Video Card Thread (Mostly Gecube x1950xt)

Wow, this thread will never die...

Just set the FSB to 423 in the BIOS, leave the CPU voltage to auto (if you want, or you can decrease your temps slightly by finding the "sweet spot" - I would guess 1.5*v)

Anyways, harvrdguy, glad to know you're back! Glad to know everyone is back really (except for sam, he's always here)

Well I guess it kinda depends on the version you get. I hear the 64bit versions are a little more buggy, but my OS seems to be a lot more stable after all of the updates - and with SP1 around the corner (hopefully) things can only get better. Towards the beginning I did get a few lock ups, errors, BSOD's etc, but the other pc downstairs has vista home premium installed (32bit) and has had absolutely no lockups or errors... But then again its only used for the internet.

Moving on, I plan on breaking my old record very soon. I am thinking of getting my quad to 4.2Ghz due to the amount of cold weather we are having over here. I think I can do better, now that I have also unlocked the 3870s so I can bench at 900Mhz on the core.

 

Lol, am I to take that as a compliment? What can I say, I'm addicted to the place...

By the way, I think that sig might be a bit big...

 

Naa, thats a complement sam!

AS for the sig, the rules state I can have a 500x200 pixel wide sig, and cant be over 50kb in size - well mine is 56... Do really think they'll care since I have no text?

 

My bad, I thought it was 500x150. Unless they're pedantic, the size shouldn't matter, but I'm sure you can get a picture of those dimensions down in size with beter compression.

 

What do you mean "unlocked" the 3870? Can I do this to my card too?

Rich, Urdu is the National language of Pakistan, English is the official language. There are many more languages there, I speak eight myself. Also I don't have my "hot" dual core anymore. You will see me soon with a Quad Core at least 3.6Ghz.

 

abuzar, sorry I didnt mean unlocked, I just meant that I flashed their BIOS so now I can overclock them above 860Mhz on the core.

BTW, 8 languages is A LOT!!! What are they?

 

Does BIOS flashing make it more stable? I might do a volt mod on mine.

I speak Sindhi, Seraiki, Urdu, Punjabi, English, Arabic, French, and Hindi.

Oops I guess that's seven

 

I counted 8

Anyways, the only reason why I flashed my cards was to gain the ability to overclock past 860Mhz - so no, it does not make your card more stable. There are different BIOS's out there that change the fan speeds, and change the 3d clocks and voltages too.

 

Oh it was that pll bug that stopped it at 862mhz?

 

Wow, can't belive this is still going!

 

Why does that get posted on every page now, seemingly? lol
Abuzar: Yeah, Unlocking the BIOS I believe removes the 860mhz overclock limit and also corrects the fan speed I think.

 

Sam

Thanks for the memory link - wow $84 for 2 gigs - that is cheap!

Waymon - Ray, yeah I'll try to pop in every few days since you guys can solve almost any problem known to mankind If I had 20,000 3dmarks I'd have the biggest sig the site would take - and now you're plotting to improve!! Go for it!

All you guys are so cocky! It's not enough for Abuzar, who speaks 8 languages (while I have been struggling for years to get halfway decent in my second language, Spanish) to hit 11000 with his hot dual core, but forget that - he packaged it up and sold it already and now quad core is coming! Ok, dude, so keeping the same 3850, you think you'll hit 13k? Lol

Hey, Ray and Sam, on the newegg reviews on the sapphire 3850, they're saying that ATI tools doesn't control the fan speeds. You're saying, Sam, that unlocking the Bios fixes the fan speed on Ray's 3870. Is this something that I should think about for the 3850, and if so, how do you guys do it?

- Rich

 

It's a strange issue. ATiTool does in fact control the fan speed for the sapphire single slot version, but that's noisy as hell so don't get it. It doesn't work for the stock cooler though.
The pleasantly quiet stock cooler is only so because the stock BIOS is glitched to not automatically raise the fan speed above 40%. For normal usage that's fine, the card doesn't overheat, even in a case with little airflow. However, if you overclock heat then becomes a big issue, so you can raise the fan speed by getting a fixed BIOS (also increases the maximum overclock so is usually recommended) or if you don't want to mess with BIOSes you can use Rivatuner to set the fan speed to anything you like, but you have to set it to 100% first, and then drop down. The program doesn't raise the fan speed if you increase it from its current setting.

 

My new 3Dmark score: 11,800

Gonna try for 12K soon.

 

Just figured I would give you guys a little update...

In my system, there are 2 cheap plastic barbs (the things the hoses slide over for watercooling) that are connected to my NB to watercool it.. Well about a week ago one of them cracked, and yes there was a puddle of water on my 3870

Thank god I saw it quickly and through a sock on top of the card and switched the PSU off from the back. (The sock was the only think I could find) I managed to clean the whole card up and got it looking just like new (no warps in the PCB or anything like that).

I think everything will still work though, the computer screen was on when there was water on the card and there were no artifacts although I was on the internet at the time.

I will test it tomarrow, just by plugging in the VGA cable and power cable to see if the card still works.

The system is now drained and I am waiting for 2 new metalbarbs from performancepcs.com which should be here by friday. I was in Jamiaca this past week so I could not purchase them earlier.

-so much for future 20k+ scores...

 

I'm less worried about the leak than I am about the fact that you put potentially static-ridden clothing on your graphics card.

Pre-made watercooling kits, seriously, there's no substitute for doing it yourself and using proper parts.

 

Oh come on sam... I have never fried anything by static electricity, even though I work on a carpeted floor (my bendroom).

If it did get fried from the sock than I would've seen something, but there was no problem with the image on the computer screen when I shut the pc off.

And sam, the swiftech kit has got to be an exception. For $250 it is a pretty good kit - apogee GT for the CPU.

Also, technically it is a self made kit because I added the NB and 2 VGA blocks to it...

 

Perhaps, but then perhaps not. The primary concern is to make sure that you cleaned EVERYTHING, and didn't just mop up the water, because the chemicals in the fluid that prevent it from corroding, conducting, growing algae etc will leave a sticky residue after it dries, and if that gets somewhere important, it's usually bye bye motherboard. It was in the case of one of my friends.

 

Well thanks for the heads up sam! However, a week later after the thing spilled and the card is not sticky at all.

I will post a pic of it in a bit.

BTW, I hooked it up to my monitor and turned it on... And it works!!! I just switched it on to see if the computer would POST, and I saw the BIOS screen and was so happy.

I'll have that pic up in a bit!

 

That's some impressive luck. Be warned it probably won't turn out so rosy if that happens again.

Hold on a wee bit, 3.0Ghz? You can go higher than that can't you?