9800SE : Can I confirm memory bus width?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Tom Joyce
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T

Tom Joyce

Hi,

I just bought a Sapphire 9800SE advertised as 256 bit. The memory chips
are arranged in two straight lines of four on either side of the PCB and
there is a FDD connector in the mid top.

Do all 256 bit boards have the L-shaped memory layout or are there
possible exceptions? Is there a utility which can check this?

Regards,
Tom
 
Tom Joyce said:
Hi,

I just bought a Sapphire 9800SE advertised as 256 bit. The memory chips
are arranged in two straight lines of four on either side of the PCB and
there is a FDD connector in the mid top.

Do all 256 bit boards have the L-shaped memory layout or are there
possible exceptions? Is there a utility which can check this?
Click to expand...

Have you tried RivaTuner? It confirmed the bus width for me when I bought a
Sapphire 9100, and the new version is advertised to work with 9800s ...

http://download.guru3d.com/rivatuner/
 
Have you tried RivaTuner? It confirmed the bus width for me when I bought a
Sapphire 9100, and the new version is advertised to work with 9800s ...

http://download.guru3d.com/rivatuner/
Click to expand...


Thanks, I just tried that and it confirmed the 128 bit bus. Sapphire's web
site lists this model as 256 bit (no 128 bit option) and the retailers I
tried were about evenly split in their descriptions, so I asked the store
I bought from to check that the item matched their 256 bit desciption.

Regards,
Tom
 
Tom Joyce said:
Hi,

I just bought a Sapphire 9800SE advertised as 256 bit. The memory chips
are arranged in two straight lines of four on either side of the PCB and
there is a FDD connector in the mid top.

Do all 256 bit boards have the L-shaped memory layout or are there
possible exceptions? Is there a utility which can check this?

Regards,
Tom
Click to expand...

A tool like AIDA32 will help you find out, currently the "line up" of
a card really doesn't matters much!

http://www.aida32.hu/aida32.php

It's free, so you easily can download the "enterprise" version.
 
Tom Joyce said:
Thanks, I just tried that and it confirmed the 128 bit bus. Sapphire's web
site lists this model as 256 bit (no 128 bit option) and the retailers I
tried were about evenly split in their descriptions, so I asked the store
I bought from to check that the item matched their 256 bit desciption.
Click to expand...

Good luck with it, hope they straighten the problem out for you.
 
Any 9800se is 128bit. Your money woulda been better spent buyin a 9800 non
pro.
Also , the 9800se has only 4 pixel pipelines instead of 8.
 
Ronald Weaver said:
Any 9800se is 128bit. Your money woulda been better spent buyin a 9800 non
pro.
Click to expand...

But is a 9800 non pro card better than a 9600 pro card? (Non-SE versions for
either)
 
Hi,

I just bought a Sapphire 9800SE advertised as 256 bit. The memory chips
are arranged in two straight lines of four on either side of the PCB and
there is a FDD connector in the mid top.
Click to expand...

Its a 64bit memory bus video card... slower than the 9000Pro.

Thats NOT A FDD connector on the top! I don't recommend you TEST it
out.
 
Any 9800se is 128bit. Your money woulda been better spent buyin a 9800 non
pro.
Also , the 9800se has only 4 pixel pipelines instead of 8.
Click to expand...

According to www.ocfaq.com/softmod/faq.php there are both types in the
9800SE range. The odds are roughly 2-1 that the 256 bit card can be made
to perform almost as well as a 9800 Pro by enabling all eight pipelines
and increasing core/memory speeds and voltage.

Ocfaq supply hacked 3.9 drivers which are said to work without the need to
flash with a Pro BIOS, the other alternative. No guarantees with either
method.

Sapphire's web site clearly describes their card as having a 256 bit
memory interface but their reply to my message stated "No ours are all
128Bit memory."

The dealer I bought from has apologised (they relied on Sapphire's
description) and offered a full refund.

Performance of the 128 bit card was poor. On my NF7-S with XP2100+ Tbred
running at 215*11 the 3DMark 2001SE score (with default core/memory of
276.75/270 (540DDR) ) was 10,170 and 2003 gave 2,625.


Regards,
Tom
 
On Wed, 10 Dec 2003 16:58:27 +1100, "Ronald Weaver"
Click to expand...
Performance of the 128 bit card was poor. On my NF7-S with XP2100+ Tbred
running at 215*11 the 3DMark 2001SE score (with default core/memory of
276.75/270 (540DDR) ) was 10,170 and 2003 gave 2,625.
Click to expand...

UGH!! On my AMD 2500+, which is suffering a 25% performance loss
because of Win98 - I get 99xx on 3DMark 2001 with my old TI4200 card.

Even a 9600 should be just as fast.
 
UGH!! On my AMD 2500+, which is suffering a 25% performance loss
because of Win98 - I get 99xx on 3DMark 2001 with my old TI4200 card.

Even a 9600 should be just as fast.
Click to expand...

My Ti4600 does 14,517 (or 15,301 @320/730) but I wanted a bit more
performance and DX9 support for the future.

The core/memory speeds were lower than I expected for a 9800SE. I read a
recent magazine review of a 256 bit 9800SE AIW which had 325/600 and
managed 14,906. My plan was to find a non-AIW 256 bit 9800SE which would
have a reasonable chance of softmodding to somewhere between a 9800np and
Pro. The AIW version apparently 'only' softmods, if successful, to 9800np
but they are priced too close to a real 9800np (which I'll probably buy)
to make the gamble worthwhile.

Regards,
Tom
 
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