Is it worth overclocking your vcard?

[Tuxy]

I'm going to be replacing my damaged 9700pro with a 9800pro this weekend. After a year of overclocking and experimenting with modified heatsinks and software it finally had enuf. I'm not sure how much of it was down to my inexperience at the time or perhaps vcards just can't take the increased clock?

I'm kinda dissapointed that I cannot find a 9700 pro anymore, and even more dissapointed that the 9800 pro is not much of an improvement. So if I overclock it with stock sink and fan but with a side mounted 75cfm fan, will the card last or should I not bother? I'm not going to do anything to physically void the warranty.

I've learned my lesson with my 9700pro. It's an expensive one. Comments?

[ol' man]

You 9800pro will be a little faster though and it may have better HS construction. I know my 9800pro does 450/380 on default voltages. I think for now running the 9800pro at stock would be more than enough to suffice?

[ohyeahar]

what company makes u'r 9800pro? i've never seen one that runs 450/380 stock...i've only seen 380/340...

[krupted]

yeah if the 9800pro isnt fast enough for your games you have other problems..... and to answer your question, basically no, o/c video cards does little in the grand scheme, if your new game wont run because your card, you need a new card. A few framerates is all you squeeze out of most games.

[Tuxy]

Cool. That's what I figured. Thanks.

[Tuxy]

SH!T

I just installed my 9800pro, and my PC STILL crashed?! I was running 3DMARK03 and half way through the video went black and my monitor light went from green to amber. I had to reset my PC.

WTF! Did I just replace a perfectly fine 9700pro? Is my mobo to blame? OMG I can't beleive this sh!t.

please help.

I just reemmebred that about a month ago I notced that running 3dmark03 the performance dropped dramatically. I went from 5000+ to under 2000. I'm still getting the same thing with the new card.

[Martin_89]

try running your CPU at stock speeds.

And i would leave the card at stock speeds untill the time comes when you need more speed then overclock.

[Tuxy]

Yeh that's what I'm doing now, and I think that's the problem. 3dmark03 ran without crashing. I'm so upset right now I waisted 450 bucks on a new card

Hopefully I can sell it to some one.

*update* CAT 3.9 drivers in case you were wondering

Just did a comparison between the 2 cards on my system. The 9700pro managed 900+ in 3dmark03 with max. detail @1024 x 768. You could really see the blurring effects nicely becasue it ran so damn slow. But atleast it gave me a chance to admire the picture quality.

Then I installed the 9800pro and I managed 1900 score. But the picture quality was no where near as good. The detail was set on max. within ATI settings plus 3dmark, and the lighting and blurring effects just weren't there?

[Tuxy]

Here's the image quality I was talking about. This is my 9800pro with anti aliasing at 6 samples, texture filtering at anisotrophic 16

[K62]

hmmm picture doesnt work

[Martin_89]

yup im getting the same problem with the picture not working.

That is a bit of a bummer about spending all that money on a card. can't you return it to the store that you got it from?

[Tuxy]

I doubt I can return it. Here are the images.

[Tuxy]

With my 9700 pro, the effects more mroe exaderated. For insatnce in the ogre game test, the volume lighting effect through the window was like a mist. The Glowing effects where much brighter and fuller, the blurring effects where very noticeable. With these it's too subtle.

[ol' man]

Your AGP bus may be failing. I know serious sam can get corrupted on my HD and have weird glitchies but I never experienced that with 3dmark.

[Martin_89]

yea i see what you mean the 9700PRO looks well better.