ATITool Problems with 9600XT

[Gerry Simmons]

I just recently bought a Visiontec XTACY 9600XT 256MB card (500/600). Got it working in my system running in a AGP 4X slot. Aquamark3 gets a score of 14,300, which I kind of expected with it running 4X.

I just enabled the softmod driver tonight to see about overclocking this board. The weird thing is that I have to lower the Memclock down to under 275MHz in order to get no artifacts. The core seems to be able to go up to about 510MHz, OK.

If I run Max Mem, ATITool continues to lower my RAM clock.

Is this just a lemon card, and I should return it?

It's just too much money to spend for a card that won't perform.

 

[GoLLuM4444]

Wow that is weird!

Are you using the latest version of ATitool? (0.22 or 0.23beta)
Does it do the same with other graphics drivers?

 

[Gerry Simmons]

Here's an update:

I am running ATITool 0.0.22.

I left this system cool overnight. Got up this morning, brought up ATITool and started an artifact scan (500/297) - No errors for 30 sec. I ran the 3D view to "warm-up" the card for 15 sec. Started to scan for artifacts - started getting a delta of 2 in 1 pixel. I warmed up the card some more. In less than 2 minutes, I started getting a delta of 84 (43.5 avg) in 2 pixels.

This seems to be related to heat. NO OVERCLOCKING!

I replaced the softmod drivers with the ATI 4.10 Catalyst Drivers (I'm assuming all is the same except for ati2mtag.sys.) No differnece.

I have a Radeon VE 32MB card (166/166.) Put it into the system, and ran the same test. No Errors.

With stock settings and ATI drivers - I should get No Errors with the 9600XT as well, right?

 

[Lateralus14]

I get the same thing with my Diamond Viper 9600XT 256MB. I don't get errors at stock speeds, but it locks up at only 20MHz core above stock or 10MHz memory above stock. It sucks.

 

[Ramine]

hmm got the sapphire 9600Xt and it is running at 600/350 fine with only stock cooling, what drivers you using? try the new omega ones (2.5.9? i tink)

Ramine

 

[Lateralus14]

Omega 2.5.9s made no difference, either in the crashes, image quality or performance.

 

[Qwerty]

Ive got a abit radeon 9600 (128) 256 ram and it gets 27000 on aqua03, maybe return the thing and get a new one or buy a new fan and sink from a store, last time i checked www.ebuyer.com had some in.

http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/prod...2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=62046
thers more expensive ones but i cant tell you if there better or not, but next time order bits ill be picking one of these up

i think its just a bad card to tell the truth my basic 9600 is running at 499.5/299.25 and thats with stock cooling.

Qwerty

 

[Gerry Simmons]

When you all say that your cards are running fine at the speeds you mentioned,
are they running with NO pixels errors in ATITool for a reasonable period of time??

I.E. you came up with the clock settings using Find Max Core or Find Max Mem.

 

[Lateralus14]

When you all say that your cards are running fine at the speeds you mentioned,
are they running with NO pixels errors in ATITool for a reasonable period of time??

I.E. you came up with the clock settings using Find Max Core or Find Max Mem.

Yes. I let it run for about four hours without any errors.

 

[Qwerty]

I am prety sure that my card is a xt just not been flashed that way by abit (its identical in every way visualy), so i just pull my clocks up to 505/303 (at 7pt intervasl)(now) and ive go about 25 minutes with out a bad pixel (at 550) o would presume thats good but ive only been using the prog for like 24 hours. so i keep it a 505/303 at the moment.

Qwerty

 

[enginepower]

Gerry, you may be in the same boat I'm in. Can't seem to run my 9600xt at stock speeds either (500/680). I feel its a voltage issue. The max I have logged for temp at stable speeds is 52C and that's playing UT2K4 for about 2 hrs. Max I can achieve is about 474/690. I feel it's a voltage issue but my mobo can't adjust agp voltage. When I first built this system, the memory i purchased was rated for 2.6V and mobo is 2.5 only. Didn't realize it when buying but that one tenth of a volt was giving me error after error even during install of OS. Sold that mem to a buddy and he didn't have ANY probs with it. If your mobo can adjust AGP voltage, try bumping it up a tenth or 2 but make sure you keep an eye on temp.

 

[enginepower]

I get the same thing with my Diamond Viper 9600XT 256MB. I don't get errors at stock speeds, but it locks up at only 20MHz core above stock or 10MHz memory above stock. It sucks.

Same for you Lateralus. Have you tried bumping up your AGP voltage if you can? Wish I could. Was reading about voltage mods but just a suggestion, I'm new to this. My 2500 barton OC'd to 3200 with a simple bus increase. Has been stable for over 6 mths now.

 

[Gerry Simmons]

EnginePower,

You may be on to something there. The Mobo I have is a Tyan Tiger 230T - Dual PIII. It's AGP slot is only 4X. In order to get it to work, I had to adjust "something" in the Bios regarding the AGP slot. Tyan had a FAQ regarding nVidia and ATI 4X boards not working, and asked you to try modifying a BIOS entry - AGP driving Value. It's normally programmed to CC, but when I mod'd it to C8, the board started working.

This might be the AGP voltage adjust you were referring to.

On another note, I returned this card and got a ATI 9800 Pro 128MB (only $50 more.) This board was much more cooperative in letting me over-clock it. But, I still only got about +20% out of the Memory and Core. Not like what others are able to get.

I decided it was time to Upgrade my system to an 8X P4. Really, it's about time.

 

[Lateralus14]

I bumped up my AGP voltage and that cured the crashing problems I had been having for a while, but the thing still refuses to go past any of the stock speeds.

What are the recommended settings?

EDIT: I just looked in my BIOS and I have it set at 1.65V. The default was 1.5V. The next highest setting above 1.65V is 1.7V, but that changes the font to red, which my BIOS uses to inform me of an unsafe and possibly damaging settings.