Got my Radeon 9100!

[omegaRED]

Well the title says it all: Got my Radeon 9100 yesterday. Finally, my rig is complete, and now looks like this:

MSI KT4V
AMD XP 2100+
768 Mb PC2700 CL2.5
Maxtor 6Y080L0 80Gb 7200RPM
ATi Radeon 9100 64Mb
Sony 16x DVD
TerraTValue+ TV Tuner card
Onboard ALC650 AC`97 5.1 codec
Hyundai ImageQuest Q910 19"

Now, 2 Q`s:

1. The drivers installed flawlessly (Catalyst 3.2 and Control Panel). However, i got 2 'Unknown' devices after i restarted the PC. I havent installed HydraVision, is that it? If not, what are those 2 devices?

2. The card is clocked 250 Core / 200 Mem. How much of a gain in performance am i gonna get by inreasing the clocks to say, 275 / 240 (250 maybe)?

OT: FreeLancer is AWESOME!!! I was a bit sceptical when i saw that you use the mouse to fly, but it`s ABSOLUTELY AWESOME!!!

[Paddy]

Single Player is fun... took me 14hours to do... ends abruptly though...

[omegaRED]

I have about 8hrs playing time now... Am just after you get to Planet Leeds w/ Juni and Prof. Sinclair... thus far, its been great...

[Gurm]

Yay! You too have bought an underclocked Radeon 8500!

(Yeah I'm a bit proud of myself for finding the last available genuine 8500 275/275 on the planet...)

The boost in speed from 250/200 to 275/250 would be IMMENSE, but I dunno if the card will handle that. You can reflash the BIOS and see if that helps - Rage3D has posts from a guy who has made a self-booting floppy that changes your BIOS to different clock speeds.

- Gurm

[3dfx]

Yeah my friend has updated his 8500 to 9100 through the bios and the performance boost in unreal 2003 is immense plus he gets the enhanced clock of the 8500 and therefore the best of both worlds

[Evildead666]

does anyone know of a bios update for a non-pro 9000?
my friend has bought one, and it is a pile of stinking crap.
All the clock tools ect BIOS's seem to be for the pro versions, but not for the non-pro...
Are they locked at all?

We did attempt to clock it, but with pretty bad results...

[omegaRED]

@ Gurm: You lucky, lucky bastard!

Ok, but i think i should first try changing the clocks w/ Rage3D tweaker to see if the card can handle the clocks before trying to flash the BIOS permanently. Running a game (FreeLancer, MoHAA, AvP2) for a couple of hours should be a proper test of stability, no?

[Indiana]

Re: Got my Radeon 9100!

Originally posted by omegaRED
The drivers installed flawlessly (Catalyst 3.2 and Control Panel). However, i got 2 'Unknown' devices after i restarted the PC. I havent installed HydraVision, is that it? If not, what are those 2 devices?

No, this has nothing to do with Hydravision. Are you sure that your card doesn't have Video-In?
If it has, those are the two unknown devices and you should install the ATI WDM drivers.

[Nowhere]

@ omegaRED, if you're jealous about "ATI Radeon 8500 64MB DDR BOX" then...well, they're still available here in one place...but I won't buy one, and I'm sure you wouldn't too...

for 250 euro...:|

[Paulr]

Does anybody know where the 9100 sits in ATI's range compared to the 9000?
I've got a friend who is building himself a new machine at the moment on a bit of a budget.
He can source the 9000 & 9100 at similar prices but for some reason I'd got it into my head that the 9000 actually site higher up than the 9100 in terms of features performance etc - don't know what gives me this idea.
Anybody confirm or deny?

[Jon P. Inghram]

9100 is a rebadged 8500, nothing more. Most of 'em have 8500 LE clocks or lower from what I've read.

[Indiana]

Yes, the R9100 will be slightly faster than the R9000Pro - if it's a model that is clocked at least at 250/250. There are apparently some models out there with quite a bit lower clocks, those will likely be slower than the R9000Pro.

Another point to consider: Most of the R9100 models don't have a second RamDAC on them and thus don't support DualView at all or only crippled DualView, e.g. a CRT and a DVI, nut not two analog display devices.
And those R9100 models with second RamDAC normally only have a 230MHz one on them like the Radeon8500.

The R9000Pro has a different chip, here both 400MHz RamDACs are built into the gfx-core, thus those cards to my knowledge all support full DualView. DualView support for Win2k is also better with the R9000 as it allows independent resolutions on both displays.

[omegaRED]

80 Eur vs 250 Eur ?

Heh, i dont have a problem with the lower clocks. Though its pretty annoying that the Core can go up to 280-290 (havent tested it completely), but the mem goes up only as far as 220 (or 225) before artifacts appear. The mem, AFAIK, is Hynix 4ns, (had some serial # that ended with -4, i`m guessing that that is the speed of the ram), which SHOULD work without problems @ 250MHz, not 200... I`m gonna try a BIOS flash once i dig up an old PCI card, just in case...

The card is, believe it or not, ABSOLUTELY NO NAME. I mean, no manufacturer label on the box, nor inside, nor on the card itself. It just says Radeon Performance series on the box, and a sticker saying Radeon 9100 64Mb DVI/TV. Same on the card. Subsystem ID is 13AB and Vendor ID is 1787. I`m GUESSING its a Yuan board... Bios reads 9100 VIVO (although i only have a DVI-D and a composite port).

Overall, IQ is not bad. Its BAD at 1600x1200 @85Hz (Hyundai ImageQuest Q910), with streaks, ghosting and overall not as sharp picture. Its good at lower refresh rates (60-70Hz).

So, its not the best card i`ve seen. BUT, considering i got it for 80 Euros, thats including VAT et all, i`m VERY satisfied with it. It should serve me quite well in the next 4-5 months until the ATI R300 cards become more affordable here so i can upgrade

[Kurt]

there should be a lable with its FCC ID somewhere and google's your friend