and X1900XT VS. X1900XTX + OVERCLOCK VOLTAGE GUIDES

[G H Z]

It looks like lapping the stock cooler might be worth some extra Mhz. I'd like to see what people with XT's are able to do after a flash clock wise because from everything I've seen it doesn't do much if anything. Maybe ATI is limiting these another way.

LOL how'd my post get up here, maybe a clock reset. I can't delete it either

[irev210]

Okay, in an attempt to make it easier to find information, I am going to start one thread and try to keep it all up to date.


THE OVERCLOCKING DATABASE



c.freak : 783/900 with volts at 1.500/2.140/2.130/1.486 this is on water?
andL65 : 783/891 with volts at 1.575/2.250/2.080/1.561 this is on WATER
andL65 : 729/828 with volts at 1.475/2.099/2.099/1.480 this is a X1900XT on air
Alucardu : 669/774 with volts at 1.450/2.201/2.102/1.550 this is a X1900XT on air
einCe : 725/873 with volts at 1.400/2.151/2.151/1.500 this is on stock cooler
Ares323 : 800/882 with volts at 1.575/2.100/2.100/1.500 this is on water
kiwi : 760/900 with volts at 1.575/2.350/2.151/1.526 this is on water
uwackme : 702/801 with volts at 1.520/2.151/2.119/1.510 this is on modified air
einCe : 700/860 with volts at 1.500/2.151/2.119/1.510 this is on stock cooler
sam3755 : 766/845 with volts at 1.575/2.150/2.150/1.500 this is on water
licken : 760/860 with volts at 1.425/2.124/2.086/1.486 this is on water
Sals : 702/819 with volts at 1.475/2.119/2.119/1.500 this is on a stock cooler
Lane-k : 772/891 with volts at 1.475/2.192/2.192/1.500 this is on a stock cooler
Eastcoasthandle : 720/832 with volts at 1.425/2.108/2.108/1.486 this is on a stock cooler
irenic : 725/835 with volts at 1.450/2.130/2.130/1.500 this is on a stock coolre
darksythe : 725/835 with volts at 1.450/2.130/2.130/1.500 this is on a stock coolre
nicepun : 774/891 with volts at 1.575/2.250/2.212/1.526 this is on water
menlatin: : 749/864 with volts at 1.575/2.213/2.086/1.528 this is on water
LivingL@rGe81 : 751/918 with volts at 1.550/2.236/2.160/150 this is on a stock cooler
kesnel : 790/873 with volts at 1.575/2.150/2.102/1.486 this is on water
Kesnel : 725/873 with volts at 1.475/2.150/2.102/1.486, this is on stock cooler
grumpy : 815/900 with volts at 1.500/2.130/2.130/?????, this is on ????? ??????
licken : 740/814 with volts at 1.550/2.086/2.086/1.500, this is on water
Elfear : 750/872 with volts at 1.525/2.200/2.200/1.500, this is on ????? ?????
Chr0n1c : 720/860 with volts at 1.470/2.171/2.124/1.514. this is on stock cooler
Jimbo Mahoney : 790/830 with volts at 1.575/2.151/2.151/1.580, this is on water (silverprop)
menlatin : 732/800 with volts at 1.575/2.086/2.086/1.530, this is on water (home made)
LenniZ : 750/875 with volts at 1.575/2.113/2.086/1.503, this is on ???? ?????
metalman2785 : 725/820 with volts at 1.500/2.100/2.100/1.500, this is on stock cooler




X1900XTX voltages

According to my sexy multimeter

2D mode ran at 1.166
3D mode ran at about 1.395

so, we can say ~1.2/~1.4

So what does this mean? How much voltage can I run?

Vcore
If you are on air, or stock cooler I would suggest starting at 1.4 and then moving up to 1.45-1.475. Much higher, you start running into problems with heat. As many others have noticed, you run into lots of problems with heat before voltage comes into play.

Vmem
There are lots of variables, look at the database, and play around with the settings

VDCCI
Again, varies alot. Start with stock.


I have not tested the voltage on X1900XT, so I dont know the voltage on that


How to: Flash from X1900XT to X1900XTX

1) Make sure you have memory that says BJ11-


2) Get ati winflash, save old .rom, load r580.rom, check force flash.
ATI WINFLASH

3) Overclock!
I personally like the ATI tool found @ techpowerup.com

Voltages
Overclocking is fairly straightfoward now. Some report less mem voltage helps clocks, more helps others. For me, more helped.

Cooling
These cards are very sensitive to heat. The cooler you can make them, the better they will clock. Stock temps at stock speeds with fan set on AUTO hit about 85-90C!!! While this is perfectly O.K. for a stock clocked card, this doesnt fly well with an overclocked one! Be creative, or wait until arctic cooling and zalman release their respective coolers for the x1900 series.







Core differences? My XTX looks like this (S/N # edited)



For reference, high res shots of X1900XTX
Files are between about 3-4 megs each.
x1900xtx1.jpg
x1900xtx2.jpg
x1900xtx3.jpg
x1900xtx4.jpg
x1900xtx5.jpg
x1900xtx6.jpg
x1900xtx7.jpg
x1900xtx8.jpg
x1900xtx9.jpg
x1900xtx10.jpg
x1900xtx11.jpg

[PlatoonSgtElias]

Hey can u email the card shots to my email?
Thx

Movieaward@hotmail.com

[chew*]

hmmm interesting.....my 1.1ns ram is week 48

[l337x3r1cx]

yes if someone could find out how to up the voltage it would be much appreciated, i know this card can do better then 705/815

[Daveb2012]

So the XTX clocks better then the XT even with the BIOS flash you say?

[irev210]

Okay, I am going to link high bandwidth shots of the card.

I am sorry if some are perfectly clear, while others might be a little blurry. I was holding a rather heavy camera and flash over the card with an f stop of 2.8, any movement means the focus is lost.

I cant email anyone, 30-40 megs in pictures. Sorry.

[irev210]

So the XTX clocks better then the XT even with the BIOS flash you say?

nobody knows yet, hopefully as more people jump in we can find out.

edit: the clock change is pretty funny lol

[boostedevo]

There's no way I can see that 1.1ns shouldn't OC just as well or nearly as well as 1.1ns on the XTX. 1.1ns is 1.8GHz and Samsung specs are 2.0V +/- .1V. Why 800 for mem on an XT is difficult is beyond me. Even if it had 1.2ns (which most don't yet), 1.2ns = 1.6GHz. In other words no matter which mem the XTs have, there is no reason at all that they shouldn't do 800-900 mem right out of the box.

I have a Sapphire XT that I flashed the BBA XTX BIOS to...didn't do anything except raise the default 3D clocks.

Some people I was talking to think the driver is recognizing the card as an XT (even with the XTX flash) and possibly limiting it some way. There are quiet a few of us with 1.1ns XTs that can barely reach 700/800 clocks which is way out of line compared to the XTXs. The core I can maybe understand, the mem I don't

1) would messing with device IDs (swap XTX ID for XT ID) be worth a try (how/what to change?) and 2) does anyone know what those dip switches are for on the bottom of the card yet (x1900xt6.jpg)?

[chew*]

Guess people just dont read my how to methods of overclocking the x1800/1900 series card............I seem to have no problems with the 1900XT at over 800 ram..........

[boostedevo]

Sorry, I am looking for info on OCing them everywhere and everyone seems to have the same limited clocks I do on the mem except people with XTXs. Where is your "how to" located? I am dying over here

Edit: Oh, is that screenie showing your method? Low mem voltage? Which app are you setting voltages/clocks in and are you really running 1.80V to the mem because I see that in Overclocker even when it's set at 2.10V. Thanks!

[crotale]

I've found out that the overclocker program doesn't show voltages correctly for me. I can reach 790/900 (water) without touching a voltage setting in that program. On the other hand, when I use ATI Tool I need to up the voltages manually. 1.50v seems too much for water and it doesn't scale any more from 1.475v

Be sure to kill ati2*.exe (2 of them) before starting ATI Tool and everything should be pretty straight forward.
I use a profile to initially up the vgpu and vmem to 1.35/2.1 and set default (650/775) clocks. I then have some different profiles for higher vgpu.

Also, if you have trouble with ATI Tool, be sure to get the latest 12b-version found in the beta forum at Techpowerup.

chew*:
You might need to up your vmem. With 2.1v I can reach 900MHz with BJ11 memories.

[chew*]

get artifacts with 2.1v to memory......... Up core volts, up the secondary core volts to 1.50v and lower both memory volts to 1.996........use ati tool to set voltages use ati overclock utility to set clocks.......
Is your an XT or XTX crotale?

[boostedevo]

Thanks crotale...I've tried everything. Yes, I kill both ATI services and yes I have to up voltage when using ATT (12b). I haven't tried anything over 1.45V because it's still on the stock cooler, but the core passes 3D05 @ 730 with that and 65C max temps.

chew*, thanks I am going to try that right now!

[Daveb2012]

Im sure ATI did some thing to the XT's to limit their capabilities, i was trying to say this before they were released and no one agreed with me on here.

[eva2000]

first batches of XT 1.1ns ram probably is ram that didn't make the grade for XTX.... so it could be speed binned further ???

[chew*]

Im sure ATI did some thing to the XT's to limit their capabilities, i was trying to say this before they were released and no one agreed with me on here.

you may be right and i think the answer is starting us smack dab on the core of the 580....the bottom left corner there is like a small pin in the die........That wasn't there on the R520..At first i thought it was a tiny chip till i seen irevs high res screenshot. Its definitely an indentation in the core as i ran fingernail over it and felt it. Somehow locking the cores potential this way or unlocking ?

[boostedevo]

Im sure ATI did some thing to the XT's to limit their capabilities, i was trying to say this before they were released and no one agreed with me on here.

I must've missed that because I agree with you It almost seems driver-related though. 690/800 is somehow just "easy" in Overdrive, but a PITA using anything else.

chew, I just tried your way and nothing...artifacts all over the place by the end of the first bench in 05. I even tried leaving the core low @ 621/1.35V to keep temps down as much as possible. I also tried up to 1.45V on the core. I only tried the mem at 801 and used everything from 1.95-2.05V and nothing seemed to help. Temps didn't get over 63C, which is cooler than it ran on the 730/775 run, which was clean.

[Thickbrit]

you may be right and i think the answer is starting us smack dab on the core of the 580....the bottom left corner there is like a small pin in the die........That wasn't there on the R520..At first i thought it was a tiny chip till i seen irevs high res screenshot. Its definitely an indentation in the core as i ran fingernail over it and felt it. Somehow locking the cores potential this way or unlocking ?

This is true,there is definately something on the 1900xt core that isn't on any x1800,but i have no idea what it does,if anything.

[5150 Joker]

I've got an X1900 XTX and the voltage changes only helped mildly. Without changing the voltages the card does 735/840 and when I decrease the voltages to 1.987v for the memory and increase the core to 1.5v, I can push the clocks to 745/850. Not much gain at all, especially for the huge voltage increase.

[crotale]

Is your an XT or XTX crotale?

XTX

I will play with the vmem this afternoon and see if I can find something interesting.

I haven't tried anything over 1.45V because it's still on the stock cooler, but the core passes 3D05 @ 730 with that and 65C max temps.

729MHz on the core is max for me too on the stock cooler

[irev210]

This is true,there is definately something on the 1900xt core that isn't on any x1800,but i have no idea what it does,if anything.

I will be more than happy to take picture to compare. I have an X1800XT sitting right here.

[5150 Joker]

No matter what voltage I use, I can't get my memory higher than 850 mhz when benchmarking FEAR. Any suggestions?

[chew*]

I did some further testing.......Was just testing max core and max memory...... On my particular card with a fresh flash then a fresh install of drivers so as to make ATI drivers think it was an XTX to begin with. Max core is 796 no matter how much voltage is used etc 1.575..Also like to point out that its completly 3d stable with no artifacts whatsoever. Anything over 800 core does weird stuff and i don't mean artifacts.......It just gets stuck when switching resolutions when trying to run 06, seems like its locked at anything over 800. Memory, seems like anything over 875 starts to artifact regardless of voltage, less voltage = less artifacts. It's possible the XT modules are somehow programmed with tighter timings than the XTX modules although I would think a bios flash would change this, but ATI is doing some new memory ringbus controller stuff similar to a memory controller in an AMD cpu i guess from what i have read. Maybe this has something to so with it. This is just speculation on my part. Other ideas welcome. As for me I'm not complaining I get XTX speeds for $100 less for everyday use.

[irev210]

I am totally stuck here.

With 1.45 I cant get anything over ~660 using ATITOOL, which cant be right.

Using CCC I can max out the settings no problem.


Are there other differences in 2D/3D mode that we do not know about?