Overclocking issues with the Albatron FX5900 XTV

Post by **Illuminati** » Sat Apr 17, 2004 7:34 am

Here is an the overclocking section from our Albatron FX5900 XTV review soon to be posted. You can read the blurb to get up to speed and to know the purpose of this forum post. Thanks!

Overclocking

Our overclocking experience with this card was a very confusing one. We used the Coolbits registry tweak, as well as RivaTuner and Powerstrip, but we got some very odd behavior with the performance results and the overclocking speeds. The strange behavior with Coolbits was the fact that we were able to get the core of the card up to 504 MHz... This is up from the default 390 MHz! No other reviews on the net were close to this. Another strange surprise that I got was that the driver "Test Settings" actually failed at this level, and refused the card to overclock any higher. We had this behavior on the memory as well, but we could only get it up to 733 MHz before the driver test would fail.

Now the next issue is with performance. At these strange overclocking levels, the performance numbers did not really move... in fact, some scores decreased! When overclocking both the core and the memory, the driver would allow me to run the card at 504/733. This allowed us to get a score of 14609 on 3dMark2001SE (13950 default), 82.51FPS on UT2003 (82.58 default), and 35.04FPS on Halo (37.5 default). These results do not yield consistent results for us.

So this is where I make a reader challenge! I challenge our readers to find out what is causing this. You can see our test rig setup earlier in the review. If you have any reasoning as to why we are getting these results, please post them in this forum post! Please post any other comments or questions in that post, as well. Thanks for your help!

allenpan · Post by **allenpan** » Mon Apr 19, 2004 4:05 pm

about the review, first FX59XX has thermal throutal on driver or chip it will lower down the clock rate to default, i have FX5900 mod to 5950U, i can oc to 550 core but if it gets hot it reset back to default, however, i remove the HSI (heatsink Speadter Isomething) and my default temp was lower by 5C and i am able to stay @ 550 core, after i move a zalmen heatpipe with delta 110 cfm i can do around 575, with help off agp voltage boost, my old mobo can set the 3.3V to 3.8 (it affect on anything that use 3.3V on mobo) with 3.8V able to OC to 575,

enable the temp montior in benchmark, u will see stock cooling can go as high as 105C (most of HSI has gap in beetween the plate and die, and if u gonna take the HSI off make sure u have shin gard..like the AMD plate, it prevent the heatsink from rocking and chip the die away) u can see big difference after remove HSI from 40-105 to 30-80C, if GPU goes higher than 100C it auto slows down..questiopn ask me

Post by **Illuminati** » Mon Apr 19, 2004 7:39 pm

Great! That makes sense... I'll check it out and let you know how it turns out.

lesovers · Post by **lesovers** » Thu Apr 22, 2004 6:31 am

Justin,

I have owned the Albatron 5900XT for a while now and have had problems with it at the stock 700MHz memory speed. I have also had problems with very poor memory overclocking. The Auto-Detect overclocking only gives a memory speed of 686 MHz using coolbits.

The problems are solved by replacing the original Albatron bios version 4.35.20.32.02 to 4.35.20.38.A7 found on an Aopen 5900XT card. Links are:

http://www.mvktech.net for the Aopen 5900XT rom.

http://home.wanadoo.nl/parimask/download/nvflash.zip for the flashing program.

To Flash the card using nvflash:

* Download nvflash and the Aopen rom
* Make a DOS bootable floppy disk and copy nvflash.exe,
cwsdpmi.exe and AOpen.FX5900XT.128MB.Rev.01.rom to it
* Make a backup.bat file with the code: nvflash -b albat.rom
* Make a flash.bat file with the code: nvflash -2 -p -u -f AOpen.FX5900XT.128MB.Rev.01.rom
* Boot the computer from the floppy
* Save the original bios using backup.bat
* Flash the new bios using flash.bat
* Reboot the computer

The Auto-Detect overclocking now gives a memory speed of 752 MHz using coolbits. The overclocking problem appears to be a poor bios not the card itself.

Les

Post by **Illuminati** » Thu Apr 22, 2004 9:01 am

I don't believe I had a problem with autodetect.... but I rarely use that anyway. I always go manual, especially when testing cards...

But thanks for this tip... after I play with OC'ing the card the way it came, if I notice problems, I may try this trick... but as of right now, I don't think I will need to.

allenpan · Post by **allenpan** » Thu Apr 22, 2004 12:55 pm

well, don't use the bios that comes with it, if u dl the reference u have better oc, for example, leadtech their bios is called slient bios, which means, it auto lower the clock rate tom compisate the low fan speed and lower temp, i was using FX5900 EVGA, and the default won't let me stay @ 475/950 but 475/940, but i flashed to leadtehc 5950 it allow me to clock @ 5950u speed which is 475/950 however, i am not able to push much farther, i dl the refernce 5950U, i am able to push to 550/978 but the heat reset clock rate, after improve it i am able to set to 550/989, i now need better cooling for ram, and i can push to 1000mhz

Post by **Apoptosis** » Thu Apr 22, 2004 1:53 pm

So from the sounds of it LR needs to look at some softmods on the 5900XT that we have. Let's try this out and see what happens!

Post by **Illuminati** » Mon Apr 26, 2004 1:07 pm

lesovers,

I just got done updating the bios of my Albatron 5900XT to that of the AOpen bios version Rev01 and Rev02. (I tried both).

Doing this had the opposite effect as you described. Now that I am on the AOpen bios, Autodetect using coolbits gives me 382/686 MHz on the core/memory. As you know these clock speeds are both below the default 390/700. Before the bios update, the Albatron bios gave me 396/715.

I followed your instructions step-by-step... I am now going to explore some other bios', but if you can explain this issue, please let me know.

Thanks for your help!
-Justin

allenpan · Post by **allenpan** » Tue Apr 27, 2004 11:11 pm

1st, all the TX version bios has cap on overclocking, unless u are able to find Regular bios or ultra version, however, the TX is using way slower memory, so the chance of oc on the ram is less, howver, since TX's core is same core as regular or ultra with a no cap bios u should oc more, however, b4 u flash to regular bios, i advise you to use bios editor and manually set the memory speed to lower

FX5900TX = 390/700
FX5900SE = 400/700
FX5900 = 400/800
FX5900U = 450/850
FX5950U = 475/900

as u can see most of TX/SE using 2.8ns memory hynix, and the most of the mcan oc to 770 max or so, so if u flash to 5900 regular, the memory is way off spec and a chance of kill it so, i advice modify the bios value to 700 b4 u flash it, there is also cap lock on FX5900 regular bios, that is why i flash to 5950U bios, that gave me more head room

i resently got another FX5900SE, i falsh to 5900U bios with memory clock reduce, my core is able to kick to 440, after flash to 5950U, my core is able to kick even more to 477 which is faster than 5950U on default, but b/c of 2.8ns shitty ram my max on ram increase from 700->770>777 (default,5900,5950U bios)..also @ 5950U the voltage on the core and ram increases by 0.2V that is why u can oc more....

***watch out for cooling.... @ 477 ur default cooling my lead to problem

also by removing the heat spreader it will increase heat disposal and reduce heat...my 5900SE after remove plate it is albe to get rid of the heat using stock...but i am planing to get better cooling for it too

compare:
default-
FX5900 = 400/800
FX5900SE = 400/700

FX5900 BIOS OC
FX5900 = 478/985
FX5900SE = 440/770

FX5950U BIOS OC
FX5900 = 550/998 <zalman heat pipe, stock memory+MSI removed
FX5900SE = 477/777 <stock on GPU+RAM+HSI removed

hope that answered ur question

allenpan · Post by **allenpan** » Tue Apr 27, 2004 11:12 pm

btw, i think both of my FX5900 is able to clock @ 550 core, but i need $$$ for the cooling or else...

Mavke · Post by **Mavke** » Tue May 25, 2004 1:03 am

lesovers wrote:Justin,

I have owned the Albatron 5900XT for a while now and have had problems with it at the stock 700MHz memory speed. I have also had problems with very poor memory overclocking. The Auto-Detect overclocking only gives a memory speed of 686 MHz using coolbits.

The problems are solved by replacing the original Albatron bios version 4.35.20.32.02 to 4.35.20.38.A7 found on an Aopen 5900XT card. Links are:

http://www.mvktech.net for the Aopen 5900XT rom.

The Auto-Detect overclocking now gives a memory speed of 752 MHz using coolbits. The overclocking problem appears to be a poor bios not the card itself.

Les

We also modded the Albatron FX5900 XTV BIOS for higher speeds, it is available on http://www.mvktech.net

Dutchy · Post by **Dutchy** » Sun Jun 27, 2004 3:38 pm

im about to buy this card, should i buy it?
in my country it costs 260 $
and radeon 9800 costs 311$
mmm, im not so good at this bios things, so which bios do i need to upgrade in order to make it overclock nicely?
thanx

Phaser · Post by **Phaser** » Thu Jul 29, 2004 8:40 am

From all this talking I did not quite understand what to do in order to OC the video card.
I have to download the Aopen BIOS and flash the BIOS with it,right ?
Or am I mistaken ?

Post by **Illuminati** » Thu Jul 29, 2004 3:45 pm

Dutchy, the Albatron card is fine... you will not be disappointed with it. Whether or not you want to go with ATI or NVidia is up to you. (sorry about missing your post about a month ago!!... )

For Dutchy and Phaser, I do not recommend messing with the bios of your video card unless you really know what you are doing. To overclock your NVidia cards, I would not mess with updating your bios and just use Coolbits. With the testing I did back in may, I found that you get the best OC results with the original bios that came with your card... at least that was the case with the multiple samples I used to play with updating bios'.

Phaser · Post by **Phaser** » Sat Jul 31, 2004 4:22 am

I know perfectly well how to overclock videocards.
I also know how to flash the bios.It is no problem.
I might even say I'm pretty advanced in hardware technology.
I was just askin' what to do so I can oc the damn thing.
nevertheless the video card is wonderful and i intend to buy it.

Post by **Illuminati** » Sat Jul 31, 2004 2:38 pm

Phaser,

Every card is different in the overclocking area.. .as I'm sure you know. So I bet that we just got a bum card when it comes to OC'ing it.

If you plan on messing with Bios's then it sounds like the best way is to download a bunch of possibilities and try then to see which one gets the most out of your card... For me on this albatron card, the one that was the most stable was the original albatron bios that came on the card. So try at your own risk.

Sorry I can't be of more help, but I haven't messed with this particular card in over 3 months.

Phaser · Post by **Phaser** » Mon Aug 02, 2004 1:29 pm

Good.I'll try and use the original bios.Seems like the best choise.I know you haven't messed with this card for quite some time.But I want to squeeze the last drop performance that can come out of it.I have just one question:Is the heatsink glued to the chip

Legit Reviews

Overclocking issues with the Albatron FX5900 XTV

Overclocking issues with the Albatron FX5900 XTV

hmm