1900XTX@800/900 & single core excitement

[LexDiamonds]

I know its somewhat selfish to start an independant thread outside of the x1900 result thread, but I know I for one always enjoy seeing new posts about current hardware while I sip my java in the morning.:coffee:

Anyhow- I just upgraded my X850 to a Sapphire 1900xtx. I had just finished playing Oblivion on the x850 and it was a great gameplay experience so I'm not really sure why exactly I upgraded.... must be the sickness.

I had done all the reading possible on driver/overclock issues with the 1800/1900 series so I was ready to jump right in. I had some issues when first swapping the card in as every app was seeing the card as a DX8 device (couldnt run 3dm05,etc). It was the first time EVER I had to use a driver cleaner to make things work right. I suspect it had something to do with the move from PS2.0 to 3.0 and associated directX calls. After that, all was well.

My XP install is pretty bloated at this point, but with some of the funkyness involved with OCing the x1900 series along with the sketchy 6.4cats I decided just to make it all work and plan on doing a reformat this weekend. Besides..I was anxious to play with new toy and didnt want to dink around with a reinstall.

At first I just put the card in bone stock to make sure it worked correctly. I loaded up the 6.4 cats and maxed Overdrive at 690/800 and started benching 3D05. After a couple runs, comp blue screened and rebooted. :slapass: Temp on the core was around 80C at this time (dual monitor..ummm monitoring)
I thought Oh Noes!!11! I have teh terrible OC card! Was very worried that it would not do 690/800 stock.

I had enough of that game so I pulled out the card to add waterblock and sinks to verify my worst suspicions. Damn! The heatsink was spicy hot!!!

Upon pulling the stock sink off I realized that I was looking at one of the worst heatsinks I have ever laid eyes on. By FAR, the core contact patch had the worst finish I have ever seen. Extreme ridges that would easily catch (even stop) your fingernail as you ran it over. Worse than Pentium1 passive heatsinks, etc. Thermal grease was OK, but I swear ATI could lower temps by 10C on these cards by lapping the sink just a little bit. Perhaps mine was one of the worse ones. I started thinking water would be a big help :stick:

Here is pic of core:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=46162&stc=1&d=1145602643

I was hoping for an 06 core... Why do more people not post pics of their core? I would think some rough correlation on OCs could be derrived here similiar to CPUs, buy meebe no. :fact:

I bought some of the Swiftech sinks for the ram. These are sweet ass and highly reccomended!
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=46163&stc=1&d=1145602643

Card is ready for the stabbing! My waterblock is a MCW55 btw.

Long story short, by using volts of 1.575,2.24,2.20,1.5 I reached a OC of 800/900 without too much trouble.
Like others have noticed, higher clocks actually resulted in a slightly lower score? My core is stable up to 825, but no gains from this.
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=46167&stc=1&d=1145609505

Only tweak that was on was Performance Mipmapping in CCC.

My x850 at 660/620 only managed about 8k with the same setup, so I am quite pleased! Max temps on the card are 48C at 1.575V and 800core. A healthy 10C increase from the R480 that was hardmodded and really cranked up in volts. Double the performance/double the heatload? :slap:

All in all I think I got a slightly better than average XTX after removing the dog doo HS and masaging it up a little. I think with a clean XP install and a bit of tweaking, 14500 wouldnt be out of the question. Not bad for a Single core Opty!

:toast:

[KoukiFC3S]

wow that's an awesome score! Are you gonna run those speeds 24/7?

[mursaat]

Regarding the higher speed ending in lower scores, I'll try this weekend with my XTX. I suspect it's about timings (not that I'm a guru, just that's the only explanation I can find :D)

So with Rabit you can see the memory timings right? I will OC the card with ATI Tool and refresh the applied timings on Rabit, to see if I'm right or wrong.

BTW, nice clocks there Lex! You won't regret the upgrade once you start all your games :)

[rhino56]

i took of my heatsink also and found a pretty rough finish on it. im going to wait for my tyee block before i oc my card.

pics of it are on my server here
http://www.cryo-laboratory.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1772

as i said about my heatsink
they must make them across the street from where they install them and bring them over in a wheelbarrow.

[nicepun]

So did you OC with ATiTool and CATS 6.4??? You have an awesome overclocking card there. I wish mine could reach those speeds.

[SIOUX]

very nice clocks for just normal water.....you got a very good card:toast:

[gjwild]

Nice job Lex. :) Good XTX you got there.

[HousERaT]

one of the best cards I've seen on water hands down. I can only imagine how nice it feels to have clocks like that.

[Kesnel]

Nice card you have there. My core can only make 790mhz on 1.575v and memory can only get 873mhz, but on lower volts.

I'll try your voltage settings for the memory and give that a go. :)

[damstr]

Very nice job man! 800 on water is impressive, and almost 14k in 05. :)
I will be upgrading to an X1900XTX in the next month and the best XTX OC'ers seem to be the ones made by Sapphire so thats the manufacture I'm going with.

[LexDiamonds]

Thanks for the kudos guys! :toast:

As far as running 800/900 24/7... not going to happen. ATI Tool is a bit more pickey than 3d05 for stability. I need to drop clocks to 780/880 to remain artifact free in ATT (still pretty darn good). Even then, I am a little concerned about overvolting the gddr3 for extended lengths of time. I have killed a 9800pro from mem overvolting and would prefer to not do it again.:rolleyes:

Honestly, when I reformat, I am most likely just going to use the max CCC OC of 690/800 for now. Its simple and no voltage changes and most importantly- will steamroll any game for the time being.


At the super clocked settings, the lights in Hoover Dam dim when the thing is at load. I hate to say it, but it is pushing the limit of my OCZ600. I was noticing some sag on my 12v line when running the "spinning cube". I had to bump the 12v rail to keep it acceptable. I'm not sure if this is A. the dual rail design biting me in the behind B. Really just pushing 600w C.x1900 power vaccuum.

I have one of the very very first OCZ600s out there (with the exception of the recall units) and its not "SLI ready". I am wondering if I am missing something in the way I have my power cables allocated or something... I may try and get ahold of Tony on this. For single card and single cpu I was really not expecting to be hitting limits on my PSU. :eek:

I figure overclocked and overvolted, the x1900 is probably sucking 200w at load! :stick:

Anyone else feeling some power sag with these cards?

[cantankerous]

I have one of the very first original OCZ600w psus as well and notice my system being pushed, I may even have more in my case than you.... yikes. I never did check my 12v rail under full load though I am sure it is getting a fair beating as well. I am currently running 685/805 1.4v.

[LexDiamonds]

If you have a DMM, test out your rail voltages under load if you would cantankerous. Would be much appreaciated. The other spot where I REALLY noticed a sag is in 3dm01 nature test towards the end. This was dropping my 12v rail down to 11.7! until I corrected the problem via the pot adjustment. Only problem now is my 12v rail sits at 12.55 under idle which I think is a bit high.

After thinking about it a bit, I think we are really just eating up this kind of power nowadays. Oced Opterons are power hogs too. A quick tally of my system using rough estimates-

Opty@ 3.1/ 1.55v- 125w
ultraD mobo- 50w
2gb DDR- 40w
2 raptors- 40w
idle optical drives- 10w
idle Audigy2- 5w
MCP650pump- 25w
8 yate loon 120mm- 30w
OCed 1900xtx- 200w

Thats 525watts right there. I also think 200w for the xtx might be a bit conservative as all major reviews put the xtx at 150w under load at stock speed and volts! the number could be closer to 250w for a card at 800/900 with bumped voltages.

That is really mind boggoling actually... a vid card soaking up that much juice. Nvidia owners do have something to write home about in regards to lower power consumption on G7 series I guess.

[cantankerous]

Sure, I will do that this weekend.

I find Nature01 to be extremely demanding on your video card, despite its age. To test for artifacts and stability on a video card overclock I usually loop that test alone for hours on end with title screens disabled to see how it holds up. Watch your amps and temps soar with that going. Try what I just said and tell me what your amps are reading at max with your X1900XTX overclocked. Mine minimum is 32.7A, max has been 35.5A which is pretty damn close to the max 38A rating of the psu. You can check via atitool.

I leave my 12v rail on my powerstream about 12.2 idle from what I remember so have no clue how it dips if at all. I do know my system is rock stable though, never, ever do I have an issue with it running anything for long periods of time even in my very hot ambient temps of this room. My cpu is only running 2.48ghz max so I am using less than you there plus I won't put my GPU vcore higher than 1.4v due to heat issues so you are using a little more than me there too. I do have 4 hard drives however among other things in my case using up extra power. To think I was going to get one of those Asus PPU cards in may too. I sure hope those don't take too much power.

[EnJoY]

Nature 03 or firefly forest 05 are the two best for finding artifacts in my opinion.

Btw, try lowering your vddq, I almost guarantee you that you don't need more than 2.0v, if not even less. ;)

[LexDiamonds]

14k...just because its a better number than 139xx. I can sleep at night now. :D




http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm05=1971388

[megatron]

Nice overclock, how long have u had ur crucial ram?:fact:

[Plywood99]

Awesome score Lex! Man, wish my core would clock like that. 730 is tops for mine on water...

[kiwi]

14014 would be even better :D

Yeah cat 6.4 and ati tool works, just ati tool does not detect ati2evxx.exe process, so you have to kill it manually


Nice card you have there. My core can only make 790mhz on 1.575v and memory can only get 873mhz, but on lower volts.


790 is not only :)

[Winterwind]

really nice card u got there:toast:
i wonder what 80nm R580+/R590 would do...