X1900 Series Overclocking and Feedback thread

[mandelore]

i think 1.45v is 2d clock voltage, you will need to increase that, will have to double check but i think thats right, either way try increasing the voltage and c wot that does

 

[Mean Machine]

what are you using for overclocking? if you are using ATItool, remember you HAVE to alter the voltages b4 jumpin into overclocking the core/mem.

Otherwise u will barely even b able to up the core from stock,

btw forgive me if you already know this

Nah thats cool... well rather then overclocking i am BIOS flashing the card with the next model up, this should have all the correct voltages for higher frequency.

I am BIOS flashing X1900XT (ASUS) to Different brand XTX, without any manual overclocking. Shouldent the voltages be re-configured by the new BIOS to run higher speed?

 

[mandelore]

they should, but to be honest, i just dont trust the voltages on mine, i would at least have atitool on standby even just to read the current voltages (heh, spot the pun), coz you can always modify them if you think u need it, plus, it could just be that your card is one that may require just a little more juice to get it running at those speeds.

Anyway, even if u dont use it for overclocking, atitool voltage options are a good way just to monitor the voltage shifts between 2d/3d mode

 

[ViperJohn]

Nah thats cool... well rather then overclocking i am BIOS flashing the card with the next model up, this should have all the correct voltages for higher frequency.

I am BIOS flashing X1900XT (ASUS) to Different brand XTX, without any manual overclocking. Shouldent the voltages be re-configured by the new BIOS to run higher speed?

1900XT's and XTX's bios are programmed for, and the card run at, the same nominal voltages in both 2D and 3D modes.

Viper

 

[eloko]

Hello, I have one x1900gt and have the doubt if the voltage default is 1.175 or 1.425

To 1.175 me gave the clock of 627 and the ram 855

And to 1.25 668 the core

Can I give him without problems 1.425?

 

[mandelore]

I believe the gt version runs with lower voltage, or at least thats what i have noticed from googling the subject, i believe some people had difficulties with the card overclocking and were using around 1.25V on the core. However on a side note there is a bios mod that can unlock some pipelines on your card and therefore increase its performance without much overclocking needed

 

[Immacolata]

Update

3DMark Score........5927 3DMarks
SM2.0 Score..........2588
HDR/SM3.0 Score...2978
CPU Score..............1289

Using ATI TOOL
720 VGPU
855 Mem
1.450V on GPU
2.121V MVDDC
2.121V MVDDQ
1.498V VCDDI
With fan on mosfets/vregs.

As you can see I didn't break records here that is not the point of my post. However, you should get above average scores if you keep your VC cool.

Note:
If for any reason you attempt to duplicate what I have posted in this thread I cannot guarantee that you will have the same results. Please keep that in mind if you do in fact attempt these methods. You do so at your own risk.

Im interested in hearing your peak temperatures under load after your lap job - WITH the fan running ^^ ? Im considering doing it on my own X1900XT, it runs a bit hot when playing Oblivion methinks.

As for the lapping proces it self. I have gotten som 400, 800 and 1200 paper, a bottle of acetone for cleaning and kerosene for lubricating. I need a level surface now, but those four studs on the heatsink is causing some concern. Won't they get in the way for your lapping job? Can you remove the 4 studs and replace them afterwards or are they stamped to the heatsink?

Lastly, what about the memory chips? Did you do anything to the thermalpads there? Replaced with AS5? Lapped? Got new pads to replace the old once you removed the heatsink? or what? Or left it as it was? I am worried that I might be left with useless thermalpads for the memory chips once I have removed the heatsink and fan.

 

[2003CRF450GUY]

The copper heat sink drops out of the aluminum plate, you don’t have to touch the memory pads. Just get a star screw driver and take off the white plastic fan housing, then you will see 4 more screws holding in the copper heat sink. There are spring on those 4 screws so don’t lose them, you can now lap your copper heat sink and nothing will be in your way. Just be careful when you go tighten the screws for the white plastic fan housing, if you over tighten them you will crack the plastic. I just got done lapping my heat sink for my x1900xt, it looks like chrome. I used 800 grit then went to a 1500 grit wet sand paper. I lapped it on a peace of glass from a window I used some duct taped to hold the sand paper flat on the glass. After lapping I used some metal polishing called autosol, this stuff works good but I think it leaves a coating because I only lost 2c on my temps so I know I didn’t clean it off good enough, I will redo it when I get more time. I will try and get a pick of the heat sink, I just need to find a site to host the picks.

 

[Immacolata]

Thanks for the advice, I think I am nearly done preparing for the lap job then. Just 2 c you say? that is not a heck of a lot! I played Oblivion last night and temps hit 84,5C with fan runing at 82%! That is too damn much. If a lap job just drops that to 82,5C Im not going to bother at all.

You are sure that the lap job was properly done? I am considering if I should "testdrive" my lapping skills first by doing it on my unused stock AMD64 heatsink, before I try on my X1900.


Btw. I found this article quite interesting in this respect http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/cooling/39

The bottom has good advice.

 

[2003CRF450GUY]

Hope this works

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Ya I know 2c ant allot but I didnt get all the polishing coating off when that happens it affects your temps big time, I will just have to take it off agian and redo it. My budy did the same thing I did but he got a 8c drop, I think he took more time to get all the polishing coating off.

 

[Immacolata]

That link doesn't work. Try taking off the tags first. All you need is to sla...east 2-3c off the temps this operation alone.

 

[2003CRF450GUY]

[/URL][/IMG]

 

[Immacolata]

Looks nice. How did you do the lapping? When I took the heatsink apart, I had 3 parts. One was the aluminum plate with the four brass rods that you use to fasten the other bit, the fan. Then there was the copper sink. Once I took off the copper heatsink I noticed that it was fairly asymmetrical. How do you manage do do an even lapping with it being so off-balance?

 

[2003CRF450GUY]

Well once you put the copper heat sink on the sand paper and press down on it and begin to push it back and fourth you will find it will be more stable then it looks. Just experiment with different hand positions, Also don’t just lap it in one direction the hole time keep changing it every few strokes this will help to insure it stays true and flat. It really is easy you will see what im talking about when you start to do it. I use some glass from a window then duct tape the sand paper in place, this is how I lap the cylinder heads on motorcycles, and it works very good and gets them perfectly flat.

 

[Immacolata]

Okay, sounds like you know what you are doing. Got some 320, 600, 800 and 1200 grit paper yesterday. Also bought a cheap picture frame with a piece of glass I can use. I gather it will hold together since the lapping doesn't require a lot of force. Let me know if your temp drops more after you clean the heatsink properly. I experienced a 3-4C drop in peak temperetaure alone by properly applying some AS5 and assembly the heatsink with the card properly. Before yesterday I would experience peaks of 84-85c, and my mobo heated to 42c. After yesterday I see peaks of 81c only, and the mobo stays at a balmy 37c.

To me, it is an indication that lapping might be worth the effort. Apparantly the poor conduct between the gpu and the heatsink meant that the card radiated heat everywhere, which increased overall temps. But after more of the heat is conducted into the heat sink and transported out of the case by the fan, before it gets to heat too much around it.

 

[2003CRF450GUY]

Ok I just re did my heat sink, this time I completely re-lapped it again this time with 2000 wet sand super fine grit. So I started out with an 800 then went to a 1500 wet sand for the first time, now I re did it with 2000 grit for an even more super smooth service. I also did not use Autosol this time instead I used silvopolish, it says on the tube of Autosol that is does leave a protective clear film and it is really tuff to clean off 100% so that’s why I went with silvopolish this time it works just as good without the coating. My full load temps were 73 now there only 68 and in windows it was 50 now its only 44 plus Im using artic silver ceramic not arctic silver 5 so this really goes to show how important is it to get any coatings off. I think if I used some AS5 it would lower my temps even more but im pretty happy with it now.

 

[Immacolata]

Holy ****. 68c under peak? With stock cooler and lapped sink? What program did you use to create that peak temperature? I notice that games which are heavy in 3.0 shaders and other pixel effects tend to warm the card considerably more than other. A game like Quake 4 doesn't warm my gpu up to more then 75c, where as Oblivion puts it up at 81c

I WILL try this project next weekend. Ill make a note not to use any polish that leaves a film. Silvopolish is that a material for polishing silver? I might get some of that then.

Btw where do you get 2000 grit sand paper? And how many times do you lap? 5 times up, then 5 times down per paper? Or more?

 

[Super XP]

My X1900XT is on water cooling & won't hit more then 44C on hrs of full load.

 

[Immacolata]

That is not really relevant, we are talking about stock cooler here. You might run yours off the south pole, wouldn't make a difference in this situation. But with temps like that, who would bother with a lapjob ^^

 

[Super XP]

That is not really relevant, we are talking about stock cooler here. You might run yours off the south pole, wouldn't make a difference in this situation. But with temps like that, who would bother with a lapjob ^^

When it comes down to temps, it is relevant. Now, how about ATI's newer cooler off there
X1950XTX ? I read that it does a much better job in keeping the GPU & memory cooler?

It would be nice if they would sell the coolers or something?

Take Care,

 

[2003CRF450GUY]

Holy ****. 68c under peak? With stock cooler and lapped sink? What program did you use to create that peak temperature? I notice that games which are heavy in 3.0 shaders and other pixel effects tend to warm the card considerably more than other. A game like Quake 4 doesn't warm my gpu up to more then 75c, where as Oblivion puts it up at 81c

I WILL try this project next weekend. Ill make a note not to use any polish that leaves a film. Silvopolish is that a material for polishing silver? I might get some of that then.

Btw where do you get 2000 grit sand paper? And how many times do you lap? 5 times up, then 5 times down per paper? Or more?

I don’t use any programs I just hit “Ctrl+Alt+Delete” when im in a game like (FarCry)--(F.E.A.R)--(Quake)--(BF2)
It then brings me to windows in a split second, I then look at AtiTools temp witch is on my windows tool bar. I am not overclocking my card with AtiTool, I’m only using AtiTool to control my fan speeds. I have it set to run the fan at 80% as soon as the card hits 60c then 100% when it hits 65c and in windows the fan runs at 41% at 45c. I also have vary good case cooling, my case is an Xblade and it has a 120mm fan blowing directly into the x1900, plus 3 other case fans. When I wasn’t using AtiTool to control my fan speeds the card would run at over 80c and that’s with it not even overclocked, CCC fan speeds are just way to mild its just ATI trying to please all the people that hate pc noise. Personally I could give a F about fan noise I realize this is a high performance card and I’m willing to put up with some noise you don’t even hear it when your playing a game anyways. O buy the way I have it overclocked as far as ccc will alow me, 689 core and 792 mem, ccc will not let me put the bars up all the way for some reson.

 

[Immacolata]

You can use ATi Tools menu "Temperature Monitoring". check what value is writtein in the box GPU (min/max/avg). The middle value is the highest measured temp of your gpu. Mine is now at 80.9C after oblivion for 2 hours. That is better. But since my case isn't full to the brim with fans, Ill probably not be hitting your low temps, since I let my fan run at 68% when it hits 80. 59% over 65.

How many times did you lap up and down per paper?

 

[2003CRF450GUY]

How many times did you lap up and down per paper?

Ya I also sometimes click on AtiTool and look at the heat graph, I have never seen it go past 68 since I re-lapped it. As for how many up and down strokes I used per grit I have no clue, just keep an eye on it and you will be able to tell when its ready for the next grit, It really only takes a few minutes per grit. Also I used dish soap to lubricate the sand paper, you can use water but I prefer dish soap, just take your time and apply even pressure to the heat sink as your lapping it, you will get the feel for it quickly I know I did.

 

[Immacolata]

Allright, thanks. I read somewhere else that one guy used lamp oil (kerosene I believe you call it) for his lubrication. Dish soap has the advantage that you just need water to remove it. Oil needs lots of soap AND water ^_^

 

[extaze]

Heylow all, I bought a X1900XT 256Mb. I just wanted to know if there is a thread for this card?
Thanx all