Help with possible artifacting on x800PRO AGP VIVO

[kyle]

I just recieved my Sapphire x800PRO AGP VIVO. First off, It's supposed to be from Sapphire however the picture on the heatsink is of the gargoyle from ATI and dosen't say Sapphire at all, is that correct?

Secondly, I have been successful in backing up the original BIOS and flashing it to the latest Sapphire x800XT AGP BIOS found here:

http://www.techpowerup.com/bios/

Using ATItool 0.0.23 I did not receive any artifacts in 7hrs of scanning at 500/500 speeds with 12 pipelines open using the BIOS the card came with. After unlocking the other 4 pipelines ATItool starts showing yellow dots all over. I've even tried using several different BIOS from different manufactures such as Connect3D, ATI and Powercooler. None seem to have any difference except for the oldest BIOS from Sapphire produces the fewest yellow dots in the artifact test. Even using the ATI standard x800 AGP VIVO BIOS with 475/450 clock and 16 pipes open I get a few yellow dots to show in ATItool but I don't think i've noticed anything playing EverQuest2 and the limited amount of running around in Doom3.

Could this be true artifacting and just bad pipelines or, is ATItool just not the proper tool to use to find artifacts as many post they don't like it. Also, what exactly should one be looking for in games for evidence of artifacting, white dots etc.? Should I continue to try different BIOS such as maybe the one from Gigabyte... which i can't find an AGP version.

Any suggestions or comments would be appreciated.

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

You have an unsuccesful soft mod, not all are modable.

And from what I remember only some bioses work like the Gigabyte one. ATI Bios would NEVER work, Sapphire Bios doesn't work IIRC, but Gigabyte seems to be the most common one that does work if you can do it. Even still it's likely that the disabled pipes are defective.

VIVO is a good start, but even then it's not that succesful. Some people like RedRain thought they had success, but then one app or another started artifacting on them.

Check out this thread at Rage3D.
<A HREF="http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?t=33766704" target="_new">http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?t=33766704</A>

<b>Wusy</b>, you can do it softmoded, but only certain cards, and obviously his doesn't work, so he'll need to hard mod it if he wants a shot at it working, but considering his efforts sofar, I wouldn't risk it.


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