guys i need your help plz, here's my story: A week ago I got my custom built pc back from HP, after sending it in about 4 times because of so many errors and disk read errors and got a replacement (the one i have now). All of my video games were running smoothly on my 9700 pro that i ordered with my pc which cost my an extra 300 bucks on their website. Now, when i got my computer back, i noticed it said that i have a 9800 non-pro. Some of my games are running slower now and are freezing up alot as well as crashing. could this be the 9800non-pro? is it actually worse than the 9700pro? I would really appreciate knowing what you guys think of this. should I call back HP and tell them to give me back my graphics card? by the way, i saw that the 9800non-pro on their website today only costs an extra 130 dollars or something like that. that made me feel very uncomfortable. an example : on Command and Conquer Generals Zero Hour, the game now freezes up alot and isn't very stable. All hardware inside the computer has been upgraded but for some reason it's just not doing as well as in the first one I had ordered after downloading catalyst, it shows up as 9800 PRO, but on the HP website, they dont show "PRO" after ati radeon 128 9800.
well I wouldn't say the 9800 non-pro is worse than the 9700 Pro, but that the 9700 Pro is a faster card. I doubt the 9800 non-pro makes your games slower than the 9700 Pro because the margin between the two isn't that big. It's got to be a driver issue, and the latest drivers won't necessarily solve all your problems. I suggest trying several catalyst versions and see the one that's best for you. Also, I suggest trying the omega drivers, which are improved catalyst drivers. When you change driver versions, or when you change cards, I suggest you delete all the driver files you can, because catalyst drivers have a problem regarding this: uninstalling them through control panel isn't enough because it doesn'T clear the registries. Here's a tutorial on it: http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?s=&threadid=33656771&highlight=how+to+uninstall+catalyst www.omegacorner.com
Thanks I was wondering if you guys/girls could explain to me what the Powercolor version is? is it a different manufacturer? What would be the difference? Mine, as you might have read above, was ordered from the HP website. Is it possible to overclock it? If it is at all possible, how can I do this? Is there a website to help me out?
Powercolor is a different company from ATi. They make their own PCB and then add the GPU and RAM from other companies. Unless HP has made it so that you can't do any OC'ing with some special BIOS on the card (yes, video cards have a BIOS too), you shouldn't have any problems OC'ing it. There are several OC programs, but I like Rage3D's own Rage3D Tweak. How far you can OC really depends on the individual card.
do you guys know how much i should over clock my video card? right now it's at 324/290 i dont want to screw things up.....
Personnally, I would put ramsinks on the card and change the heatsink too, because this is a very powerfull card and is susceptible to get very hot. What is the brand of the memory on your card ? If it's Samsung, you might be able to do something interesting with it. Give us the model number of the ram also (it's all written on the chips.
yeah it's samsung here's what's written on the chips: samsung 319 , k4d26323RA-GC2A interesting things ? ^.^
Well in that case, the card should be able to overclock to pro speeds, which are 378/337.5 You can use radclocker or rage3d tweak to do this. If you had had GC33 ram, you could have flashed the bios with the pro bios but since you already have GC2A memory (DDR700 instead of DDR600), the flash won'T give you anything more from what I've read.
thanks, so if i do this, i would have to put ramsinks and chance the heatsinks, right? so that it wont overheat?
I strongly suggest it. Also, you should oc in small increments, don't go all the way up in one step. Better to be safe than sorry.
Exactly. Just because some guy hits some killer OC in no way means that you'll hit that same speed. Likely, you won't. Ramsinks aren't necessary, and from my experience do not contribute to any higher overclock. They will help cool the ram, however. There is a point where they cannot be pushed any faster.
