Ok I'm probably one of the one's who showed the promise of the card. The thing we've found out is that the LATER releases aren't always as OC'able. Most BBA cards are GOOD, but not all reach above the 500/350 mark. In your case it's obviously less.
First start with the CORE first. THEN the memory. I found that the CORE will produce the hard-locks first, and the Memeory will produce the artifacts.
Also which utility are you using to overclock? I've found that Rage3Dtweak gave me the most stable overclocks. And the OMEGAs give me the best visual quality (they use the crappy Raclocker to OC [I run day-to-day at 432/308])
Whcih benchmarks are you using for testing. 3Dmk01 should lock up in Either Chase (for way too much OC) or Nature (for slightly over the limit issue), 3Dmk03 will usually CRASH (either a locc-up or serious corruption, looks like a kaleidascope) in Battle of the Proxycon, and show memory artifacts (looks like Blackflies) in Wings tests (in all the first test, the CPU test, AND the sound tests) mine showed the blackflies above 363mhz and cause serious corruption with the memory at 371 (highest it would go) . I usualy stared experiencing lokc-ups with a 540+ core, and saw lower scores (without visible corruption) until I back it off to 533mhz.
Focus on the core first (your memory is definitely at it's max from the sound of it). However really a 50+ core and 40+ memory isn't that bad, just not stellar by R9600Pro standards. It almost looks like a typical Sapphire or PowerColor overclock, they don't get much headroom. You might want to check the memory modules and make sure they look like <A HREF="http://www.hardocp.com/image.html?image=MTA1MDI2NTI3OHViYWF1RTBZM3lfMV8xMF9sLmpwZw==" target="_new">THIS</A>
IF your memory says GC33 instead of GC2a then you got the 3.0ns memory and not the better 2.86ns memory. <A HREF="http://www.samsung.com/Products/Semiconductor/GraphicsMemory/DDRSDRAM/128Mbit/K4D26323RA/K4D26323RA.htm" target="_new">HERE</A>'s a list from Samsung of the memory types used for this board.
And of course there are the basics. Make sure you have the most recent AGP drivers for your MOBO, Make your AGP app. 256mb, turn off fast-writes/smartgart. You may also want to check your voltages with some kind of HW monitor (not likely it but could be). Do you have Enough ventilation (shouldn't be it but if it's stiffling it will kill any OC)?
BTW what is your OS, it sounds weird that it would have that much trouble with 2D.
And finally unfortunately you may have received a lesser sample. IT still runs in stock but just doesn't overclcock well. Overclcocking is always a gamble even with BBA cards. I've seen reviewers get as little as ~25mhz on the core and 9mhz on the memory (but that was the 3.3ns memory).
Hope that stuff helps, let us know how it turns out.
BTW, your sig. still says Sapphire 9000Pro.
- You need a licence to buy a gun, but they'll sell anyone a stamp <i>(or internet account)</i> ! <A HREF="http://www.redgreen.com" target="_new"><font color=green>RED</font color=green> <font color=red>GREEN</font color=red></A> GA to SK
<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by TheGreatGrapeApe on 07/29/03 05:44 PM.</EM></FONT></P>
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