I'm in the same boat, but with a 9700 Pro (R300) and 9800 Pro (R360).
Keeping tabs on this thread.

At least my late 9800 Pro (R360) doesn't have the shim problem, but you should open it and check just to be sure. I think that was mostly an issue on R350 and earlier.

Shim problem can easily negated by using high performance thermal pad.

Aside of the shim issue, I think the XT should be a safer bet with the nice large copper heatsinks and large fans they got. The 9800 Pro (what I have) and lower usually only got a tiny aluminium heatsink and a 40mm fan. Something that could do a decent job on a 9600 series cards, but I wouldn't trust them when it comes to the 9700 and 9800 series.

The Serpent Rider wrote on 2023-12-17, 19:36:

Shim problem can easily negated by using high performance thermal pad.

Thanks for the pro tip. Any brands you'd recommend? I'm a dirty pleb that's still using paste.

RandomStranger wrote on 2023-12-17, 19:46:

Aside of the shim issue, I think the XT should be a safer bet with the nice large copper heatsinks and large fans they got. The 9800 Pro (what I have) and lower usually only got a tiny aluminium heatsink and a 40mm fan. Something that could do a decent job on a 9600 series cards, but I wouldn't trust them when it comes to the 9700 and 9800 series.

Sapphire definitely seems to have been on top of the thermal management! I've always wondered with some of the painfully inadequate heatsink/fan setups if the manufacturers were being lazy or cheap. Alternatively, maybe it was some shady dealings between manufacturers and Antec, Coolermaster, Thermaltake, etc. to keep business coming in for the aftermarket stuff.

radeon 9800 xxl user here (same as 9800xt just clocked 30hz lower in mem and core frequency) i use a Zalman VF700-CU copper cooler and ram heatsinks, besides that i also modded my case to have an excellent airflow, a really cool case is gonna save most cards from that era, especially with an open cooler since back at the time most cases were just ovens with an exhaust fan.

I use a side intake fan in most of my retro rigs, it pushes fresh air directly on the gpu, i noticed that it helps a lot with coolers without a plastic shroud.

Cypher321 wrote on 2023-12-18, 01:33:

Sapphire definitely seems to have been on top of the thermal management! I've always wondered with some of the painfully inadequate heatsink/fan setups if the manufacturers were being lazy or cheap. Alternatively, maybe it was some shady dealings between manufacturers and Antec, Coolermaster, Thermaltake, etc. to keep business coming in for the aftermarket stuff.

All 9800XT were reference design with different stickers, except maybe Asus.
I wouldn't advise de-shimming. Tried on a dead 9800Pro and it wouldn't go off, may depend on the card. Zalman's base (VF700 /VF900) fits within a shim, so it's not a problem.
VRAM runs hot on those cards and is prone to dying, needs cooling. This is more of a problem on the backside.

Yeah it's usually the RAM that dies on these cards. Or the solder joints fail because of a zillion thermal cycles over the years. This is a problem to varying degrees with most GPUs from that decade. Pulling the cooling apart might actually be risky because you will put extra physical stress on the card in the process.

I also got a working 9800XT recently and compared to my 9700PRO and 9800PRO the cooling solution is night and day for a slightly higher clock, I would not be worried about it.

I just cleaned my, applied a fresh thermal paste and bought a new fan since the original one was too noise.

This is the fan I bought, fits perfectly, I'm just not sure how I feel about LED lights on my vintage video card 😀

https://www.ebay.com/itm/171092853419