Couldn't Resist Any Longer....

Dyre Straits · Oct 31, 2003, 07:28 PM

On the way home this evening, I found a 9600 Pro on the shelf at Best Buy for a final cost of $149.99 after a mail-in $20.00 rebate.

However, there's no coupon in this one for the Half Life 2 game. There WERE coupons inside the 9600 SE and above boxes. How do I go about getting my coupon now?

ALSO, there are absolutely NO cables, connectors, or anything else in the box other than the card, manual, and CD with the drivers. Isn't something missing?

Dyre Straits · Oct 31, 2003, 08:02 PM

Haha! I'm laughing at myself.

Right after installing the 9600 Pro, I couldn't wait to run 3DMark 2003. So, ran it right away. I only got a score of 2535!! I couldn't believe that. My Radeon 8500 was able to beat 2000.

Guess what was causing it. I had overlooked disabling RadClocker and the 9600 was being run at 285/285 which is what I had 'overclocked' the 8500 to.

So, running at default speeds now, I got 3092. Which still isn't terrific, but, I've noticed that RadClocker is showing my 9600 defaults at 400/300. This is a Built by ATi card. Isn't it supposed to be a little faster than that?

This one also has a fan on the VPU and I've had good luck overclocking the 8500. So, what would be a 'safe' bet to boost this one up to?

BWX · Oct 31, 2003, 08:18 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Dyre Straits

This one also has a fan on the VPU and I've had good luck overclocking the 8500. So, what would be a 'safe' bet to boost this one up to?

Try 500mhz- I heard those cards do it no problem.

~~craig588~~ · Nov 1, 2003, 01:17 AM

Maybe 480/330. That should be a good starting point with stock cooling.

Dyre Straits · Nov 1, 2003, 02:02 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by craig588
Maybe 480/330. That should be a good starting point with stock cooling.

I'm running it just slightly below these settings now. It's very stable so far. I've played a few chapters of MP2 tonight.

The only thing so far with the game is that I've had 2 CTDs. Once was when it went to load the next chapter, and the other was when Mona dived into the flames at the Fun House. However, these CTDs were also happening with the 8500 on occasion. Sooooo......I don't want to point the finger at the 9600. At least not yet.

BWX · Nov 1, 2003, 02:51 AM

I wouldn't OC mem at all without some ramsinks- but thats just me. After my experience with my 9700p- I used to oc the ram higher without sinks on there- It worked great for a while- but slowly my mem OC was less and less w/o artifacting in 3dmark03 test 2, 3- I have mem sinks now, but my mem OC will never be what the were when the card was new.. Next card get, I will not OC the mem for one second without mem heat sinks. I think one out of the 8 mem chips on my card was weak, and OC w/o heatsink made it weaker-

Just my experience- Feel your chips while it's under load and see if one is way hotter than all the others, If it is, stop OC'ing and get heatsinks.. (just what I will do from now on)

Dyre Straits · Nov 1, 2003, 04:38 AM

I don't feel too bad now.

I just scored 3461 on 3DMark2K3 and, compared to similar systems, that's the 5th highest score to date.

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k3=1506148

This is per the following parameters:

P4 (1500 - 1800 Mz)
Ati Radeon 9600 Series

I know I can do even better, too. But, I'm not wanting to push it too far right now.