My First Radeon - Atlantis 9800

  • Thread starter Thread starter Wayne Youngman
  • Start date Start date
W

Wayne Youngman

Greetz,

just a quick post to say. . . . . . .I finally ordered a new graphics card,
the Sapphire ATLANTIS 9800! I was trying to source a 9500Pro in U.K. .
..nope, so then I decided why not get a Radeon 9700 instead and by this point
it was only an extra £30.00 (or so) to go all the way to the 9800.

Man I can't wait to see what all the hype is about (RADEONs), last time I
felt this good was when I ordered my NVidia TNT2-Ultra

will post back my experiences once I build new machine (AMD 2500+ rigg)

Wayne ][

P.S: Strontium if you are reading this, I am coming for you!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
-
Wayne Youngman stood up at show-n-tell, in
[email protected], and said:
Greetz,

just a quick post to say. . . . . . .I finally ordered a new graphics
card, the Sapphire ATLANTIS 9800! I was trying to source a 9500Pro
in U.K. . .nope, so then I decided why not get a Radeon 9700 instead
and by this point it was only an extra £30.00 (or so) to go all the
way to the 9800.

Man I can't wait to see what all the hype is about (RADEONs), last
time I felt this good was when I ordered my NVidia TNT2-Ultra

will post back my experiences once I build new machine (AMD 2500+
rigg)

Wayne ][

P.S: Strontium if you are reading this, I am coming for
you!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Click to expand...

I don't think you'll have much need to overclock, with that card ;)
 
Dudes,

After having nvidia cards all my pc gaming life I too went for the Radeon
this time around. Main reason being price (£300 as opposed to £400 for
5900Ultra.)

You will not be dissappointed. After messing around with drivers and things,
this card is the nuts. I mostly play 1942 and can now play in 1280x1024 with
full aa and anisotropic filtering and STILL get a solid 80 fps!

And just imagine what Half Life2 is gonna look like......

Gordon

Strontium said:
-
Wayne Youngman stood up at show-n-tell, in
[email protected], and said:
Greetz,

just a quick post to say. . . . . . .I finally ordered a new graphics
card, the Sapphire ATLANTIS 9800! I was trying to source a 9500Pro
in U.K. . .nope, so then I decided why not get a Radeon 9700 instead
and by this point it was only an extra £30.00 (or so) to go all the
way to the 9800.

Man I can't wait to see what all the hype is about (RADEONs), last
time I felt this good was when I ordered my NVidia TNT2-Ultra

will post back my experiences once I build new machine (AMD 2500+
rigg)

Wayne ][

P.S: Strontium if you are reading this, I am coming for
you!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Click to expand...

I don't think you'll have much need to overclock, with that card ;)


--
Strontium

"It's no surprise, to me. I am my own worst enemy. `Cause every
now, and then, I kick the livin' shit `outta me." - Lit
Click to expand...
 
Hi again,

I will be posting anything to do with my card on this thread for as long as
I can, so please excuse me if the subject line doesn't reflect my exact
question to do with my 9800. . . :P

I am waiting for all my components to arrive so I can build my new beast,
however the 9800 has arrived, it's the most *handsome* card I ever seen, I
may just string it up to a chain and wear it about my neck, could start a
new techno fashion thing!, ha-ha anyway joking aside upon closer inspection
I have written down what it says on my memory chips:

= = = = = = = = = = =
SAMSUNG 322
K4D263238E-GC33
WVD116ED KOREA
= = = = = = = = = = =

Am I right in thinking this is 3.3ns memory? I heard you can get 3ns and
also 2.8ns. I'm not to fussed but I am trying to understand this *ns*
(nano-seconds?) thing. From what I have read my card should be:

325 MHz core
580 MHz memory (290 MHz DDR)

So what is the spec on 3.3ns memory, as in what memory speed can it reach on
paper, also the same for 3ns and 2.8ns, just trying to work out if I can
overclock this card (not right away of course!). I believe the GPU core has
good headroom to be raised (same GPU as 9800Pro I believe, should reach
380Mhz??), but the memory must be physically different from the 9800Pro's.
Sorry for these questions but as I mentioned before I am pretty much an ATI
nOOb, and just want to flesh-out some thoughts in my head. . . I'm sure I
will be 100% blown away by the *default* performance :)

Wayne ][
 
<sound of most of that post whooshing over my head.....>

man , you lost me there, but I chuckled about the bit about wearing it
around your neck...now to find out how to power up the my hercules so the
neon light will shine on when I am proudly wearing it in the pub.....

G

BTW Would be interested in knowing what you are putting together, feel free
to email me outside of group, just remove the obvious....I have just put
together a new rig and am interested in comparing performance with someone
else.
 
"Wayne Youngman" wrote
reach
Click to expand...



"The_MCP" > wrote
<sound of most of that post whooshing over my head.....>
man , you lost me there, but I chuckled about the bit about wearing it
around your neck...now to find out how to power up the my hercules so the
neon light will shine on when I am proudly wearing it in the pub.....
Click to expand...
BTW Would be interested in knowing what you are putting together, feel free
to email me outside of group, just remove the obvious....I have just put
together a new rig and am interested in comparing performance with someone
else.
Click to expand...



Greetings The_MCP,

Yeah I have to agree some of my posts seems to cause confusion or indeed
flame wars! and I always thought that I was a gifted communicator :P

Yes so anyway after months (nay years) of thinking of building a new PC I
finally sorted out and ordered the components for an AMD-Beast. Bear in
mind that I am currently running a PIII 550e - 512MB PC133 - 32MB
GeForceDDR - ABIT BE6-II. . . .

New components (still waiting for some to be delivered!)
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
AMD 2500+ Retail (£70.49 - Simply.co.uk)
CoolerMaster Aero 7 Lite (£11.11 - Ebuyer.com)
ABIT NF7-S v 2.0 (£84.01 - Overclockers.co.uk)
512MB (2x256MB) TwinMOS *Twister* PC3500 Cas2 (£59.70 each - Komplett.co.uk)
Sapphire 9800 Atlantis 128MB (£216.08 - Overclockers.co.uk)
240GB (2x120GB) Western Digital Caviar *MB SATA (£102.81 each -
Overclockers.co.uk)
Antec Mini-Tower SX630II (300w True-Power PSU) - (£61.09 - Simply.co.uk)
Cooler-Master 80mm Blue LED silent fans (x3) (£4.69 each - Simply.co.uk)
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

It will take me a few days to get this up and running (tweaked!) but I will
be running plenty benchmarks, so if you wanna duel with my benchmarks, then
bring it! (lol). I'm hoping to overclock the Barton up high (3200+).

Catch you later, I hope someone can answer my original question re: what is
speed of 3.3ns ram (i.e MHz?)

Peace,

Wayne ][
 
-
Wayne Youngman stood up at show-n-tell, in [email protected],
and said:

It will take me a few days to get this up and running (tweaked!) but
I will be running plenty benchmarks, so if you wanna duel with my
benchmarks, then bring it! (lol). I'm hoping to overclock the Barton
up high (3200+).

Catch you later, I hope someone can answer my original question re:
what is speed of 3.3ns ram (i.e MHz?)
Click to expand...

The speed of the memory will be whatever it's clocked at, regardless of the
latency.

Peace,

Wayne ][
Click to expand...
 
The speed of the memory will be whatever it's clocked at, regardless of the
latency.
Click to expand...


???????????

WTF is that? now I think your playing with me Strontium, either that or my
brain just stopped working :P. Now let me get this right, some RADEON 9800
cards have 2.8ns, 3ns and 3.3ns memory attached (Infinion or Samsung) now I
thought the lower ns ratings made it possible to run the DDR memory faster?,
I was curious to know if there is any headroom on the 9800 cards to raise
the GPU/Memory speeds up to near 9800Pro levels. . .what you are saying is
that the ns doesn't make any difference to raising the memory speed up
HIGH!!!!!

Throw me a line dude!

Wayne ][
 
You're confusing memory speed with access time.

-
Wayne Youngman stood up at show-n-tell, in
[email protected], and said:
The speed of the memory will be whatever it's clocked at, regardless
of the latency.
Click to expand...


???????????

WTF is that? now I think your playing with me Strontium, either that
or my brain just stopped working :P. Now let me get this right, some
RADEON 9800 cards have 2.8ns, 3ns and 3.3ns memory attached (Infinion
or Samsung) now I thought the lower ns ratings made it possible to
run the DDR memory faster?, I was curious to know if there is any
headroom on the 9800 cards to raise the GPU/Memory speeds up to near
9800Pro levels. . .what you are saying is that the ns doesn't make
any difference to raising the memory speed up HIGH!!!!!

Throw me a line dude!

Wayne ][
Click to expand...
 
Am I right in thinking this is 3.3ns memory? I heard you can get 3ns and
also 2.8ns. I'm not to fussed but I am trying to understand this *ns*
(nano-seconds?) thing. From what I have read my card should be:

325 MHz core
580 MHz memory (290 MHz DDR)

So what is the spec on 3.3ns memory, as in what memory speed can it reach on
paper, also the same for 3ns and 2.8ns
Click to expand...

The reciprocal of the period is what you're after I think Wayne
(1/period) to find the frequency

The frequency would be one over the time (period) or one divided by

0.001 - millisecondss
0.000001 - microseconds
0.000000001 - nanoseconds

1/0.000000001

work that out to check and it looks like 1GHz for 1ns

or in the 3.3ns case

1/000000033

= 303030303Hz or 303MHz

So 290MHz looks ok. I'll leave 3ns and 2.8ns for homework :)

I could be wrong I'm having lunch but you get the general idea I hope

Latency is just another word for delay - or lag if you're online :)
 
-
Wayne Youngman stood up at show-n-tell, in
[email protected], and said:
Hi Weaver,

thanks for that reply. I guess I am pretty bad at maths (I'm lost
without Excel!). I will have to read your reply about 20 times and
maybe it will sink in :P failing that I will print it out and go
visit my local professor of maths to help me with some homework!

At least I now know that 3.3ns memory is rated for 303MHz (606MHz
DDR) so now I must use that formula to work out 3ns and 2.8ns ram
speed!

Hmmm I wonder if its possible to run 3.3ns Samsung memory higher than
303MHz?
Click to expand...

Mine maxed out, at 304MHz. Infinion 3.3ns Not sure if heat was holding me
back.

Wayne ][
Click to expand...
 
With my GF3 Ti200, heat was definitely an issue. I could push 500MHz,
with out one problem. As soon as I put it to 550, it crapped out on
me. Then, as soon as I had an 80mm fan blowing directly on it, 550
gave no crashes. I believe was 4ns memory.

Granted, this is MY interpretation of results.
Click to expand...

Are you sure that there wasn't a voltage regulator or two in the general
area in which the fan was blowing?
 
Strontium said:
Mine maxed out, at 304MHz. Infinion 3.3ns Not sure if heat was
holding me back.
Click to expand...

Heat is mostly not a problem with memory.
I've heard that number more, Infinion 3.3 is not great... I have Hynix 3.6,
which goes as far as 310 for me. I'm lucky... My memory doesnt get anymore
as 4 degrees hotter than my case temp.

Thomas
 
With my GF3 Ti200, heat was definitely an issue. I could push 500MHz, with
out one problem. As soon as I put it to 550, it crapped out on me. Then,
as soon as I had an 80mm fan blowing directly on it, 550 gave no crashes. I
believe was 4ns memory.

Granted, this is MY interpretation of results.

-
Thomas stood up at show-n-tell, in 0dZ3b.21326$tK5.3406713@zonnet-reader-1,
and said:
 
Wayne Youngman stood up at show-n-tell, and said:

Mine maxed out, at 304MHz. Infinion 3.3ns Not sure if heat was holding me
back.
Click to expand...


Hi Strontium and weaver et all,

firstly thanks for your replies, I am just waiting for the final pieces of
my new system to arrive so I am kinda brushing up on *tweaking* data. As I
mentioned before this is my first Radeon card (ex NVidia) so I am a bit
*clunky* at getting up to speed.

I have been reading up allot of info at Rage3D (great site!) and I found
pretty much everything I wanted to know there.

As mentioned before I have a brand new Sapphire 9800 Atlantis sitting in
front of me which has 3.3ns Samsung memory, at first I thought this was
unlucky but as it turns out from user-feedback at Rage3D the Samsung enabled
9800's are pretty amazing overclockers. I am just finding out about a BIOS
upgrade (98-8004.BIN) that converts the 9800 to a 9800 PRO which can help in
some cases, apparently this mod can increase the voltage to the samsung
chips to help them reach crazy speed, but it may be the case that the user
needs to add 8xRam-Heatsinks to help cool the *overvolted* Samsung. In any
case I know I will be happy with this card running at stock, but I am a
natural *tweaker* so I will eventually overclock this card. . . .check out
some user results below. . .amazing O/C results!
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
325/290 580MHz DDR Default 9800np
380/340 680MHz DDR Default 9800Pro
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
378/337 3.3ns Samsung flashed
418/378
410/340
420/327 3ns infineon
418/360 Before flashing i could get it to 410/335
460/345 3ns infineon
465/365
400/359 3ns Samsung
425/380
435/375 3.3ns Samsung flashed
410/330 3ns infineon
410/380 3.3ns Samsung
418/391 Samsung flashed
425/380
390/345 3.3ns Samsung
412/344 3.3ns Samsung
420/380 3.3ns Samsung Flashed
447/382 Flashed
435/378 3.3ns Samsung
435/380
401/324 3ns infineon
415/340
436/360 Flashed
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

My initial thought was if I was gonna be able to reach 9800Pro speeds, but
looking at these results I can see that It should be no problemo. .

Wayne ][
 
I envy you. However, after I complete my silent box project and move
(relocate residence), and get a 21'' Samsung SyncMaster, I am confident the
price of the 9800np will be right where I want it :)

I don't know if anyone has mentioned this, so I will. I found the best
order of installation, for me, was: OS, chipset, DX9, card drivers.


-
Wayne Youngman stood up at show-n-tell, in
[email protected], and said:
Wayne Youngman stood up at show-n-tell, and said:
Click to expand...


Mine maxed out, at 304MHz. Infinion 3.3ns Not sure if heat was
holding me back.
Click to expand...


Hi Strontium and weaver et all,

firstly thanks for your replies, I am just waiting for the final
pieces of my new system to arrive so I am kinda brushing up on
*tweaking* data. As I mentioned before this is my first Radeon card
(ex NVidia) so I am a bit *clunky* at getting up to speed.

I have been reading up allot of info at Rage3D (great site!) and I
found pretty much everything I wanted to know there.

As mentioned before I have a brand new Sapphire 9800 Atlantis sitting
in front of me which has 3.3ns Samsung memory, at first I thought
this was unlucky but as it turns out from user-feedback at Rage3D the
Samsung enabled 9800's are pretty amazing overclockers. I am just
finding out about a BIOS upgrade (98-8004.BIN) that converts the 9800
to a 9800 PRO which can help in some cases, apparently this mod can
increase the voltage to the samsung chips to help them reach crazy
speed, but it may be the case that the user needs to add
8xRam-Heatsinks to help cool the *overvolted* Samsung. In any case I
know I will be happy with this card running at stock, but I am a
natural *tweaker* so I will eventually overclock this card. . .
.check out some user results below. . .amazing O/C results! = = = = =
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = 325/290 580MHz DDR Default 9800np
380/340 680MHz DDR Default 9800Pro
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
378/337 3.3ns Samsung flashed
418/378
410/340
420/327 3ns infineon
418/360 Before flashing i could get it to 410/335
460/345 3ns infineon
465/365
400/359 3ns Samsung
425/380
435/375 3.3ns Samsung flashed
410/330 3ns infineon
410/380 3.3ns Samsung
418/391 Samsung flashed
425/380
390/345 3.3ns Samsung
412/344 3.3ns Samsung
420/380 3.3ns Samsung Flashed
447/382 Flashed
435/378 3.3ns Samsung
435/380
401/324 3ns infineon
415/340
436/360 Flashed
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

My initial thought was if I was gonna be able to reach 9800Pro
speeds, but looking at these results I can see that It should be no
problemo. .

Wayne ][
Click to expand...
 
I envy you. However, after I complete my silent box project and move
(relocate residence), and get a 21'' Samsung SyncMaster, I am confident the
price of the 9800np will be right where I want it :)

I don't know if anyone has mentioned this, so I will. I found the best
order of installation, for me, was: OS, chipset, DX9, card drivers.
Click to expand...

Hi Mr Strontium,

thanks for the reply, I am beginning to bounce off my own walls waiting for
the last few parts to arrive so I appreciate the feedback. Firstly I have
to comment about the *21'' Samsung SyncMaster* omg dude you must be insanely
rich to contemplate getting that!. Isn't there a gaming problem with those
Samsung SyncMasters? (something to do with slow response times), but i hear
they have really great colour reproduction. don't get me wrong, if I had
the money I would grab a huge TFT/LCD? but I shelled out over £430.00 for a
19" Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 900u about 4 years ago and its still working
really well. Maybe if I was to sell it I could put that towards a nice
TFT/LCD?. Speaking of which why don't you flog your 9700np and add the
extra £30.00 for a 9800np, you know you could do that, cmon, join us, join
us, the ring, the ring, come with us, to Mordor we will take you! OOPS
forgive me for slipping into Lord Of The Rings Mode. I know from reading
your posts that you are totally impressed by your Radeons output, and by the
same token I will be totally gob-smacked by mine.

Here's to 19" TFTs

Wayne ][
 
Strontium,

sorry to deluge you with questions but you seem to know your stuff re:
Radeons. Do you think you can give me some assistance with a small BIOS
project in a few days?. I want to export the Default BIOS on my Sapphire
9800 somewhere safe, then I am considering possible flashing it with the
Sapphire 9800Pro BIOS. I have just downloaded a program called *radedit11d*
for the first time and I am using it to examine some new 9800Pro BIOSs from
the web. One thing that caught my eye was that they all are set on NTSC,
but I believe that should be PAL for the U.K. Is it just the case that you
open an existing BIOS in radedit11d then make your changes and save? then
use this .bin file to update the card?

Any tips you can give me will only enhance my *accelerated* learning on the
subject. If you are busy then no sweat I will try to hussle up some more
info at Rage3D forums, lol at this point I don't even know how to overclock
a Radeon using software, like you did, to test the maximum overclock before
I flash it :P but I am thinking if I have made a secure back-up of my
original BIOS then I have nothing to lose. . . .

Laters,

Wayne ][
 
I found a good supplier of monitors, locally. I can get the 21'' SyncMaster
for $450. I've still got my 17'' SyncMaster. Have had it, for 4.5yrs.
Never had any probs gaming, with it. Samsung makes good monitors, at least
from my personal experience. I might, also, just go with the 19''
SyncMaster, for $200. But, that's a couple months down the line anyway.
For now, I'll just drool over the 19 and 21''s we use at work.

Heh. It's VERY tempting to go out and get a 9800. However, I just got this
9700np 2 months ago! I want to get at least 4-6 mo's of use out of it,
before I consider that $200 flushed down the toilet when I get the 9800.
I'm not too keen on LCD's. After using my laptop for hours, then getting
back on the desktop, the first thing I notice is the richness of the CRT.
I'll never put a TFT on my gaming rig :)
-
Wayne Youngman stood up at show-n-tell, in
[email protected], and said:
I envy you. However, after I complete my silent box project and move
(relocate residence), and get a 21'' Samsung SyncMaster, I am
confident the price of the 9800np will be right where I want it :)

I don't know if anyone has mentioned this, so I will. I found the
best order of installation, for me, was: OS, chipset, DX9, card
drivers.
Click to expand...

Hi Mr Strontium,

thanks for the reply, I am beginning to bounce off my own walls
waiting for the last few parts to arrive so I appreciate the
feedback. Firstly I have to comment about the *21'' Samsung
SyncMaster* omg dude you must be insanely rich to contemplate getting
that!. Isn't there a gaming problem with those Samsung SyncMasters?
(something to do with slow response times), but i hear they have
really great colour reproduction. don't get me wrong, if I had the
money I would grab a huge TFT/LCD? but I shelled out over £430.00 for
a 19" Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 900u about 4 years ago and its still
working really well. Maybe if I was to sell it I could put that
towards a nice TFT/LCD?. Speaking of which why don't you flog your
9700np and add the extra £30.00 for a 9800np, you know you could do
that, cmon, join us, join us, the ring, the ring, come with us, to
Mordor we will take you! OOPS forgive me for slipping into Lord Of
The Rings Mode. I know from reading your posts that you are totally
impressed by your Radeons output, and by the same token I will be
totally gob-smacked by mine.

Here's to 19" TFTs

Wayne ][
Click to expand...
 
I'll have to do a search for a post I made about a month back. There were
two different editing progs. I can't remember which one worked correctly.
I think it was not radeedit, though. I'll get back to you.

-
Wayne Youngman stood up at show-n-tell, in
[email protected], and said:
Strontium,

sorry to deluge you with questions but you seem to know your stuff re:
Radeons. Do you think you can give me some assistance with a small
BIOS project in a few days?. I want to export the Default BIOS on my
Sapphire 9800 somewhere safe, then I am considering possible flashing
it with the Sapphire 9800Pro BIOS. I have just downloaded a program
called *radedit11d* for the first time and I am using it to examine
some new 9800Pro BIOSs from the web. One thing that caught my eye
was that they all are set on NTSC, but I believe that should be PAL
for the U.K. Is it just the case that you open an existing BIOS in
radedit11d then make your changes and save? then use this .bin file
to update the card?

Any tips you can give me will only enhance my *accelerated* learning
on the subject. If you are busy then no sweat I will try to hussle up
some more info at Rage3D forums, lol at this point I don't even know
how to overclock a Radeon using software, like you did, to test the
maximum overclock before I flash it :P but I am thinking if I have
made a secure back-up of my original BIOS then I have nothing to
lose. . . .

Laters,

Wayne ][
Click to expand...
 
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