OC Radeon 9500 pro to 9700+

[jg38141]

http://home.mindspring.com/~warp11/

Just flash this baby's bios (make sure and make a back up of original bios) and you're in overclocking heaven- it's insane how fast these cards can go. here's a forum link that discusses the issue- good luck to all. MY ati made card worked, but my saphire made card did not.
http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?s=&threadid=33654157

My Jesus is whiter than your Jesus.

 

[svol]

How about modding the Radeon 9500 128MB (NON Pro) to a Radeon 9700 and then OC them to Pro?
<A HREF="http://www.digit-life.com/news.html?1070" target="_new">http://www.digit-life.com/news.html?1070</A>
<A HREF="http://www.ocworkbench.com/ocwbcgi/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1041725528,16570," target="_new">http://www.ocworkbench.com/ocwbcgi/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1041725528,16570,</A>

My PC eats so much money that I'm in 'desperate' need of it to buy PC3500 RAM, help Svol with his OC project!
--- PM me for information.

 

[dhlucke]

Can we get a solid answer on this subject? First there was the resisitor upgrade, now the bios. What exactly can be done, with which cards, ati or saphire, etc etc?

What's the best card to get? Is it still the 9500 pro with the added bonus of flashing the bios? Does the bios flash actually make it the higher card, or just get close?

I've gone through so many links on this subject that I'm pretty overwhelmed. There seems to be a level of contradiction floating around.

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[hoserb2000]

yes, is that the same bios for the non pro 9500?, and if not, is ther eanywhere else to download it the website is down

YAhhhhhhh!!! Jan 27! Advance geforce fx seeing with Steve Molnar!!!!!!!! -you see, sticking with boy scouts finely paid off -mom

 

[jclw]

The BIOS flash only lets you change clockspeeds.

Don't mess with resistors, there is now a software patch that does the same thing (without voiding the warranty on your card, plus it's easy to undo). This mod will turn a REGULAR 9500 128MB (NON-PRO) into a 9700 by enabling the four pipelines that are turned off.

You can make a 9500NP 128MB (non-pro) into a 9700PRO by first using the software patch to turn it into a 9700, and then flashing the BIOS and overclocking it to 9700PRO speeds.

This is possible because the 9500NP 128MB is built on the same PCB as the 9700/9700PRO and the 256bit memory stuff is all there. The 9500PRO 128MB is built on a different PCB which only has support for a 128bit memory bus so it can't be changed.

I believe the software patch will turn a 9500NP 64MB into a 9500PRO 64MB by enabling the four other pipelines but it will still have a 128bit memory bus so it won't be a 9700 class card.

*Dual PIII-800 @900 i440BX and Tualeron 1.2 @1.74 i815*

 

[jclw]

So, in response to which card is the best to get:

If you're not up to taking risks then buy a 9500PRO, flash the BIOS and overclock it.

If you're willing to gamble a bit (or you can return the card easily) then get a 9500 128MB NON-PRO and use the software patch to turn it into a 9700. Then flash the BIOS and overclock it. From what I've seen so far, I'd say about 80% of the time the software patch works - the rest of the time you get artifacts on the screen (in which case just undo the patch). The card to get for the software mod seems to be the Saphire 9500 128MB (NON-PRO).

*Dual PIII-800 @900 i440BX and Tualeron 1.2 @1.74 i815*

 

[Crashman]

If that's the case, you should be able to verify the 256-bit memory pathway on the 9500NP before messing with anything else, right? Is there a software to check it?

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[jclw]

<A HREF="http://www.maxdownloads.com/~ian/wizzard/" target="_new">http://www.maxdownloads.com/~ian/wizzard/</A>

I think PowerStrip tells you the memory bus width but I'm not 100% sure.

*Dual PIII-800 @900 i440BX and Tualeron 1.2 @1.74 i815*

 

[dhlucke]

The results appear to be rather sketchy. A lot of people seem to be getting artifacts.

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[JAGedlion]

where can i get this software patch?
cause if its what it you say it is, hell for the $15 return price, its worth getting a 9500 np even if it doesn't work

 

[dhlucke]

the wizzard link above

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[svol]

Here another nice hardware hack so you can turn your Radeon 9500/9700 into a FireGl X1/Z1:
<A HREF="http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/story.html?id=1042578447" target="_new">http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/story.html?id=1042578447</A>

My dual-PSU PC is so powerfull that the neighbourhood dimms when I turn it on

 

[hoserb2000]

will the bios hack turn on the 4 pipelines in the 95000 not pro, or just o clock it?

YAhhhhhhh!!! Jan 27! Advance geforce fx seeing with Steve Molnar!!!!!!!! -you see, sticking with boy scouts finely paid off -mom

 

[hoserb2000]

will the bios hack turn on the 4 pipelines in the 95000 not pro, or just o clock it? and also is there a site that shows the benchmarks for the o clocked radeon 9500pro?

YAhhhhhhh!!! Jan 27! Advance geforce fx seeing with Steve Molnar!!!!!!!! -you see, sticking with boy scouts finely paid off -mom

 

[svol]

IIRC the BIOS hack will mamke your Radeon 9500(Pro)'overclockable. But you laso have software that can enable the 4 other pipelines. It seems that turning on all pipelines sometimes gives an unstable Radeon 9500(Pro) because some of the factory disabled pipelines are damaged... luckely you can enable/disable and test the 4 other pipelines with software so you wont break the warrenty.

My dual-PSU PC is so powerfull that the neighbourhood dimms when I turn it on

 

[papasmurf]

woah thanx for the link, I am gonna buy a 128mb 9500 and turn it into a fireglx1...but wait are there any benchmarks around to show the differances between the firegl and the 9700? I know there is a slight performance drop but how much is slight?

Wow! If he's here who's running hell?

 

[dhlucke]

What is the fireglx?

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[papasmurf]

whoops miss spell firegl x1

Wow! If he's here who's running hell?

 

[jclw]

One of the guys over at Guru3D is working on a software FireGL hack. It's in Beta last I heard.

*Dual PIII-800 @900 i440BX and Tualeron 1.2 @1.74 i815*

 

[svol]

Cool, the Radeon cards are getting more interesting every day.

My dual-PSU PC is so powerfull that the neighbourhood dimms when I turn it on

 

[14Dx]

First off, I am extremly skeptical about all of these Software hacks for the 9500s. I have flashed my BIOS on my 9500 Pro so it is no oc'able. That works fine. But all this BS about turning a 9500 non-Pro into a 9700 cant be true. First off, the 9500 Pro is built on the 8 layer PCB, same as 9700 Pro. Secondly, the 9500 Pro does not have the 256 Bit memory suport. This can be seen by the traces leading to the RAM on the 9500 being considerably less in number than the traces coming of the RAM on the 9700s this can be seen in the THG article done on the 9500 Pro when it was first released. Has anyone actually done any of these mods?

If its not broken, you're not trying hard enough.

 

[dhlucke]

I'm waiting a week or two to see how this pans out.

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[Guest]

I've have bought a radeon 9500 and will be doing it as soon as I recieve it. I'd like to point out that there IS NO RISK of this procedure, and I dont' understand where you guys are getting that. The software DOES NOT overclock the video card. If you guys read any of the editorials, you'd understand why. You only have to overclock it if you want to achieve speeds faster than a 9700 pro, but just doing the procedure, running no risks or anything of the sort, will give you a card faster than a radeon 9700 np. But the only downside is some people report artifcats, some do not.

Some people have formed the idea that 9700's that do not pass tests for all 8 pipelines get 4 disabled and they are labled as radeon 9500's, and that really makes a lot of sense, but the only problem would be is why would they have so many defective 9700's?

Chances are, its just more profitable market wise to produce one board and slow one down and make it cheaper, that way you can cover the high end market and mainstream market while only producing one video card. I think thats an excellent idea, besides when people figure out that you can use all 8 pipelines and people start buying 9500's instead of 9700's.

But now that i think about it, they probably do that, but damage the 4 pipelines somehow so they won't work if you enable it, which is what causes the artifacts. Or mabye they do sell all the defective radeon 9700's as 9500's, but due to the demand for the 9500 they are forced to produce more cards instead of just defective 9700's, and mabye thats why some have artifacts and some don't.

 

[dhlucke]

I'm pretty sure it's just a matter of yeilds. Some are better than others. They all start at the top and get down-binned as they see fit. I'm fairly certain they do the same thing with CPU's.

Let me know if I'm off.

It doesn't make any sense to me to spend money for labor to damage cards.

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[Guest]

Really I don't think there would be that much labor in damaging the 4 channels, a machine just might come down and short a part of the video card. What do you think would cost more, a little labor to prevent people from turning it into a 9700 or the losses you'd suffer from everyone who was going to buy a 9700 buy a 9500 instead. If that happened, that'd be a 150 dollar loss per every purchase of a 9500. Thats a lot of money.