Saphire 9800 Pro problems

[AlphaWoolf]

I'm on my second Sapphire 9800 Pro from NewEgg and it has exactly the
same problems the first one did: dismal performance after playing 3D
games a while. Everything is smooth as butter and then it just slows
to a c r a w l. Sometimes it's okay for 5 minutes, sometimes an hour
- it depends on the game it seems. I think the card is overheating?
The RAM chips seem room temperature, but the chip heatsink gets very
hot.

Also, while the display is rock steady at 800x600x100Hz (my desktop)
there is annoying flickering at 1072x768 (in games). I can't seem to
set a stable refresh rate - it changes with the resolution.

My system:
Asus A7N8X Deluxe/Athlon XP2200+/1 Gb RAM

I have:

1) Replaced the card - this is the second card with this problem.

2) I upgraded from a Geforce3 that had no trouble whatsoever. I
uninstalled the NVidia drivers and Detonator Destroyer found nothing
to remove.

3) I have an Antec case with 4 case fans (2 in , 2 out). Temperature
in the case is 80F, ambient is ~70F.

4) I have used Cats 4.1 and 4.2 - no difference. Going to try the
4.3s.

Any suggestions? I'd snap this damn card in half and chuck it out the
window, but I need it in one piece to get a refund (-15% restocking
fee, of course). >:-(

Jack
Remove your coat for email.

 

[Kev]

I'm on my second Sapphire 9800 Pro from NewEgg and it has exactly the
same problems the first one did: dismal performance after playing 3D
games a while. Everything is smooth as butter and then it just slows
to a c r a w l. Sometimes it's okay for 5 minutes, sometimes an hour
- it depends on the game it seems. I think the card is overheating?
The RAM chips seem room temperature, but the chip heatsink gets very
hot.

Also, while the display is rock steady at 800x600x100Hz (my desktop)
there is annoying flickering at 1072x768 (in games). I can't seem to
set a stable refresh rate - it changes with the resolution.

My system:
Asus A7N8X Deluxe/Athlon XP2200+/1 Gb RAM

I have:

1) Replaced the card - this is the second card with this problem.

2) I upgraded from a Geforce3 that had no trouble whatsoever. I
uninstalled the NVidia drivers and Detonator Destroyer found nothing
to remove.

3) I have an Antec case with 4 case fans (2 in , 2 out). Temperature
in the case is 80F, ambient is ~70F.

4) I have used Cats 4.1 and 4.2 - no difference. Going to try the
4.3s.

Any suggestions? I'd snap this damn card in half and chuck it out the
window, but I need it in one piece to get a refund (-15% restocking
fee, of course). >:-(

Jack
Remove your coat for email.

This suggests to me that maybe it's not the card. Maybe there is something
to be found wrong in the rest of the system ? Try the card in another PC.

 

[GTX_SlotCar]

I have a suggestion. Get ATI Tool or some similar OC'ing program and
under-clock your core and memory by about 15 each. Your card will run
slower, but it'll also run cooler. See if it stays smooth now. If it
doesn't, the problem is elsewhere. If it does, your card is just
overheating. Try turning the core back to default with the memory still
under-clocked. If it's still smooth, you'll need ramsinks on the memory. If
it's not, you need a better cooler on the core. Now try it the opposite way,
keep the core under-clocked and the memory at default. If it gets choppy or
slow again, you'll need a better core cooler and ramsinks.
With added cooling, these cards will OC nicely and really fly. Don't give up
on it too fast.

Gary

 

[AlphaWoolf]

I have a suggestion. Get ATI Tool or some similar OC'ing program and
under-clock your core and memory by about 15 each. Your card will run
slower, but it'll also run cooler. See if it stays smooth now. If it
doesn't, the problem is elsewhere. If it does, your card is just
overheating. Try turning the core back to default with the memory still
under-clocked. If it's still smooth, you'll need ramsinks on the memory. If
it's not, you need a better cooler on the core. Now try it the opposite way,
keep the core under-clocked and the memory at default. If it gets choppy or
slow again, you'll need a better core cooler and ramsinks.
With added cooling, these cards will OC nicely and really fly. Don't give up
on it too fast.

Gary

Excellent idea! If it does turn out that the card needs these
additional cooling methods, why keep it though? They can't
manufacture cards that work out of the box? I might be able to apply
RAMsinks easily, but the idea of ripping the GPU cooler off and
replacing it seems a bit extreme to me for an unoverclocked card. And
anything that's gonna cost more than shipping and the restocking fee
is too much for me at this point.

But like I said, this is a great suggestion for at least pinpointing
the problem. Perhaps the card isn't overheating at all (crossing my
fingers so I can turn these case fans back down to "slow").
Unfortunately it'll be at least a couple of days before I can try this
- off on a holiday in a few hours (far, far away from computers!).

Jack
Remove your coat for email.

 

[GTX_SlotCar]

"AlphaWoolf" wrote >

They can't manufacture cards that work out of the box?
..... And anything that's gonna cost more than shipping and the restocking fee
is too much for me at this point.

Well, you have a good point, of course.
Maybe the price of these cards are going down fast because some of them are
having cooling problems and Sapphire is hoping to salvage something from
them by having people add ramsinks themselves. As OEM products, they use
several different chipsets in different runs, and this seems supported by
what people here say they've been getting. They're all excellent chips,
though, and may even surpass specs. Mine came with Hynix 2.8ns memory chips,
and (I'll have to double check this) when I changed my cooler, I could
almost swear the core was marked R360 (I only glanced at it). It didn't
occur to me until later, but that's an XT chip. It could be that Sapphire
took a gamble and used spare, high quality chips on these cards, then didn't
use ramsinks to keep the cost down. The results were mixed.

The Arctic Cooler VGA Silencer I used cost about $28 with shipping. I made
my own ramsinks from an old P1 heatsink, so that didn't cost me anything,
but I do have a couple extra bucks tied up in the AS adhesive to mount them.
The most it would cost you to ship it back is $25. Maybe a cheaper cooler,
if needed, would be a solution, though. And, maybe you won't need to change
the cooler at all. Most of the overheating problems has been with the memory
chips.

Gary

 

[Acey]

This suggests to me that maybe it's not the card. Maybe there is something
to be found wrong in the rest of the system ? Try the card in another PC.

I have the same opinion. Try the card in a mate's pc. My 9800Pro never had
the problems you describe even after overclocking it silly.

 

[Jim Davis]

Excellent idea! If it does turn out that the card needs these
additional cooling methods, why keep it though? They can't
manufacture cards that work out of the box? I might be able to apply
RAMsinks easily, but the idea of ripping the GPU cooler off and
replacing it seems a bit extreme to me for an unoverclocked card. And
anything that's gonna cost more than shipping and the restocking fee
is too much for me at this point.

But like I said, this is a great suggestion for at least pinpointing
the problem. Perhaps the card isn't overheating at all (crossing my
fingers so I can turn these case fans back down to "slow").
Unfortunately it'll be at least a couple of days before I can try this
- off on a holiday in a few hours (far, far away from computers!).

Check your cooling fans. You should have front fans sucking air in,
rear fans pushing air out. Open the slot beside the video card. Make
sure your power supply fan is pushing air out at the back. If any fans
are wrong, reverse them.

Airflow means alot, not just number of fans. Try this, it really
helps. You have a heat problem by the sound of it.

 

[AlphaWoolf]

Check your cooling fans. You should have front fans sucking air in,
rear fans pushing air out. Open the slot beside the video card. Make
sure your power supply fan is pushing air out at the back. If any fans
are wrong, reverse them.

Airflow means alot, not just number of fans. Try this, it really
helps. You have a heat problem by the sound of it.

Just to finally follow up on my little adventure...

I did try underclocking both the RAM and the GPU separately. These
did help some, but nothing great. Quite on impulse I bought one of
those slot fans and placed it right beneath the card. This has helped
immensely and I'm now satisfied with the performance of the card.
Funny, a thread appeared about slot fans shortly after my last post.
Despite all my case fans I probably had a "dead spot" just below the
card. I'm not sure how long this cheapie (but quiet) slot fan will
hold out, but it's doing the trick without the need for tampering with
the card.

I'm not thrilled that the Sapphire 9800's NewEgg is selling are such
hot cards, so buyer beware and get additional cooling if you purchase
one of these cards.

Jack
Remove your coat for email.