DescentBB

I've got a new MB on the way from Newegg, a Soyo SY-KT600 Dragon Plus ($37 after rebate). Yee Haw. Anyway, it's a 400FSB board which I eventually want to take to 3200+ but can't afford right now. So I'm looking at 2500/2600 Bartons and wondering what's the diff. I did some Google searching and found forums where some guys said the 2500 overclocks better. One guy even said he took one to 3200. I'm not about to try anything that radical. Just wondering what your opinions were.

I've got a built by ATI 9500Pro that's soft-modded to a 9700Pro. Starting with the Cat 3.10 drivers I've had a gamma problem. When I enter a level it's dark as hell and I have to hit F2 and switch to 32 bit mode. If the game times out and restarts, or I alt/tab out and back in, or I double tab to get rid of the white reticle it goes dark again. Then, when I quit the game the D3 exit screens are dark, but my desktop and anything else I put up is all washed out. This only happens in OpenGL and with both Cat and Omega drivers. And it also does it with the Omega drivers if I turn off the soft mod. I've more or less resigned myself to it, but man it's a pain in the butt. Any ideas?

That's two totally different questions in one post/thread.

Here goes #1:

A while ago (in production week 43 of 2003), AMD had started to lock their Athlon XP CPUs for overclocking. Before that, the XP 2500+ (Barton, FSB333) was absolutely great for overclocking by changing the CPU frequency multiplier.

Now the multiplier for the XP 2500+ is locked at 11, and putting it into a FSB400 system will overclock it pretty heftily. Overclocking is not an "exact science", but rather a matter of trying how far you can get your individual CPU, so you might not be lucky with the currently available 2500+ and 2600+ (Barton) CPUs.

The FSB400 Bartons are pretty expensive. You can try to get an older XP 2500+ from ebay, but I cannot tell you which serial numbers to look for. Maybe someone offers some with an overclockability warranty.

Actually I have an unlocked CPU myself (2500+ Barton unlocked ) on a FSB333 board, but you cannot overclock it easily beyond 2100 MHz (easily means: w/o increasing the VCore voltage, which will cause the CPU temperature to rise, which will increase electro migration, which might damage the CPU in the long run), but I live in Europe, so selling it to you would be to much of a hassle ...

Generally, to overclock a CPU really high you will need to increase VCore voltage and apply sufficient cooling (maybe even watercooling). Still it is not guaranteed that you will get the CPU to a really high clock frequency. That even depends on the chips position on the wafer during production (position in the wafer center is optimal).

You also need to make sure that your motherboard does support such overclocking options (multiplier and VCore voltage manipulation).

You can fool the overclocking protection of the newer CPUs by turning them into a "mobile" CPU. For that, you will need to manipulate the L5 bridge on the die. That will not work with every mobo, but pretty likely with a KT600 equipped one. Not something everybody would want to do with their expensive hardware though.

You can check this web site out, it has an English section, and the guys are absolute experts on overclocking questions. Maybe you will even find a way to unlock locked Barton FSB333 CPUs.

#2

What game? Every game or a particular one? Why don't it/they run in 32 bpp right away? Did you try to play them w/o the 9700 soft mod?

Thank you, Diedel, for your explanation. I find it very useful as I was not aware the new AMDs were locked. I took your advice and am watching a couple of unlocked 2500s on Ebay. And I'm not looking to do any radical overclocking. Maybe upwards to 2800 or 2900.

As to the gamma problem, it only appears in D3 which is really the only game I play, but I have played America's Army a bit and noticed no problem. The game always starts in 16 bit and I have turned off the soft mod with the same results.

I had my Athlon XP 2500+ overclocked to 2088 MHz, making it an 2800+, w/o any overheating or other problems at all. Generally, CPU temperature will only rise when increasing VCore voltage to overclock it higher.

Afaik you can run D3 in DirectX mode as well. Did you try that one? I also wonder that it always starts in 16 bpp mode. Afaik you can set it to 32 bpp. If that doesn't work for you, maybe you want to try uninstalling D3, rebooting, and doing a clean reinstall (i.e. delete every remaining D3 folders and files before reinstalling it).

I just purchased a 2600+ Barton and I have it at 3200+ (2.25GHz) speeds right now with no issues.
Ran prime95 for about 6 hrs and the highest temp I seen was 49.5c
42c with no load
This is with stock cooling
Once I get a better cooling solution I'll be pushing it further, But I can tell you the 2600+ seems to be a sweet chip.
Keep in mind motherboard and ram are gonna play a big role in how far you can over clock your chip.

RAM doesn't play a role as long as you don't overclock it (by increasing the FSB speed). The mobo plays a role only insofar as it has to offer you the features you need to overclock.

You need to test your CPU for 48 hours at a stretch to be sure it can take the overclocking.

Google for a program named "cpustabilitytest" and try that one.

I've been looking at gettin me one of these:

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDe ... 440&depa=0

Mobile Barton chip, 1.35 volts, multiplier unlocked from the factory (its a mobile chip, so dont expect them to suddenly start locking them). I've heard reports of those going as high as 2800mhz with good cooling, which means it should do 2300-2400 easily. Lower heat output than the desktop counterparts, too.

Diedel wrote:Afaik you can run D3 in DirectX mode as well. Did you try that one? I also wonder that it always starts in 16 bpp mode. Afaik you can set it to 32 bpp.

D3D will work but it's not recommended unless you want to get stuck w/ low FPS. The 32 bit mode in D3 is broken, 1. it doesn't work (you still get 16 bit after switching to 32.. AFAIK) and 2. the setting doesn't stick. I've no idea how the ATI drivers handle gamma but if you can adjust it on a driver level you need to adjust it for 1024x768x16 (assuming you play D3 at 1024x768).

dm, the ati drivers have two different gamma-settings, one for desktop and 2d-application, and one gamasetting for 3d-acceleration, options->advanced options ->colors.

you have to set the right value in gamma for 3d-acceleration (or "games", depends on driver version).

then d3 has its own gamma-slider. start d3, ->options->video-> (small button on the lower left) "adjust brightness"

i have set that to 1.8, allways worked for me.


edit: lower left, not lower right.

try the gamma for games or 3d-acceleration first, that should do the trick.

Hey guys, thanx for the suggestions. I've pretty much decided not to mess with overclocking. Got a 2600+ Barton coming and think it'll be plenty fast for me for now.

DJ, I didn't at first understand where you were telling me to go, but I finally found it. It's in Display/Settings/Advanced/Colors. I had to turn on Full Screen 3D and now everything's ok. Funny, never had to do that before.

Anyway, thanx again ya'll

or you could try using this little gadget if you dont fancy getting the knife/pencil out

http://www.speed-strip.com/

Thanx Eddie, that thing looks pretty slick. I just got a new 2600+ Barton and, more than likely, it's locked so I'm not going to play with it. It'll be plenty fast enough for me.