PowerColor 9800 np 256mb???

[PreservedSwine]

I have never heard of a non-PRO R9800 256mb card. NEVER.

Powercolor does indeed have a poor reputation, but they have always used high quality RAM on their R9800 products. In fact, you have a better chance of getting the desired samsung 2.86ns RAM on npR9800's from powercolor than any other brand! Go figure....

But anyway, the only R9800 product I've ever heard of w/ 256mb of RAM in the R9800PRO w/ DDR2 memory and the R9800XT w/ 256mb of memory.

How many memory chips are there? And did you say the memory chips are covered w/ heatsinks from the factory?

 

[mike0381]

I E-Mailed PowerColor's Taiwan office and got this response:

'dear user :

Please understand that many people have not heard of this model because most of them have shipped to our SI customer, there are only a few of shipment that have shipped to normal market . The memory is also DDR2 memory. And most of information is same as our model XR98-D3, there is only core/memory clock different.'

 

[PreservedSwine]

So you have DDR2 memory...


time to overclock:grinthumb

 

[mike0381]

Do you reckon these hard to find 9800 np 256mb cards might have been made from 9800 Pro 256mb cards that didn't pass the test........seeing as they look 100% identical and even use DDR2 memory, the only difference being an underclocked core/mem speed.

 

[Steg]

it possible - the test is overclocking - if it overclocks very well then you might just have a failed 9800pro - its worth a try

Steg

 

[Didou]

Like I said before, why would you even need to overclock ? What is it that the card can't do at stock speeds ?

If you were to have problems running at stock speeds, then yes it would be a problem, otherwise it's fine.

 

[mike0381]

Ok, I got the card up and running, flashed a 9800 Pro 256mb DDR2 bios onto it........with full success! Registers as a Pro running at the right speeds, no artifacting at all and goes smoothly through 3Dmark with around a 900 3Dmark score increase.

 

[Th3M1ghtyD8]

Originally posted by Didou
Like I said before, why would you even need to overclock ? What is it that the card can't do at stock speeds ?

Because people in general like to get something for free, getting a £350 9800Pro for around half the price is always going to be a nice thing

And as with any sort of overclocking or modding there is always the question of why? and the usual answer is because we can. If I could afford a P4 3.2Ghz and some liquid nitrogen, then I would overclock as much as possible e.g. 5Ghz + simply because I could.

 

[Didou]

So he basicly installed the card & straight away flashed it to a Pro. Ok, why not ? After all it's his card.

One thing to remember though, components can wear out after a certain amunt of time. It might work flawlessly at that speed now, but you could end up damaging the card to the point where it will no longer run even at stock speeds.

As long as you are aware of the dangers & will not complain if that does happen to you, all is fine.:grinthumb

 

[agissi]

Quit talking him out of it didou hehe.. worst comes to worst he'll learn a good lesson about OCing

 

[PreservedSwine]

But how long do you need it to last? So he takes a couple of years off it's life....So it lasts 6 years instead of 8 or 10 years. By then, his state of the art card will be next to worthless, and could easily be replaced with a better card for *much* less $$

 

[InsaneMonkeyBoy]

Originally posted by Th3M1ghtyD8
If I could afford a P4 3.2Ghz and some liquid nitrogen, then I would overclock as much as possible e.g. 5Ghz + simply because I could.

lol, that's good.....hehe:grinthumb

 

[young&wild]

Originally posted by PreservedSwine
But how long do you need it to last? So he takes a couple of years off it's life....So it lasts 6 years instead of 8 or 10 years. By then, his state of the art card will be next to worthless, and could easily be replaced with a better card for *much* less $$

Do seriously think that most computer components can last up to 8 to 10 years? It will last 6 years intead of 8 to 10 years?
You are wrong, if special cooling and care is not given to the card when overclocking, it might die within a year or months. Sometimes when it survives, it will struggle to even run at stock speed. Don't think that overclocking will just take a partial part of a component's life. It takes a very big portion of its lifespan away.
Long term running, overclocking is bad.

 

[PreservedSwine]

Originally posted by young&wild
Do seriously think that most computer components can last up to 8 to 10 years? It will last 6 years intead of 8 to 10 years?
You are wrong, if special cooling and care is not given to the card when overclocking, it might die within a year or months. Sometimes when it survives, it will struggle to even run at stock speed. Don't think that overclocking will just take a partial part of a component's life. It takes a very big portion of its lifespan away.
Long term running, overclocking is bad.

Gee, yes, I do.
"Overclocked" components may live well beyong 6 years. In many cases, overclocking takes NO life away from a peice of electronic component (With proper cooling)
I guess I see a difference in overclocking and destroying your equipment. If you are overclocking to the point of damaging your equipment in several months, your rig certainly isn't stable. I don't consider that too bright, do you?

Overclocking certain compnents is perfectly safe when done with a little information, and can save you several hundred dollars.

Currently, my $50 XP1700 is clocked at 2250 mhz, my $139 R9500np is modded to an R9700. I bought XP1700 well over a year ago, and the R9500np 8 months ago. At the time, an R9700np was going for well over $220, and an XP2600 was over $150.

Overclocking in NO WAY is bad when done within reasonable limits. All it does is save you money.......

My AMD 700mhz DURON overlcoked at over 1,000 mhz for several years, perfectly stable.
My 1.4T-bird has been running perfectly over 1.5Ghz for several years as well. Every video card I've ever owned has been overlcoked the entire time I've owned them, never with an issue or failure.

Electronic components have no moving parts and are damaged only by overvolting or too much heat. As long as they don't get too hot or too much voltage, you're generally not going to damage them.

I too used to think that overclocking was dangerous and would take life away from your rig.

Fact is, when done with just a little information, it's easy, simple, and safe.

 

[mike0381]

It still seems to work fine, I am concerned about overclocking but I just couldn't resist!! If it hadn't worked right and it froze or produced artifacts then I'd have reversed the flash straight away. But what can I do when benchmarks all run smoothly and produce a much higher score? Put the original bios back on just in case the PRO bios might reduce the lifespan by a couple of years? Not being a huge overclocker at heart I am still a little bit concerned if it might damage my card in the long-run but to hell with it...hopefully by the time it (might) fail I'll need a new card anyway. Maybe the fact it has ramsinks like the PRO 256mb helps me as well.

 

[the running man]

hey mate, are you from the UK?

if so where did you buy the card from?

thanks.

 

[werty316]

If I was in this situation I would ask as to why I got a differnent brand name just to ease my sleep but all cards with the same chip are made the same. Ram could be different. Generally you won't see a difference or should anyway.

 

[superbuss]

powercolor

http://www.tweaktown.com/document.php?dType=review&dId=587


Does this help?

 

[scooby]

i actually orderd the power color 9800pro coz i read in a review that it came allready overlocked slightly? this is a quote from the site

"Wow. Here's the first board which has a bit different specifications. Apparently PowerColor didn't think that ATi's reference core speed of 380 Mhz was enough, instead they opted for 400 MHz. They even clocked the memory higher, 760 MHz instead of 680. Not bad! This is the type of thing that we'd like to see more often."

well i know it was allready clocked which is good but the voltage could not be uped for greater speeds as it was restricted, so therefor it would need to be volt modded. but im not really interested in clocking it anymore than what it was set to. is this all correct or is there a mistake somwhere here??
this was the full review
http://www.nordichardware.com/reviews/graphiccard/2003/Radeon9800Roundup/index.php?ez=7
also it kicked *** over all the other ati boards in a standard benchmark with no overclocking.(especially kicked nvidia's fx5900 cards ***!!! )

 

[me51tc]

where to buy in UK

hello everyone

I came acrros this post through web search and found it to be very useful.

I wanted a card to replace my crap nvidia 4400, even when overclocked it stuggles with everything. I've stuck with nvidia purly because they support 3D glasses (highly recommended by the way, about £30 on eBay).

Was going to buy the Hercules 9800 SE and softmod it, but read many things that put me off.
Found a cheap ati card but it was 256 non-pro, I was very curious as there is no such thing. Then this post answered that.

To the point, it can be brought here in the UK:

http://www.lowestonweb.com/Products/ProductList.asp?e=C09CAADF-98D5-4F42-B2A9-EFD030750327

£190 delivered (£200 fast delivered)

I've brought one but still waiting for it.


now question for mike0381, where did you get the bios from and how did you flash the bios ?

(from it from http://www.ocfaq.com/softmod/bios.php using flashrom ? )

Thanks

 

[the running man]

yeah I bought one from LOW recently. Just got it in today, haven't flashed or anything yet, its @ NP speeds when I first put it in.

Good card, looks just like the PRO version.

Need to find out what mike used to flash it with, then I can get rolling. I'm sure this will be the best buy of the year if it goes smoothly.

They had 90 in stock on Wed, now they have 60! lol. Words spread!!!!

 

[cheezyal]

HAve people got this card now??

LOW ATI Radeon 9800 std 256MB VGA/DVI-I/TV-out £187

Is this the same card that you got mike?

me51, have u flashed yours yet?
Do we know exaclty what it is yet?

How is LOW as a company? Delivery times and customer service?

Thanks

 

[cheezyal]

DAM, seems they have realised a mistake. They have changed it. and put on a new product, with similiar description, but at £280. and same pic.