X1800 Xl = Wow!

[biohead]

I would get the VF700 CU i think the fatality version is ALU.

on the official site it says pure copper

[k0nsl]

I have done some modest testing with my X1800XL on my temporary setup:

Prescott 3.0 E0 @ 260fsb
P4GPL-X
1GB RAM
X1800XL

Unfortunately my SATA disk dies at anything over 260FSB on this P4GPL-X board so I was stuck with a very old Seagate 5200RPM disk (annoyingly slow).

I achieved these clocks so far:

Core: 630
Memory: 620

Idle temp is 39-40C with a pretty warm room temp & 1.6V on my CPU which is thus generating a fair amount of heat, but my radiator is doing a good job keeping it cool.

The X1800XL is also watercooled and is setup on the same loop as the CPU. I can increase the voltage to over 1.3V but my tests show that it likes 1.250V on the core. I can play all games and benchmark applications without a problem.

With this crappy motherboard which is restricting my CPU overclock my 3DMark '01 score was close to 26730. This was while using my 5200RPM Seagate disk because the SATA-disk would die instantly at 263FSB...The motherboard was really hard to get to 270FSB and it was not stable at all at that speed, so all benchmarks was run at 260FSB (super-stable).

I have already ordered a DFI Lanparty UT Crossfire RDX200 CF-DR and it will be here by monday. I won't be able to use it before I find a good Opteron...But atleast the new system is on the way and when it is here I will be able to push this X1800XL far more than I have done now.

I think it did rather well considering the system I am using it with. I bet it will thrive with the new motherboard and coupled with a Opteron @ 3Ghz

I'll get back with details when my setup is done. Everything is fixed except for the CPU and it will probably take two weeks to get it.

-k0nsl

[gunit]

on the official site it says pure copper

thats what I thought. it would silly for their highest priced GPU cooler NOT to be better than a lower priced model.

and from reading about how sucky the GTX cooler mod is on the XL, (I thought it would be), i think this fatality model from zalman is the way to go unless water is used.

[gunit]

Hey Astennu, why don't you try this and see how your card fares at these settings as you seem to have the most amount of problems with your card. Dnottis is back on stock cooler with stock volts and is 100% artifact free and stable at 560/550. See if your card can do that. Instead of striving for XT speeds right off the bat plus voltage increases on early and somewhat buggy software see what your card can do stock as his is clearly doing well. I am striving for the same thing when my card arrives as I was told it just shipped today. 560/550 is nothing to sneeze at with this more efficient design of the X1800. Most if not all games should play beautifully like this. If I could at least do this stock volts I would be happy. Anything else will be a bonus but I will be going ceramique and zalman from the get go.

is ceramique better than AS5? why?

[Revv23]

ceramique is non conductive, it also is much better for subzero operation, other then that its about the same.

[deathman20]

Well finally Been following this thread for a while and was trying to post all day but had to wait for account activation. Anyways here is what I wanted to post.

Well im new over here but since theres been so much talk on these forums about the X1800XL I had to sign up and give some results that I had. I have a sapphire oem card, bought from newegg, and using the crappy overclocking tool. I really can't wait til ATITool gets released.

First heres some pictures.


Thats right fugger exact same core as you.

All air, got the FS-V7 cooler. Whats not in the picture is I added a 120mm fan thats at an angle blowing up at the card from below. Its wedged between the power and the sound card which I moved down a slot. And removed the 3 back plates on the back to let it exhaust through there also.

Heres the system
Motherboard -------- DFI LanParty Ultra-D (704-2BTA Bios)
CPU ----------------- X2 3800+ @ 2,507.5Mhz w/ 1.525V Bios / 1.488V Windows
Memory ------------- Crucial Ballistix PC4000 (2x1Gig) @ 295FSB w/ 3-3-3-8 timings @ 2.8V
Cooling ------------- XP-120 w/ 120mm ThermalTake 27C Idle & 39C Load
Harddrives --------- 2x 250Gig Hatachi’s (Not Raided)
Graphics Card ------ Sapphire X1800XL 641.25/801 (1.25/1.95V) using FS-V7 Cooler 3D Marks (05) 8,933 / (03) 16,678
Case ---------------- Antec Super LanBoy
PowerSupply ------- OCZ PowerStream 520W
Monitor ------------- Dell 2405FPW LCD 24" Of Pure Enjoyment

Running XP w/ SP2 and I'm using 5.11 Beta's the latest one I could find 8.183. And I can not get CCC installed for some reason, even the 5.10a's, or even the CD version, really strange.

Well onward to test results, I have more on paper at home but this is what I've done so far. There has to be something screwy with the bios on this or even the early beta drivers because there is some issues.

500/500 (05) 7214 (03) 13702 (01) 26044
600/675 1.2V/1.9V (05) 8336
627.75/747 1.25V/1.9V (05) 8603 (03) 16079
641.25/801 1.25/1.95V (05) 8933 (03) 16678

Sorry was mainly running 05 test because if I had issues in that, it showed much quicker then the other tests, and it was much easier to judge frame rates to what I should be gettting (the last OC I just ran out of time it as late otherwise I would of done a 01 test too)

Now I can't get higher on the Core, either with more voltage or just clocking it up. Now if i bump the core up to say 650, it crashes in 05 nature test, but if I up the core it crashes most of the way through the test on that one. Memory its the same thing im in a sweet spot, 1.9V artifacts, 2.0V it artifacts, upping the clock artifacts. There has to be some issue because I'm sure this has alot more life in it.

Overall if core is unstable it locks the benches up hard. If its a memory issue I get a semi checkerboard type pattern, just extremly small from what I've seen with past cards. To high voltage its a colored pattern, to low its a black pattern which quickly turns into highly destored textures.

Now I don't think its really heat related issue but more of a driver/bios problem then anything. Since I don't have CCC (kept getting some wierd network error with it) I can't tell the temps on the core, but just seeing what others where getting at least gives me a ball park figure. My heatsink was reading 44C's at its high point with a thermal sensor, in tests mainly the hottest it got was the 05 nature test. Games it got up to 46C max so thats why I don't think its really a heat related issue.

Oh one other to add to the pile this was a benchmark in fear.

Fear @ 1440x900. During the testing, I got these scores, everything at max, and 4x AF, no AA. 39min, 62 Avg, 116 Max, 2% between 25 and 40, and 98% above 40.

Fear @ 1920x1200. During the testing, I got these scores, everything at max, and 4x AF, no AA. 22min, 37 Avg, 71 Max, 3% below 25FPS, 62% between 25 and 40, and 35% above 40.

Now the high res one, well that ran better then my old X800Pro (w/ 16pipes) @ 1280x720 Totally amazed with the preformance of the card.

[Astennu]

Hey Astennu, why don't you try this and see how your card fares at these settings as you seem to have the most amount of problems with your card. Dnottis is back on stock cooler with stock volts and is 100% artifact free and stable at 560/550. See if your card can do that. Instead of striving for XT speeds right off the bat plus voltage increases on early and somewhat buggy software see what your card can do stock as his is clearly doing well. I am striving for the same thing when my card arrives as I was told it just shipped today. 560/550 is nothing to sneeze at with this more efficient design of the X1800. Most if not all games should play beautifully like this. If I could at least do this stock volts I would be happy. Anything else will be a bonus but I will be going ceramique and zalman from the get go.

So your saying that i should go back to stock cooler + stock voltages ? I have tryed all kinds of thing now. I will try some things on stock voltages. Else i could try stock cooler.

[danikd]

WTF is this???
Windows startup
"Unable to retrieve information from BIOS. Please report to developer about your board.

And 2 unknow devices in hardware manager ...

Iam using ATI 5.10a ...

Thanks

[cantankerous]

Hey Deathman20, thanks for posting your finds and welcome to the forum friend.

Finally someone else who is using the FS-V7. That is what I ordered with my card as well. Is it loud at full speed? Do you run it at full speed? What thermal compound did you use on the card?

Is your settings of 641.25/801 (1.25/1.95V) completely stable? Artifact and crash free? Just trying to get an idea of what to shoot for with my card. Some peoples are doing very well but a few odd people here are having a real hard time clocking this thing. I think your clocks are the best we have seen in these X1800XL forums from air, especially if it is 100% stable and artifact free.

Thanks again and please share any info you may have on how you got your card to what it is.

[deathman20]

Hey Deathman20, thanks for posting your finds and welcome to the forum friend.

Thanks Now more fourms to keep busy on when I'm at work hehe

Finally someone else who is using the FS-V7. That is what I ordered with my card as well. Is it loud at full speed? Do you run it at full speed? What thermal compound did you use on the card?

Full speed na its not loud imo. Then again the rest of my system doesn't have the quietest fans in the world but they run at 7V also Some 120mm Thermaltake Light ones, anlong with 1 120mm Antec light extra for the video card. I used AS5 on this, and I get mixed results with temps. Since I don't use CCC right now I use a thermal probe. Its off by about 10C on temps but the max I got it to was around 56C one time, that was before I added the extra 120mm fan.

Is your settings of 641.25/801 (1.25/1.95V) completely stable? Artifact and crash free? Just trying to get an idea of what to shoot for with my card. Some peoples are doing very well but a few odd people here are having a real hard time clocking this thing. I think your clocks are the best we have seen in these X1800XL forums from air, especially if it is 100% stable and artifact free.

Well thought it was, did 05 and 03 bench, did some playing on Fear and HL2 Lost Coast but 01 crashes. Then after further tests it crashes a bit more. Truely there has to be some sort of bios bug. I can hit 575/700 rock solid but if I want 600 I got to bump the voltage up quiet a bit. Ram seems to do well it scales very well with the core voltage, so you really don't have to touch the mem voltage at all, in my case it caused artifacts more times if I increased the voltage more then .05V.


I'm doing a little bit of other testing currently also and marking down what works and where it crashes a little better this time. But might have to wait a day or two, putting up dry wall at the same time so I'm doing this inbetween sheets.

BTW does anyone have a different bios for the Sapphires yet? Curious to what a different bios will handle, expecially if its an XT bios.

[deathman20]

Ok some quick results I came up with. The format wil be like this
(Core V/Mem V) (Core Speed/Mem Speed) (01) Score (03) Score (05) Score
A dash is when I didn't test it.

(1.1/1.9) (500/500) (01) 26,269 (03) 13,702 (05) 7,214
(1.125/1.9) (575/750) (01) distorted memory too high (03) - (05) -
(1.125/1.9) (575/700) (01) 27,208 score seems odd (03) 15,555 (05) -
(1.15/1.9) (600/700) (01) crash (03) - (05) -
(1.15/1.9) (600/650) (01) crash (03) - (05) -
(1.175/1.9) (600/700) (01) crash (03) - (05) -
(1.2/1.9) (600/700) (01) - (03) artifacts more core v needed (05) -
(1.225/1.9) (600/750) (01) - (03) vpu recovery (05) -
(1.25/1.9) (625/750) (01) - (03) vpu recovery (05) -
(1.175/2.0/2.0 I/O) (600/700) (01) - (03) artifacts (05) -
(1.2/2.0/2.0 I/O) (600/700) (01) - (03) artifacts (05) -
(1.3/2.0/2.0 I/O) (650/775) (01) - (03) crash (05) -
(1.325/2.0/2.0 I/O) (650/775) (01) - (03) core artifacts (05) -
(1.3/2.0/2.0 I/O) (625/775) (01) - (03) core artifacts (05) -
(1.275/1.95/2.0 I/O) (625/775) (01) crash (03) 16,176 (05) - (tried again after 01 crash now crashes when doing so at same settings)

I'm going back to my low voltage 575/700 and doing some more tests and see what I can come up with.

Now there is something totally messed up a as you can see. Take a look at those Vcores go up with the slight increase in speed. And this is definatly not a heat issue, bearly reaching 47C under load! 34C is idle. Room/case temp at idle is around 24C currently.

Also I've come to the conclusion I really have to sit next to my desk when doing the 01 test. Sometimes it rests the core to default but continues the test, thats nice at least sometimes I don't currupt the DirectX driver and have to restart

Really not 100% what the hecks going on. One time it works the next time it doesn't when I set it. Either the drivers are bugged up, the bios is messing with it, or overclocker tool is screwy

Anyone got a newer version of ATI tool besides 8 that you can OC/Temp Read/Up Voltage in?

[cantankerous]

Take your time but please do share your findings. Thanks again. Glad to have newcomers like you around.

[Astennu]

I got the same problem. My max now is 1.175v - 2.0v And 550-750. Else i get artifacts in Q4. I need to test i a little more but its realy a bad card.

I also got A Sapphire. I'm using a His bios now but that did not help. Maybe i need a hardmod. If u go higher than 1.175v i get artifacts anyway :\ strange realy strange.

[G H Z]

"This beta includes WHQL certification and support for all Radeon cards except of the all new X1000 series"

Hmm, maybe I'll try it anyway

[Ubermann]

Lol i deleted the msg just when i found out, think you posted at the same time.

[HitMaker]

I don´t understand my x1800xl.

I ran HDR demo (balls flying) for 20minutes at full screen, the core was running at 628mhz 1.225V, no problems and the temperature was 66º )iam using VF700Cu

Then i stoped it and when i went to run the 3dmark2005, it just crashed!! WTF!

Anyway, anothe weird thing, at 600 core with 1.15V y run 4!! times the FEAR benchmark, and during the last one it crashed

I will try more later, by the way. My bios, its a sapphire Bulk x1800xl:

Core:
N21311.00
0536AAY

Bios --> HERE

By the way, i think the card works awesome at 575/1200, and the mem can go much higher than 1200mhz.. for 383€ it cost its a good card, it works colder than my 6800Ultra with the same heatstinks (VF700Cu) and its better of course.

See you

[G H Z]

Bios --> HERE

Hi Hitmaker,

What utility did you use to backup your BIOS?

[HitMaker]

Hi Hitmaker,

What utility did you use to backup your BIOS?

I used the "old" atiflash using this command "atiflash -s 0 backup.rom"

The thing is i have a problem with my drivers, "PnP Bios Extension" is missing and i cannot run ati tray tools, it gives me an error (say something about my mobo bios ) so i cannot compare it with a sapphire x1800xl regular bios i downloaded from mvktech

[Astennu]

Strange!!! all sapphire users have bad oc. If u look @ HiS or GeCube its something else. Most will go 1.25v without problems en get core speeds up to 625+. My sapphire will only go 550-750. Memis nice for now but that core sux ass. My X850 XT PE was faster in some cases.

[ilgreco1974]

Hi all...
new ati x1800xl user here
Wb on gpu,first 3dmark score(i think this crd can do much better),relax system overclocking

[deathman20]

Well now definatly stable with this setting.

585/750 with 1.15/2.00/2.00 V

(01) 27,479
(03) 15,692
(05) 8,342

All benches pasted in 1 boot, and played a 2 hour game of AOE III

[drunkenmaster]

astennu, don't mean to get on your back but theres what, 3-4 users with bad clocks on sapphire cards in this thread, not at all are ALL sapphire's bad clockers and tbh someone will come in this thread read that and pass info in other threads and make it seem like lots more people have the issue.

mine works fine, completely fine at beyond XT speeds.

for me it seems strange that the 2-3 users that have "bad" sapphires were easily able to run stuff at much higher speeds but now have stability problems. people say heat isn't an issue because its only 47C or whatever, no one knows the actual temp, who says the temp "fix" drivers aren't just dropping temp to make people feel safer, they might still be 90c, might be what they are designed to run at. not have artifacts/sparklies, and on 3rd/4th run of tests crashes or sparklies appear to me says straight away heat. cards can't just run for a while fine then start doing something new for no reason(ok they can but rare).

also people here all seem to have overclocked rigs, has everyone set everything back to stock and just testing gfx card. it might not use that much more power or even less than certain older cards but it might use a lot more 12v than it used to , or more 5v, and it could be affecting something. drivers are unlikely to be the cause for sparklies developing after time, but could certainly be at fault for other crashes and locks.

also the amount a few of you have had to drop clocks to get it stable from where it "would" run, for instance deathman20 from 641/801 bench passing to 585/750 stable, that just seems completely wrong, far to large a gap between bench passing and stable clocks, something else to me is screaming to be found at fault.

as far as cards go, as with any new release, and 90% of all cards built they tend to get built at same source, distributed, repackaged, sometimes re-bios'd then sold. even when they are built by companies themselves(very rare) then it costs a lot of money to build/design/re-design and re-design pcb's so they will generally change pcb colour or something and thats about it. there should be no difference at all between the diff cards.

what drivers exactly is everyone using, fresh install? anything else that could be interfering at all? anyone trying to use ati tool for anything, it will show sparklies even when there aren't really any in any games. what about leaving the oc tool open, it messes with ati control panels readings clearly, temps will show diff with the oc tool open and closed, so are you making sure to close it for bench runs and ati control panel too?

so many things to check and way way premature to call sapphire bios/cards to be at fault yet, especially seeing as i and others have them clocked fine.

[gunit]

Strange!!! all sapphire users have bad oc.

blah, dont say that! Your having percieved problems with your Sapphire, not all. My saphire is just fine @ 628/1550.

[dnottis]

also people here all seem to have overclocked rigs, has everyone set everything back to stock and just testing gfx card. it might not use that much more power or even less than certain older cards but it might use a lot more 12v than it used to , or more 5v, and it could be affecting something. drivers are unlikely to be the cause for sparklies developing after time, but could certainly be at fault for other crashes and locks.

I have the OCZ PowerStream adjusted pots - getting 12.40, 5.10 and 3.40 @ load and doesn't drop lower than that. So I doubt it's PSU power in my case. I believe it's cooling.

[G H Z]

Hi all...
new ati x1800xl user here

Nice one ilg

I wish I could figure out how to run my core over 700Mhz.