9800SE Overclocking Summary

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jim
  • Start date Start date
J

Jim

OK I am looking into how this whole thing is going to work with the 9800se.
Everyone seems to have a different opinion as to whether you can or should
overclock this card and whether you can turn on all 8 rendering pipes.

It looks like You can get a BIOS at http://www.ocfaq.com/softmod/index.php
if your BIOS is locked when it comes to overclocking.

However, I am confused on this part, but it looks like all you really need
to do is grab the updated drivers from the same site and you should be able
to reconfigure the card for all eight pipes and/or clock speed.

If I am wrong on that last point, you may need to go to
http://www.rage3d.com/r3dtweak/ and grab the utility to all of this.

I have not read one site or post that definitively says either of these will
turn a 9800se into a 9800pro or non-pro. I personally ordered the Sapphire
9800se because it appears they typically ship with the BIOS unlocked and I
dont want to deal with messing up the BIOS on the card.

Any corrections would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Jim
 
OK I am looking into how this whole thing is going to work with the 9800se.
Everyone seems to have a different opinion as to whether you can or should
overclock this card and whether you can turn on all 8 rendering pipes.

It looks like You can get a BIOS at http://www.ocfaq.com/softmod/index.php
if your BIOS is locked when it comes to overclocking.

However, I am confused on this part, but it looks like all you really need
to do is grab the updated drivers from the same site and you should be able
to reconfigure the card for all eight pipes and/or clock speed.

If I am wrong on that last point, you may need to go to
http://www.rage3d.com/r3dtweak/ and grab the utility to all of this.

I have not read one site or post that definitively says either of these will
turn a 9800se into a 9800pro or non-pro. I personally ordered the Sapphire
9800se because it appears they typically ship with the BIOS unlocked and I
dont want to deal with messing up the BIOS on the card.

Any corrections would be appreciated.
Click to expand...

I've got a Powercolor 9800 SE. I think that the softmod MAY produce
pro-like performance. However, I'm not even at that stage yet.

Has anyone got a 9800 SE running UT and/or UT2003 without
checkerboarding? If so, with which driver? It seems to be a Direct3D
problem for me. If someone is OK that I'll return mine under warranty.

Apart from the corrupted display, the 9800 SE seems to rattle along at
a fair old rate, even without the softmod.



--

Julian Richards

"My son has asked for a pair of Nike trainers.
He's ten years old, he should make his own"

"I bought a CD of whale music. Imagine my
disappointment when I got home to discover
that it was actual a cover version by a tribute
band of dolphins"
 
From looking at the photos at NewEgg, the Sapphire 9800 SE has the memory
chips in a straight line, unlike the L-shaped layout on the Pro. (Look for
yourself and you'll see what I mean.) If I understand things correctly, that
means all you can do is overclock.

History lesson: Same thing happened with the 9500 and 9700. Originally
Sapphire used the same L-shaped memory layout on both, and a simple driver
hack or a dab of conductive paint across two contacts on the red pcb
transformed a 9500 into a 9700, which could then be overclocked to pro
levels.

Once enough people got wind of it that sales of 9500 non-pros were eating
into the high-end, ATI asked Sapphire to stop. The result was a new
black-pcb 9500 with an inline memory layout -- end of mod.

You might try searching the tweaking forum at www.rage3d.com. Someone there
should be able to give you a definitive answer and help you get the most
from your SE.
 
ok To overclock the 9800se, all you have to do is get the Rivatuner and move
the slide bar. This works better than Rage3D IMO.

To turn on all 8 pipes, copy your ati2mtag.sys file from
c:\windows\system32\drivers into another directory.

Run the C:\Program Files\RivaTuner\PatchScripts\ATI\SoftR9x00\SoftR9x00
w2k.rts file and browse to the ati2mtag file and update it. You can then
copy that on top of the original file. Under XP, I had to extract the
legitimate drivers for my card and replace the ati2mtag file with mine and
reinstall the drivers.

I got too much distortion when using my Sapphire 9800se. It looks like
people are having better luck using the Powercolor versions.

Good luck,
 
Omega drivers enables 4 extra pipelines and withing package there is also
overclocking utility.

Extra question about 9800se, anybody succeed w/ flashing the pro bios there?
If yes, should I use Club pro bios or ATI's pro bios (two bytes bigger)?
I have Club 3D 9800SE

/Tommi
 
I had great success with ATI's bios and others have reported positive
experiences as well. That would be my choice.

JK
 
did you use "flashrom -p 0 98-8004.bin"? for me it complains about BIOS ID
and ASIC ID don't match
tool propose to use also "-f" option

It is some kind of force option

TIA

/Tommi
 
There was no need for me to update the BIOS. I was able to enable all 8
pipes and overclock out of the box. Mine was a Sapphire 9800se. The 8 pipes
didnt work on my card. Too much garbage.

However, perhaps if I did update my BIOS, the 8 pipes would work better. I
just dont want to risk it. I am getting 108fps at 1024 which is plenty.

Jymman
 
For those with a 9800 SE. Do you get a corrupted (checkerboard)
display using 3Dmark2001 SE? What sort of scores do you get? I have a
feeling that mine has to go back under warranty (to Germany!)


--

Julian Richards

"My son has asked for a pair of Nike trainers.
He's ten years old, he should make his own"

"I bought a CD of whale music. Imagine my
disappointment when I got home to discover
that it was actual a cover version by a tribute
band of dolphins"
 
Checkerboarding in 3DMark 2001 is a classic sign of problems with defective
rendering pipelines. You might try going to www.rage3d.com and downloading
an overclocking utility like Radeonator Lite. Use it to UNDERclock you card
to see if the checkboards disappear.

Either way, I'd strognly consider sending the card back. A search of the
forums at the site linked above can tell you whether others are having
similar problems.
 
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