[search keywords: X1950 AGP, overlock, ATI Tray Rools, ACCELERO, XEON]
Just wanted to say thanks so much for the review and example installation
instructions! Along with the info from ricklafay.com, it made it much
easier to install the cooler onto the Sapphire X1950Pro AGP I bought
(actually two of them; one for me, one for my brother's PC).
I thought it might be useful to others if I described the end results, and
how I overclocked the card.
My system is a Dell Precision 650, dual-XEON P4/2.66GHz, 2GB PC2100
ECC memory, 4 x 146GB 15K U320 SCSI disks, 430W PSU, Sapphire X1950
Pro AGP 8X. NOTE: gaming performance is faster (with higher 3DMark
results overall for 03/05/06 tests) with HyperThreading turned OFF.
As other people found, with the stock cooler the load temp on the gfx
card was 75C or more. Ouch! I want to play games, not fry an egg.
With the cooler fitted, and before the wearing-in period has taken effect,
I already find the load temp has dropped to 53C, which is absolutely
excellent. What's more, this is _after_ I've successfully overclocked the
card to about 11% faster than normal - realibly done I might add; am
playing Oblivion on the system just now, which is what I wanted the card
for (aswell as for Stalker). Before overclocking, the load temp was reduced
to 50C. I expect the 53C temp I see now to possibly drop a little more
as the conductive grease sorts itself out. Note that I do have a tube of
Arctic Silver 5, but one test reviewer said he found no appreciable
difference when replacing the supplied grease with AS5, so I left it alone.
During my extensive research on how to overclock, it was clear many
people had difficulties. I too ran into similar issues, eg. the ATI Tray Tools
would cause the screen to blank if I changed the mem clock by even one
degree, whereas the GPU could be changed ok. Meanwhile, the Catalyst
auto-scan would recommend 631MHz/781MHz just fine, but seemed
unable to actually enact the changes. I tried various combinations, eg.
having only the ATI drivers and using ATT...
In my case the solution was to have the Catalyst Control Center installed
as normal, and use the Overdrive panel to unlock the overclocking, but
to use ATI Tray Tools to make the changes themselves, but doing it at
the _driver_ level, NOT via low level. Plus, before I made the changes, I
manually set the fan to 100% . I expect 95% or less would be ok, but
I initially set it to 100% to be safe; over time I'll back it off bit by bit, see
how low it can be and still maintain the max 53C temp under load. A
quick checked suggests 90% would be fine, but I'm not in any hurry to
sort out this aspect of the cooler setup. Will do that later.
The most important thing I discovered was that the GPU/MEM speeds
can be increased much more reliably if the changes are made in
increments of 6.75MHz. In practice, whatever speed one wishes to set
by this method, if the number is fractional then request the speed
rounded up to the next 1 or 2 MHz. Eventually, ATT won't allow one to
increase the speeds any further than a certain amount anyway, though
these limits are likely to be 5 to 10MHz too high than is realible.
Once I'd worked out the 'how', making the changes was easy. Trying
with various settings, I eventually peaked at testing the GPU at 648MHz,
but 3DMark06 froze during one of the tests, so I backed it down one
level and at 641MHz it runs reliably, no artifacts. Has anyone run the
Sapphire faster than this? Either way, here's the end result:
Code:
GPU: 641.25MHz
MEM: 783.00 MHz
3DMark2006: 4781
I noticed elsewhere one person with a GF8800 in a system with 3GHz P4
and FSB800 got 4829, so I'm quite pleased given my system has just
PC2100 ECC, FSB533 and P4/2.66. See:
http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=1091311
Their HDR1 result is much higher, but their HDR2 result is only 16%
better. I would never have expected my system to come that close
to matching a GF8800 in any respect, not with the older CPU/RAM
technologies that my system has.
Anyway, my X1950 gfx stock speeds were 580MHz/702MHz, so it's
now running ok with 10.5% faster GPU and 11.5% faster MEM. I could
probably push the memory even faster, but I'm happy with the setup as
it is, and I figure it's probably sensible to boost each by a similar amount
if possible. I decided at the beginning that if I could get a 10% boost in
each then I would be more than satisfied.
I am very impressed with the cooler. The ACCELERO X2 is really good.
The idle temperature is actually now lower than the case temperature!
With the stock cooler, idle temp could easily be 50; now it is down to 35C
or less (in my brother's PC, which has better cooling than my Dell, the
idle temp is down to 32C, while the max load temp is currently 50C
without overclocking - should get better results with his system though
as his PC has dual-channel PC3200 RAM).
I have to say, it's a shame Sapphire didn't offer a premade version of the
X1950 with the ACCELERO X2 already fitted, though I guess for some the
physical height of the fan casing might be an issue. Best of all though,
awful loud noise of the original fan has completely vanished; I can't hear
the new fan at all, even with it set to 100%.
To round things off, here are my 3DMark2006 results (will add
3DMark05, 03 and 01 results here aswell if others are interested):
Code:
3DMark 2006: 4781
Shader Model 2.0: 1921
Game Test 1: 15.283
Game Test 2: 16.736
HDR / SM 3.0: 2196
HDR Test 1: 21.709
HDR Test 2: 22.203
CPU Overall Score: 1364
CPU Test 1: 0.436
CPU Test 2: 0.682
Fill Rate / Single: 4938.664
Fill Rate / Multiple: 7664.101
Pixel Shader: 248.800
Vertex / Simple: 166.340
Vertex / Complex: 60.920
Shader Particles: N/A
Perlin Noise: 70.612
Note that on a different forum I've already posted full test results
for this system before any overclocking was done, along with PCMark
results for the system as a whole:
http://www.dellcommunity.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=games_mygames&thread.id=8659
The overclocking gives an overall 3DM06 increase of around 5%, though
individual tests can benefit much more (eg. Pixel Shader has gone up
by 25%) and the difference in Oblivion is very noticeable indeed, much
more than a 10% speed increase I'd say. I'm running Oblivion at 1024x768
but with 'high' features/quality; for the X1950 series, this seems to give
better results than trying to run at a higher resolution with 'medium'
quality settings. Note that this is without any Oblivion updates or tweaks
just yet.
Final tips: I used cotton buds with isopropanol to clean all surfaces before
attaching the new cooler. Works well, but handle with care as it's a skin
dessicant. I also had a proper inert-gas airduster can (CPC/Farnell
Electrolube GDP) to help clear away any trace dust before the final fitting.
A 0.5mm watch maker's screwdriver was perfect for disconnecting
the stock cooler's power connector. Lastly, when removing the plastic
cover from the copper base of the ACCELERO X2, be careful to make
sure the plastic outer strip doesn't 'flick' at the last moment and score
over the conductive grease layer. It did this with the first cooler I fitted
to my own system, though thankfully the mark was really small (less
than 1mm wide) and made no difference to performance, but it could
have been worse. I was more careful with the 2nd cooler, made sure
the plastic cover was removed while firmly held.
Can't think of anything else...
Hope this helps!
Cheers!
Ian.
SGI Depot:
http://www.futuretech.blinkenlights.nl/sgidepot/
Email:
mapesdhs@yahoo.com (eBay ID: mapesdhs)
Home: +44 (0)131 476 0796
to me. lol