Ok I flashed my 9800np to a 9800 pro and since then I can't oc the cpu as much. Something else: when I'm in kazaa (downloading patches, demos and perfectly legal stuff of course ), the system is extremely slow, especially inside kazaa. Drop down menus take a couple of seconds to appear and when I drag the mouse over the options it is also very slow. At that point I'm suspecting the psu to be at its limit. So I flashed my card back with the original bios and now kazaa is perfectly fine. I haven't tried ocing more yet though. The reason I think the psu is at its limit is because what the 9800 pro bios does is increasing the voltage to the gpu and the memory, thus increasing the speed of the card, thus demanding more juice to the psu. So, do you guys think a more powerfull psu would cure the problem ? Do you have anything else to suggest ? I do not think it is dying, I just think it can't provide that much power.
I once read that the 9800np is quite simply an underclocked 9800pro. What is being changed in your card when you flash your bios? I reckon you should just overclock it. Have a look at that link I posted with all the clock speeds, bit... err depths!? ram speeds etc. I reckon there are just a few different components all set up differently. With the added confusion of varying pipelines.
what the bios does basically is increase the voltage to the gpu and mem and bring these clocks higher, from 325/290 to roughly 380/340. (min is actually 378/337.5) So in theory, if you only try to oc the 9800np, you won'T get up to that, and even if you do, you'd be able to go higher when flashed, but I haven't tried ocing it yet, Ive just flashed it and I reflashed it with the original bios for the time being since it causes problems which are psu related I believe. It's still unbelievably fast though so it doesn't bother me that much....for now. I can play ut2k3 and black hawk down with 4xAA 16xAF w/ vsync and truform with a very decent framerate. I think truform does not work in black hawk down though...the mountains seem square to me.
Well I got a Antec True Power 480W and it solved my problems. I would have been ok with a 430w but since I was changing, I thought it would be best to go for a better one, so I did and now it works like a charm. My cpu overclocks just like it should and my 9800 Pro doesn't slow anything down. Great deal for $370 cad !!! If one of you guys want a new video card, I strongly suggest the Sapphire 9800np. Great bang for the buck.
