Powercolor 9800Pro 128MB 256bit noob question

[@ndrew]

Firstly I am sorry if this has been asked/highlighted before, but
trying to trawl through this NG has me more confused.

I am an Nvidia to ATI convert, a noob, a video virgin, etc ,etc. But
with the money I had I bought an OEM (powercolor boxed and badged)
9800Pro 128MB 256bit card (product number R98-PC3). It has an R350
GPU on it...now here is my query...

Powercolor states that the core speed is 380MHZ and the memory speed
is 337Mhz x2. So I guess it is commonly referred to as a 380/674
card?!

But running Everest, that program states that the "GPU clock" is
running at 324MHz and that the "Memory Bus Real Clock" is 290MHz with
and "effective bandwidth" of 580MHz. So I read that as my card
running at 324/580...way less than the 380/674 that Powercolor state.
Everest also states that the "ramdac clock" is 400MHz but I don't
know if that is relevant here.

I bought this because of its price being affordable, but have I
bought a "lemon"? Or is the the way the R350 runs? Is it an
underclocked reject? It seems a damn sight better than my FX5600XT,
so I don't think I have lost anything here, but as with us all I am
hoping that I haven't been suckered...again.

TIA

Will give you the figures from my Sapphire 9800 Pro and Everest:

GPU clock 378

Memory Bus Properties

Real Clock 338

Effective clock 676

Looks like you may have cheaper memory than mine ... this may cause the
differences. Not sure why the GPU clock is down that is a bit strange.

regards

@ndrew

 

[Temor]

Firstly I am sorry if this has been asked/highlighted before, but trying to
trawl through this NG has me more confused.

I am an Nvidia to ATI convert, a noob, a video virgin, etc ,etc. But with
the money I had I bought an OEM (powercolor boxed and badged) 9800Pro 128MB
256bit card (product number R98-PC3). It has an R350 GPU on it...now here is
my query...

Powercolor states that the core speed is 380MHZ and the memory speed is
337Mhz x2. So I guess it is commonly referred to as a 380/674 card?!

But running Everest, that program states that the "GPU clock" is running at
324MHz and that the "Memory Bus Real Clock" is 290MHz with and "effective
bandwidth" of 580MHz. So I read that as my card running at 324/580...way
less than the 380/674 that Powercolor state. Everest also states that the
"ramdac clock" is 400MHz but I don't know if that is relevant here.

I bought this because of its price being affordable, but have I bought a
"lemon"? Or is the the way the R350 runs? Is it an underclocked reject? It
seems a damn sight better than my FX5600XT, so I don't think I have lost
anything here, but as with us all I am hoping that I haven't been
suckered...again.

TIA

temor

 

[Augustus]

Well, there's something wrong for sure. You may have been shipped the wrong
card. Your stock clock speeds, 325 core, and 290 memory are exactly what
they should be if you have a 9800SE. If I were you I'd open Everest again
and take a look how many pixel pipelines you've got. A 9800 Pro and a 9800
should have 8 pipelines. A 9800SE will have 4. There's such a thing as a
256bit 9800SE. I suspect this is what you have. The Powercolor 9800SE
matching yours has a part number of R98-SC3.
http://www.power-color.com/r98-sc3.htm

 

[@ndrew]

Same figures I have here for my Sapphire 9800 Pro.(376/676). Does
Everest actually state it IS 256bit?

Yes under the memory stats ... bus width 256

regards

@ndrew

 

[Shawk]

Will give you the figures from my Sapphire 9800 Pro and Everest:

GPU clock 378

Memory Bus Properties

Real Clock 338

Effective clock 676

Looks like you may have cheaper memory than mine ... this may cause the
differences. Not sure why the GPU clock is down that is a bit strange.

regards

@ndrew

Same figures I have here for my Sapphire 9800 Pro.(376/676). Does Everest
actually state it IS 256bit?

 

[Temor]

Yep.... here is the report from Everest...

Graphics Processor Properties:
Video Adapter ATI Radeon 9800 Pro
(R350)
GPU Code Name R350
PCI Device 1002 / 4E48
Transistors 117 million
Process Technology 0.15u
Bus Type AGP
Memory Size 128 MB
GPU Clock 324 MHz
RAMDAC Clock 400 MHz
Pixel Pipelines 8
TMU Per Pipeline 1
Vertex Shaders 4 (v2.0)
Pixel Shaders 1 (v2.0)
DirectX Hardware Support DirectX v9.0
Pixel Fillrate 2592 MPixel/s
Texel Fillrate 2592 MTexel/s

Memory Bus Properties:
Bus Type DDR
Bus Width 256-bit
Real Clock 290 MHz (DDR)
Effective Clock 580 MHz
Bandwidth 18560 MB/s

regards

Temor

PS Its an R98-PC3 not R98-SC3
regards

temor

 

[Temor]

Yep... see report on other reply. Also the 4 memory chips are arranged in an
L shape around the heatsink.... a dead giveaway...or so I believe !!!!

regards

temor

 

[Temor]

I just checked on the product comparison on the ATI website for 9800 range.
It looks as though, near as damn it I have a bog-standard 9800. Methinks I
have been conned. The UK supplier commented that they might have been
shipped a load of 9800LE by mistake, but I always thought LE meant Lite
Edition i.e. no extra, brown box, etc. But mine came in a powercolor box,
with a PRO sticker on it with extra games, WinDVD, and cables.

It gets curiouser and curiouser.

 

[Shawk]

I just checked on the product comparison on the ATI website for 9800 range.
It looks as though, near as damn it I have a bog-standard 9800. Methinks I
have been conned. The UK supplier commented that they might have been
shipped a load of 9800LE by mistake, but I always thought LE meant Lite
Edition i.e. no extra, brown box, etc. But mine came in a powercolor box,
with a PRO sticker on it with extra games, WinDVD, and cables.

It gets curiouser and curiouser.

Dont know what LE means but mine was a Lite Retail and there was no LE in
the title. Mine had no bundled games but otherwise its a full-blooded
9800Pro. Your UK supplier - did they offer to change it?

Shaun

 

[Temor]

Sorry Shawk I hit reply instead of Reply To Group !!!

Yeah....no problem there apart from the inconvenience. They don't have
anything similar at the same price unless I go down to a 128bit 9800PRO.
Going elsewhere at the moment I wont get anything similar for the price
(£123)... thought the price was too good to be true.

temor

 

[Temor]

Here's a bit of an update, for those interested....

Firstly, an interesting article from HOCP here from June 2003:
http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NDgzLDE=
They got a PowerColor 9800Pro with exactly the same level of underclocking.

But from my POV I think I have been sold a, "failed QC", board from a stock
of god knows how many, either supplied knowingly by the retailer, or by the
wholesaler, whatever. As I said previously it was in a Powercolor box, etc
with all the trimmings, games etc. But looking at the "box art" it doesn't
say "RADEON9800PRO", it says "RADEON9800" with a star-shaped sticker with
"pro" on it stuck on the front under the word Radeon. Everest has confirmed
its a 9800Pro.

Anyway, FYI, I installed ATITool and did some testing, albeit for maybe not
long enough. My aim was to see if I could clock the card up to the
standard-ish 9800Pro speeds i.e. GPU380 and Memory680 (340x2) without any
errors or artefacts, etc.

The results.. so far.... is that the GPU will run at 380 with no problems,
BUT the memory failed at 329. Hmmm. Mabbe if I ran the test for longer than
an hour the GPU might start to fail, I don't know. But for what its worth I
thought I would let you know. So it looks like its down to the memory as to
why these babies are underclocked in the first place.

I would have never wanted to overclock the card anyway as I'm not into
overclocking, etc. But I reckon if this card works OK at 380/640 (320x2)
then that will do me. Plus I can always take it back, but for now I guess I
got a 9800Semi-Pro, eh? ;-)

So.... if nothing else, if you see a UK retailer selling these for ~ £123
then caveat emptor. Not that I suspect the retailer?!?!?

regards

temor