FSB lowered even more with 9500np!

[KODE]

Hi,

After I installed my new Sapphire 9500np I had to lower my FSB from 195 to 175 to achieve stability. I was aware of this little issue but to be honest I wasn't expecting such a FSB drop. Here's some points that I think it could be scr**ing me:

1- My PSU. Due to the Vcore mod, my 5+ line drops to 4.55~4.65

2- The KX7 itself. It's true that a NF7-S resolves the FSB problem? :D

3- Can a adjustable 5+ line PSU help here?

Help!

[Farabomb]

The Radeons do not like high AGP speeds. The Nforce has the option to lock the AGP so that's why Radeons work so well in them.

I too am cursed with that limit. Before my Ti4200 caught on fire I was hitting 210+ with my KX7. Now I'm happy with 180 stable. :(

If VIA released a bios with a diferent divisor that dropped the AGP back into spec @ 200 it should be fine but I don't see that happening.

[KODE]

Hi Farabomb,

There's a light on the end of the tunel...maybe we can try THIS MOD (http://www.amdforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=193236&highlight=fsb). Ok, ok... I'll be the guinea pig m8 :D

P.S.: This makes sense in my particular case, because I can run at 185 FSB for about a half hour and then It started to lock/crash.

[Farabomb]

Well I did mod my HSF on my 9500Pro. I used a dremel to remove some of the material that was hitting the shim. I don't have the balls to try and remove the shim. I've heard of too many people killing their cards by removing the shim.

If you have acess to a milling machiene I'd try This (http://www.frostytech.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=1288). That article is what made me decide to mod mine.

It didn't raise my stable FSB but I was able to post at higher FSBs.

Here's a pic of what I did. I just left the center square stock and removed material all around it. Sorry for the crappy pic.

[KODE]

Feedback:

looks like a good lap and a better fan makes the difference here. my max stable FSB went from 175 to 185. I also made the groove to avoid interference with the shim.

Regards,

KODE.

[mdzcpa]

This issue was one of the reasons I moved to an NF2 board last winter. Even with TEC cooling on the GPU, my max stable FSB still dropped big time with the R9700 Pro and my KD7. Cooling does help a little, but heat is not the only reason the Radeons do not like high FSB speeds.

Another way to get a few more FSB mhz out is lower the AGP to x4 (for boards that can run x8). This actually netted my biggest FSB gain on VIA based boards that do not lock the AGP bus.

These were my results...all TEC cooled. Also, keep in mind that with the Ti 4600, both KD7 boards could hit 200+ FSB.

KD7- RAID : 1/5 divisor, AGP x8 (no BIOS option to force AGP x4) - max stable FSB 185mhz
KD7-E : 1/5 divisor , AGP x4 (chipset as actually a KT400 with AGP x8 disabled), max stable FSB 196mhz
NF7-S : AGP bus locked at 66mhz, AGP x8, max stable FSB 225mhz

Just more info for a good thread topic:)