PowerColor 9800 np 256mb???

Ok guys, I haven't actually got a comp of my own to stick the card in and run it, I've sold my current one and I'm waiting for new bits to arrive. I'll have to ask around and see if anyone will let me put it in their system so I can test it, or I can just wait a few days till I get my new bits.

I am a bit confused as to why no one has ever heard of this model and it ain't on PowerColor's site, it's not even in their list of discontinued products. The place I got it from don't even stock PowerColor stuff, let alone this one.

Seems to me that PowerColor weren't all that with their old cards...but appears they may have got better with newer ones. Doubt the 9800 np - pro flash would work with it either (I wasn't intending to do it but in the future I might have tried). The only thing I could flash it to is the 9800 Pro 256mb but the memory on that is DDR II and mine's almost certainly not.

Once you work in the industry for ten years, you'll understand things a little better, for now, you have much to learn kid.

even ATi dont mention anything about a 9800 np 256meg
http://www.ati.com/products/radeon9800/radeon9800pro/compare.html
yes powercolor are a naff, cheap make - if i were you id send that card back and get yourself that Sapphire....and if your budget can stretch far enough....get it upgraded to a 9800 Pro

Steg

It's all genuine because it's retail packed and shrink wrapped, not OEM. Hmmmm pretty damn odd.....got myself a phantom card! lol maybe I should ask the company where the hell they got it from, although I won't put it exactly like that. ) As for sending it back I'm not sure.....the Sapphire sounds better but this has got double the memory, even though I realise it's pointless having 256mb as it won't be of any use in games for ages. Perhaps I should E-Mail PowerColor about it but they've probably never heard of it either even though they made the thing. lol

If it happens to run at the non-Pro speeds ( 325 / 580 ), who cares what brand it is ?

Many cards based on the same chip will perform almost exactly the same. The only difference is the bundle nowadays. So if the card performs like a R9800 non-Pro, then there's no problem.

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?

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.'

So you have DDR2 memory...


time to overclock:grinthumb

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.

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

Steg

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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 $$

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

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.

It still seems to work fine, I am concerned about overclocking but I just couldn't resist!! :blush: 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.