Just Got 9600pro DAMN impressive!!

[Hellbinder]

I recently *cough* had to give up *cough* My beloved 9700pro. I have been um Suffering through having to use a friends 8500 for the last couple weeks...

Tonight I went to best buy and Bought a Genuine ATi 9600pro for 199$. Dispite my gripes in the recent past about it being released *underclocked* i am Very, Very, Very impressed!!!.

Of course what was the first thing i did?? i overclocked this Sucker!! Now mind you its like 100 degrees every day here and i live in an un-airconditioned house so its hot as hell. Anyway.. with stock cooling I am running at 480/330. I was running smoothly for a while at 495/340 but started to get artifacts, and it locked up. No doubt partly because i have no special cooling and its like 90+ degrees in my house.

Basically it has run every single game, application, Giszmo i can run with 4x FSAA and 8x AF at 1024x768 at around 60-70 FPS constant. even Pirates of the carribean gets about 40 FPS when on the ocean with the massive Pixel shaded water effects. With the above AA+AF settings. Mohaa screams along at 70-90 FPS with an occasional dip into the 50's. HULK plays at 100+ FPS, 3dmark03 is nice and smooth.

The bottom line is that if you Turn the Frame counters off and not worry about it you can play *ANY* game on the market today at 1024x768 with 4x FSAA+8xAF and it will be smooth as butter. No its not as High as my 9700pro was.. but its still a very *smooth* game experience. IMO it is hands down the card to own for anyone on a moderate Budget. Dont even Give it a second thought. It is flat out a FANTASTIC mid range card and IMO the best there is. AA and AF Quality are Identical to what my 9700pro kicked out.

Just fantastic!

(i can only imagine what this card can do with some non-standard beefed up cooling)

[saturnotaku]

Hey HB, why don't you take that back and buy my 9800 Pro. Then you can run everything at 1280x1024 with 4xAA and 8xAniso. And I will sell it to 'ya if the current deal I have with another forum member falls through. :D

But glad to hear it's workin' out for 'ya. That card looks to be the deal of the moment. I think the Big Blue Monster was selling that card for $179 this week. What you do is take that price over to Circuit City so they'll match it plus give you another 10% of the difference. That extra 10% covers your sales tax in most cases. ;)

[Hellbinder]

I bought it at Best Buy and it was listed at 199$. The reciet says SALE on it odly. The cashier even asked me if there was a "Rebate or somethiing" which i said no.

Are you saying i should only have paid $179???

(Also.. I am um... Just using this temporarily for a *cough* few weeks *cough*. Unlitl i can get the new Toy i intend to buy ;)

[Hellbinder]

BTW i took the side of my case off and am now running smothly at 486/337.

I am going to get a copper cooler and some Ram sinks in a couple days. i have no doubt that even with teh heat here i will get it to run smoothly welll over 500mhz. it was running at 495 with some little dots even in the heat of the afternoon with the side of the case on, with the dinky stock cooler. The ram next to the core was pretty hot to. a lot hotter than the outer chips. So i think the ram sinks will let me push the Ram past 350.

But well see. This card sure is fun to tweak with.

[5150 Joker]

Originally posted by saturnotaku
Hey HB, why don't you take that back and buy my 9800 Pro. Then you can run everything at 1280x1024 with 4xAA and 8xAniso. And I will sell it to 'ya if the current deal I have with another forum member falls through. :D

But glad to hear it's workin' out for 'ya. That card looks to be the deal of the moment. I think the Big Blue Monster was selling that card for $179 this week. What you do is take that price over to Circuit City so they'll match it plus give you another 10% of the difference. That extra 10% covers your sales tax in most cases. ;)

Why not sell the 5900 and keep the 9800 pro?

[surfhurleydude]

Why not sell the 5900 and keep the 9800 pro?

Cause a certain other forum member needs the 9800 Pro :angel2:


Anyhow, that's pretty cool Hellbinder... I was thinking about getting a 9600 series card for the computer in the back. Give us some benchmark #s too please :)

You should probably keep it until R360 is released...then get that bad boy :)

[5150 Joker]

Originally posted by surfhurleydude
Cause a certain other forum member needs the 9800 Pro :angel2:


Anyhow, that's pretty cool Hellbinder... I was thinking about getting a 9600 series card for the computer in the back. Give us some benchmark #s too please :)

You should probably keep it until R360 is released...then get that bad boy :)

That certain other forum member you? I thought you might wait on the R360?

[GlowStick]

Originally posted by Hellbinder
BTW i took the side of my case off and am now running smothly at 486/337.

I am going to get a copper cooler and some Ram sinks in a couple days. i have no doubt that even with teh heat here i will get it to run smoothly welll over 500mhz. it was running at 495 with some little dots even in the heat of the afternoon with the side of the case on, with the dinky stock cooler. The ram next to the core was pretty hot to. a lot hotter than the outer chips. So i think the ram sinks will let me push the Ram past 350.

But well see. This card sure is fun to tweak with.

zalman has a new heatpipe cooler that has a 80mm fan stuck on it, im personly gonna get that for my card, not sure if it fits 9600's i think it 'should'?

Meanwhile, i did think that the 9600pro's are cheepr online???

[Hellbinder]

ok went out and got a Big Bad Tt HSF to use for the 9600pro core and then I Cut some Ram Sinks out of an old Pentium Pro Heat Sink.

I Used Arctic adesive to mount it all. Now i am running stable at 490/350. I feel like the massive ammounts of general case heat is holding me back a little still. Also the adhelive really needs 24 hours to settle up before you can really gauge what the real limits are. I am guessing that its going to allow me to get to between 495-500 stable and the ram will settle in a lille higher as well. The same thing happened when i moded my 9700pro also.

Once the house stops beeing lets see..... 89 Degrees right now in my couputer room. (Yes folks thats HOT for a computer room.) i should get past 500 easy. i think tomorrow Ill get another case Fan and PCI slot exhaust fan as well. Little better Air movement will help.

Benchmarks to follow...

[Hellbinder]

Some benchies with my current settings for ya..

4x FSAA +8x AF (quality)

Comanche 4, high settings, shaders on 1024x768

35.36 FPS

GLExcess, Advanced settings 1024x768

52 FPS


I just ran Gunmental Benchmark02 with the *exact* settings and patch that [H] just did in the 5900U review they posted a couple days ago.

GM2, High settings, 2x FSAA no AF 1024x768

25.11 FPS

Note on [H] at these exact settings and a much more powerful CPU..

Radeon 9800pro = 37.2 FPS

5900U =37.3 FPS

Thats not bad considering i have a 2.4G P4 with no hyperthreading, and PC800 Rambus at 533 FSB.

Remember this is showing my scores with the card Overclocked at 490/350

[-=DVS=-]

If Radeon 9600pro had 256bus it would dominate everything on the market 100% :eek:

[T-Spoon]

Originally posted by -=DVS=-
If Radeon 9600pro had 256bus it would dominate everything on the market 100% :eek:

Yeah it probably would. But isn't that where R420 comes in? :)

[surfhurleydude]

If Radeon 9600pro had 256bus it would dominate everything on the market 100%

Don't think so...

Pipes:
R9600 Pro: 4x1
R9800 Pro: 8x1

Core:
R9600 Pro: 400
R9800 Pro: 380

Memory:
R9600 Pro: 300
R9800 Pro: 340

So, based off of theoretical performance, even with a 256 bit bus, the Radeon 9800 Pro still would have almost twice the fillrate of the Radeon 9600 Pro in all situations. Not to mention it still would lag behind Radeon 9800 Pro in terms of bandwidth a little bit as well.

[Hellbinder]

I Think what he ment was that clocked as High as mine is.. with a 256bit bus.

After all i am at 490/350..

What would this card do if it was 500/400 with a 256mb bus???

Answer.. whip some ass.

[-=DVS=-]

Originally posted by Hellbinder
I Think what he ment was that clocked as High as mine is.. with a 256bit bus.

After all i am at 490/350..

What would this card do if it was 500/400 with a 256mb bus???

Answer.. whip some ass.

Correct ;) that what i meant.

Offcourse If it had 8 pipes aswell it would be godlike :lol:

[Hellbinder]

Ok after letting the arctic adhesive bond and settle overnight.. I am now running stable at.

501.75/350

It is still hot as heck in my house.. Ill give everyone another udate after i buy a Pci exhaust Fan and a Big house fan in a little while.. i am also going to mount a little case fan in there and aim it at the card.. anything to help. According to my temp gage its 95' inside my house right this sec. Which is 35' Celcius for you non yank types

[-=DVS=-]

Thats terribly hot HellBinder get your self aircooler or something,
Nice overcloak 100Mhz :eek:

[surfhurleydude]

That is a rather nice OC, Hellbinder... What is the ambient temperature in your case? 95C in your house? **** man, perhaps you should invest that money you saved by getting a 9600 Pro into an air conditioner or something. I'm in the southern US, in Virginia, and I keep it around 80 in the house.

[Geforce4ti4200]

didnt you want to return it after the 9900 pro comes out? ocing it voids warrenty and returns

[Hellbinder]

No iontention of ever returning this.. its temporary because ill give it to a friend when i get my next card.

[Jethro]

i got one of them BB ati 9600pros, they really are sweet. Like HB says run anything u throw at em at a decent res with AA and ASF.

I did the cooling mods and vmods got mine running at 540/351 really smokes now =)


Finally doing High res 16x asf and 2~4x aa wooohoo!


The best card for the money hands down.