Overclocking 9600xt???

S

Scheizekopf

[H]ard|Gawd
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Jan 31, 2003
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How far has anybody overclocked or seen overclocked a built by ATI 9600xt??

And how do you know how far you can go? Will it just not work when you know you've gone to far?

I ran 3dmark01 with 540/310 and got up to 14,200points. I would like much more than that.

I overclocked with Radlinker.


Thanks for the help.
 
Mine's not a built by ATI, but I have it at 570/640 with a zalman fanless cooler on it.
 
If you want good cooling at low cost, use a PCI Bracket and put 2x80mm fans epoxied together right under the video card.

2 Vantec Stealth works great!

something like that but right under the vid card.
i can't find a good picture...

Koslov-03989.jpg
 
not sure how far you can go. every card is different. I went from 500/650 to 650/740 on my Sapphire 9600xt. BUT - I also did heatsink, vmem, vgpu, and the lm63 mod (there's a whole thread about it at xtreme systems where 3 of us figured it all out...easy mod actually).

I can push 670Mhz on the core, but my memory overclock drops from 740 down to 660 (ddr speeds).

I've had it like that for a loooooong time...about 1-2 months after I bought it. but I also use Radlinker and only o/c it when playing a game. so it's not running that fast 100% of the time.


just o/c the core until you see artifacts. then back it down maybe 5mhz for safety (b/c some apps may run fine, and others will have problems...weird). Then do the same for the memory. Try ATITool to find the max values. Just don't o/c with both ATITool and Radlinker at the same time. And be sure to disable the Overdrive feature(if you have it) if you o/c also.
 
search on google for ATI tool. It finds your max speeds for your card. It will bump the speed up a tad, run tests, and if it finds no errors, bumps it up more. Once it finds errors, it knocks it back down and thats your cards max speed. Tests take a while, but its nice. I have my 9600P at 437/710, and thats not the max either, I just got tired at watching the test, and with it getting hotter and hotter around here, I dont want to push my card to far on stock cooling
 
hey guys . . . thanks for all the tips.

i got up to 14,900 3dmark01. I got up to 557/350 and then couldnt complete a 3dmark01 or a 3dmark03.

I have the core at 540 and the memory at 330 stable. Should the memory be more than the core??

Everybody's comments seem to have the memory way more than the core.

Thanks again for the help.
 
well, the memory doesnt have to be higher than the core, but yours is. To get memory, you always double it....so when you say its at 540/330, that means it would be at 540/660. Thats why everyone eles memory seemed higher, yours is to. I am a bit suprised thats all you could get though. Thats a good core speed, but even my memory on a 9600P is stable at quite a bit higher than yours. Maybe that is because of the cards different arcitexture, i am not a whiz at this, but I would think yours should go higher than mine. Did you try out ATITool...something just doesnt seem right
 
okay so 540/660. . now it makes sense. thanks.

Yes I did use ATI Tool.

Maybe I should lower the core and raise the memory??

What will get the best performance??

And also what temps should the card run at?? I've got the coldest at 31C at like startup and at 40C after a coupld 3dmark01 tests.
 
I wouldnt raise them yourself. Hit the button that says find max memory in ATITool, then let it sit for 20minutes, it will find your max memory speeds, and im sure they can still go up a bit. As long as heat isnt as issue (you run the air in your house?) then do the same for the core, hit find max core. Save the max speeds it gives you, and run your comptuer for a few hours. If you can go a few hours without any crashes, lockups, broken images, or overheating, go back into ATITool and set the load speeds to what you overclocked, that way it loads them every time. As far as temps, I am not sure, I dont have anything to moniter my current temps, but tahts what ATITool is for. When it finds your max speeds, it figures in heat. Obviously, when things get to hot, you get errors, and when you get errors, ATITool will take your clock down a bit, so as long as your PC case has adiquite cooling, you should be fine, altho, the better cooling on your video card, the higher you can get your clock. To spend $40 on a Arctec VGA Silencer Rev. 3 and some short OCZ ramsinks (check out www.frozencpu.com) would probaly be worth your while if your serious about getting higher speeds without having to upgrade your card for a while. Also, the added cooling would extend the life of your card by a bit i think.
 
I dont really like the ATI Tool. I did the max core and the max mem and it started getting messed up and then the speed went down to stock. That didnt seem right.

It is usually pretty cool in my house. Summer might get up to high 70's to low 80's in my house with the air on. What should the max temp be?? 40C is good or bad??
 
If you're thirsty for more speed and have the nads to mod your card, check Unoid's site for 9600xx modding. I got my start from there. However, if you're going to vmod anything, then an upgrade to your cooling is almost a must. The ram gets hot when you run it fast with more voltage, so ramsinks (whether you drop the cash on some prefab ones or use a dremel and cut yourself some custom sinks) would be a must IMO. Also, a 1U or other upgraded hsf on the GPU is recomended (I used a P233MMX hs which was 1 inch tall and used the dremel to modify it to fit over/around the parts on the card).

without vmods, I could get my card to 580/680...after the vmods I was able to raise to 640-640-650/740.

I ran 3dm2k1 w/15k points, and 3dm2k3 and I think I got almost 5000 points with my previous system (p4 2.4b, 1gb ram). Haven't run it since I got my new setup...so I have no clue what it'd get. As long as it plays the games acceptably (in my perception) I'm happy.

www.unoid.net
 
I honesty dont know what temps shoud be but you seem fine. Weird error with ATI tool, never heard of that hapening. Since that doesnt work, this is the method I reccoemnt. Use your favorite overclockign software (radclocker I like) and bump up the ram in 3-5 mhz incraments. Bump it, run your benchmark to make sure there is no broken images, if your good, increase it more. Do this till you see broken an odd imaged or get VPU errors, and fi you do, bring it back down a few to the last stable setting, and thats your max. Like i said, every card is different, but that shouldnt be your limit
 
Viper87227 said:
bump up the ram in 3-5 mhz incraments. Bump it, run your benchmark to make sure there is no broken images, if your good, increase it more. Do this till you see broken an odd imaged or get VPU errors, and fi you do, bring it back down a few to the last stable setting, and thats your max
Click to expand...

That's what I'm doing. . .seems to me the best way.

Thanks for all your help guys.
 
mines is 330 mem, 660 ddr, and its running without problems..., i think its better to have the memory faster, as the core is just hungry for bandwich, and i get good performance that way
 
My 9600Pro would overclock pretty far on the core. But not so much on the memory. What was weird is I noticed that when I OC'ed my memory I didn't gain anything really. But on the core I gained alot of performance.

Yet on my X800Pro the reverse is the case. Memory gives me a boost while the core doesn't do that much.
 
what type of memory do you have? Most Sapphire cards have Samsung 2.8ns, while I've heard that most BBA's have Samsung 3.3.

If you added about .2v to your gpu, you may be able to hit 600. raising my vgpu from 1.25 to 1.42v got me from 580Mhz on the core to 650.

If you're into modding, then the 9600xt is a fun card to mod. But if you're simply looking for more speed, a different card is the way to go b/c even a 100Mhz o/c on the core will only give you a few percentage points difference in games (and that's usually what matters since most people dont play benchmarks).
 
|| ATI 9600XT (540/666)<-So far, & soon AC VGA Silencer Rev. 3 || 14,806 3dmark01 || 4,298 3dmark03 ||

Is this pretty good???

All Opinions Welcome.
Thanks.
 
meh...my opinion stands, the core is good, memory should be better. Id invest in some short ramsinks to stick under tha VGA silencer, should get a bit highter speeds that way
 
I too have a 9600XT. That thing is great!

I have mine oc'ed really low. 533/512...

When I go ot 540/520, I get temps of about 58 degrees C.

Is this too high?
 
the hottest mine gets is 42c. idle is 32c. Have you considered upgrading the cooling?

Scheizekopf : if your memory is Samsung 2.8ns (I think the marking on the chip is GC2A) then you're actually running it below spec as those chips are spec'd to run at 350Mhz (700ddr). So if your chips won't get to that point, then chances are the card isn't supplying enough voltage to them (.pdf from samsung says 2.9v max for those chips to run at 350Mhz).

Have you tried running your ram at 350Mhz? just curious b/c my card wouldn't run 350 w/stock voltage. I had to increase it to 2.7v to get 350, 2.92v to get 370Mhz.


I just ran 3dm2k3 on my machine and got 5097 with the ATI catalyst 4.6 drivers. Not sure what improvement those drivers are over the 4.5's...but some of my games run smoother and the IQ is a little better in a couple.
 
i just got the new ati drivers also, and the only improvment i noticed (which was big) was that in Far Cry I used to have broken edges and black textures all over, partiulacrly guns, hands, and rocks. This has been fixed, and i can enjoy the game again
 
I have the new catalyst 4.6 drivers.

I'm not sure what ram i have. I have the built by ATI 9600xt.

I dont think i can get up to 350 with the memory. I've got up to 344 but with the core only at 515.

How can I change the voltage? And will it hurt the card??

I just ordered OCZ ramsinks and the Arctic Cool VGA Silencer Rev. 3.
Those should help out.
 
I dont get it, can anyone tell me why my 9600pro has significantly higher max ram speeds than these 9600xt's?
 
how did u volt mod these cards? o and btw, i have an asus 9600xt (i think its 2.8 ns samsung, just a guess...) and i get pretty good output on it...
Mi card is set at 530 core, 648 mem, no artifacts, stock cooling!!! I think its a pretti good card specially since i came with the HL2 coupon (got it before coupon recall lol). I use radlinker to overclock it, and test it by playing halo for a while... I play halo at 1024x764, highest settings, and i add a little antialiasing (2x) to it.
I can probably overclock it a bit, but it gets too hot, and the fan starts to make too much noise, but it doesn't develop artifacts until u overclock it to like 600 core lol
 
voltage won't hurt the card as long as you stay within reasonable limits. I've had my card volt-modded since about 1 month after I got it (back in Feb.), don't have ANY ill effects.


check http://www.unoid.net for info on volt mods/cooling mods. If you volt mod the gpu, I highly recommend a cooling mod for it also. The 9600xt doesn't put out a lot of heat, but it starts to put out a good amount after you start volt modding and raising the fequencies.

In order to see what ram you have, Look at the chips on the back of the card. They should be marked with Samsung (most cards used Samsung GC2A - 2.8ns or GC33 - 3.3ns) or Hynix, Infineon, etc. Next step would be to search for that part number on Google and bring up the data sheet. Look in the data sheet to find the max spec'd frequency and voltage. That is what you go by when volt modding. Anything over the chip-makers specifications is a chance you take. In my case, pushing more than the manufacturer's specified voltage to the ram chips offered no benefit.

as far as volt modding the core goes, I've seen people have their cores as high as 1.7v (running the core over 700Mhz also), but most seem to stick around the 1.4-1.5v range. I run 1.42 on my card.

Viper: check our ram, what does it say???? I've heard of a couple instances where Samsung 2.2ns ram was put on a card...but I think that was mostly done on 9600xt's.
 
umm yea AtiTool tried to kill both my vid cards ... i did the find max .. but the darn thing never stopped and backed off and the whole screen was pure atrifacts. so i would suggest you sit and watch the atitool, bit boring watchin a fuzzy box but i about wet myself cuz i had it running on 2 computers at the same time.
 
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