one and I know what im talking about) the
standard clock settings were already maxed out. I wouldnt recomend over
clocking (or flashing the BIOS to an XT) that card unless you have a
better cooling device on it. I would recomend soemthing along the lines
of this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835186115

[edit] now that I look at what 9800 it uses its a 256mb 9800 pro, so
dont use it because you have a 128 mb one (and yes the amount of ram
does matter, its because of contact points), but once again its just
something along those lines

[/edit]

It fits to a 9800 pro, just buy some thermal paste along with it. Then
you can over clock/falsh the BIOS (installing it is a sinch).

I have a X800 XT PE card, and got the heavy duty fan for it. Normal
clocking speeds range from 450-500Mhz with out the extra heatsinc. But
with it on I can over clock to around 520 and have it maintain a
temperature of 40C (safe range). Still I rarely do it, because I get 60
frames at 1600x1200 on HL2 (medium settings)

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Posting And You

Powerstrip isn't an ATI program Orph, it works with any graphics card
and was made by some third party. Useful program for anybody wanting a
decent overclocking tool though, I'd recommend it.

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[img]http://card.mygamercard.net/sig/Default/reno84.png[/img]
Designer @ Haiku Interactive | ReNo-vation.net

I use a Radeon 9800 and my friend overclocked it also in his computer.
He was dumb though because it caught on fire nearly...

Overcloking is dangerous imo and I think i'll stick to how the guys who put it together left it as.

How much of a performance boost do you really get from overclocking your graphics card? I mean realistically, can you really notice a difference when it's already a high-end graphics card like the 9800 Pro?

Maybe I am just easily satisfied. But I am happy with 100 FPS for HL2. I have a 9800 Pro too.

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"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return." -- Toulouse-Lautre, Moulin Rouge

Well I was thinking of saving up for a 6800 GT or a X800 PRO I dunno
which one to get but what settings do you have yours on SATCHMO and
what are ur other comp specs?

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Life is like a box of chocolates u never know what you'll get you might get a.....scream.

I used to overclock my ti4200, and the benefits were noticeable but
hardly breathtaking. When you are running a card that is at the lower
end of a game's minimum specs, I think doing it can be worth your
while, and worth the (minimal, if done carefully) risks. Unfortunately
I've been having some stability problems lately that seem like they are
graphics card related, so for now at least I've dropped back to stock
settings.

Supercobra - the 6800GT is generally seen as the better of the two, if
only for its support of SM3.0. Both are good cards and its unlikely
you'll be complaining with either of them, but in general the Nvidia
cards are the ones to go for out of that generation.

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[img]http://card.mygamercard.net/sig/Default/reno84.png[/img]
Designer @ Haiku Interactive | ReNo-vation.net

I run HL2 on relatively high settings, but at 1024x768 res. With the exception of AA, I run everything on high.

I have an Athlon 3200+ XP on ASUS A7N8X-E mobo with 1 GB of Corsair low-cas on dual-channel mode.

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"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return." -- Toulouse-Lautre, Moulin Rouge

Because brand of ram is so important. So is the mother board make.
It'd give more information if you just said what chipset you had with the graphics card and the speeds.

Having a Gig of ram doesn't say much without a speed. I'd assume 333 or 400Mhz.

I'm not picking on you or anything, it's just, what you said doesn't mean much if you're trying to show power. It's like saying, "My car went 40 miles (64 kilometers) in 15 minutes because I have a 12 gallon (45 Liter) tank."

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Well I was thinking of saving up for a 6800 GT or a X800 PRO I dunno
which one to get but what settings do you have yours on SATCHMO and
what are ur other comp specs?

Always 6800 GT (I hope I can say this with out making this thread a
Nvidia VS ATI thread). Generally the 6800 has a better heat sinc, and
higher clock speeds. I only get ATI becuase I get a 30% discount on all
ATI merchandice (only for me mind everyone :razz: )

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Posting And You

What is the best graphics card these days? And the best RAM?

I don't know these things...I might see if I can purchse them for Christmas or something.

What is the best graphics card these days? And the best RAM?
I don't know these things...I might see if I can purchse them for Christmas or something.

There's no straight answer to that one TBH. It depends a lot on what you want and how much you're willing to spend.

Try
this
guide from Ars Technica for a good selection of high, mid and low
PC parts. The high end 4GB of RAM sounds very interesting :biggrin:

Of course, a June 2005 guide will be obsolete 10 times over by December :/

On the issue of ram, brand is not really important. Paying extra for Kingston or Corsair, or whatever, really doesn't have that huge of a payoff. The only way you can tell the difference is by clocking it and reading a print out of access times. In which case, they are slightly faster, but not noticably.

I'd suggest OEM ram, to be honest. Some people call it "No Name" ram, but they fail to realize the chips are still made by kingston and the likes, they're just not wired and put together by them. This makes the ram much cheaper. Not entirly sure why the ram put together by them is "faster", could be the actual circuitry.

In other words, ram is ram is ram. As long as it works you wont notice s**t.

Video card is completly up to you. I tend to like a lot of the stuff nVidia makes, but, ATI has quality stuff too. It really isn't a "war" of sorts anymore because both makers offer the same thing. The only differences now comes into price and speed, in which case, currently, nvidia is more for your money (Of the current generation of course)

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

ram is ram is ram

I used to think so, until some Kingston PC3200 units crippled my new computer for two full months before I figured out it's a RAM issue. After I gave up those Kingstons and switched to Corsair, I've never had stability problems again.

When I called Kingston, they readily admit that their RAM were unstable with my model of motherboard. I've never had RAM compatibility issue until now.

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"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return." -- Toulouse-Lautre, Moulin Rouge

As long as it works you wont notice s**t.

That is one of the things a lot of people concern themselves with
though when splashing out on branded RAM. I've seen a couple of sticks
of RAM fail on my flatmates, and that was unbranded stuff. Quite
possibly coincidence, but it seems that a lot of hardware sites
recommend big named RAM for stability and reliability purposes. But
maybe thats just because they are normally run by "hardware snobs" who
want only the best, and so only recommend the best :smile:

As for performance, I'm sure the difference between unbranded RAM and
the big manufacturers standard offerings are
insignificant/non-existant, but I don't think the same can be said of
all the pricey speciality models like corsair's XMS or crucial's
ballistix. Even then I doubt the difference is going to be noticeable
to most people and the huge price associated with them isn't worth the
benefits, but reviews always seem to show there is some margin of
performance improvement over generic sticks.

Personally I go for corsair value select stuff normally - reasonably
priced, and if you always stick with the same stuff you can be sure it
will work dual channel.

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[img]http://card.mygamercard.net/sig/Default/reno84.png[/img]
Designer @ Haiku Interactive | ReNo-vation.net

OEM stuff isn't "Unbranded". I didn't say "get whatever ram because it all works", if it doesn't work, it doesn't work, but if it DOES, then there's a very slim chance that anything will happen, unless of course there are issues with whatever version interacting with whatever chipset (and just to note, most ram works fine). You'll know if something is wrong pretty immediatly. If you don't, there's a warranty for a reason and whatever happened is probably covered. (Remember, I said OEM ram, not unbranded, OEM stuff still, usually, has warranties)

Satch, you have to understand that some boards do not work with all brands of ram when it comes to PC3200.

However, don't think I'm saying, "Never buy [insert brand] ram". If it's decently priced, go for it. If the price difference is very small ($5-10) go ahead. It's the people who buy the brand new ram from whomever, just because that company says they're the best. The entire heat sync craze on ram is another pet peave.

Reno, I'd say so. Most hardware review sites are very biased to personal taste.

What would it matter if the ram was faster then the bus it's connected to? Which is always the case (I'm speaking internally).

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

corsair value select

That's what I have in my machine right now. I'll always buy Corsair from now on. I just trust them more.

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"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return." -- Toulouse-Lautre, Moulin Rouge