Overclocking potential of ATI X1900XTX (water cooled)?

[Deleted member 978]

I've got my water cooling rig and case build ready to go for this weekends project -- I'm replacing my two 7800GTX 512MB cards with a single ATI X1900XTX. The XTX will get it's own dedicated cooling loop (based on some of the suggestions in this forum) - swiftech pump, waterblock, and dedicated radiator (CPU will get a separate cooling loop) -- what overclocking potential does the XTX have? GPU and memory?

Thanks, Rob.

 

[p8ntslinger676]

well i got a 15% overclock with my X850XT, it started artifacting at 20% due to heat (stock air cooling) so i turned it down a little, but i know you will be able to do better since you got water cooling

 

[kwalker]

I've got my water cooling rig and case build ready to go for this weekends project -- I'm replacing my two 7800GTX 512MB cards with a single ATI X1900XTX. The XTX will get it's own dedicated cooling loop (based on some of the suggestions in this forum) - swiftech pump, waterblock, and dedicated radiator (CPU will get a separate cooling loop) -- what overclocking potential does the XTX have? GPU and memory?

Thanks, Rob.

I did a little digging around and found an answer to your question by accident.
The over clocking potential of the x1900xt and the x1900xtx. is very impressive.
I my self am waiting to add a separate water cooling loop for the x1900xtx before oc’ing above stock rated clocks.
buy the way how did your project turn out?

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=87890

 

[Deleted member 978]

The project has turned out OK, still testing out various vCore, FSB, Mem settings to get it stable system.

So far I've managed a very stable CPU at 3.66 Ghz (using Prime95 torture test). Still working on getting it higher 4.0Ghz is my goal, but so far all attempts above 3.66 have failed.

On the ATI X1900XTX front, I'm a little dissappointed. I can't seem to make anything other than ATI's own Overdrive work for marginal overclocking. GPU temp is very low, so I know there is more potentail in the card. I'm having a hard time finding reliable overclocking tools for the Cat 6.8 drivers -- RivaTuner, ATI Tool, WinClk don't even work when I set the 3D clock to "stock" settings, so I'm not sure what is going on there. Any suggestions are most welcome.

 

[kwalker]

ati tool ver 0.25b 15 worked for me .
thats the updated version for the newer gpus.

 

[kwalker]

The auto-overclock feature in ATITools doesn't work if that's what you're talking about.
You have to manually detect artifacts through things like 3DMark06.

Your GRAM is 1.1ns so that equates to 910Mhz(1820DDR) without any voltage increase which you can just set straight away in ATITools.
Then work away at the core frequency by 5Mhz at a time.

were all waiting for your x1900xtx over clock guide.
good job on the cd2.

 

[Deleted member 978]

ATI Tool is definitely not a user friendly interface -- anyway, I've had complete failures trying to overclock my X1900XTX using anything other than ATI's Overdrive.

I finally got to the point where I think the 3D detection stuff is working in ATITool, but even with stock GRAM frequency and just minor GPU increases, 3DMark05 will trigger ATI's VPU recovery -- not sure why only the ATI overdrive will work? GPU temps using ATI Overdrive in 3DMark05 hit 55c max, as I under stand it this GPU should be able to hit 70c without any problems?

Also tried increasing voltage via ATI Tool and still no go.

I've tried RivaTuner also and it'll cause 3DMark05 to crash with a VPU recovery.

Any other hints?

Thanks, Rob.

 

[Heyyou27]

The X1900XTX will need very good cooling to really hit the high numbers, but once it does it's hard to beat.

By the way, I'm questioning why you would switch from two 7800GTX 512s to an X1900XTX? Do you need OpenEXR with antialiasing support or something? If this isn't the case than you're wasting your money, unless of course you're getting a lot of money back on the GTXs.

 

[Deleted member 978]

The switch to X1900XTX is actually a reason I don't think most would understand.

1. MS Flight Sim 2004 does not work well (not at all) with SLI so even though I have two 7800GTX 512MB only one is being used with FS 2004. One 7800GTX 512MB is not as fast a one X1900XTX.

2. X1900XTX appears to provide high quality images without taking major frame rate hits.

3. Back to SLI, many of the games I'm interested in don't appear to make much use of SLI (in fact the don't run with SLI or require single GPU rendering to work) in away that really benefits the game.

I jumped on the SLI bandwagon just like everyone else, but now I'm back pedaling -- the X1900XTX is gonna be my last card til new cards come out that have full DX10 support (as I understand it DX10 will provide native multi-GPU capabilities and this will open the door to true multi-GPU processing and provide developers with significant opportunities).

Nothing wrong with the two 7800GTX 512MB, just doesn't fit my specific priorities right now.

 

[Deleted member 978]

Ok, making some progress on the ATI front -- I'm able to get to 880 Memory without any issues/artifacts but the GPU will not go over 695 (odd since this is the unit is water cooled by its own dedicated loop using Swiftech pump and 1/2" tubing). I suspect that because I can't change the voltage on the GPU via RivaTuner, this is holding me back from getting more out of the GPU.

I did reach my goal (over 14000) with 14107 3DMark05 ATI at 695/880 on a Core 2 @3.75Ghz. This is stable.

Wonder if I can get to 15000...

 

[Heyyou27]

The switch to X1900XTX is actually a reason I don't think most would understand.

1. MS Flight Sim 2004 does not work well (not at all) with SLI so even though I have two 7800GTX 512MB only one is being used with FS 2004. One 7800GTX 512MB is not as fast a one X1900XTX.

2. X1900XTX appears to provide high quality images without taking major frame rate hits.

3. Back to SLI, many of the games I'm interested in don't appear to make much use of SLI (in fact the don't run with SLI or require single GPU rendering to work) in away that really benefits the game.

I jumped on the SLI bandwagon just like everyone else, but now I'm back pedaling -- the X1900XTX is gonna be my last card til new cards come out that have full DX10 support (as I understand it DX10 will provide native multi-GPU capabilities and this will open the door to true multi-GPU processing and provide developers with significant opportunities).

Nothing wrong with the two 7800GTX 512MB, just doesn't fit my specific priorities right now.

Did you try creating your own SLI profile for the required applications? I'm not saying you shouldn't get an X1900XTX, but I still don't understand why you'd switch to one when your current setup won't be any worse.

 

[kwalker]

I spent a little time with ati tool and found beta 15 restrictive.
I downloaded beta 16 cleaned the drivers and reinstalled the drivers from the disk.
Installed beta 16 and Bang.
No more restriction.
I am in no hurry to oc without water so I’ll play with it for awhile and if its worth posting I’ll post a screenshot follow up.
I know the bug issue has some people worried.
Just report it and wizard will be on it.




Here is the beta 16 link
http://www.techpowerup.com/wizzard/ATITool_0.25_b16pre1.exe

 

[kwalker]

update after small memory increase
I have a full xp load and just about everything running in the background.
you should get what your looking for with Core2

 

[Deleted member 978]

Thank you for the Beta link -- just downloaded it, will try it out tomorrow.

Trust me, I tried hard to make nVidia SLI work with FS 2004 -- the end result is that I get better frame rates in single GPU mode. And the new FSX for WinXP (DX9) still does not support SLI, only FSX for Vista (DX10) will have SLI support.

This is THE simulation I use the most, I have about 2K worth of GoFlight controls and another $1K in add-on software that I use with FS 2004, so it's my baby. Whatever video card works best with it is a big determining factor for me. So far nVidia just hasn't worked well with FS 2004 and numerous Emails back and forth to nVidia haven't resulted in anything positive.

I just installed FS 2004 on my new rig and it is working MUCH faster than it did with my 7800GTX cards. Sure Core 2 has helped, but I don't think Core 2 alone (over my AMD FX57) could have provided 3X the frame rate and much improved visual quality.

I'm not saying ATI X1900XTX is for everyone, but in my case it really is the best option.

Rob.