Finally got my G400.... IT ROCKS!

[Nuno]

Nothing you wouldn´t know by now

I finally got a G400 retail 32Mb DH... Not a single installation problem: uninstall g200 drivers, remove g200, put the g400 in, reinstall pd 5.13... presto! Worked from the first time!

And it overclocks like a charm too. 153/204 with a pentium fan. One thing got me worried at first: I couldn´t get past pll 270 (135/180) with g200clk... anything higher than that would garble the screen and I had to reboot. Fortunatly, the lastest powerstrip did the trick (yes, I did backup the bios first)! I don´t get it, but as long as it works...

Benchmarks? Who cares! All is running smooth as silk... (yeah, but I did them, all is ok )

So, I´m very, very happy with this card. It worths all the minutes I´ve been waiting for it!

But now I get this strange feeling my celery 450 is a bit outdated... I wonder why


[This message has been edited by Nuno (edited 08-20-1999).]

[The Rev]

My G400 32MB SH OEM is on its way. How much did you pay for your G400 (retail or OEM)?

-The-Rev-

[Anisri]

What tool did you use to overclock the card?

[GTI]

Nuno:

I got the same problem with G200CLK not able to get 270 or above.
Mine is G400 16M DH (SEC-6ns).
I have a super slot fan right under it and I can go up to about 146/195 only with PStrip.

But Final Reality is giving me some strange readings. The Bus transfer rate actually lowered quite a bit after overclocking!!!

Can you check with Final Reality and repost your results???

I have yet to get 3dMark99 for further test.

Cheers, GTI.

[Nuno]

Hi there

The Rev:
I´m sure the price I paid for it doesn´t mean much to you, I live in Portugal, and we, for some strange reason, pay premium price for computer hardware. After a price cut (they were more expensive in early Augoust) and a generous discount, I got my Retail 32 Mb DH (these G400 things are so rare in here that I couldn´t even managed to get a OEM) at about $245 USD (or 45 000 escudos or 225 euro).

Anisri:

I used Powerstrip 2.51.06 (I think it´s the lates version) but if you use it, be sure to backup your bios first. Early versions are reported to currupt G400 bios in some way. I haven´t got a single problem with it. I normally run at 150/200 (just to be running at Max speeds and to give a slight margin to the 153/204 I can get flawlessly).

GTI:

My G400 32 Mb DH also has SEC 6ns RAM. Maybe this is the cause for g200clk not to work? That PLL 270 seems a magic number... glad powerstrip did the trick. What happens above 146/195? Does it freeze? The screen gets garbled? If it freezes, probably the chip can´t take more, if it garbles, the memory has smashed out. With a pentium fan glued to the heatsink, I get no freezes, but the memory starts garbling at 204.

About Final Reality: I didn´t even remember that one You have to notice that´s an old DX 5.0 benchmark, even its own creators stated it´s results are not to be trusted now. It also runs only at 640x480, and at that res, every modern video card is cpu limited. It´s benchmarking your cpu, nothing else.

But I instaled it (1.01), give it a run, and here is it:

Database Entry <g400@126>

Benchmark results:
Radial blur, 1A, 43.55, rips, 6.024, Rmark
Chaos zoomer, 1A, 69.76, rips, 3.390, Rmark
25 Pixel, 1A, 280.54, kpps, 8.966, Rmark
Robots, 1A, 53.88, rips, 13.959, Rmark
Fillrate, 1A, 169.44, MPps, 36.674, Rmark
City scene, 1A, 73.40, rips, 18.214, Rmark
Video card bus transfer, 1A, 162.74, MBps, 5.181, Rmark
Direct3D bus transfer, 1A, 153.18, MBps, 13.092, Rmark
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Visual appearance, 100.00, percent
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Overall 3D, 4.872, Rmark
Overall 2D, 4.707, Rmark
Overall bus rate, 7.554, Rmark
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
OVERALL SCORE, 5.225, Rmark
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Database Entry <g400@150>

Benchmark results:
Radial blur, 1A, 43.74, rips, 6.050, Rmark
Chaos zoomer, 1A, 70.15, rips, 3.409, Rmark
25 Pixel, 1A, 230.62, kpps, 7.371, Rmark
Robots, 1A, 53.92, rips, 13.968, Rmark
Fillrate, 1A, 198.91, MPps, 43.054, Rmark
City scene, 1A, 73.76, rips, 18.302, Rmark
Video card bus transfer, 1A, 52.80, MBps, 1.681, Rmark
Direct3D bus transfer, 1A, 152.87, MBps, 13.066, Rmark
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Visual appearance, 100.00, percent
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Overall 3D, 4.961, Rmark
Overall 2D, 4.730, Rmark
Overall bus rate, 5.096, Rmark
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
OVERALL SCORE, 4.912, Rmark
---------------------------------------------------

So, the bus tranfer rate is lower... It scores less at 150 than at 126... (but if you watch it closely the 3d score went up from 4.8 to 4.9) who cares! I surely don´t believe it! It flys at 150 in everything but Final reality, so what

I forgot to say that was running in a celeron 450, 96 Mb Ram.

[This message has been edited by Nuno (edited 08-21-1999).]

[DK_]

Hi Nuno,

Rocks.... Yep

Rockin' in Md. hehe

DK

[Nuno]

You can bet it

[GTI]

Nuno: Thanks for your comments. When I go above 146/195 the image is garbled so I think the memory can't take it.

Btw, you should get Power Strip 2.51.07 which is the latest and fixed up G400 related problems.

GTI.

[Nuno]

Hi GTI

I already got 2.51.07, damn, I was using .06, thinking it was the lastest... hope it didn´t broke anything, at least it doesn´t seem to.

[The PIT2]

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