Sapphire Radeon 9800SE Advantage

[SloHands]

I purchased this card from NewEgg to replace a Biostar GeForce 4 MX 440 64 bit card. Reason being that it didn't support Direct X 9 for the games I had recently purchased. After much frustration and cursing the new card, I discovered this site.

I've downloaded / installed the ATI Tool (beta) and proceeded to "tweak" the card by over-clocking it. That seems to have solved the problem since Far Cry now works without crashing all the time.

I've not tried it with any of the other games as yet, but I'm hopeful that all 7 games (FPS) I have will function properly. HALO, MOH Pacific Assault, BF Vietnam, MOHaa Breakthrough and BF '42 Secret Weapons all have crashed and refused to play.

My hearty thanks to this site for providing a link to the ATI Tool. It seems to have been the remedy I was in need of so that the games will play.

My PC, which I built, is based on a
SOYO K7VME board
Athlon XP 2700+
FSP 450 watt PSU
1 GB Mushkin (2x512) RAM
Sapphire Radeon 9800SE Advantage
WinXP Pro SP2
Creative SB PCI 128

I have limited funds for upgrading the system, making any additional upgrades is not in the near future.
I do think a better sound card is at the top of the list tho!

 

[pt]

Did you unlock the 4 extra-pipes?

 

[bigboi86]

Is the memory in an L shape or an I shape?

The L shaped memory setup can be modded to 9800pro.

 

[zekrahminator]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835186110 get one of these, install on your video card. Your problems are being caused by video card overheat/glitching/just plain sucking. If you really want to kill the problem, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835116012 along with the VGA silencer will super-cool your card. And if its STILL bugging you, then I'm suspecting a weak power supply. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817153023 should suit your needs just fine. Happy Gaming!

 

[SloHands]

Kewl links........ love NewEgg!!!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835186110 get one of these, install on your video card. Your problems are being caused by video card overheat/glitching/just plain sucking. If you really want to kill the problem, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835116012 along with the VGA silencer will super-cool your card. And if its STILL bugging you, then I'm suspecting a weak power supply. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817153023 should suit your needs just fine. Happy Gaming!

I've been a long time fan of NewEgg. Directron is also an option since I live in Houston, TX and the warehouse is just a couple of miles from my house.

When funds permit, I'll be looking into adding the cooling products to the card. Kinda figured the card would possibly be a lot hotter than it should be, so adding additional cooling hardware is logical. Until now I've had no reason to mess with overclocking anything, so its not been worth the effort to go there. And, it gets rather expensive at some point.

Thanks for those links and leading me in the right direction for improving on the situation. I really appreciate it!

"Is the memory in an L shape or an I shape?
The L shaped memory setup can be modded to 9800pro."

I'm not sure, bigboi86, about what you're referring to here??? Haven't a clue, OK?

pt asked, "Did you unlock the 4 extra-pipes?"

I think that's what the tool did automaticly, so I'd guess that function is in place.

Again, thank y'all for the helpful hints and suggestions. Nicely done!

 

[bigboi86]

I've been a long time fan of NewEgg. Directron is also an option since I live in Houston, TX and the warehouse is just a couple of miles from my house.

When funds permit, I'll be looking into adding the cooling products to the card. Kinda figured the card would possibly be a lot hotter than it should be, so adding additional cooling hardware is logical. Until now I've had no reason to mess with overclocking anything, so its not been worth the effort to go there. And, it gets rather expensive at some point.

Thanks for those links and leading me in the right direction for improving on the situation. I really appreciate it!

"Is the memory in an L shape or an I shape?
The L shaped memory setup can be modded to 9800pro."

I'm not sure, bigboi86, about what you're referring to here??? Haven't a clue, OK?

pt asked, "Did you unlock the 4 extra-pipes?"

I think that's what the tool did automaticly, so I'd guess that function is in place.

Again, thank y'all for the helpful hints and suggestions. Nicely done!

If you look at the memory chips, if they all 4 are right beside each other, it forms a straight line.

If 2 are on one side, and 2 are on the other, it makes an L shape.

Which do you have?

No, ATITool did not unlock the other 4 pipelines, you are only using half of your graphics cards processing power.

Flashing it to pro will unlock it. Or using softmodded drivers.

 

[SloHands]

If you look at the memory chips, if they all 4 are right beside each other, it forms a straight line.

If 2 are on one side, and 2 are on the other, it makes an L shape.

Which do you have?

No, ATITool did not unlock the other 4 pipelines, you are only using half of your graphics cards processing power.

Flashing it to pro will unlock it. Or using softmodded drivers.

The chips are 4 in a row, Bigboi86!
Flashing? OK, that's not a function I've ever done, so I'm clueless about how that works. (never had reason to go there with any of the hardware! ) Is there a tutorial and link to a 'flash' software???

Thanks!

 

[zekrahminator]

if you're getting crashes on the STOCK 9800SE, lets not try softmods/hardmods/flashing BIOS. It could lead to slow-roasting your card. If you can't afford a VGA sillencer right now (I understand completely), do this...buy a 120mm fan, and then magic it using cable ties to blow right on the card. THAT should help you at least a little until you can get a good VGA silencer on there. Happy Gaming!

 

[bigboi86]

Having the 4chips in a row is a bad thing.

You only have 128bit memory bus.

You can try to unlock the pipelines still with modded drivers, but your performance is still going to be lower than a 9800pro due to the crippled memory bus.

EDIT: My advice is only of course if you aren't having heat issues. You should get that checked out as advised above. ^^^

 

[SloHands]

Thanks for the advice.
Its been an "eye-opener" for sure.

I've over-clocked the card somewhat and that seems to have helped alot. I've downloaded and installed a few demo's and they play well enough.

CoD United Offensive is freakin' awesome...... got my arse handed to me... BIG TIME! Took a few minutes after play it to realize I'd been holding my breath.
Dayem that's intense gaming.
Whew!!!
My favorite game until now has been CoD, but the United Offensive is waaaay out there!

HALO still refuses to play. Won't load even.
Microsoft game! (Go figger, right! )
Not a fan of anything M$!

Oh yeah, the case temp is about the same as before I installed the card. Maybe a degree C of increase. I have six fans running in the case for cooling, not counting the CPU cooler. Case temp is 44 C. CPU running at about 49 C.

 

[BIOHazard87]

what overclock did you reach on it?

 

[SloHands]

Core clock: 378.00
Memory clock: 290.25

It was done by using the ATI Tool I downloaded and installed.

I can still use that tool to push it further, but I hesitate to go there just yet.
Not all that comfortable with over-clocking since I don't have the extra money to replace hardware. Baby steps is how I'll proceed.