Problems after Leopard upgrade with ATI 9800 Pro 256MB

I don't know if this is related.. but I've been battling multiple problems ever since I upgraded my G5 to Leopard a week ago. Everything was perfect under Tiger.
The problem that only occurred directly after upgrading to Leopard... is that my graphics now get corrupted and garbled. I've got two video cards running two LCD monitors. The card giving me problems is the ATI Radeon 9800 Pro (256MB). What happens is.. first all the window shadows and top menu bar start getting checkerboard patterns.. then the whole screen starts getting variants of different colors and checkerboard patterns. After awhile and refreshing the screen a few times... the problem goes away for a bit. Then comes back.
Again, this card and my entire system and drives were working fine under Tiger. Now, I don't know if I have a bad card? Is there something wrong with Leopard on my G5 2Ghz DP? Did my Maxtor 750GB triple interface drive just go bad with the upgrade?
I don't know where else to look, I'm guessing the "geniuses" at the Apple store won't help me since this machine is out of warranty. Any help would be HUGELY appreciated. I've been battling all these problems ever since I started the Leopard upgrade 4 days ago and have not got much sleep.

I've already reset PRAM with the option,command,P,R keys... letting it chime a couple times... and have already done this many times over the last few days. Doesn't seem to help. I don't know how to reset NVRAM via open firmware and the instructions are vague. But, supposedly a PRAM reset is all you have to do.
If it is a heat problem, why would it only have presented itself directly after a Leopard upgrade? It also does it when I boot off the Leopard disk. Actually does it worse. I'd just get a new card if I wasn't suspicious about the Leopard upgrade... not convinced it's a hardware problem yet. Though the card is mounted on the bottom slot above the CPUs. It has a fan on top that appears to be working but it doesn't look like much clearance between the card and the top of the CPUs case.
I could move it up a slot to give it more air... but it still doesn't explain why until last Monday, it worked fine under Tiger.

Similar Messages

Multiple Problems after Leopard upgrade HELP! Video display and FW problem

I don't know if this is related.. but I've been battling multiple problems ever since I upgraded my G5 to Leopard a week ago. Everything was perfect under Tiger.
Well, I think I've got everything solved except two last things.
1. My 750GH Maxtor Firewire drive... when I plug it in... does not show in the desktop and it causes both my internal drive and two other Firewire enclosures to disappear from the desktop. I can see all of them mounted in the disk utility, but if this one drive is plugged in.. all icons disappear from the desktop. If I unplug or unmount the 750GB drive.. everything comes back.
I've reformatted this drive, etc. This does not happen on my MacBookPro. The drive mounts fine on that. I've tried different cables, I've tried USB (it's a triple interface Maxtor) and nothing seems to work. I would assume there's something wrong with the drive and not my desktop... but the drive works fine on the MacBookPro.
PLEASE!! Any clues would help...
The other problem that only occurred directly after upgrading to Leopard... is that my graphics now get corrupted and garbled. I've got two video cards running two LCD monitors. The card giving me problems is the ATI Radeon 9800 Pro (256MB). What happens is.. first all the window shadows and top menu bar start getting checkerboard patterns.. then the whole screen starts getting variants of different colors and checkerboard patterns. After awhile and refreshing the screen a few times... the problem goes away for a bit. Then comes back.
Again, this card and my entire system and drives were working fine under Tiger. Now, I don't know if I have a bad card? Is there something wrong with Leopard on my G5 2Ghz DP? Did my Maxtor 750GB triple interface drive just go bad with the upgrade?
I don't know where else to look, I'm guessing the "geniuses" at the Apple store won't help me since this machine is out of warranty. Any help would be HUGELY appreciated. I've been battling all these problems ever since I started the Leopard upgrade 4 days ago and have not got much sleep.

The drives not or disappearing on the desktop could point to the need to do a pram reset.
I believe you hold down the apple-option-p-r keys at startup and listen for a couple of chimes.

Odd Problems After Leopard Upgrade

I upgraded to Leopard a couple of weeks ago. All seemed fine until I began to notice a few odd things.....
1. Disk Permissions - If I select 'Verify/Repair Permissions' the disk utility began with the blue hatched bar and just stayed like that. I upgraded to 10.5.1 and now it progresses to the solid blue progress bar and says 'one minute remaining' but it makes no further progress. Same happens if I select 'Verify Disk'
2. No volume icon in the menu bar. It was there after the upgrade to 10.5 but yesterday I pressed the 'mute' button and the volume icon disappeared - it's been missing ever since and now I'v no volume.
3. MS Office 2002. I can see MS Office files - I can even preview them, but if I attempt to open them nothing happens. If I attempt to open the relevant MS app the icon just bounces once in the dock and then nothing.
It's worth noting that there are two users on my PB (both have admin status) but problem 3 only occurs in my user profile.
The other user is my wife and she's not the sort to mess with the computer - she just uses it.
can anyone shed any light on this as I'm seriously (and reluctantly) considering downgrading to Tiger.
Thanks in advance,
Seán.

Yo dude!
I think it's time to boot from the start-up dvd, run disk utility repair (always before an upgrade!), re-install (keep previous install just in case), restart, run all updates. Maybe if you have old software, it's time to un-install them and re-stall one by one until something untoward happens. I've been using Leopard on three macs without hitches.. I find it very stable. Current version is 10.5.2, quite soon since last update, so they're (apple) obviously fixing a few things. The only problem I had after upgrading to Leopard was some apps wouldn't hide (command-H) even from the menu, but sorted that by re-installing them after the leopard upgrade,.... hunky dory now.
Don't panic, there is always something silly causing bad **** to happen, 95% of the time it's software..
See you on Wednesday dude...... I'll bring up those disks I borrowed from you.....
dezzzzzzzzzz

ISync problems after Leopard upgrade...please help

I recently upgraded to Leopard. It worked fine on my laptop, but something went wrong with my mac mini. The only way it would install is with a complete reformatting...had everything backed up, so I figured why not. Here is my mess.
1. In iSync, my old Tiger mac mini is still registered and th e Leopard one is not syncing with that registration...it creates its own. Should I just delete both, reset the iSync with my laptop as the model and go from there?
2. iweb does not have my old web sites in it. They are in my iDrive, but i don't know how to get them back on iWeb. I created them on the mac mini, so would unregistering it make me loose them? Is there a way that I can get them on the laptop's iWeb?
3. My mail and safari fail to launch windows.....If I open a new window, I can see it listed, but I can't see it. What is up with this?
Can someone help?

I've already reset PRAM with the option,command,P,R keys... letting it chime a couple times... and have already done this many times over the last few days. Doesn't seem to help. I don't know how to reset NVRAM via open firmware and the instructions are vague. But, supposedly a PRAM reset is all you have to do.
If it is a heat problem, why would it only have presented itself directly after a Leopard upgrade? It also does it when I boot off the Leopard disk. Actually does it worse. I'd just get a new card if I wasn't suspicious about the Leopard upgrade... not convinced it's a hardware problem yet. Though the card is mounted on the bottom slot above the CPUs. It has a fan on top that appears to be working but it doesn't look like much clearance between the card and the top of the CPUs case.
I could move it up a slot to give it more air... but it still doesn't explain why until last Monday, it worked fine under Tiger.

BootCamp Problem after Leopard Upgrade.

Well, this is the error message Disk Error. Press any key to restart"
After I partition windows in BootCamp 2.0 and then begin installation, the blue screen of the Windows Set-Up Comes in after the Machine reboots like it's supposed to. Then the option to pick the Partition to install windows comes in ( Drive: C BootCamp ) I am not given the option to format it. I cannot pick NTFS. BootCamp had already made the Partition FAT32. If I choose that partition BootCamp made as FAT 32 it will begin reading files from the CD. Then when it reboots where I expect it to continue the Installation, I get That error message you mentioned.
Before When I had Mac OS XS Tiger and BootCamp Beta, I was able to have that option to choose format and everything would work flawlessly. All of this began after BootCamp Automatically partitions the the space in FAt 32. I am completely stumpted.

I just spent the weekend dealing with this.
Credit to this Austrian guy diagonalinho who posted this above. I had a little trouble understanding his instructions (looks like English is not his first language) so I am posting the summary that I wrote for another person having the same problem. Credit goes to diagonalinho though.
First, I think someone already mentioned that the reason you are having the problem is because Boot Camp Assistant formatted the XP partition as FAT32. It needs to be NTFS. Windows Setup is supposed to ask you how to format the new partition (see page 13 of the Boot Camp manual). If your experience is like mine, Windows Setup never asks that question. It simply goes from you selecting the C: drive (Boot Camp manual page 11) to the installation process (a blue screen yellow bar marking progress as things are copied to the partition).
Here is a link to the manual that I'm referring to if you don't have it already: http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/BootCampInstall-Setup.pdf
I do not know why the format step is being skipped in some installs but not in all. Call it an "undocumented feature" (e.g., bug).
Here is how to fix it:
Boot Camp Assistant should have instructed you to insert the XP CD in the drive and then it will restart. This is what you want. After some time, you will get a blue screen with white text in the upper left hand corner that says "Windows Setup." On the bottom of the screen there will be some words telling you this and that is loading. Keep an eye on this. It will slowly list a bunch of things that it is loading. Toward the end, it will say something like "Starting Windows Setup." At this point, press and hold the F10 button. Keep holding it until you get a black screen with white text.
You are now in the Recovery Manager. You will be asked what volume you want. The only choice you should have is 1. This is your new Windows partition, it is not your Mac OS partition. YYou may safely type "1" (without quotes) and press return. Then, the prompt will look like this:
C:\WINDOWS\
At the prompt, you type "cd.." (without quotes) and press return, the prompt will now look like this:
C:\
Now, we are going to reformat your windows partition as NTFS. To do so, at the prompt type the following without quotation marks "format c: /fs:ntfs" When typed into the prompt, it will look like this (pay close attention to spacing)
C:\format c: /fs:ntfs
It will give you a warning and ask if you are sure. Type "y" and press return. It will take some time to format and you will see a percentage counter counting up from 1% to 100%. When it is done, you will be back at the C:\ prompt where you will just type "exit" and press return.
Now, Windows Setup should proceed normally.

Mail Problem After Leopard Upgrade

Upgraded an iMac 20" 2Gig (Intel Chip) 1 gig RAM from Tiger to Leopard. Did an Archive & Install. Mail will not configure. Gets to the outgoing server check & it just hangs.
Entourage works perfectly so I know the settings & ISP are OK.
Reloaded the System again with the same result.
All the latest upgrades were installed.
Won't let me get to accounts... The set up run asks for the info & when it hangs I have to cancel and the app quits.
This one is stumping me...
Any thoughts?
Thanks,
Richie
Message was edited by: diverreb
Message was edited by: diverreb

That did the trick... Really appreciate the help.... You'd think that Apple would post that issue.... It would have saved me a ton of time and aggravation. Thanks again....
Richie

Can I replace an ATI RADEON 9800 PRO-(256MB)-MAC EDITION with Mac ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128mb Video Card For G4/G5

Hi,
I am trying to help a friend whose graphics card has bust.
The old one was an ATI RADEON 9800 PRO-(256MB)-MAC EDITION.
I've been looking on ebay and it seems a lot cheaper to get a Mac ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128mb Video Card For G4/G5.
Can I just swap them over? The connectors are not identical according to the photographs.
Thanks.

I'd like to thank everyone for all the really useful information in this thread. It helped me solve a similar problem, which I'll describe here briefly in case it helps someone else.
I have a 2004/5 dual 2 Ghz PowerPC G5 and an Apple Cinema HD display linked, as I later found out, with the now defunct ADC connector. The display suddenly started to look like that scene in The Matrix, when code falls like rain down the screen, and I worked out I needed to replace my Radeon 9800 pro video card (I discovered the board was blue when I removed a thick layer of dust).
I took japamac's excellent advice and bought a Geforce 6800 Ultra from the linked eBay seller in Hong Kong, who delivered it extremely quickly, along with the cables to plug it into the DVD drive power source and a CD with installation instructions. It was only then that I realised the card had two DVI connectors and my display needed ADC (I hadn't understood the difference).
eBay came to the rescue again with a seller who had a secondhand DVI to ADC adapter, which Apple produced when it phased out ADC about six years ago but no longer sells. It has its own power supply and looks like a large version of the Mac laptop power cables - and has added signifcantly to the pile of spaghetti under my desk.
Installing the Geforce 6800 Ultra is fiddly, and a bit scary if you're not used to delving into the insides of a Mac, but the instructions were clear and illustrated with useful photos. The video cable has four connectors. Two fit into the end of the card, the other two (linked in a Y shape) form a bridge between the DVD/superdrive and its power cable. You have to remove the DVD drive, unplug it, and then plug one of the two Y video card connectors into the DVD power cable and the other into the DVD drive itself. Then you replace the DVD drive, plug the two remaining cable connectors to the video card and ease it into the old card's AGP slot.
Finally, with the G5 reassembled, plug the adapter's DVI connection into the back of the card, plug the Cinema Display ADC cable into the adapter block, plug the adapter's USB cable into the G5 (this enables the the USB ports on the back of the display to work), and power up.
At the time of writing, the display has been up and running for a couple of hours and all seems fine.
Thanks again everyone for all your help and advice. If it wasn't for communities like this, it would be virtually impossible to solve problems with old but still serviceable Macs.

What would you replace an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro (256MB) with?

Hi,
I started a thread before asking whether I could replace a 256MB card with a 128MB card, even though the interface was a different shape.
But, as I know so little about Macs and graphics card, it seems wiser to ask
What would you replace an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro (256MB) with?
The computer is user for photo editing and normal internet/email use. The photo editing is done on Adobe Photoshop for professional treatment of photographs.
The computer is a Power Mac G5 (1.6GHz) and budge is £80 / $120.
Thanks in advance, Franc.

Hi-
Please check my recommendations in your other thread.
Better options for the 9800 Pro are the Radeon 9800 XT, Geforce 6800 GT, Geforce 6800 Ultra, or if one has the money or finds a good deal, a Radeon X800 XT.
For your budget and uses, the Geforce cards are a performance value buy.
BTW, I have owned all of the cards, used all of the cards, and tested all of the cards.
Graphics Cards- ATI and Nvidia
See my testing pages starting here:
Page 1: Open GL

Upgrade SNAFU - MDD/ATI 9800 Pro/Flat Panel Display

I've been adding to my MDD and been caught overlooking the fact that my Apple ADC monitor doesn't connect to my ATI 9800 Pro. ADC, DVI, VGA .... whats next
Anyway, is there a connector or adapter I can get to 'bridge' this last hurdle?
Sometimes with Google you need to know exactly what you are looking for in order to get the right results. My results didn't produce what I was looking for.
Thank you

buz wrote:
I've been adding to my MDD and been caught overlooking the fact that my Apple ADC monitor doesn't connect to my ATI 9800 Pro. ADC, DVI, VGA .... whats next
Anyway, is there a connector or adapter I can get to 'bridge' this last hurdle?
Go to the Apple Store, look under "Displays". Then look for the "Apple DVI to ADC Display Adapter". Costs $99. But that's what will do it with LCD ADC displays. Dr. Bott used to make (and may still make) the DViator which accomplishes the same thing. Both have big bricks which supply the juice to your ADC monitor -- in fact the DVIator uses the PSU for a Cube.
I mention LCD monitor with ADC because both don't work the ADC CRT monitor. I know you have flat panel in the subject of your post; I mention that for other who might come across this thread.

Confused over ATI 9800 Pro

I know this is somewhat off topic for this forum but I didn't know where else to post this question. I want to upgrade my woefully inadequate FX5200 to an ATI 9800 Pro but need dual monitor support (non gaming). I know the 9800 Pro has both a VGA connector and DVI connector but their HydroVision software is required to make a dual monitor setup work correctly. ATI's web site for Hydravision support(http://ati.com/companyinfo/glossary/hydravision/products.html) does not show support for any 9000 series ATI card. Does anyone here know if Hydravision is supported for this card?

If memory serves, the two cards are identical in hardware, the only difference being the bios. Thus, you can turn a pro into an XT with relative ease. Let me note that I have not done this, so I don't speak from specific experience.
That said, you might want to hold out for the new nvidia card if you'll be able to afford it. The reviews of the Geforce 6800 ultra show it to be close to 100% faster than current high end chips. You're reading that right--it's close to twice as fast as anything on the market right now. After seeing those numbers, I had to spend an hour crawling around on the ground trying to find my eyes.

ATI 9800 Pro Mac SE - Screen Artifacts and Anomalies

Hello All,
I was lucky enough to be given a new video card this Christmas (ATI 9800 Pro Mac Special Edition). Unfortunatly I am having some serious issues.
When I frst installed the card in my G5 all seemed well, both my displays appeared to be working properly and I did not notice any problems. The next day I decided to update the ROM on the card to the latest offered by ATI; after doing this I began to notice some horrible screen artifacts and tearing.
Examples:
http://static.flickr.com/39/77612780675feadba0o.jpg
http://static.flickr.com/42/7761277964b07c6811o.jpg
As you can tell from the screenshots above this is not normal.
Here are some details of my Powermac:
Dual 2.0G5 w/ 3.5 GB of RAM
Running 10.4.3
Displays:
23" Apple (plastic) Cinema Display connected via ADC
17" Sony connected via DVI
And the ATI card:
Chipset Model: ATY,R350
Type: Display
Bus: AGP
Slot: SLOT-1
VRAM (Total): 256 MB
Vendor: ATI (0x1002)
Device ID: 0x4e48
Revision ID: 0x0000
ROM Revision: 113-A14402-126
I have attempted to downgrade the firmware on the card to the previous ROM offered by ATI; no luck.
I have taken the normal troubleshooting procedures:
- Repair permissions
- Clean caches
- Repair Disk
- Reseat video card
- Install a fresh copy of Tiger on a seperate drive
- Install different versions of ATI's software (currently using the most up to date)
- Remove ATI's software
- Boot into safemode
- Run one display at a time (first ADC then DVI)
It seems ATI support is out till 12/30; does anyone have any advice?
Thanks for all your help....
-Chris
Dual 2.0 G5 w/3.5GB RAM Mac OS X (10.4.3)

Hey, Chris...
Chipset Model: ATY,R350
Type: Display
Bus: AGP
Slot: SLOT-1
VRAM (Total): 256 MB
Vendor: ATI (0x1002)
Device ID: 0x4e48
Revision ID: 0x0000
ROM Revision: 113-A14402-126
I purchased this card on ebay as a new, unused Apple factory unit, which doesn't require the molex power drop from the superdrive. I've got a 20" aluminum cinema display and a 17" clear CRT studio display connected. My main problem is that I get random app freezing (mostly Safari, sometimes Preview, and occasionally Mail). I can browse with Firefox all day and not have a problem. Console shows nothing unusual, either.
Symptoms: cursor present and movable, but unable to click on anything, Dock icons don't display their names upon rollover, perpetual beachball in frontmost app, high-pitched screech coming from machine somewhere (unless 'Napping' is turned off in CHUD processor pref pane, then normal).
Until this evening, I was under the impression that these were freezes that required a hard restart - I had waited several hours for the symptoms to clear to no avail. Tonight I decided to try something: I pressed the power button on the 20" display, and then pressed the 'S' key to sleep the system (even though I got no feedback on screen). I waited a few seconds and then left the room for a minute or two, and when I came back, the machine was sleeping. I woke it up and found horrible corruption, which corrected itself after another sleep cycle.
I was actually preparing for an archive & install to see if maybe different drivers would be installed that alleviate the issue, but wasn't too hopeful.
Bizarre...
Now I'm not sure what to do. I haven't been able to use Safari for several weeks due to this. I had thought that since it only seems to happen with Apple apps, that maybe it was a core OS thing that 3rd party apps weren't affected by.
Dual 2 GHz G5 (Late 2003) Mac OS X (10.4.6) 1.5 GB RAM, 9800 Pro SE 256MB (OE replacement for original 9600 Pro 64MB)

ATI 9800 pro RMA'D got MSI 9800pro

My ATI Radeon 9800 Pro died about 4 months after I got it, so I RMA'D to ATI and they sent me back what I thought was an ATI 9800 pro, but after using live update to check for mobo updates, found out it was a MSI 9800 pro. Normally, I wouldn't care, but I noticed that I had a problem with my games lagging, momentary freezes and overall poorer performance than my original card. I have tried the latest drivers from ATI and went back to before the control panel(hate it) I think it's version 8. I tried calling ATI and they sd RMA dept would call me back..that was 2 days ago..will call again tomorrow. In the meantime...any ideas??

Well partly
MSI is now selling ATI cards. there was only one ATI card in MSI's lineup until about 3 months ago.
They were manufacturing the 9800 pro (green card) for Medion PC in the UK and then started selling them in the retail market. Now that card is actually being phased out of production I believe. You now see the red 9800 with the ATI reference cooler. They are one and the same. MSI just rebrands them and sells them with thier own packaging and label. ATI has a strict QC policy so it's a standard BIOS. I'm assuming since MSI has to keep the Live Update utility current, it's going to recognize that card.
I could be really off base and the RMA department in Canada is working with MSI in RMA's and some chap had too many beers for lunch and got them messed up.
Sometimes the manufacturer will modify the BIOS for reasons like different RAM packages but I don't think MSI is making those cards atm.
I take it this is a Red PCB?

ATI radeon 9800 pro (256MB)-- Apple 23" HD

ive had this graphics card for a good couple of months, about 6 or so to be exact, a card given to me by a friend who just didnt need it anymore, upgraded to something or other.
now, the issue is that two days ago, it just stopped working. i tried to turn on my comp and it turned on as usual, but the monitor did not. i thought it was the adc to dvi adapter that i bought to use this type of graphics card for such a screen. but it reconnected everything and still nothing. i then finally got my old graphics card, yes i still had it =D, and i tried turning it on with the adapter still connected, simply swapped cards, and the monitor worked. since then ive tried reconnecting because i wanted to make sure the wires are ok but no luck with the radeon 9800 pro (256MB). anyone have any clues what i can do? it doesnt have warranty due to it being somewhat old, friend had it for a while.
annyone have different ways to connect this card? maybe i can try a different method? is there a place i can take this card, to see if it is indeed something wrong with the card and not something with my computer itself acting weird to it? oh and btw i have a powermac G4 (MDD) 1 gig or ram.

Hi,
The card symptoms do indeed sound like it's malfunctioning. If re-seating the card doesn't help, the aux. power is plugged in and the fan is running - that's about it.
Malcolm is right (as usual) about that card only being available for less than 6 months. In addition, it has a 3-year limited warranty from ATI. If it is the 128MB model, it still may be under warranty. I would persue that angle, for sure. ATI info
BTW, what G4 are you running? That would help us in answering further questions.
Regards,
Dave

After Effects 7 with ATI Radeon X1900 XT

Hi everyone,
I use Adobe After Effects 7 a lot and I'm not happy with my current machine (PowerPC G5 2x1.8GHZ, 2GB DDR SDRAM, ATI Radeon X800 XT), it is too slow to work smoothly when I have several layers and effects going on. Previewing the work on the timeline (OpenGL or Adaptative resolution) is painfully slow and takes on my nerves. I believe this is mainly due to my graphics card, and the fact is not 100% compatible with OpenGL on After effects.
I'm ready to upgrade with a Mac Pro 2.66 GHz Quad Xeon with ATI Radeon X1900 XT, but only if I'm going to enjoy a real improve with After Effects 7, as this is my main editing application right now.
Does anybody have experience with this configuration?
Thanks in advance for reading and replies!
PowerPC G5 2x1.8GHZ Mac OS X (10.4.7) 2GB DDR SDRAM, ATI Radeon X800 XT

I have this configuration, but sadly have had no time to play around with After Effects. AE's realtime playback capabilities are limited (especially when compared with something like Motion), so you're probably still going to be rendering to RAM a lot. I believe the OpenGL support is for things like anti-aliasing, blur, and blending modes -- so a faster video card may not automatically equal huge performance boost across the board. Four Xeon cores and a lot of RAM will help it a lot more (see exception below).
Also, AE 7 still has to run under Rosetta which results in a slower performance than if it was native. Also, be aware that there is a limit placed on all Rosetta processes that do not allow them to address more than 1.5GB of RAM combined. This will most likely limit your render speed and preview lengths. See this thread on Adobe's forums for more info:
http://www.creativecow.net/articles/jonesgraham/AE7_on_IntelMacPro/index.html
EDIT: The above link was to the performance comparisons, but not the original Adobe forum thread. Here it is:
http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx/.3bc2401b
However, if you read the thread, and follow the link in it, the author is seeing huge performance gains with AE7 on his MacPro 3GBs over his old dual G5 4.5GBs.
So most likely, you'll see a performance benefit from upgrading. And when an Intel native version of AE ships, things will really fly.

OC the ATI 9800 Pro

Hello, I would like to try OC my graphic card the ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128 Mb. But I am not too sure how to do it and how much can I get from this OC. I would appreciate anyone with experience in this card to give suggestions.
Thanks
Current benchmarks :
3D mark 01 ~ 17,500
3D mark 03 ~ 5,750
Aquamark 03 ~ 43,200

Just for some numbers to compare to here is what I have found with my 9800 Pro built by Sapphire with stock cooling & no ramsinks:
Highest attempted OC: 405core/360ram = not good, artifacts begin to appear.
405/345: Perfectly stable, I ran this for several days in real applications but then realized that under a certain few types of rendering such as in 3DMARK'03 water of the nature scene & rhino in the pixel shader sequence there were sometimes many flickering white dots. Small dots, but larger than single pixels, randomly flickering all over those 2 specific areas I mentioned. If not for those 2 parts I would never have realized that the clock should be brought down a little bit, as I saw none of these effects in real games such as EVE-online, Lineage 2 etc...
Balanced core & ram out at 396/351: No problems discovered at all yet. Very moderate OC'ing, probably doesn't make much real difference, but I do feel it is better than stock . This is the setting I'm using for the time being. I choose RadLinker for ease of booting with these settings as if they are factory & no need of secondary program running on startup. Also, it adds a few extra options if you install the entire RadLinker rather than just RadClocker. Either install will blend seemlessly into your ATI control panel with one additional tab.
390/345: Most certainly completely safe, though this is so close to factory it might as well be factory 390/690, just evens out the odd factory setting of 378.5/337.5 or whatever it is.
To get these settings I use 765 max with increment of 3.00. Some other OC utilities will let you set unreal increments, that is why you may specify an exact setting, but then when you apply it your numbers are changed slightly. RadLinker/Clocker will only work in increments that the hardware truly supports.
The Radeon 9800 Pro isn't really much of an overclocker in general, though some people may get lucky with one that is a little better. Most reviews I've read have had very similar limitations as the ones I've discovered with my particular card. The other thing is some people may be overclocking beyond the cards means, but perhaps they have not run the right tests or programs to discover the flaws at their chosen settings.
And Then there is always the aftermarket cooling solutions too. With a good aftermarket core cooler & a set of ramsinks one might ideally be able to reach speeds of 420/360 (420/720), I wouldn't count on it though. Personally I'm quite satisfied with the card's stock price/performance ratio, especially having recently come from a P3 450 with GeForce 2 MX 400 video card...

Problems after Leopard upgrade with ATI 9800 Pro 256MB

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