ATI overclocked BIOS not so trouble free

Darksaber · Dec 31, 2005

ATI released a X1800XT bios which set the core to 700 from 625Mhz and the memory to 800Mhz from 750Mhz. It was said that the raise should generally work on all X1800XT cards. Now it seems that the higher clock speed need a change at the hardware level. The cards would need more MOSFETs to ensure a clean and stable power feed. The BIOS should still work, but users are advised that the upgrade could drastically reduce the lifespan of the card.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

EastCoasthandle · Jan 1, 2006

how do you save your bios and then use the new one?

wtf8269 · Jan 1, 2006

Exactly how drastic are we talking here?

Darksaber · Jan 1, 2006

*hrhr* well I don't know..but the word "drastically" (in german: dramatisch) worries me...

cheers
DS

zOaib · Jan 1, 2006

WELL I DID FLASH , the new bios on my x1800 xt all went fine till yesterday , when my screen started showing garbelled screen with lines all over even when i boot , i uninstalled all drivers and reinstalled nothing changed even underclocked the card , cause i thought maybe its artifacts , but to no avail the card was corrupted cause i took it and checked it in my friends , so yeah , dont flahs the card to the new bios , just overclock to get those speeds !!

wtf8269 · Jan 1, 2006

I'd love to just overclock if I was even able to.

Darksaber · Jan 1, 2006

zOaib said:
WELL I DID FLASH , the new bios on my x1800 xt all went fine till yesterday , when my screen started showing garbelled screen with lines all over even when i boot , i uninstalled all drivers and reinstalled nothing changed even underclocked the card , cause i thought maybe its artifacts , but to no avail the card was corrupted cause i took it and checked it in my friends , so yeah , dont flahs the card to the new bios , just overclock to get those speeds !!

well but you even pushed your card even further...755/855 thats much more than the BIOS gives you. Hope you can exchange the card though...

cheers
DS

zOaib · Jan 2, 2006

Darksaber said:
well but you even pushed your card even further...755/855 thats much more than the BIOS gives you. Hope you can exchange the card though...

cheers
DS

yes i did but i only did it once , and then i was runnign it at 695/792 default by the new bios .................. i actually already send it for RMA !!! 500 $ too much money , lol

Darksaber · Jan 2, 2006

yea I agree 500 bucks is a lot.

hope everything works out for ya!

cheers
DS

EastCoasthandle · Jan 2, 2006

Has anyone else tried to use ramsinks on those mosfets? Some people who use ramsinks are reporting better overclocking success. Although it has been stated that some x1800xt have only 5 mosfets other have 6 mosfets and yet from leaked sources the x1900 will have 7 mosfets. I wonder how many mosfets Zoaib had? Zoaib, ever thought of trying to keep those 5/6 mosfets cool in the future? If I may, it's IMO that ramsinking your mosfets maybe something worth some thought...
I have been researching and found this product Swiftech MC14 BGA Memory Ramsinks. The reason being is because it's a forged cooper not aluminum which can handle heat of this nature (for mosfets) a whole lot better then just simple ram. I also notice they are usind Berquist thermal double adhesive tape which appears to be very good. Therefore, no need for an epoxy solution...

Here are some reviews:
Review 1
Review 2

EastCoasthandle · Jan 2, 2006

here is another article about it on here
and here which discuss the lack of mosfets on here 2

zOaib · Jan 2, 2006

EastCoasthandle said:
here is another article about it on here
and here which discuss the lack of mosfets on here 2

that i think is a great solution for ppl who want to start overclocking there x1800xt's right away , but from my experience in all honesty the x1800xt is DAMN fast enough for any game right now , the use of overclocking isnt even required as of yet , but being used to the excitement of overclocking in getting those 3dmark05 scores to see how far u can get , ended up in screwing up a card (for me atleast) ............ i think ill be using the stock cooling for a while till arctic-cooling or some other 3rd party company makes a nice cooler for this nice card !

Rammsteiner · Jan 2, 2006

zOaib said:
that i think is a great solution for ppl who want to start overclocking there x1800xt's right away , but from my experience in all honesty the x1800xt is DAMN fast enough for any game right now , the use of overclocking isnt even required as of yet , but being used to the excitement of overclocking in getting those 3dmark05 scores to see how far u can get , ended up in screwing up a card (for me atleast) ............ i think ill be using the stock cooling for a while till arctic-cooling or some other 3rd party company makes a nice cooler for this nice card !

I know what you mean

. I screwed to X800Pro ViVo's in only 5 months (both succesfully RMA'd ghehe). I did lotrs of pencil Vmods, BIOSflases etc

.

EastCoasthandle · Jan 2, 2006

I have some aluminum on them now and using riva tuner it says it's around 53C for voltage regulator (if that's the right one). When before it was much hotter at idle. While gaming I notice a dramatic improvement in maintaining the same frame rates throughout BF2/COD2 during rough combat. Before it would dip down then come back up like a roller coaster at times. So even when you are not overclocking it maybe worth it. I'm getting those copper heatsinks if they are at a steady 53C now, then I am sure they should hit the mid 48C with copper.

mahjr · Jan 2, 2006

Darksaber said:
*hrhr* well I don't know..but the word "drastically" (in german: dramatisch) worries me...

cheers
DS

as far as i understand (through the Babelfish) the last paragraph sounds like:

Due to this development diagram map is to be advised against a BIOS Flash of a conventional Radeon X1800 XT, if one did not like to count in the worst case on a clearly shortened lifetime.

So, would someone clear it up for me, how is it obvious that on "conventional" x1800xt's the lack of mosfets and therefore of stable power supply could shortened the board's lifespan?

Rammsteiner · Jan 2, 2006

mahjr said:
So, would someone clear it up for me, how is it obvious that on "conventional" x1800xt's the lack of mosfets and therefore of stable power supply could shortened the board's lifespan?

I think (Im not technically minded, just a theory) that if there are too less MOSFETs they are getting 'overclocked' when they have to do too much. But the MOSFETs dont get any cooling at all so they die within a little time (Im not sure if cooling the would help anything).

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ATI overclocked BIOS not so trouble free

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