# Radeon 9550 going at 450/241, is this right?



## thetarget (Mar 30, 2006)

Hi guys... I'm using PowerColor Ati Radeon 9550 256mb...

It's stock freq are core:mem 250:200

I unlocked it and OCed it to 450/241... anyhigher... it crashes my computer... is this the maximum?


----------



## Mercenary4 (Mar 31, 2006)

That is about what the ATI 9550 256 was up to before artifacting occured. 462/236 with Vantec IceBurq cooling. Running it at 400/200 'cause the memory is rated at 200 by Samsung (5.0), and the highest seen from any manufacturer is 420 core. Want this card to last as long as possible. Going from 250 to 400 core is a noticeable difference, a 50MHz increase really isn't noticeable and not worth burning out the GPU in my book.


----------



## thetarget (Apr 1, 2006)

Understood... SHould I buy a new cooling for the RAMS and GPU?


----------



## Frogger (Apr 1, 2006)

Understood... SHould I buy a new cooling for the RAMS and GPU?  not worth it save for better vid card


----------



## thetarget (Apr 1, 2006)

Lol... as a matter of fact... i bought this card 2 months ago... i was an urgent demand cuz my Geforce MX 440 died... and i need to use this computer FAST. Anyways it is AGP 4x... even with great cards it only have a transfer rate of only... 1gb/s? So i thought overclocking it is the only choice i have now


----------



## Mercenary4 (Apr 1, 2006)

This is a good entery level DX 9 card. It is extremely overclockable as long as you have proper cooling. The heatsink fan combo on this card looks OK, but I would replace it with something better if you don't have good air flow inside your rig. Would seriously recommend putting some memory koolers on the memory chips. Thermaltake's copper memory koolers with Artic Silver 7 is what I put on my wifes ATI 9550 256, along with Vantec IceBurq copper kooler with Artic Silver 5. What you use is up to you.

Basicly this is an underclocked 9600, they both run the RV350 GPU. Some 9600's use the RV360 and supposidely you can flash the bios to think it is a RV360. Doing this will cause Windows to see a 9600 instead of a 9550. Depending on what memory is on your card (128Mb uses Hynix 5.0, SE uses Mira 5.0, look at your memory chips to see which is on your card) you could flash the bios to a 9600. This will most likely void your warrenty, but you wont have to worry about problems (hopefully) other than better kooling.

ATI Tool does a good job overclocking without flashing the bios. The ATI one I have overclocks at log on and haven't had any problems, always on for about six months. For the money it is a really good deal. Since you are using 4X, I take it you have an old motherboard. Might want to look to upgrade to one that uses 8x if you have the fundage.


----------



## Frogger (Apr 1, 2006)

The 4x will hold you back  the cpu OC will help some but  your FPS will still suck!


----------



## thetarget (Apr 1, 2006)

I have the fundage... however idon't think it'll be wise now.. to get another AGP... It's a world of PCI-E now.. correct me if I'm wrong...

I manage to go 450/237 w/o artifacts... but any higher... even 0.5 it crashes


----------



## Mercenary4 (Apr 1, 2006)

Compared to what you have, yuppers! A 3.0e with a 9550 256 OC 400/200 will produce 3800 on 3D Mark03.


----------



## thetarget (Apr 1, 2006)

OH... FWI... i dled 3Dmark 06 LOL!! GUESS WAD!! all frames... fps 0-1 LOL!!! I aborted the test halfway... couldn't stand it anymore..


----------



## Mercenary4 (Apr 1, 2006)

thetarget said:
			
		

> I have the fundage... however idon't think it'll be wise now.. to get another AGP... It's a world of PCI-E now.. correct me if I'm wrong...



The manufacturers are pushing PCI-E so that you have to not only upgrade the motherboard, but the processor and the memory as well. IT'S A CONSPIRARCY, I TELL YOU!!!


----------



## thetarget (Apr 1, 2006)

Lol yes.... oh yea... this morning well I was playing with PCmark... I saw something about Hyperthreading... it appears to be available but disabled... IF it is my motherboard problem... that I'll buy a new mobo... otherwise... i can live with it


----------



## Mercenary4 (Apr 1, 2006)

You actually tried to run 06? Are you nuts, oh wait we all are a little nuts.


----------



## Frogger (Apr 1, 2006)

thetarget said:
			
		

> Lol yes.... oh yea... this morning well I was playing with PCmark... I saw something about Hyperthreading... it appears to be available but disabled... IF it is my motherboard problem... that I'll buy a new mobo... otherwise... i can live with it


  northwood cores  do not support HYPERthearding  to get HT you need prescot core@ 800fsb or above


----------



## thetarget (Apr 1, 2006)

YEa only nuts would go overclock Lol... yea i try 06... it was fantastic...those 'pictures'(i call it pictures as i could only see them in pictures LoL) are so well rendered... only that my card sucks...


----------



## Mercenary4 (Apr 1, 2006)

thetarget said:
			
		

> Lol yes.... oh yea... this morning well I was playing with PCmark... I saw something about Hyperthreading... it appears to be available but disabled... IF it is my motherboard problem... that I'll buy a new mobo... otherwise... i can live with it



That is not your mobo, it is your CPU. Your mobo can handle a HT CPU, wonder why it only runs you card at 4X, it should run with either 4X or 8X. Maybe you don't have it set up properly.


----------



## Mercenary4 (Apr 1, 2006)

Frogger said:
			
		

> northwood cores  do not support HYPERthearding  to get HT you need prescot core@ 800fsb or above



Above 800fsb only applies to 915 North Bridge or higher, and then you are probably getting into PCI-E. Pretty sure thetarget is running 865 or lower.


----------



## thetarget (Apr 1, 2006)

Lol... I read from Wikipedia... it says all Northwood has HT tech... however it is disabled... wonder why Intel wants to do that...


----------



## Frogger (Apr 1, 2006)

Chipset drivers only support 4x???


----------



## Frogger (Apr 1, 2006)

Mercenary4 said:
			
		

> Above 800fsb only applies to 915 North Bridge or higher, and then you are probably getting into PCI-E. Pretty sure thetarget is running 865 or lower.


that MB more than lickly running SIS 645 or there abouts won't support HT


----------



## thetarget (Apr 1, 2006)

Yes my mb can only support up to 4x... i thought i mentioned it before


----------



## Mercenary4 (Apr 1, 2006)

thetarget said:
			
		

> Yes my mb can only support up to 4x... i thought i mentioned it before



Bummer, dude. $60 at newegg will get you a decient mobo. Just make sure it can support the mem and CPU you already have or you'll have problems, like having to buy new mem.

If only I could find another ABIT IS-7, that would make my daughter really happy


----------



## Mercenary4 (Apr 1, 2006)

thetarget said:
			
		

> Lol... I read from Wikipedia... it says all Northwood has HT tech... however it is disabled... wonder why Intel wants to do that...



Microsoft ain't the only ones who know how to make money! Pretty sure somebody knows how to reprogram chips, bet they could get a Northy to HT, but then what would be the point of buying a Prescott, mem to run with it, a mobo that supports it, and the next thing you know you've bought a whole new computer just to HyperThread!


----------



## Frogger (Apr 1, 2006)

Pretty sure somebody knows how to reprogram chips, bet they could get a Northy to HT, but then what would be the point of buying a Prescott, mem to run with it, a mobo that supports it, and the next thing you know you've bought a whole new computer just to HyperThrea
 bigger better stronger faster    need i say more


----------



## Mercenary4 (Apr 1, 2006)

Just ran 3DMark06 and got 399

Yes, the pictures were pretty! At least this version showed some of my mem specs, still doesn't register HD support for my sound card.


----------



## Mercenary4 (Apr 1, 2006)

Frogger said:
			
		

> bigger better stronger faster    need i say more



Uh, yea, more expensive


----------



## thetarget (Apr 2, 2006)

Lol... hey all this HT talk makes me excited LOL If... i really found sometools to unlock the HT lock... mb is next


----------



## Mercenary4 (Apr 2, 2006)

It would be interesting, sort of like the locked pipelines in the 9500 and 9700. The only problem is that a good percentage of these GPU's locked pipelines are no good. In theory, the same could be true for the Northwood CPU. If you can actually unlock the HT (sort of like having two pipelines in your CPU) who knows if it actually would be stable. Not to mention the amount of heat that might be generated.

Compare the 1.6a Northwood which has a 16x multiplier (runs  >100F idle, >120F load) to the 3.0e which has a 15x multiplier (runs  >120F idle, <160F load). Granted the 3.0e has extra instuctions, but it is kind of like having two 1.5a Northwoods in one unit.

This is all theory, and I use these two CPU's 'cause I have both and a 2.5a. The 2.5a can only overclock to about 3GHz, while the 1.6 can safely OC to <2.1GHz. If there is a way to unlock a second "pipeline", the 1.6 could in theory run at 4.2GHz OC. I am basing this on what I know of DDR memory and other parts that have in the last few years been made avaliable with double data handling.

Look at the GPU's out now handling up to 18 pipelines for ATI and 24 for nVidia! Just imagine what a CPU that could handle that would do. Maybe we already have them and don't know it, or they are being use by the military (they always have the good toys first).

It would appear that your mobo is ready for a HT CPU, you just don't have one installed. When I ran FutureMarks benchmarks it said that HT was available but disabled with the 1.6a and the 2.5a. As soon as I put the 3.0e in HT was enabled and it showed two logical processors! Don't feel bad, though, I have a SOYO mobo that I got to go with the 1.6a that was 4x AGP. The North bus chip (845) is the same that is on some mobo's that handle HT, if you can find one that runs 400fsb, or 533fsb. There maybe some in exsitance, but they are not mainstream CPU's.


----------



## thetarget (Apr 2, 2006)

Well there isn't much of a dissappointment... I've used this box for 5 yr+ Lol... only that recently then i found out this HT-or-not things Lol... Oh yeah... I've up my 9550 to 450/237 LOl... Ithink it's the max now... i'm OCing my CPU too... so i think i'll leave it to rest at 350/210 untill my CPU is stable.. good luck to me


----------



## Mercenary4 (Apr 2, 2006)

Did you check to see what memory you had, and what the manufacturer recommended speed was. I am not referring to what Powercolor says, but what the chip maker says their chips run at. Eg.: Samsung 5.0 runs at 200mHz/or DDR400, but ATI clocks it at 196mHz. Without mem koolers, I wouldn't recommend OC'ing the memory on your card.

Good luck to you in your quest for higher performance for free, well besides hard work, hours of testing, and the anxiety of burning something out!


----------



## thetarget (Apr 2, 2006)

i htink mine is the 5n one... im OCing it nevertheless... going to  buy cooler soon


----------



## Mercenary4 (Apr 5, 2006)

Oh, one thought on HT enabled/disabled. With a HT CPU in the BIOS of my IS-7 there is an option to disable it. When I put a non-HT CPU in, this option is not even there. It maybe that you can't enable it w/o a HT CPU, but with one you can disable it. Why would you want to, I don't know. I'm not even going to try.


----------



## thetarget (Apr 5, 2006)

Lol haha thanks for the info mate... i think i can't get pass 142 FSB... my warcraft3 simply crashes.... and it's only 2.56 lolz


----------



## Mercenary4 (Apr 5, 2006)

I have only pushed my 1.6a to 133fsb/2.1GHz even though it will go higher. The 2.5a won't even boot at 133fsb, so it runs at 120fsb/3.0GHz. It all depends on your CPU/Mem/mobo and cooling really.


----------



## thetarget (Apr 6, 2006)

Hey i wanna ask... is it possible to install a temperature sensor to my powercolor 9550?


----------

