I recently bought a Radeon 9700 Pro off of Ebay for $273 (after shipping). The card was taken out of a Dell I believe. I am sure it is an underclocked card because of that. I don't know the actual ramdac speed yet but will know about sometime next week. Anyway, the point is, if it is indeed underclocked, what are my chances of being able to clock it up to the normal speed? How hard would this be?

If your card is indeed underclocked, you shouldn't have any problems at all clocking it back up to the correct speed. All you will need (if you even need it at all) is a simple piece of clocking software. I would recommend PowerStrip, but its up to you. Good luck.

Alright, I'll try that. Are there any other programs out there for this type of thing?

There are quite a few actually, here is a list of overclocking programs from Tweak3D.Net. Enjoy!

What makes you think a Radeon 9700 from Dell is underclocked? Dell isn't that bad are they?

If read quite a few posts in multiple forums that state that the Dell provided Radeon 9700s are slightly underclocked. Like OEM vs Retail. Just slightly cheaper product that probably is built on a core which isn't as good a yield and therefore likely to be more stable at a lower clock speed.

Some would say that this is how they get their so called "good reputation", and quite frankly, I would have to agree. Underclocking hardware that you pay good money for and selling to you for the full price. Average users wouldn't know how to clock their hardware back to its original speed, which makes Dell look pretty crafty. Personally, I don't think that they should be allowed to do this, even if it is only underclocked by a small amount of MHz; it still makes a difference. I had much respect for Dell before hearing of this and other incidents like it.

I guess the correct question to ask would be by how much?

I have no idea how much the original owner paid for the Dell computer. I paid $273 (after shipping) for it. I havent received the video card yet because it will be here next week, but I will update as soon as I get it and let you know what the actual clock speed is. Hopefully from there some of you can give some opinions of whether or not I should clock back to normal speed. If Dell did indeed put out some lower quality Radeon 9700 Pro I won't be very happy because I want a true Radeon 9700 Pro and I could have just gotten it from someone that bought the retail version and is selling it for some reason. I hate Dell as it is because of the fact that they are brand name computers AND sell computers for $3000 that you can build for around $1000. That is just highway robbery in my mind and shouldnt be done. I dont care how much of a "warranty" they provide. I'm not buying a computer just because it has a warranty. Besides, I will never use it because I know what I am doing and can replace anything that I need replaced or fix what I need fixed so whats the point of paying $2000 more for a computer? Would be a very bad decision on my part.

oops

oops... I meant to say I dont know how much the owner paid for the Dell computer but I know I paid $273 for the Radeon9700 Pro that was in that computer.. my bad.. sounded a bit confusing that way

I just checked Dell's website, and the Radeon 9700 Pro cards that they install into their computers run at 400mhz instead of the retail version of 620mhz. Now that sucks. 200mhz... Dell is a bunch of f*c*i* *****s.

I don't know where you guys have been, but Things like this are very common. Almost any company that has something built for them and places their name on it, or puts it in something they sell, usually has it built to lower specs than that of the original manufacturer's specs for that particular product. This has been going on for many years and not only in the computer market.
I would also assume that the components on the card are not the same quality, possibly second quality components which would not run stable at manufacturer specs, but would run fine at Dell's specs. I make this assumption because this is the way it is done with most products which are produced for one company by another.
The bad part of this whole thing is that you are not told on the surface that you are getting a lesser quality product, you have to sometimes dig around to find that info. The companies involved like this type of business because the manufacturer has a use for second quality components, and Dell(and others who do this) get something they can sell as being made "for them" by the other company.

Yea and I just spent $273 on a video card called "radeon 9700 pro" when in fact it isnt a Radeon 9700 Pro. Load of crap in my opinion. I could have just went and spent the $399.

Yes, but here is the downfall that could greatly hurt dell- all it takes is one person who knows how to check and if that is the case - they speard the word and BAM!! there goes dell's reputation - i do not think they would do that, as the downfall could greatly hurt them - word of mouth is the best advertisement.

now i got a dell with a 9700 PRO i will check it's clock speed.

just read other post - that suxs - i will check mione - why don't they just sell the 9500!!!

if anything if it is a true 9700 pro - then yes - u should be able to clock it to it's "meant to be"speed.

mine is @ 324(core) / 310(memory) on my 9700 pro

there is also another syetem i have witha ti4200 64mb - i shall check that system as well.

k it seem s official clock speed for the 9700 pro is

Clock speed (chip/memory): 325 (core)/310(mem)

so mine seems fine....

the offical speed is only half of that as they consider it "double" data rate memory - so the speed is not ACTUALLY that fast, but only 310.

Also, can you provide that link? as it does not seem true in my case.

• 
  Radeon 9700 PRO: The fastest and most expensive card among the ATI models. 8 pixel pipelines, 4 vertex shaders, 128 MB with 256-bit memory bus, DirectX 9 support. Clock speed (chip/memory): 325/310. Official price: $399.
  
  Radeon 9700: The smaller of the 9700 series differs in its lower clock speeds: 275/270. Official price: $299.
  
  Radeon 9500 PRO: The memory interface was reduced from 256-bit to 128-bit, but it can still accept up to 128 MB of memory. Otherwise, it has the same features as the 9700 cards, meaning that it offers full support for DirectX 9. Clock speeds: 275/270. Official price: $199.
  
  Radeon 9500: Again, the memory bus is only 128-bit. The maximum memory is reduced from 128 MB to 64 MB. In addition, 4 pixel pipelines are left out. However, it still offers full DirectX 9 support. Clock speeds: 275/270. Official price: $179.
  
  Radeon 9000/9000 PRO: Based on the technology of the Radeon 8500 (R200). Supports DirectX 8.1.

Well, I knew 620 was the DDR clock speed, hence only half. Who knows, I will just have to check and see what I actually get from this card when it comes. The person I bought it from said he sent it on Friday so it should be here this week. Woo, cant wait hehe. I built this system to prepare for DOOM 3 lol.. isnt that bad? Built it for one game. Nah, I use it for a lot of other things too... Battlefield 1942 for example lol..