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9800 Pro overclocks deteriorating

S

SocceRich20

2[H]4U
Joined
Aug 4, 2003
Messages
2,512
A few days ago, I was able to run my 9800 Pro at 490 core, 390 memory with no artifacts in any games or ATI tool. I am watercooling my 9800 Pro with a Maze 4 GPU block, and have six out of the eight ram chips equipped with ram sinks. Two of the ram chips are below the barbs of the Maze 4, so ramsinks dont fit. I don't recall making any major changes at all to my system, so I don't know why my 9800 Pro can barely run 430 core, 340 memory now. Will raising my AGP voltage make any difference? Right now I am running the AGP voltage at 1.55v, on my IC7-g. I have a 470w Vantec Stealth PSU.

Any help is greatly appreciated, thanks.
 
Maybe the core got damaged from the overclock After a while my 9700 had artifacts at stock speeds. :(
 
yup, sounds like the last cries of mercy from a dying 9800...

may it RIP :( :( :(
 
it happens. running more voltage will increase the rate of decay
how long was it running @ those speeds?
 
I haven't adjusted any voltages at all. It had been running those speeds for about a week, around 8 hours a day. I thought that only voltage could make it decay. It's strange, as I run my 2.8C at 3.5 WITH increased voltage, for over a year, and nothing has decayed, but my video card overclocks for a week on stock voltage, and has started to decay? Everything is being well cooled, CPU never goes over 40C, and VPU never goes over 42C.
 
SocceRich20 said:
I haven't adjusted any voltages at all. It had been running those speeds for about a week, around 8 hours a day. I thought that only voltage could make it decay. It's strange, as I run my 2.8C at 3.5 WITH increased voltage, for over a year, and nothing has decayed, but my video card overclocks for a week on stock voltage, and has started to decay? Everything is being well cooled, CPU never goes over 40C, and VPU never goes over 42C.
Click to expand...

a week seems like a short time....esp with that low temp.
Maybe failing powersupply?
 
That's real weird. I had a GeForce3 Ti200 that I was running prior to the 6800U, and I knew I was going to be getting a new card so I overclocked the hell out of that thing and it never deteriorated...ran 215/490 off the stock 175/400....that's a 40MHz OC on the core and 90MHz on the memory...hell, that's more than I'm running on my 6800U on actual raw MHz, let alone percentages! :eek:
 
Steel Chicken said:
a week seems like a short time....esp with that low temp.
Maybe failing powersupply?
Click to expand...

I doubt that the power supply is failing, its a Vantec Stealth 470w, although Maximum PC just ripped the 520w Stealth apart, giving it a lowly 3/10 rating. My power supply seems prety stable though, runs all of my components fine.
 
What are your rails reading? The bios is a good place to check for this...and also your motherboard's built-in program should have something.
 
eh, a little low on 5v and 12v...not terrible, but lower than I'd like.

the PSU that came with my case pulled 11.75 on my 12v and around the same on the 5v....seems like it should be stronger for 450w, but that's just my opinion.
 
I just realized one potential cause. I had put wooden blocks a few inches thick between my heatercore and top of the case so that the fans could pull more air through, until I cut the hole in the top. The tubing from the heatercore is pulling my Maze4 block up, and the card is slightly bent upwards. It works fine at stock and everything, but could the crookedness of the seating be causing my inability to overclock to my old speeds?
 
Well first and foremost...bending any card is NOT a good thing, even if you can 'fenangle' it into place..I would highly recommend against it.

The bending might be causing weird contact points on what you have cooling it cause the issues....try it w/o the card being bent and see if you get the better overclocks.
 
Alright, I just lowered the back end of the heatercore, which still leaves room to breath, and allowed the 9800 Pro to move back to a non-bending position. Should I reboot before trying my speeds again?
 
SWEET! I just gave the tubing some slack, so the 9800 Pro is level again. I rebooted, crossed my fingers, and brought the core back up to 490. Clicked "scan for artifacts", and TADA, my overclock lives! What's even better is, my temperature dropped down to 31C. Do you guys think it's safe to run it at this speed, as long as it's not artifacting? I'm not giving it any extra voltage or anything like that.
 
sounds good... for most part core speed will not kill a radeon.. my friend told me you could blow a cap relted to the memory chips on radeons tho.. also... why dont you rotate the maze 90 degrees and use elbow joints to allow ram sinks
 
It would be cheaper for me to just get low profile ram sinks, or trim the ones I have now. Also, thanks for the reassurance that core speed isn't very dangerous, as long as voltage isn't increased.

ryuji said:
sounds good... for most part core speed will not kill a radeon.. my friend told me you could blow a cap relted to the memory chips on radeons tho.. also... why dont you rotate the maze 90 degrees and use elbow joints to allow ram sinks
Click to expand...
 
all pushing core speed does is mke it run at its limit.. it doesnt force it to.. it does make things die faster but the change in life time cannot be measured... because nobodys owned hardware long enough to
 
Thanks for the reassurance guys! I'm gonna press into 515 core, I'm getting prety close. It runs 35C idle, 38C load now.
 
Just watch for artifacts or snow in game and if you see any, backoff your clocks...otherwise it SHOULD be fine.....emphasis on should ;)

And glad to help....glad to see when my ideas or thoughts help someone else out. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy, like the Grinch after he grew a heart lol
 
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