20 replies to this topic

[Combiseries]

If you had noticed somewhere in the forum, I was going on about a new RADEON 9600 XT I was getting from Japan.

I paid £45 for it, with delivery in the price.

Now I don`t know if Im doing anything wrong but, I seem to be getting lower benchmark results with both 3dMark03 and 05 than my old 9550.

I have heard the 9600 XT works at 500Mhz Core and something like 400Mhz Memory but ATI Tool is reading mine at 400 Mhz Core and 200 Mhz Memory.

This is a lot faster than my 9550, but my 9550 could over clock to 400 Core and 250 Memory. I tried to overclock the 9600 XT but it would have none of it.

I have turned off all antivirus and memory hungry programs and still only managed to beat my 9550 by 300 marks or so. I got 2700+ with my XT and 2400+ with my 9550.

I know that I said I got 6883 with the 9550 elsewhere but that was a typing error. It was actually 2883 with 3DMark03.

I bought this to replace my aging 9550 but now Im not too sure, I get the feeling Ive been ripped off, and would be better off keeping the 9550 and sending the 9600 XT back.

Also can anyone help me with my DVD burner, its an MSI 12X. I don`t know the serial. But it only seems to like to butn at 2.4X with Nero and Alcohol even if I use 8X disks. If I try to burn at 4 or 8X it just takes an hour instead of 20 mins at 2.4. Alcohol says illegal disk burning speedburning at 1.0X. I heard somewhere of checking to see if DMA is enabled. I can`t for the life of me remember how I checked before, I know I did but can someone fill me in.


Thanks

[ptolomeus3]

Not sure about that, but it may depend on such things like is it a PCI or AGP card and probably most which is the manufacturer of your graphic card (Asus, ATI, GigaByte, MSI, Sapphire, etc...) they have some liberties how to "overclock" or change the "power". So a "Radeon 9600 XT" from say MSI could be different then a "Radeon 9600 XT" from GigaByte.

[zamiel]

I reckon the first thing you do is to benchmark the RAM on the card.

You may find they have used slower RAM and not the advertised. I have heard of instances where slower ram has been used in a product and its been flicked out the backdoor cheaply.

However check the speed of your AGP bus and whether or not its operating at 4x or 8x. Another thing to check is to see if FSAA (Full screen anti-aliasing) is on. This will give you a huge performance hit. Turn it off.

Those cards are still close or over $300 NZ dollars so your $47 including freight makes it a very cheap card indeed.

[2005]

It should get 500/600 core/memory speeds stock...

Are you even sure thats what you got, check in the device manager.... and see if you can tell what manufactuer it came from. If it came directly from ATI then it should without a doubt 100% be 500/600 core/memory speeds.

Card makers will use the ATI or Nivida chipsets in their own cards, companys like BFG like to OC their cards and even warrenty those OC speeds. A 9600 XT from them could be something like 600/550. I've never heard of companys "underclocking" the cards.

[2005]

Go into the device manager and click the plus sign next to where it says IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers. Then right click on each the primary and secondary IDE channels and go into the advanced settings tab. Make sure it says DMA if available.

However I suspect that you need to reflash that drives firmware with either an updated one or a copy of the one it already has (it may be corrupted).

Edited by 2005, 30 November 2005 - 01:12 AM.

[MaLing]

Also can anyone help me with my DVD burner

There could be two reasons:
1) Your DVDs do not match with your burner, or they are just simply bad quality.
2) Your burner's bios do not match with your DVDs.

For the solution:
1) Try other DVDs.
2) Update your burner's bios. Use Nero InfoTool or Nero CD-DVD Speed to find out the model of your burner and the bios version, then download the bios in the manufacturer's web site.

I do not think the DMA affects that. However, it is always better to turn it on. You may refer to this:
http://forum.alcohol...indpost&p=72563

Edited by MaLing, 30 November 2005 - 07:46 AM.

[Combiseries]

Go into the device manager and click the plus sign next to where it says IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers. Then right click on each the primary and secondary IDE channels and go into the advanced settings tab. Make sure it says DMA if available.

However I suspect that you need to reflash that drives firmware with either an updated one or a copy of the one it already has (it may be corrupted).

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I can`t find any firmware updates for it because its one of them really old MSI offerings. It hasn`t even got a standard name.

[MaLing]

Then it might be the problem. It is because it is too old to match with current discs.

[Combiseries]

It should get 500/600 core/memory speeds stock...

Are you even sure thats what you got, check in the device manager.... and see if you can tell what manufactuer it came from. If it came directly from ATI then it should without a doubt 100% be 500/600 core/memory speeds.

Card makers will use the ATI or Nivida chipsets in their own cards, companys like BFG like to OC their cards and even warrenty those OC speeds. A 9600 XT from them could be something like 600/550. I've never heard of companys "underclocking" the cards.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

According to Fresh Diagnose and Sandra, its a Powecolor make. And I have tried overclocking it to the above mentioned speeds. But it keeps on crashing at 450/250, like I said before my 9550 was stable at these speeds.

Just out of curiousity, within Sandra and Diagnose it says its a 9600 TX, is this just an error or something I should be concerned about.

How do I test the memory on the card?

[Combiseries]

I have tried to change the transfer mode in device manager but it seems to stick in PIO mode and I can`t change the autodetect status to one I can set myself. I`m going to try and swop them around but that would mean having PIO mode on my Liteon.

With regards to my graphics card would a maximum 128MB on my motherboards AGP architecture have anything to do with it.

[MaLing]

If you can not change the setting in Windows, then it might be the problem with your main board chipset's driver, but I can not guarantee...

[2005]

They never made a 256MB version of a 9600 XT, atleast not one that I know of. I've never owned or even read any reviews of any Powercolor products but if they over or underclock their cards I would know about it. The speeds I mentioned are supposed to be STOCK, the card should already be there and you shouldnt have to OC to get it to those speeds.

I would demand your money back if you could, you got riped off.

Just out of curiousity, your old 9550 outperforms it yes???

[Jito463]

Yes, they do make a 256MB version. We sell those PowerColor 9600XT 256MB cards at work, but the specs are 500/500 (see link below for more specs). He paid approximately $78 US, we charge $109 US, so the price wasn't bad. Are you sure you weren't looking at the 2D values, instead of the 3D values? I know when you do the Coolbits registry fix for nVidia cards, it shows a 2D clock speed and a 3D clock speed. If you try to overclock the 2D stuff, it can really cause problems. Not sure what you were using to check the speeds or overclock, but that might be worth looking at. Otherwise, I'd say you got ripped off and I'd try returning it to either the company you bought it from or PowerColor directly.

http://www.ditcorp.c...CR96TD3&eq=&Tp=

[BigTy]

Jit I have a 9600 in the PC I am typig on and there was no downclock value for @D. IT ran 500/500 24/7 Ati using ATI tools. if its still reports those uber low speeds RMA the card. Also report them to the BBB.

[Combiseries]

Jit I have a 9600 in the PC I am typig on and there was no downclock value for @D. IT ran 500/500 24/7 Ati using ATI tools. if its still reports those uber low speeds RMA the card. Also report them to the BBB.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Whats RMA and BBB stand for?

As for the card I got it from a seller on ebay, had a message from someone who bought one as well. I left neutral feedback I suggested he do the same if the speeds were the same as mine.

I used ATI Tool to measure the speeds. I ran a test with Battle for Middle Earth and the graphics do seem a lot smoother than my 9550. But they were marginal to say the least. Yes I could overclock my 9550 more than the speeds I got my 9600 XT running at, and it was stable. The 9600 XT won`t even budge higher than the speeds they are on now. I don`t know what you mean by reading 2D or 3D scores.

And buggers to me like, I sold my 9550 same time I bought the flipping 9600 XT.( So I could afford the flaming thing).

Im happy with it for the time being, it got 300 points more than my 9550 in 3dMArk03 anyways. And it was cheap at half the price, so I cant moan really. I just wish the guy sellling it and shipping it from Japan or China gave an indication of the correct speeds first, otherwise I would have thought twice.

[Jito463]

RMA = Return Merchandise Authorization. It means getting approval from the manufacturer to return the merchandise to them for repair or replacement.

BBB = Better Business Bureau. It's a US thing, but to be honest it's more of a joke than anything else. People call them and complain when they feel ripped off, then the BBB contacts the company to try and resolve the situation. If it's not resolved, they chalk up the complaint for people to review in that companies history on the BBB website.

[2005]

An offical BBA 9600XT AIW card is 525/650... I doubt that a non AIW card would have slower clocks. The one non BBA card I looked at was 500/600. If the BBA (Built By ATI) card was 525/650 then I would think anything give or take 50/50 would be wrong.

[Combiseries]

So the card I bought was either underclocked on purpose before sending it because the chip had allready been overclocked to the extreme. Or its just a duff card.

[2005]

I doubt it was underclocked, if it were you could simply just overclock it yourself back to where it should be and in about 90% of all cases past that point.

I suspect that card is damaged or going bad, if it is indeed a 9600XT the clock speeds should be VERY close to 500/600. 500/500 or 525/600 would even be acceptable but not 400/200

I think its a bad card, or somehow just not a 9600XT.

[Combiseries]

Hmmmm, too late for sending it back now.

<SOB> <SOB>