I've just purchased the Sapphire X800 XT VIVO and so far pretty dissapointed.....in 3DMark05 anyway. My 9800XT was getting around 2500 and the X800 XT is only getting 3600 tops! Even with all settings set to bare minimum, no FSAA etc. I'm wanting to see if over clocking the card will help with this score. I've installed PowerStrip 3.54 but I really don't know where to start the clocks to. Can someone point me to a good article on overclocking this card? Does anyone have an idea why I am getting such crappy score with this card? Thanks!
I have an X800XT PCI-E on an Intel P4 3Ghz. I score between 5,500 and 5,700 with minimum overclocking. My best is 6002 in 3D Mark 05 at 540-545 (Core/Mem) For overclocking I use ATITool 0.0.23. I like it better than ATI Tray Tools because of the Fan control. For drivers I just installed the Catalyst 4.11 and then the Beta 4.12. The card runs cooler and better. So far no problems. I am not familiar with the AMD chips but regardless your score seems low. Amancio
make sure you're using either the catalyst 4.11 or 4.12 beta drivers. check the forums at sapphire's site (there should be one, if not, this advice is pointless) and ask if anyone else had had similar problems. make sure all drivers on your comp are up to date. remember when uninstalling catalyst drivers to use driver cleaner 3 (you can get it from guru3d) in safe mode to remove all remant pieces of the drivers (which you should uninstall in the control panel) before installing new drivers. make sure 3dmark05 is updated to version 1.1.0.
Thanks for your reply Amancio I just tried the stress test that's in Counter Strike: Source. It told me that I am getting 77fps. Have you tried that stress test with your system? 77fps still seems a bit low to me. This is a test without a lot of action taking place. I can see the fps dropping through the floor with a few enemies on-screen at the same time, once HL2 is available. There must be something going on with my system but I can't find the problem. And I am out of places to look.
yessir... F11 is the latest. I also have the latest nForce driver (5.10) And the newest Audigy2 ZS drivers as well. I've pretty much covered my bases in the drivers area.
Do you mean to first go into Safe Mode then go to the device properties and unstall the drivers? If I do that do I cancel the autodetection of the card after re-booting and install the 4.12 drivers? Thanks!
go into add/remove programs and uninstall the ati catalyst drivers (or whatever they're listed as). then reboot into safe mode, and run driver cleaner 3 (which you should downlaod from guru3d). clean the comp of ati drivers, then go to tools -> cab cleaner and clean the driver.cab. this will take a few minutes (takes me about 12) but you can be sure that the new drivers won't be interfered with by any remnants of older drivers. then reboot into normal mode, install the 4.12 betas, reboot again (for stability's sake), and hopefully the card will live up to it's place as fastest all around gfx card in the world (and i've a geforce 6800, so don't call me a fanboy).
Things are much better now. I just scored 107fps in the HalfLife2 Stress Test, which is about the same as I was getting with my 9800XT. My 3DMark05pro, running all tests at default settings, I got 5401....which is about in line with what it should be stock. I think what the problem was is that I didn't use the driver cleaner in Safe Mode first. There was an nVidia display driver that was a hold over from the BFG6800gt oc that I took back to the store due to messed up memory (I had to take two cards back, both had memory problems with artifacting even on POST!). One thing I did notice in the Driver Cleaner is that it displays nForce drivers. I think it would be a good idea for a future version of Driver Cleaner to be able to discern nForce drivers and not show them....it was pretty confusing till I found out that the program was deleting my nForce stuff. Now....I need to figure out how to overclock this card Thanks for all your help....I knew this would be the place to come to!
in driver cleaner, if you select "ati," then it'll only clean ati drivers, not every driver in the list, like nforce.
You're welcome . The Sapphire x800XT PCI-E is one of the best and fastest cards out there. Try overclocking it to find out how high you can go. Just keep an eye on the temperature to make sure the card doesn't go nuts (use ATITool). I've tested mine to 540/565 (core/mem), it runs but I see artifacts. It runs ok at 540/545. All these testing is just for fun because I do not play any games but do lots of home video editing. Regards, Amancio
Yep, but mine goes higher than yours If you want a really nice overclockable card, then go with a Platinum Edition, major overclocking there.
SVT Amateur, Is 579/579 the highest you've gone? What about artifacts? does the temp. only goes up to 70C? What do you use for overclocking? I do agree that with better cooling the cards do perform better. My best is 6112 at 540-565, not many artifacts so I could go higher, the temp. goes up to 78C. I am looking at some cooling options and if I get to your clock timings I should easily get over 6,300. I'll let you know once I get there. Regards, Amancio
I could have swore I just posted a reply to this, but maybe for some reason it didn't post. I was just able to get to 600 Mhz Core / 579 Mhz Memory without any artifacting and I know I have reached the highest I can go on my memory clock without a vmod (I see major artifacting when going above 579). I may still be able to get past the 600 Mhz core but I didn't want to do too many benchmarks all at once at such high overclocks and stress the card. With the new 8.08 beta driver and 4.11 CCC with A.I. advanced and geometry instancing enabled I was able to achieve a score of 6318 in 3DMark05. Needless to say, I'm very happy
Also, my temps only reach around 70C when gaming but that is at what I designate a "safe" overclock of 550 Mhz Core / 550 Mhz Memory. While benchmarking under 3DMark05 at 600 Mhz Core / 579 Mhz Memory I don't think my temps reached 60C. I also use ATITool to overclock because it allows me to set my fan at 100% fixed, and I run my fan at 100% at all times, even when my comp is idle.
Awesome. Don't you put a lot of stress on the fan when running it at 100% all the time? I'll try it and see if I can live with the added fan noise. Your card's overclocking capabilities are excellent, so far I don't think mine can get close to 600 Core even with better cooling. What settings are best for higher scores? which ones have the most impact? I am using the beta driver 4.12 & Control Panel, not CCC. Is the new 8.08 beta driver the same as 4.12? By the way, I posted the same comments on another thread. Amancio
Yes, the 8.08 beta driver is the same as the 4.12 beta, I just don't call it the 4.12 beta because 4.12 refers to the Catalyst package, not just the driver. I can't even hear the fan on my card, even if I run it at 100%, I guess the stock ATI fans must be loud?? Also, I use CCC because it allows me to enable A.I. to advanced and Geometry Instancing, 2 things that give great boosts to improvement in both benchmarking and gaming. Last time I check the regular Control Panel didn't have these options.
SVT Amateur, Thanks for the tips...I just installed the CCC (4.11) on top of the Control Panel and used A.I. Advanced and Geometry Instance enable and got 6207 in 3D Mark 05 at 540-565 with minimal artifacts. I am quite pleased! I was also running the fan at 100% and the temp did not pass 70C. It still runs hotter than yours but I think it has to do with the small office room in m y basement with limited ventilation. Besides it's getting pretty cold here (Toronto) therefore the Furnace is on. Anything else I can try to get even higher scores? Amancio 3D Mark 05 - 6207
Well, it seems if you are getting artifacts with those clocks it's not due to heat, so the only thing left is to do a voltage mod (which I don't have experience in since I can't do it due to my stock massive RAM sink) but it can be risky. By the way, congrats on the score increase, very nice.
No big deal with the scores...there will always be higher ones. I can probably push the card a little more but I see no reason for now. What are these volt modes? Not that I will do it, just curious. Regards, Amancio
