• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

X1800XT questions

P

Predator_CITF

Limp Gawd
Joined
Dec 24, 2005
Messages
200
So after the previous thread, I've pretty much decided to get an X1800XT over a 7900GT. However, the Sapphire card, which is really good, only has a 2 year warranty, and I think thats POS. However, I've heard that ATI has a full lifetime warranty, soo

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16814102624

I remember Bona Fide telling me that Sapphire had a BIOS flash for the X1800XT to flash it to Platinum Edition with 700/1600 clock speeds. My question is, does the ATI have this exact same feature? Thanks.
 
why flash board.. wouldn't it be easier and safer to just OC the board via the ATI utility?
 
The only ATi resellers that have Life Time Warranty are PowerColor and VisionTek. Im sure you can use Sapphire Bios for the flash.
 
Fear those temps.

Safe to assume that such high temps would make for a noisy fan under load?
 
2 year warranty? Won't the card be outdated in 6months? ;)

Seriously though, if the price is comparable get the one with the longer warranty. If the price difference is too large then make a judgement call.
 
mjz_5 said:
why flash board.. wouldn't it be easier and safer to just OC the board via the ATI utility?
Click to expand...
Is this like the anti-flashing forums or something?

Overclocking is just as dangerous as flashing a bios. And in most cases flashing the bios is safer since it automatically adjusts the proper settings for you.
The new bios automatically adjusts to the correct voltages and speeds whereas with overclocking manually you have to play around with it for hours to find the correct settings...

And as for your easier statement, I spent a good 2 horus or so messing with the voltages and ATI tool to see how high i could get
Then i spent about 30 second flashing teh bios which gained almost twice the overclock i achieved by messing with ATI tool

I'm currenty running it at 736/1584 in 3D apps



And as for the original post, the Sapphire cards ARE bba cards just with a sticker over them, as long as you get teh 6 transformer version (which pretty much all the new ones are anyways) then it shold not matter.


When my Sapphire card it had a sticker on the heatsink, but once i took it off it had the exact same graphic underneath that the bba cards use.
 
Tanatz said:
Fear those temps.

Safe to assume that such high temps would make for a noisy fan under load?
Click to expand...

the stock cooler is quite noticable at 100% fan speed
 
"And as for the original post, the Sapphire cards ARE bba cards just with a sticker over them, as long as you get teh 6 transformer version (which pretty much all the new ones are anyways) then it shold not matter.


When my Sapphire card it had a sticker on the heatsink, but once i took it off it had the exact same graphic underneath that the bba cards use."

What do you mean by BBA?...
 
Well I know that Sapphire is built by ATI, but it only provides me with a 2 year warranty, and unfortunately, that is not good enough for me.
 
built by ATI means the card is an ATI card, not a sapphire or powercolor or visiontek, etc...

The link you posted is a BBA card
 
Predator_CITF said:
So after the previous thread, I've pretty much decided to get an X1800XT over a 7900GT. However, the Sapphire card, which is really good, only has a 2 year warranty, and I think thats POS. However, I've heard that ATI has a full lifetime warranty, soo

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16814102624

I remember Bona Fide telling me that Sapphire had a BIOS flash for the X1800XT to flash it to Platinum Edition with 700/1600 clock speeds. My question is, does the ATI have this exact same feature? Thanks.
Click to expand...

But didn't ATI announce that their warranties are now 1 year:
Snip from their website on warranty:

"PRODUCT WARRANTY

ATI warrants to the original purchaser of the hardware product, that the product is free from defects in materials or workmanship under normal use and service for a period of one (1) year from the date of purchase at retail. If this product is a Workstation product such as ATI’s FireGL™ or FireMV™ family of products, ATI warrants to the original purchaser of the hardware product, that the Workstation product is free from defects in materials or workmanship under normal use and service for a period of three (3) years from the date of purchase at retail. All cables and accessories provided with an ATI product are warranted to be free from defects in materials or workmanship under normal use and service for a period of for (90) ninety days from date of purchase at retail."
 
I throw my tidbit in here. I just got my x1800xt last week (friday actually). I got the Sapphire (2-year warranty? whoopee...I plan on upgrading before then anyway).

If came with the 6-phase power circuit. I ran it at the stock speeds for a whole day, then flashed the PE bios with it. Now when in games it clocks to 700/800 (1600ddr). Noticeable difference? Don't know...never bothered checking, but I figured it can't hurt.

As for heat...it does run hot. At load on the stock hsf mine hit upwards of 90c when running at 733/820. A good lapping job and some AS (5 or ceramique...I used the latter due to non-conductivity and it also works as a good glue for the other heatsinks I added) cured that problem. My temps didn't change much at idle, but at load they went from 90c to mid 70's. still hot...but not as hot as 90. I took 2 hours and lapped it...made the difference worth it.

I also added a heatsink strip to the coils near the power mosfets (under the long red heatsink). Took the long red heatsink off and put AS Ceramique on.

after that...the card runs noticeably cooler and the fan doesn't kick into overdrive when it gets hot. I can hear it running...but nothing like the leaf blower sound at 100%. I actually don't think I've seen it above 50% since lapping the heatsink.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top