Sapphire 9800 non pro question?

[Milo Malhame]

I just got this card and finally got it running stable. Now I need to know
how do you overclock this card? I heard about flashing bios but feel under
qualified to risk burning up a brand new $360.00 card. I recently graduated
from the NVidia camp and an msi fx 5600 non ultra card. In order to
overclock the NVidia card you simply download a registry entry called
coolbits and it opens up an overclocking tab under display properties. Is
there such a tweak for ATI cards? The reason I ask is performance related. I
mostly play MS Flight sim 2004 and I was expecting a huge frame rate
increase of at least 100% over the 5600 card, (based on all the "hoopla"
from both Ati and NVidia news groups). With all settings maxed out to high
or ultra high, fps went from average of 22 with 5600 card to 26/28 with Ati
9800 card. Less than a 20% increase in fps is very disappointing.
Rest of system is Athlon 2800xp+ @2200, Win Xp Pro, 512 megs OCZ dual
channel pc 3200 ram, Msi K7N2 Delta MoBo etc...
Could there be conflict between the Ati card and the Nforce2 mobo? I just
thought that at twice the price the 9800 non pro should be more than 20%
faster than the 5600. Also the ATI control panel identifies my non pro card
as a 9800pro. Is that normal?
AnandTech shows a bench mark on FS 2004 with a system similar to mine
getting over 125 fps?
I am Running 3.9 cat drivers.
Thoughts please.
Cheers,
Milo

 

[John Hall]

The easiest way to overclock your 9800 non pro card is to get the ATI Omega
3.9 drivers. It will add a tab to your control panel app that will let you
overclock the VPU and the memory. Since your card already shows as a pro,
you may have a pro. In which case check your current memory and VPU speeds
using the Omega drivers to see if they are running at Pro speeds. If they
are, then you can choose to overclock further. If not, then proceed to
overclock in slow increments. The Omega drivers come with an artifact
tester so that with each increase in memory and/or VPU speed, you can check
to make sure that the card will run stable at the speed you set. The
default speed for a 9800 pro is 378 mhz for the VPU and 337.5 mhz for the
memory.

I also run MS Flight Sim 2004. Check to make sure that you are not limiting
the fps so that your true fps will show. Personally I lock my fps at 20 so
more resources are available to the CPU for other aspects of the game.
FS2004 is very CPU intensive. No, you won't get a huge boost in frame rates
with any top end card. What you will get is consistenly higher frame rates
particularly in areas with a great many objects, and a much prettier picture
because you can run with 4 x aa and 8 x af with little or no performance
hit.

JK

 

[Milo Malhame]

Thanks, but where do I get the "Omega" drivers. All 3 sites that I checked,
Ati, Sapphire and Guru 3d only show what I already have, Ati "Catalyst" 3.9
The box my 9800 card came in shows default clock speed as 325x290. Untill I
get some overclocking software I won't really know if by accident I truly
have a 9800 pro.
Thanks
Milo

 

[Skid]

Go to www.rage3d.com

You can download a free overclocking utility or find links to the Omega
drivers. You'll also find lots of good advice in the tweaking forum.

Regardless of what it says in device manager, your card is not a 9800 Pro.
You might or might not be able to overclock it to Pro specs.

 

[John Hall]

http://www.omegacorner.com/

JK

Thanks, but where do I get the "Omega" drivers. All 3 sites that I checked,
Ati, Sapphire and Guru 3d only show what I already have, Ati "Catalyst" 3.9
The box my 9800 card came in shows default clock speed as 325x290. Untill I
get some overclocking software I won't really know if by accident I truly
have a 9800 pro.
Thanks
Milo

 

[Dirty Harry]

Get Rage 3d tweaker for you OCing needs. If you need some info on flashin
it look here:
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread...a4d98&threadid=661501&perpage=15&pagenumber=2
Worked for my sapphire!