Help - New 9800 pro - tool lowers core & memory

[jasonoffer]

I appreciate people have asked similar questions in the past but could find no definitive answer. I just brought a connect3d 9800 pro, been dissappointed with my 3dmark03 of 5619, tried all drivers including DNA, omega but still no performance improvement. Even though people who play counter strike often get FPS of over 100 i am between 40-60 with the same card.

I treid ati tool and it just went down immediately when finding max core and continued to do so to 224 from 378 setting at which time i totally gave up, similar occured with the mem!

HAve I been sent a messed up graphics card and should i send it back? Can i send it back after using ati tool even though i of course did no change any settings permanently?

Much appreciate any advice asap, thks alot

My system is
P4 2.66 ghz, 32-bit
1024 mb ram 333ghz
2 hard drives
only 250 watts power
XP with SP2
nec nd dvd rw
samsund cdrw
2x hard drives

 

[rcdraft]

Don't panic, try rivatuner.....the best tweak utility out there...
http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=163

 

[zmttoxics]

Hmm. Just a thought, is the card getting hot? When finding the speeds, they will top out if the card gets too hot. You should and either replace the heatsink on it or just get a good thermalpaste like Artic Silver 5 and redo the paste on it.
-Kevin

 

[dolf]

Yes the people are probably right. It could be overheating and the most likely reason is bad contact between core and heatsink. Remove it gently and change thermal paste. Or just sire it in place if you don't want to lose your garantee. If posible post picture of your card or describe it. Is it clasic 9800PRO? 8 memory chips on both sides x4?
If the board heats up quickly and the heatsink not (touch it) when you start max core detection it means for sure bad thermal contact.

 

[Trellabor]

only 250 watts power

I am positive that is having a negative impact, do you even have the molex plugged into the card?

 

[jasonoffer]

Cheers

Thks alot for the help lads.

Firstly i hav'nt tried rivatuner yet but will do in a while.

With regards to the heatsink, must admit alot of this is all new to me, i believe the card maybe getting too hot, i opened the case up and put a standard room fan on it and the test was marginally better, i.e it went up before going down. The heatsink is the metal surrounding the fan on the card??

To be honest i would'nt know where to begin with regards to thermal paste, don't mind testing these ideas on my old 9500 pro card. Do i just unscrew it and then add the paste??

Yes it is a classic 9800 pro and has 4 memory chips on both sides. I manually overclocked the card and got upto 410/370 with only minimal artifacts on cs:source, so will probably accept this, no point laying out more money on this system.

When i buy my next pc it will not be a dell or intel. I will definately check the system spec in greater detail, ie box, motherboard, fan and power supply. Unfortunately i have to accept that this card has provided me with minimal performance difference in gaming, even though the 3dmark03 went up from 4200 with the 9500pro to 5650 with the 9800 pro, and a bit more after manual overclocking.

Thanks for the help lads, much appreciated. One final question can i get a cooler that goes around the card or is placed on top of it and is worth while? forgotten what they are called.

 

[Trellabor]

A Zalman Heatpipe is i think what you are talking about, i just bought one actually