overclocking my x800 GTO

[rabidbunny]

within the past few weeks, I purchased a new x800 GTO AGP graphics card and installed it in my old dell 4550. (yeah i know, dell isn't the best but it is my first ever computer that i own.) Anyway, I recently downloaded the ATi tool and tried ocing it there, but when I get to about 600mhz memory speed, everything goes crazy and I have to turn the pc off and restart it. I know that the memory is capable of going all the way up to 980 or more, but why can't I get it there? Is it my system?

Specs:
P4@2.4ghz
intel 845PE motherboard
1280mb RAM

Also, I can't use the bios to overclock cuz it's Dell. (stupid dell)

 

[Synergy6]

490-600MHz = Memory speed.

980 = DDR (Double Data Rate) Memory speed. I.e., equivalent to a 490MHz memory speed, your card's stock.

Your card is currently crapping out at 1200, if you want to compare it to 980. I haven't any experience with such cards, but I'd say that's still pretty good.

Synergy6

 

[rabidbunny]

Ohhhhhh, that's why. I forgot about the ram speed. Sweeet. What about the VPU core running from 400 to 440mhz? if I put it up much more it craps out too.

 

[Scougs]

It sounds like your card has an R430 core in it. That is the same one that I have in my AGP Sapphire X800GTO. The R430 is also the chip found on the X800XL. R430s are well known for not being terribly good overclockers. I don't think I have heard of anyone getting them much beyond about 450MHz. I currently have mine at 444MHz.

If you want some more performance, you can look into unlocking the 4 disabled pipes on the card. The GTO comes stock with 12 pixel pipes but the chips used have 16 pipes on them. ATItool can read information from your card that will tell you if it is unlockable.

Follow these instructions to find out if your card is unlockable:

Open ATItool, click the settings button and choose overclocking in the drop-down menu.

Scroll down until you can see the CONFIG_DIE_FUSES and CONFIG_SUBSTRATE_FUSES.

To determine if your card can be unlocked, check for an ‘F’ in the indicated positions of the hexadecimal numbers. The capital X represents any hexadecimal digit(0-9 or A-F).

CONFIG_DIE_FUSES 0xXXXXFXXX
(the fifth character after the little x must be an 'F')

CONFIG_SUBSTRATE_FUSES 0xXXXXXXXF
(the last character must be an 'F')

If ATItool reads an ‘F’ in the indicated spots, you should be able to unlock your card. If not, I am afraid you are out of luck.

If your card can be unlocked and you are interested in doing it I can help you out with how to do it.

 

[rabidbunny]

Yeah, I am very interested.

the conifg die fuses is all 'F's and the config substrate fuses is 0xFFFFFF9F.

ATI tool also says that it's an R430 core. Im guessing that it's unlockable. Can I do that with ATItool though? cuz if I have to use the BIOS it's not going to work cuz of Dell's stupid bios options.

Thanks alot.

 

[Scougs]

Unlocking involves modifying the VGA bios which is independant of the computer that the card is in. I have to leave home for a while but I'll try to get back to you later with more information.

BTW it does look like your card is unlockable. I think that most if not all of the Sapphire models these are right now.

 

[rabidbunny]

thanks.

 

[Scougs]

In ATItool click settings and select "Miscellaneous".

Click the button that says “Save VGA Bios to file...”. Give the file a simple name like “12pipe.bin”. This will be your backup copy.

Make a second copy, which will be modified, and name it something like “16pipe.bin”.

Download the hex editor from this website (I would recommend using the “stable” version instead of the beta version): http://www.mh-nexus.de/programs.htm#HxD
This software will allow you to modify your bios to enable the pipelines.

Extract the hex editor program and run it. Open “16pipe.bin”.

Find the row marked 00000070 and the column labeled ‘A’. You should find ‘61’ at that location. The second bit represents the number of disabled pixel pipe quads. Change the data value to ‘60’ to enable all 16 pixel pipes.

Note: If you ever get bord later you can mess around with disabling pipes. 1 means four pipes are disabled (X800GTO), 2 means eight pipes are disabled (X800GT), 3 means twelve pipes are disabled (yep only 4 left active).

Save the modified bios and exit the hex editor.

The next part of the process is creating a bootable device (floppy, CD, or USB flash drive) which will be used to flash VGA Bios. I used a floppy because it is easy.

For detailed information on how to do these things go to this link and read about flashing your VGA Bios: http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/overclocking/vidcard/34
This link contains instructions for creating a bootable USB flashdrive if a floppy is not an option.

I recommend using ATIflash if you plan to do it in DOS.
You can download it at the bottom of this page:
http://www.techpowerup.com/bios/
I used version 3.09

You will want to put the contents of the ATIflash archive onto the bootable media as well as the two bios files (the backup copy and the new unlocked version).

Boot into DOS and type the following command at the prompt:
atiflash.exe -p 0 16pipe.bin

Note: This assumes that you followed my naming conventions.

 

[rabidbunny]

Ok. I did everything as you said and I had a problem with typing in the file. I assumed the 0 that you put in was the number, but that gave me an error. So I put in the letter 'O' and it did something on the disk for a second then said something like: ATIFLASH.exe -p (location) (file name) So i don't know if the card was flashed or not. I then checked out atitool and found that under the 'active piplines' row it said '12' not 16. I don't know if it worked or not.

Again, I did everything as you said.

thanks

 

[superbrett2000]

I did a similar BIOS update a few days ago, but instead went from X850 Pro to X850 XT PE.

When I flashed my BIOS it made a beep out of the PC speaker when it was done. My ATI Tools showed 12 pipes too but I restarted after my drivers were reinstalled and it showed 16.

 

[Scougs]

It was the number zero that I intended for you to use.

Do you remember what the error said?

You may need to add -f before the -p but I would need to know what the error said to be more sure.

The thing about drivers that superbrett2000 was talking about I don't think is an issue because to the computer the card is the same. He was flashing with a bios for a different card.

 

[Datman]

X800 GTO & GTO2 to X850XT Mod

 

[rabidbunny]

I wrote down the error, but I am at school now and don't have the error. I will get the error and post it.

As far as the number 0 and the letter O, the number gave me the error.

i will get back to you.

 

[rabidbunny]

Ok. The error was: 0FL01 (and those are zeros)

 

[Scougs]

If ".bin" appears as part of the file name delete it. Then try flashing again. You still have to include the ".bin" when you type the command in DOS.

I am guessing that when you typed the file name you included the ".bin" when the program automatically saves it as a bin file type.

 

[rabidbunny]

Ok. You told me to add the '.bin' part to the filename. No matter, I'll try it with the file name as '16pipe' and NO .bin.

Do I need the -f before the -p?

Update: just tried it again, and the filenames showed up as just '16pipe' and NO .bin afterwards. I tried it again and all it showed up with is:
'Format: ATIFLASH -p <adapternam> <filename>

What am I doing wrong?

 

[Scougs]

Sorry for the confusion.
The command line should look like this:

atiflash.exe -p 0 16pipe.bin

I think your problem is the actual file name. When you look at the icon for the file in Windows, you should see 16pipe without the .bin

 

[rabidbunny]

Ok. I will try it again when I get home. Ill resave the files as just '16pipe' and '12pipe' with no .bin after.

 

[ikaz]

Actualy you may want to run the command like this:

atiflash.exe -f -p 0 16pipe.bin

This way it will force the flash, if you use a bios that you downloaded from the web you will need that force command because the PIN number will be different.

I just tried to flash my 850pro to an 850xt and it wouldn't work with out the force I just recieve an error message 0FL01 and Pin not matching. Sad thing is my card doesn't seem to be able to activate the 4 xtra pipes even though its a vivo pro but its running 2.0 ram instead of 1.6 =(. However I can run the card at PE speed with out a problem and I can go higher but since I'm using stock fan don't want to risk it.

 

[Scougs]

ikaz,
If you look above at the stuff about the fuses, it should tell you if your card is unlockable. If it isn't unlockable the fuses won't have an 'F' in the two required locations.

 

[rabidbunny]

So should I try the -f -p ?

 

[rabidbunny]

ALright, i tried it again with renaming the files and typed in the -f -p thing. It didn't work before when I tried it, but now it did i think.

It said: Flashtype M25P05/c
10000/ 10000h bytes programmed
10000/ 10000h bytes verified.

And then I booted up in windows and started atitool. Guess what? it registered 16 pipelines active instead of the 12 before!!!! I think that means that everything is good.

So now if I needed to for some reason, I could do the same thing but input '12pipe' .bin and go back to the old bios then right?

And what benefit will the extra 4 pipes have on my performance? little? Big?

Thanks

 

[custompcz]

Arriving a bit late but this is what would of helped you from the beginning.

http://www.techpowerup.com/articles//overclocking/vidcard/127/1

Yes, the 4 extra pipes helps a fair amount.

 

[Scougs]

Great! I'm glad that you finally got it worked out.
I wasn't sure if it required the -f because I started by using an XL bios before I knew how to mod my bios.

I gained about 500 points in 3DMark 2005 went from around 5000 to around 5500. That is on a P4 2.8C @ 3.5GHz and 1GB of dual channel DDR400. 8)

 

[rabidbunny]

I will run 3dmark05 when i get home and try it to see how much of an improvement it makes on my system.

Thanks for all of your help.