Just Ordered A Radeon 9800se

[qrazi]

looks like i finally took the step and moved one from my beloved voodoo5 to a radeon 9800se. i never wanted this to happen. i am almost 100% satisfied with my voodoo5. almost, because LOMAC doesnt run on a voodoo5, and i want to play LOMAC.
i wonder if i can get the softmod to work on my radeon 9800se. also wonder how high it will clock, what its 2d image quality will be like, what its FSAA will look like, and what this thing called "Anisophric Filtering" is all about...

anyway, i wont ditch my voodoo5. i will keep it, or put it in my little brothers pc... not sure yet which ill do....

[ArchAngelCD]

qrazi,
I really wish you would have asked around before you bought a SE card. TheSE cards are terrible because they have only 4 pipelines and 128bit memory. The 9800SE is slower than the 9500 Pro. If you can cancel it you should get a non-pro 9800 instead like I did. It has 8 pipelines and a 256bit memory path.

[amp_man]

I think (or hope) that he plans to softmod it to unlock the extra 4 pipelines and make the memory 256-bit. How does the clock speed on an SE compare to the regular 9800 or 9800Pro?

[ArchAngelCD]

Only some of the 9800 SE's have the 256bit memory.
If they don't have it there is nothing you can do to get it.
The 9800 SE is @ 325/500 128bit bandwidth 8 Gb/s
The 9800 np is @ 325/580 256bit bandwidth 19.8 Gb/s
The 9800 Pro is @ 380/680 256bit bandwidth 21.8 Gb/s

As you see, the 9800 SE is very limited. Like I said before, the 9500 Pro is faster and it's only clocked @ 275/550 128bit but has a bandwidth of 8.8 Gb/s

[lecram25]

As ArchAngelCD said, the board has to have a 256-bit memory bus; you cannot just unlock the memory bus from 128 to 256, lol...

[amp_man]

Those memory speeds, those are the theoretical, right? Since it's DDR, it's really like 275*2=550, or is that actually 550MHz? Should probably check it out for myself...

Yes, it is a bit of a risk that the board won't be unlockable, in which case it would really crappy compared to a normal 9800, but he would be able to play LOMAC;) I think qrazi probably already knows about the SE's poor performance, and about softmodding and it's ups and downs, although I could be mistaken.

Just while we're on the subject and out of curiosity, lecram25, what are the details on your 9500->9700 softmod? What speed memory does it have, and do you get any artifacts? I get a few, and my RAM is 3.0ns aka 333MHz and running at that

[lecram25]

3DMark 2001 SE - Latest Build, Catalyst 3.8:

Fill Rate (Single-Texturing) - 1653.3 MTexels/s
Fill Rate (Multi-Tecturing) - 2281.6 MTexels/s    

Not sure what memory it's running, but I'll check someday or another...I purely did the softmod from a 9500np to 9700np (NB, 9500np and 9700np run at the same frequenciy, i.e. MHz/clock rate, etc), in other words: I didn't overclock the card, yet...I bought some ram sinks, so I'll stick them on when I get the chance. No artifacts

EDIT: did the tests with AA and AF on...

[amp_man]

No artifacts

damn, you're lucky. Could you check on that ram timing? I have a theory I'd like to check out, that if the card has no artifacts, it has the crap ram that they meant for the 9500, and if it does have fast ram, then it was probably intended to be a 9700, which would have had better quality ram on it, but since it had the bad pipeline aka artifacts, they just made it a 9500.

btw, I read our old arguement yesterday (the one in the VSA100 based projects thread) looking for something, damn was I an ignorant a** sorry about that.

[ArchAngelCD]

Originally posted by amp_man

Those memory speeds, those are the theoretical, right? Since it's DDR, it's really like 275*2=550, or is that actually 550MHz? Should probably check it out for myself...

Yes, I was giving the doubled speed because of the DDR. Actual speed is half of what I posted but all video cards are listed like that now from what I see. Sorry if I caused you any confusion.

[lecram25]

heh, no problem...you clearly underestimated the power of the dark side, aka Black_Out...

[qrazi]

Originally posted by amp_man

I think qrazi probably already knows about the SE's poor performance, and about softmodding and it's ups and downs, although I could be mistaken.

hehe, finally someone with a bit of fate in me...
i do plan to soft mod it. i ordered a Club3d 9800se, it is confirmed to have a 256mbit memory path, and this card has a change of 75% to work witouth artifacts @ 8 pixel pipelines.

i needed a new card to play LOMAC. i thought about getting a pci radeon, to complement my voodoo5. but that really wouldnt have been worth the money for me. i would hardly gain any speed, just compatebility.
i narrowed my options down to these 3:
1) 9600 XT
2) 5900 XT
3) 9800 SE

the 9600 xt would have been the way to go if i just wanted a faster card. out of the box it is the fastest in FSAA and AF. but, as i am a hardware tweaker/overclocker, i'd rather get a 5900xt (and mod/overclock to 5900 ultra or 5950 ultra) or get a 9800se and mod it to a 9800 (pro if it clocks well). since ati has bette rimage quality, and better fsaa and AF quality, i went for the 9800 SE. these three cards are all in the same price range (at least here in the netherlands).

if i get the mod to work, i made the best choice, since then i got a radeon 9800 for the price of a 9600...

[ArchAngelCD]

If you definitely have the 256bit memory you got the right card for sure. I bought a ATI 9800np and clocked it up to almost Pro speeds.

[qrazi]

will let you guys know if it really has a 256mbit path, and if the mod works...

[qrazi]

w00t! it works! got a 9800 pro for a 9800se price! w00t!

[ArchAngelCD]

Where did you get the softmod? (link please)
What speeds are you running the card at?
Are you sure you have 256bit memory?