Radeon 9800 Pro Users...

[]UK-C[ Mindzai]

Hi all,

I was suffering from system crashes when playing BF2 until recently. This would happen every hour or so, and would completely crash needing a restart. Having done some reading, it seems loads of raddy 9800Pro users were suffering from similar crashes.

I swapped the radeon for a GeForce 6600GT and had no crashes for a couple of days, so its safe to say this is a graphics card issue. The 6600 ran like cr@p however (despite being a better card on paper and in 3d mark) so I swapped back to the radeon figuring i'd rather suffer the crashes than have the game unplayable all together.

This time when I installed catylist though, I switched off fast writes and haven't had a single crash since. The in game performance is as smooth as ever @ medium settings throughout, 100% view distance and 2xAA.

Just a tip, and I was wondering if anyone else having the same problem could try turning off fast-writes and see if it solves the issue? Hopefully someone finds this usefull - I realise alot of people will know to turn off fast-writes allready, but not everyone does im sure.

[toxik]

Re: Radeon 9800 Pro Users...

I can't believe that the 6600GT performed worst than a 9800 pro... You sure you cleaned the ATi drivers and installed the newest nvidia drivers? I know people who run the game good on high settings (except textures and stuff on med) and they have very smooth framerate on a 6600GT.

BTW, although FF could be the reason for the crashes, it sounds like a overheating problem. The reason a lot of 9700/9800 owners get crashes is because ATi has an awful cooling solution on em, the stock ones at least... it's just like cheap plastic with a cheap fan glued to the core.

[DU_is_good_4U]

Re: Radeon 9800 Pro Users...

Hi all,

I was suffering from system crashes when playing BF2 until recently. This would happen every hour or so, and would completely crash needing a restart. Having done some reading, it seems loads of raddy 9800Pro users were suffering from similar crashes.

I swapped the radeon for a GeForce 6600GT and had no crashes for a couple of days, so its safe to say this is a graphics card issue. The 6600 ran like cr@p however (despite being a better card on paper and in 3d mark) so I swapped back to the radeon figuring i'd rather suffer the crashes than have the game unplayable all together.

This time when I installed catylist though, I switched off fast writes and haven't had a single crash since. The in game performance is as smooth as ever @ medium settings throughout, 100% view distance and 2xAA.

Just a tip, and I was wondering if anyone else having the same problem could try turning off fast-writes and see if it solves the issue? Hopefully someone finds this usefull - I realise alot of people will know to turn off fast-writes allready, but not everyone does im sure.

I run a 9800 pro overclocked ( memory at 375 mhz ) with Cat 5.8 drivers and have no problems.

[toxik]

Re: Radeon 9800 Pro Users...

Well first off, not everyone has overheating problems. Your memory has no connection to the core's heatsink. I know people overclocked their 9700s/9800s but the cooling solution, especially for todays standards, isn't that great at all.

[DU_is_good_4U]

Re: Radeon 9800 Pro Users...

Well first off, not everyone has overheating problems. Your memory has no connection to the core's heatsink. I know people overclocked their 9700s/9800s but the cooling solution, especially for todays standards, isn't that great at all.

How wrong you are

[toxik]

Re: Radeon 9800 Pro Users...

Have you ever taken apart your card? Well I did and I saw what a POS job ATi did with the heatsink.....

[DU_is_good_4U]

Re: Radeon 9800 Pro Users...

Have you ever taken apart your card? Well I did and I saw what a POS job ATi did with the heatsink.....

I run my own computer servicing company, I have disassembled many pc parts. I have also resoldered caps on mainboards and vid cards. First thing I did was pull apart my 9800 pro, I think I know what I'm doing.

[]UK-C[ Mindzai]

Re: Radeon 9800 Pro Users...

I run a 9800 pro overclocked ( memory at 375 mhz ) with Cat 5.8 drivers and have no problems.

Well good for you, but this is intended for those that do have problems.

As for the question of overheating, I use an aftermarket cooler which keeps it nice and cool, I definitely have no heating problems. I had no problem in any other game, and judging by the huge amount of people ive read of with system crashes and radeon 9800Pros as the only common component, i'd say it's a compatability problem with certain 9800Pro bios'. There is no arguing with the fact that the stock cooler is prety poor on the 9800Pro, that's just a fact. There's no cooling at all for the RAM and the cr@ppy alu HS and puny fan isn't really up to much. First thing I did was rip it off and stick a decent one on there.

The 6600GT - I have no idea what the proplem is - it scored over 8000 in 3dmark03, the radeon doesnt come close to that. I had to turn off AA and most stuff to low to get it to run without lagging, and even then there was some horrible textural glitching. I didn't uninstall the ATi drivers till after I installed the forceware when I first swapped them, but I then completely removed all drivers and installed the Forcewares from scratch and there was no difference at all. Even with the 6600GT overclocked to 560/1.1Ghz (temps <70 at all times, <60 idle) I had horrible glitching and some lagging. Can't say what the problem was, but the Radeon is running absolutely fine now i've disabled fast writes.

[TGL|Badlizzard]

Re: Radeon 9800 Pro Users...

Let's try not to get personal here please.