Graphics Just got a 9600 XT... Overclocking Question...

Hello all,

I just got a 9600 XT cheap (about 99 dollars US) new retail actual ATI card (not a asus, powercolor, etc) but and actual ATI labeled card. I wanted it for entry level gaming (I.e some halflife 2, halo, etc) until I can get the 6800 that I want. I am going to run it on an undetermined motherboard with a 3000 XP barton 333 MHz processor and 1 GB samsung ram. Now my questions...

How does this card compare to the 128 bit 9800's assuming no soft mod, just straigt core speed overclocking and stock clock performance?

What kind of overclocking can this card do with stock cooling?

How do you recomend testing if the overclock is stable on a graphics card (sorry NOOB to this....)

Any recomendations for aftermarket cooling on this card?

Thanks

 

A 128bit 9800SE unsoftmodded produces basically the same perfromance as a 9600XT, sometimes even worse. Just use Ati Tool to find your max core/memory speeds. A good aftermarket VGA cooler is the Ati Silencer 2 because it cools the GPU and Memory very effieciently but still quietly.

 

The 9800SE can come with 128bitDDR or 256bitDDR but it lacks the power to really take advantage of the 256bitDDR. Still the 256bitDDR version of the 9800SE is the faster one and yet it's certainly no faster than the 9600XT. In fact the 9600XT wins on many minor points such as being smaller, less power hungry, cooler and a better o/c'er. Even so the 9600XT is pretty close to the limit of the 9600 series of cards so only expect to go from 500/600 to around 590/640. Rem small steps, test throughly and avoid leaving it too close to the edge. The 9800SE's saving grace is the softmod (to enable the 4 dormant pipes) which probably only has a 20%ish chance of success but would leave you with a much faster card; 9800SE_128bitDDR = suped up 9500Pro, 9800SE_256bitDDR = 9800Pro!

The stock 9600XT cooler is actually very good and I'd doubt you'd get a whole lot more from the core anyway, probably not worth the effort or money involved. To test you're stable when o/c'ing a quick run of 3Dmark2001SE or 3Dmark03 ideally with AA+AF forced on to really stress your card. Do that every time you take a step up while o/c'ing and watch closely for artifacts (visual glitches) as well as the obvious freezing/crashing. When you find your max stable o/c be sure to run a few different games and benchmarks to really be sure it truly is stable, then back off at least 5mhz (core & RAM) for the benefit of the longer term. Happy clocking!