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MSI 9800 - overclocking woes

N

][ncubus

n00b
Joined
Oct 5, 2004
Messages
4
Hey all, I recently bought a MSI 9800 Pro for my system. It runs stable at default speed; I’ve played Doom 3 for hours at a time (no artifacts), and looped the 3dmark 2005 successfully (if not at decent frame rates, but that’s another story). It plays nice with some other games I have as well. However, my overclocking attempts have been frustrated. I seem to have a have hit a wall with the card at (390/360 – core/mem). The core in particular, causes artificats in RTHDRIBL at anything approaching 400mhz, and lockups 3Dmark at 412mhz after a few minutes of running the default benchmarks. For reference, the card defaults to 378/338 mhz.

In theory, I should be doing better then this. I have the green PCB version of the card, with a large HSF over the memory and GPU. I’ve read about people’s experiences with this card. The general consensus seems to be that the MSI 9800 Pro is essentially a 9800 XT in disguise, and can easily hit XT core/memory speeds or beyond. I do not want to remove the HSF from the card to verify whether or not it is a R360 core, though many people have reported this to be the case. Even if it is not, I believe the card should be hitting slightly higher speeds then I’ve been able to achieve.

My system
CPU - P4 1.6A @ 2.4GHZ w 512MB RAM @ 375mhz
Motherboard – ASUS P4S533 - SIS 645DX chipset (4X AGP slot)
OS -Win XP Pro
Catalyst ver: 4.9

Prior to the 9800 I had a Geforce 4200 in my system, which was completely stable. After purchasing the 9800, I also did a complete windows reinstall to remove the possibility of driver issues. Though my system is overclocked, I get the same results with my 9800 at default and raised speeds.

What would you try to push this card further? Or is it a lost cause? If so, what is to blame?
 
From my understanding, if the card has the r360 core, when you install the cat 4.9s it should show up as an xt. If it doesn't, it's probably because you don't have a 360 core but got stuck with one of the 350s, there are really no guarantees with this card. The other way to check for sure is to pop off the heatsink and look. ;)
 
It'll show up as an XT with any driver's because it has an XT bios already. Maybe it's your case cooling dude. My case cooling sux, but I've been able to get to 420/750 with mine. I suspect I could go further with better cooling. Try OCing with the side panel off and see if you can get far.

It could also be your PSU. I've got a beefy PSU, so maybe my voltage being better would be the reason I can yield higher OCs. Whats your whole setup?
 
umm you have to flash with a medion XXL bios for it show up as XT

MSI 9800pro has totally diffrent PCB than of other 9800pros and XT
 
Thanks for you interest everyone. For clarification, Windows detects the card as a 9800 Pro with my drivers. I've also tried using RivaTuner, which tells me I have a R350 core. However, I suspect all it's doing is reading from the card's BIOS. Having said that, it's almost certain that's the core I ended up with is R350.

I have a 350W Enermax PSU.

I also don't think it's a case cooling problem. I 've tried overclocking the card, immediately after powering up the computer, ie after it had been off for a long stretch. I still get artifacting at 400mhz and above on the core. I suppose my card could have poor contact the HSF and the GPU surface causing this.
 
Check the core and try flashing the bios. It's the only way you're gonna know. Besides taking off the HSF and putting a little artic silver on the die never hurt anything and that way you'll know for sure.
 
Might wanna consider a silencer and some AS5. And definatly dont flash it. It's not the r360 core. Some were shipped with the old 9800 Pro cores, and most with the r360/XT core.
 
You're not missing much. My r350 core does 432/360. That's not Doom3 stable though. Stupid red snow. 414/345 is Doom3 stable for hours and hours.

And really, the o/c gets you 1-2 more fps. You won't even notice.
 
okay first the rivatuner only picks up your bios info from your gfx BIOS so only real way to know is to take of the heatsink and look at the core BTW


all MSI 9800pros have r360core. and i am pretty sure also you wont get much performence boost by flashing it to a median XXL bios.

more info@ rojakpot.com read their 9800pro @ XT bios flash
 
Mister E said:
Not all MSI 9800Pros have the r360 core. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Bingo. I'm not sure whether it was an error on MSI's account or something. They're all SUPPOSED to be based off the r360 core, but some odd ones have been popping up. So don't go flashing that thing until you've seen the core.
 
][ncubus said:
Thanks for you interest everyone. For clarification, Windows detects the card as a 9800 Pro with my drivers. I've also tried using RivaTuner, which tells me I have a R350 core. However, I suspect all it's doing is reading from the card's BIOS. Having said that, it's almost certain that's the core I ended up with is R350.

I have a 350W Enermax PSU.

I also don't think it's a case cooling problem. I 've tried overclocking the card, immediately after powering up the computer, ie after it had been off for a long stretch. I still get artifacting at 400mhz and above on the core. I suppose my card could have poor contact the HSF and the GPU surface causing this.
Click to expand...

I have the same card. Mine is definitely an R360 core, Windows detects it as an XT and every utility I've ever run shows it as an R360. I have problems overclocking it too. I use ATI Tool to run it at 405 core/350 memory, and it can't get any higher than that without artifacting. It runs very stable at that mild overclock, but I was really expecting more out of it.

I also have a 350W Enermax PSU, and I always suspected that was what was holding me back. I have a lot of stuff in my case running off that PSU and it might be having problems powering the 9800 properly.

I doubt cooling is the problem - I have a side intake fan blowing directly on the card and a thermal probe on the chip, and under full load it never gets above the mid 50's C. I suspect it's just a poor overclocker for whatever reason. I'm happy with it the way it is anyway, but a little more would have been nice.
 
Remove the supplied power connector and plug a floppy power connector directly into the card. This seemed to help a lot of people over at the MSI forums, including me
 
piesang said:
Remove the supplied power connector and plug a floppy power connector directly into the card. This seemed to help a lot of people over at the MSI forums, including me
Click to expand...


Thanks for the idea. I removed the MSI connector and used a spare floppy power connector from my PSU, but in my case it seems to have had no effect. The MSI connector looks like it's a fairly simple splitter, so I don't see why it would be causing any problems.

I have 2 HDDs, a DVD drive, and a CD burner, running off my PSU. Removing some of this load for testing did not improve things.
 
][ncubus said:
Thanks for the idea. I removed the MSI connector and used a spare floppy power connector from my PSU, but in my case it seems to have had no effect. The MSI connector looks like it's a fairly simple splitter, so I don't see why it would be causing any problems.

I have 2 HDDs, a DVD drive, and a CD burner, running off my PSU. Removing some of this load for testing did not improve things.
Click to expand...

is it on its own rail, or is it sharing wtih other componets? if its sharing its not getting as clean power as it could be and i have heard of this killing HDD's because of the power consumption of modern cards.
 
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