8500 le, overlocking yields lower performance wtf

[Senate]

I purchased a "PCtoys VGA Card Heatpip Cooler", it's basically a HUGE heatsink that goes on the front and back of ur vid card and is connected by a heatpipe and uses thermal grease, for my radeon 8500le 128mb. I also have ramsinks crazy glued to the ram chips on the front (with thermal grease in between), and not on the back . I think I did everything correct, I even very carefully scrubbed the glue off the vgu core after taking off the stock heatsink/fan. I did this until it reflected a perfect striaght surface off a light.

Now I overclocked my card using "Rage3d tweaker v3.9" to 294 core & 274 mem. I ran a full "3dmark 2001 se pro" benchmark and got 10109. Then i overclocked to 310 core & 294 mem, and got 9969 as my result WTF !@!, How can this be ? shouldnt it be better..... I ran few more benchmarks to be sure and they were all conclusive, I get lower scores when I overclock higher than around 290 core and 274 mem.

I do NOT get artifacts at 310 & 294 mem, everything was runnign fine (I ran the tests a few times). Does anyone have any idea what is up with my situation ?? thanks

My computer:
xp 2600+(a 2500+ 333fsb with multiplyer set at 11.5)
A7n8x deluxe
Winxp,
512 ddr 333 ram
30 gb 7200rpm hd
Radeon 8500le 128mb
270 watt psu.
Cpu and Mobo temperatures were all good during these tests

 

[Senate]

I could not find the "PCtoys VGA Card Heatpip Cooler" on the www.pctoys.com website. But I found this http://www.zalman.co.kr/english/product/ZM80C-HP.htm
That is exactly the same thing.

 

[scottchen]

You said you glued ramsinks by using thermal grease? thats not going to work you need thermal adhesive. Are you sure you changed aa and af all to application preference? Make sure you installed the heatpipe properly with sufficient amount of thermal grease.

-Intel PIV 2.4C @ 3.84G -Asus P4P800 -OCZ Copper 2x256 4000EL memory @ 275mhz 3-4-4-8 -Sapphire 9800pro @ 490/780 -SB audigy -80G Maxtor Diamond Plus9 Ultra ATA-133 hdd -450 Enermax PSU

 

[Senate]

No, I used crazy glue on the tips of the corners to keep the heatsink on. yes, im serious. As for the 3dmark benchmark I used the same exact settings for all the tests (yes I checked). And i applied as much thermal grease as the instructions instructed me to. Scotchen, are you saying that this problem might be caused by oveheating ? As I said before I did not see any artificats and did not have any stability problems.

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Senate on 10/11/03 04:10 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[scottchen]

I don't know, I personally don't trust futuremark products anymore because of all the optimizations. Try to do some actual game benchmarks, download FRAPS then play any game and see if there's frame increase.

-Intel PIV 2.4C @ 3.84G -Asus P4P800 -OCZ Copper 2x256 4000EL memory @ 275mhz 3-4-4-8 -Sapphire 9800pro @ 490/780 -SB audigy -80G Maxtor Diamond Plus9 Ultra ATA-133 hdd -450 Enermax PSU

 

[Senate]

allrighty I fixed the problem by reinstalling my ati drivers and rage tweak.

I can run this card at 301 core and 301 mem fine, no artificats or stability problems. Now when i overclock the core to 310 and run 3dmark, the game locks up and the screen goes black after 4 seconds.... Could this be fixed by increasing the voltage. On my mobos bios setup there is an option called qvvv or vvq, something like that and i can choose from defualt 1.5v, 1.6v or 1.7v There is another option for ram that has default 2.5v and higher. Can this help me overclock higher ?

 

[scottchen]

Check in your bios make sure that the AGP frequency's locked at 66mhz, don't touch the VAGP because it doesn't do anything. Update your bios as well, keep the AGP aperature size at 128megs, and turn off fast write.

-Intel PIV 2.4C @ 3.84G -Asus P4P800 -OCZ Copper 2x256 4000EL memory @ 275mhz 3-4-4-8 -Sapphire 9800pro @ 490/780 -SB audigy -80G Maxtor Diamond Plus9 Ultra ATA-133 hdd -450 Enermax PSU