9700 O/C

[Martin Francis]

I have an unbranded, stock-cooled, non-pro 9700 that I occasionally
overclock a little. The core, it seems, overclocks to the low-to-mid 300s,
but the RAM suffers these speeds lightly. If I endure the awkward
installation (and heart-rending risk factor) of replacing the stock heatsink
with an Arctic Cooling VGA Silencer, how much benefit will I see? Will the
RAM actually clock higher than the low 300s reliably?

 

[Nerdillius Maximus]

I have an unbranded, stock-cooled, non-pro 9700 that I occasionally
overclock a little. The core, it seems, overclocks to the low-to-mid 300s,
but the RAM suffers these speeds lightly. If I endure the awkward
installation (and heart-rending risk factor) of replacing the stock heatsink
with an Arctic Cooling VGA Silencer, how much benefit will I see? Will the
RAM actually clock higher than the low 300s reliably?

No?

Yes?

No and yes.

;-)

 

[First of One]

The VGA Silencer, at least the ones I've had experience with, does not
contact the RAM chips. Just as well, since the DDR1 BGA chips do not give
off a lot of heat.

A possibility is the grade of RAM on the non-Pro just isn't good enough for
substantial overclocks. To attain higher speeds, you will have to hard-mod
the card to pump higher voltage into the core and memory; this can be quite
risky.

BTW, the 9800XT's RAM runs at only 365 MHz. If you can clock your RAM to low
300s, then it's actually not too shabby.

 

[John David Carter]

I have an unbranded, stock-cooled, non-pro 9700 that I occasionally
overclock a little. The core, it seems, overclocks to the low-to-mid 300s,
but the RAM suffers these speeds lightly. If I endure the awkward
installation (and heart-rending risk factor) of replacing the stock
heatsink with an Arctic Cooling VGA Silencer, how much benefit will I see?
Will the RAM actually clock higher than the low 300s reliably?

The low 300's is REALLY good for non-pro memory. Mine can't go above 300
reliably, although I had another that could - but not by much. Most
non-pros had 3.3ns ram, or even 3.6ns. Only the ones with 3.0ns ram are
normally realiable over 300mhz - however, some 3.3ns ram is really
underrated and can handle the low 300s.