X1900XT memory o/c

[jim1976]

I have a x1900xt with the system of my sig.
While I can hit a respectable o/c in my core (690) my memory is having issues even at xtx speeds (775) it presents artifacts.
I haven't opened my card to see what memory it has but even if it has 1.26ns shouldn't it be able to reach 775 easily?
Do you think that this can be due to my Antec 480W neopower ? I find it hard to believe that a power supply like this cannot handle my system. I'm not saying that it's not having considerable load (my x2@2700 and many devices) but wtf antec 480w and it's no good?
I laso don't think that heat is an issue, because if it was shouldn't I have a problem with the core o/c too?
I need some help here I'm running out of ideas. I know that it's an o/c and no o/c is guaranteed but cmon not even xtx mem speed? I believe that something else is wrong.
Can you drop any ideas on what to check? Thanks in advance

 

[duckymcse]

Try increase the fan speed between 4-5k rpm and see if that help.

 

[RobertR1]

Take the heatsink off and check the ram to make sure it's 1.1 and not 1.26.
If it's 1.1 then try to flash it with a x1900xtx bios (I believe the volts are set differently on the xt vs. xtx cards).

 

[jim1976]

Originally posted by: RobertR1
Take the heatsink off and check the ram to make sure it's 1.1 and not 1.26.
If it's 1.1 then try to flash it with a x1900xtx bios (I believe the volts are set differently on the xt vs. xtx cards).

Done that. No luck. Memory presents artifacts with the xtx bios too
Anyway even if they are 1.26ns they are rated higher than 775 aren't they? And I don't believe that timings are so tight either to prevent a x1900xt reach the xtx levels. The vast majority of the users easily flash to xtx speeds w/o issues. I'm not talkin about reaching 800+ here, I'm talkin about simple xtx speeds

Originally posted by: duckymcse
Try increase the fan speed between 4-5k rpm and see if that help.

Well that was the first thing I checked.. No luck

 

[RobertR1]

Damn

Can you swap it out for another one (just a poor OC'ing card perhaps) or just get an xtx. Also, read up on xtremesystems.org All they do is OC video cards over there

 

[Yreka]

Has anyone ever seen a 1900 series with anything but 1.1? Just curious, I haven't seen any reports of 1.2 yet

 

[jim1976]

Originally posted by: RobertR1
Damn

Can you swap it out for another one (just a poor OC'ing card perhaps) or just get an xtx. Also, read up on xtremesystems.org All they do is OC video cards over there

I know.. But poor o/cer only in ram? Core seems to give decent o/c..

 

[jim1976]

Originally posted by: Yreka
Has anyone ever seen a 1900 series with anything but 1.1? Just curious, I haven't seen any reports of 1.2 yet

Yes it depends on the date they were made. Some have 1.26ns. But even these are rated 1600MHz..

 

[Cooler]

Originally posted by: jim1976

Originally posted by: Yreka
Has anyone ever seen a 1900 series with anything but 1.1? Just curious, I haven't seen any reports of 1.2 yet

Yes it depends on the date they were made. Some have 1.26ns. But even these are rated 1600MHz..

they must have binned the ram.

 

[potato28]

Probably not enough contact with the RAM and core. Take off the HS/F and check to see how much pressure is being applied(if it falls off once the clips come off, its not on there enough)

 

[jim1976]

Originally posted by: Cooler

Originally posted by: jim1976

Originally posted by: Yreka
Has anyone ever seen a 1900 series with anything but 1.1? Just curious, I haven't seen any reports of 1.2 yet

Yes it depends on the date they were made. Some have 1.26ns. But even these are rated 1600MHz..

they must have binned the ram.

Yes but some guys that they have 1.26ns were able to o/c it to 775.

Originally posted by: potato28
Probably not enough contact with the RAM and core. Take off the HS/F and check to see how much pressure is being applied(if it falls off once the clips come off, its not on there enough)

Yes I should open it. I'm making assumptions w/o even checking if the HSF is seated properly

 

[jim1976]

Well I opened it. 1.1ns BJ11 ... And I can't o/c them to 775
I noticed something else too. I upped the mem voltages from 2.086 to 2.105. It didn't give me artifacts but it throttled. From 5700 stock it gave me a 5050 in 3dmark06.
Any ideas?

 

[Elfear]

Try lowering the mem voltage to 1.985V or so. That's helped other people to oc the mem higher.

 

[jim1976]

Originally posted by: Elfear
Try lowering the mem voltage to 1.985V or so. That's helped other people to oc the mem higher.

*edit

Helped a bit but eventually crashed to desktop

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: RobertR1
Damn

Can you swap it out for another one (just a poor OC'ing card perhaps) or just get an xtx. Also, read up on xtremesystems.org All they do is OC video cards over there

1. Poor OCer is hardly a reason for RMA

2. THat card is fast enough at everything you don't really need to OC it?

If you must, why don't you Zalman/heatsinks/slot fan?

 

[jim1976]

I know Rollo thanks I'm not planning to RMA a perfectly good gpu just because it doesn't o/c well on the ram...

Anyway I was wrong before. The throttling appears only if I terminate the dll file when ATItool opens.
So when I understood that I said no I lowered the mem voltage to 1.985 it didn't present artifacts but couldn't finished all the tests it crashed to desktop in the last. So lowering the voltage helps a bit but not that much..

 

[5150Joker]

What are you lowering your voltages with, ATi Tool or ATi OC utility? I'd suggest you use ATi Tool beta 13 and try setting MVDDC to 1.996 and MVDDQ to 1.968 and see if you can OC your memory any. Do it while your core and CPU are at stock clocks to rule out heat and/or power issues. Finally, turn up your fan to 80% with ATi tool when testing this. Oh yeah before you do any of that, be sure to disable ATi HotKey Poller by going to Run>services.msc, reboot the system and then try OC'ing with the suggestions I made above.

 

[jim1976]

Originally posted by: 5150Joker
What are you lowering your voltages with, ATi Tool or ATi OC utility? I'd suggest you use ATi Tool beta 13 and try setting MVDDC to 1.996 and MVDDQ to 1.968 and see if you can OC your memory any. Do it while your core and CPU are at stock clocks to rule out heat and/or power issues. Finally, turn up your fan to 80% with ATi tool when testing this. Oh yeah before you do any of that, be sure to disable ATi HotKey Poller by going to Run>services.msc, reboot the system and then try OC'ing with the suggestions I made above.

I'm o/cing with Overclocker. I use ATI tool b13 only to change the mem voltages and experiment.
So what does hotkey poller does why do I have to disable it?

 

[5150Joker]

Originally posted by: jim1976

Originally posted by: 5150Joker
What are you lowering your voltages with, ATi Tool or ATi OC utility? I'd suggest you use ATi Tool beta 13 and try setting MVDDC to 1.996 and MVDDQ to 1.968 and see if you can OC your memory any. Do it while your core and CPU are at stock clocks to rule out heat and/or power issues. Finally, turn up your fan to 80% with ATi tool when testing this. Oh yeah before you do any of that, be sure to disable ATi HotKey Poller by going to Run>services.msc, reboot the system and then try OC'ing with the suggestions I made above.

I'm o/cing with Overclocker. I use ATI tool b13 only to change the mem voltages and experiment.
So what does hotkey poller does why do I have to disable it?

ATi HotKey Poller is used by the CCC to set 2D/3D clocks and voltages. You need to disable it in order for ATi Tool to work properly.

 

[jim1976]

Originally posted by: 5150Joker

Originally posted by: jim1976

Originally posted by: 5150Joker
What are you lowering your voltages with, ATi Tool or ATi OC utility? I'd suggest you use ATi Tool beta 13 and try setting MVDDC to 1.996 and MVDDQ to 1.968 and see if you can OC your memory any. Do it while your core and CPU are at stock clocks to rule out heat and/or power issues. Finally, turn up your fan to 80% with ATi tool when testing this. Oh yeah before you do any of that, be sure to disable ATi HotKey Poller by going to Run>services.msc, reboot the system and then try OC'ing with the suggestions I made above.

I'm o/cing with Overclocker. I use ATI tool b13 only to change the mem voltages and experiment.
So what does hotkey poller does why do I have to disable it?

ATi HotKey Poller is used by the CCC to set 2D/3D clocks and voltages. You need to disable it in order for ATi Tool to work properly.

K man thanks I'll try your settings and give feedback

 

[jim1976]

Well first of all disabling the ATI hotkey poller results in throttling. It does exactly the same with the ATI tool at the beginning as I expected which is to terminate the dll file. To me the opposite happens if I disable it the o/c doesn't work well...If I leave it enabled then the o/c works

Well using your settings(in mem voltages)

I o/ced only the ram to 775. It lasted much longer and did a whole run of 3dmark06 with higher score. But eventually it failed in the second run.
I o/ced only the core to 685 and I had no issues at all, everything worked fine and no issues whatsoever.

So the memory is the problem. It cannot go even with lower voltages at xtx speeds.

Power should be ruled out, since the core o/c's w/o issues.
The heat may not create problems to the core but it certainly creates to the ram.

Any ideas on what to do?

 

[5150Joker]

Try incrementally raising the memory voltage (MVDDC/MVDDQ) from the settings I gave you by 0.020v each time. Keep the MVDDQ at least .020v below that of the MVDDC each time you raise them. Keep trying to loop 3dmark05 each time you try this until it becomes more stable. If that doesn't work then you either got memory that just doesn't want to OC and/or a poor memory controller on your card. Did you make sure to put your CPU back at default when you were testing this?

 

[jim1976]

Originally posted by: 5150Joker
Try incrementally raising the memory voltage (MVDDC/MVDDQ) from the settings I gave you by 0.020v each time. Keep the MVDDQ at least .020v below that of the MVDDC each time you raise them. Keep trying to loop 3dmark05 each time you try this until it becomes more stable. If that doesn't work then you either got memory that just doesn't want to OC and/or a poor memory controller on your card. Did you make sure to put your CPU back at default when you were testing this?

I'll make some more tests to see what happens.
BTW I didn't run cpu @ defaults, I find it hard to believe that the core draws less power than the memory in a gpu. I mean I can up the core well above the xtx speed and draw less power?
So I'm thinking of removing the white cover of the gpu and put a fan blowing in there to see if that will help. It's surely ram overheating.. Any other suggestions?

BTW thanks for the help m8, really appreciated.. :beer:

 

[jim1976]

Bump. Any other ideas?

 

[5150Joker]

Hmm the only other possibilities that remain are:

1. inadequate cooling
2. inadequate power supply
3. average memory controller and/or ram for the card itself


Since you mentioned being able to raise the core without touching the memory, then it nearly rules out #2 so only #'s 1 and 3 remain. Perhaps an aftermarket cooler might help? I'm not sure what if any aftermarket coolers are out there for the X1900 since I run mine on water but you might want to check around. As a last resort, try bumping your voltages to around 2.150v/2.130v and raise your VDDCI to 1.5v and see if that improves your memory OC at all. Some have theorized that VDDCI controls the memory controller voltage but who knows, right now it's all speculation since nobody including viper john or w1zzard know what it does exactly.

Check out this guys post, specifically what he says about his memory OC: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1274536&postcount=108