HIS Excalibur 9800Pro or 9800SE?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Harry
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H

Harry

Any help appreciated

Just purchased a used HIS Excalibur 9800Pro All-in-Wonder. I'm testing
it in an old 800MHz Athlon PC prior to installing it in a new PC.

Card seems basicaly ok, but in the top of the ATI Display Panel it is
described as being a 9800SE. Is this likely to be a bug in the dirver
software or have I not got a genuine 9800 pro.

I'm using the HIS 4.12 Catalyst bundle.

Is there any way I can tell for sure, either by some physical
difference or by a test?

Thanks.
 
Vic said:
Hi Harry:
Mainly the biggest difference between the two are the Pro
uses DDR2 for the 256mb model and the engine clock
for the GPU is 380 MHz ,compared to 325MHz of the 9800.
If you need Software to tell you this information go to
http://www.lavalys.hu/downloads/everesthome151.exe
fantastic program and is FREE.
Click to expand...

That's not the biggest difference between the two. The biggest difference is
that the HIS 9800SE AIW has 4 pixel pipelines and the HIS 9800 Pro AIW has 8
pipelines. The second biggest difference is that the HIS 9800 Pro AIW has
340Mhz memory, while the 9800SE version has 297Mhz. Neither uses DDR2. HIS
does not make a 9800 AIW with DDR2. The 9800 Pro IceQ 256Mb with has DDR2
but is not an AIW card.
So what I would do is use Everest Home Edition (free d/l) to check
whether or not it has 4 or 8 pipelines. Then check out the GPU/mem speeds.
If it's an HIS 9800SE AIW they'll be set at 378 / 594. If it's an HIS 9800
Pro AIW they'll be 380 / 680. A 9800SE is a true 256bit card, but with 1/2
the pipelines and slower memory. If it was marketed as a 9800 Pro, and
priced as a 9800 Pro then you need to do some thinking about what to do.

HIS specs available at http://www.hisdigital.com/html/product_full_comp.php
 
Hi Harry:
Mainly the biggest difference between the two are the Pro
uses DDR2 for the 256mb model and the engine clock
for the GPU is 380 MHz ,compared to 325MHz of the 9800.
Click to expand...

WRONG.

The biggest difference is that basically as it only has 4 pixel
pipelines instead of 8, it runs at HALF THE SPEED.
 
Thanks to both of you for the suggestion to use Everest's Utility. I
guess my card is a genuine 9800 Pro rom the following results, but
there are one or 2 aspects I'm not sure of:

Pixel Pipelines: 8
Fill Rate: 3024M (not quite the 3040M quoted by HIS)
GPU Speed: 378 MHz (not the 380 MHz expected from the Pro spec)
Mem Effective clock: 676 MHz
Mem Real clock: 338 MHz
Memory bandwidth: 21632 MB/s

and lastly the card is identified as a 9800 Pro in the Video adapter
section.

So, can I ask a few more questions.

Is the memory real clock speed normally half the effective speed?
Why would the GPU speed be 378 and not 380?
The Fill Rate is exactly double that of the spec of the SE model i.e.
2 * 1512 but not quite the 3040 of the 9800 Pro
Is there any chance this is a software modified 9800 SE?

Many thanks for your help
 
Harry said:
Thanks to both of you for the suggestion to use Everest's Utility. I
guess my card is a genuine 9800 Pro rom the following results, but
there are one or 2 aspects I'm not sure of:

Pixel Pipelines: 8
Fill Rate: 3024M (not quite the 3040M quoted by HIS)
GPU Speed: 378 MHz (not the 380 MHz expected from the Pro spec)
Mem Effective clock: 676 MHz
Mem Real clock: 338 MHz
Memory bandwidth: 21632 MB/s

and lastly the card is identified as a 9800 Pro in the Video adapter
section.

So, can I ask a few more questions.

Is the memory real clock speed normally half the effective speed?
Click to expand...

Yes, the RAM is DDR, the Clock Speed is 338MHz and there are 2 transfers per
clock which is 676M transfers per second.
Why would the GPU speed be 378 and not 380?
Click to expand...

Because you can't always generate an exact frequency, and/or because they
set it to 378.
The Fill Rate is exactly double that of the spec of the SE model i.e.
2 * 1512 but not quite the 3040 of the 9800 Pro
Click to expand...

(380MHz/378MHz)*3024M = 3040M. So the difference is directly a result of
the clock speed.

Also, 380/378 = 1.0053, thats half a percent.
Is there any chance this is a software modified 9800 SE?
Click to expand...

I think all AIW are Pro. So no.
Many thanks for your help
Click to expand...


No problem.

If you REALLY want that extra 0.5% then you grab ATITool and "overclock" it
stock speed.

Ben
 
Yes, the RAM is DDR, the Clock Speed is 338MHz and there are 2 transfers per
clock which is 676M transfers per second.
Click to expand...

Sorry - that was really a stupid question!
Because you can't always generate an exact frequency, and/or because they
set it to 378.
Click to expand...

However, the HIS specs state 378 for the 9800SE and 380 for the
9800Pro
(380MHz/378MHz)*3024M = 3040M. So the difference is directly a result of
the clock speed.

Also, 380/378 = 1.0053, thats half a percent.


I think all AIW are Pro. So no.
Click to expand...

Actually, HIS hav especifications on their Web site for both the
9800SE AIW and the 9800Pro AIW.
No problem.

If you REALLY want that extra 0.5% then you grab ATITool and "overclock" it
stock speed.

Ben
Click to expand...

I'm really not interested in a very small % speed increase so even if
this is really a Bios flashed 9800SE, as long as the performance is
near the genuine article and runs stably then fine. My worry is it
might not be stable.

I would be annoyed though that I have paid well over the odds for a
9800SE AIW which just happened to come in a 9800Pro box.
 
Finally, I forgot to mention that although the 'Everest' utility
identifies that card as being a 9800Pro, the ATI Catalyst contro panel
describes my set-up as:

IIyama Visionmaster Pro monitor with All-in-wonder 9800SE.

Thanks for your help.
 
Harry said:
Finally, I forgot to mention that although the 'Everest' utility
identifies that card as being a 9800Pro, the ATI Catalyst contro panel
describes my set-up as:

IIyama Visionmaster Pro monitor with All-in-wonder 9800SE.
Click to expand...

AFAIK, all original HIS 9800 Pro cards should have Samsung 2.8 or Hynix 2.5
or 2.8ns memory. If your card has Samsung 3.3 or Infineon 3.0 memory, I
would take that as evidence it started life as an 9800SE AIW.
 
Harry said:
Finally, I forgot to mention that although the 'Everest' utility
identifies that card as being a 9800Pro, the ATI Catalyst contro panel
describes my set-up as:

IIyama Visionmaster Pro monitor with All-in-wonder 9800SE.

Thanks for your help.
Click to expand...

Just as a matter of interest, have you tried the ATITool program? What
average FPS do you get? http://www.techpowerup.com/atitool/
 
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