[atlantis]

Hellos,

I'm planning to buy a Sapphire x800pro vivo (at 299 euro) to replace my 9700.
I remember that it was possible to mod those cards to unlock the last 4 pipelines and reach XT, XT-PE speeds: is it still possible?

Anyone tried recently?
How is/was the "success rate" of the process?
Opinions?

tia


edit = AGP cards

[Unknown Soldier]

The success rate was very very high .. you just need a bios upgrade.

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

[Cowboy X]

I kept forgetting to ask if that is only the case with the AGP X800 Pro VIVOs or can it work on the PCI-E versions as well ?

[atlantis]

It seems, reading the page US provided (thanks!), it works both on AGP and PCI-E boards... You just need to grab the right BIOS

[Cowboy X]

Here is the definitive info :

http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/...ng/vidcard/100

I am now very angry that I bought a X800XL instead of the PCI-E pro vivo .

[Unknown Soldier]

I flashed mine quite some time ago(October last year I think) and haven't had any issues yet.

It runs fine at 520/560.

Using the driver auto o/c it even hits a bit higher .. but I leave it at 520/560.

No sense in trying to push it too far.

US

[atlantis]

US, do you use stock cooling?
Thanks for the info

[digitalwanderer]

I got the Saphire AGP X800 pro when they came out and flashed it to 16 pipes 500/540 and ran it with stock cooling just peachy until a few months ago.

(I upgraded to the Zalman VGA cooling kit, it's just soooo pretty and works well too! )

I was sort of forced into upgrading at the time since my 9700 pro died on me, but I really haven't regretted it....the card is a freaking beast and I still got OCing to look forward to. (I set her clocks intentionally a little low when I went to 16 pipes out of fear, but she's been doing so well I haven't seen the need to jack 'em up yet)

It's why I'm so calm this round with the R50/R520, I don't plan to be upgrading for a while.

[atlantis]

Originally Posted by digitalwanderer

I got the Saphire AGP X800 pro when they came out and flashed it to 16 pipes 500/540 and ran it with stock cooling just peachy until a few months ago.

(I upgraded to the Zalman VGA cooling kit, it's just soooo pretty and works well too! )

Ok thanks
I'm not sure: is stock cooling the same on Sapphire's X800pro and X800XT ?

Originally Posted by digitalwanderer

It's why I'm so calm this round with the R50/R520, I don't plan to be upgrading for a while.

Well... that's an interesting point.
When R420 came out I decided not to upgrade, after all the 9700 was (and still is) working fine, and decided to wait R520.

Now I'm changing my mind about it: the price/performance of that card seems competitive if we consider:
1) that a x800xl agp would cost around 350 € here
2) time to market and price of R520 based cards
3) my computer (a P4 northwood 3Ghz + 1 GB ram) wouldn't (probably) fully take advantage of the performance of a R520

[digitalwanderer]

I have an AMD mobility Barton (35w) at 10.5x200 paired up with my X800 TT and it games me just fine in everything I play with lots of AA & AF.

(I game at 1024x768 though I should point out due to a 17" CRT that has shitty refresh rates at higher resolutions)

I've been seriously tempted a few times to jump to an AMD64 3000/3200 set-up, but the AGP/PCIe thing has been holding me back.

(Along with the fact that my rig really does still game great, it makes it harder to justify the upgrade. :? )

[Cowboy X]

Originally Posted by atlantis

Ok thanks
I'm not sure: is stock cooling the same on Sapphire's X800pro and X800XT ?

Well... that's an interesting point.
When R420 came out I decided not to upgrade, after all the 9700 was (and still is) working fine, and decided to wait R520.

Now I'm changing my mind about it: the price/performance of that card seems competitive if we consider:
1) that a x800xl agp would cost around 350 € here
2) time to market and price of R520 based cards
3) my computer (a P4 northwood 3Ghz + 1 GB ram) wouldn't (probably) fully take advantage of the performance of a R520

Most X800XL AGP cards are overpriced and the X800 Pro VIVO or 6800 GT are in my opinion better buys .

[atlantis]

Originally Posted by Cowboy X

Most X800XL AGP cards are overpriced and the X800 Pro VIVO or 6800 GT are in my opinion better buys .

Yep indeed: xl agp have the added cost of the bridge..
I was thinking of X800pro VIVO with "the price/performance of that card"

It's a shame 6800gt here cost from 360 €

[Sxotty]

Originally Posted by digitalwanderer

I've been seriously tempted a few times to jump to an AMD64 3000/3200 set-up, but the AGP/PCIe thing has been holding me back.

I sold my x800 TT on ebay and used the money to buy a new motherboard, an AMD64 3000 and a 6200 (pci-e) (which is unlocked now to a 6600). I had $$ left over as well. It actually just forced me to lower my resolution from 16x12 to something much smaller, but I also put my 21" monitor on my wifes computer and turned it into a PVR so I now have a smaller monitor (19") and the lower resolution really doesn't bother me much.

Now I can get a new viddy card maybe in this upcoming generation and not really lose out on switching to PCI-e.

Anyway you could try that dig

PS running the amd3000 at 2ghz right now the motherboard I got doesn't have much in the way of overclocking abilities as it is a SFF motherboard that I can later put into my wifes rig. There are no multipliers, no voltage adjustments or anything, I just bought ram that would run at 500Mhz supposedly and then clocked the CPU up to 222Mhz or so. I think I might be able to get higher but it runs ultra quiet as the fan rarely kicks into high mode and is super stable haven't crashed since I installed it.

[digitalwanderer]

Sell my X800 TT? Hmmm, I don't get it.

I mean, I understand each of the words individual...but when you put them together in a sentence like that it just seems like random noise or something. :?

/me goes to check on my Rage Fury (non-Pro) to make sure it's still resting gently in it's drawer

[Unknown Soldier]

Originally Posted by atlantis

US, do you use stock cooling?
Thanks for the info

Hi Atlantis

I got the HIS IceQII X800 Pro VIVO .. which comes with an excellent cooler(Silence 4 type).

So i've had no problems. I don't know about a stock cooler though .. but as digi said .. he had no problems.

I know someone who upgrade to the XT PE Bios with a Saphire .. i'll ask him for ya.

[neliz]

I've got one from ELSA (Falcox) and flashed it back in august
I flashed it with the XT-PE bios and after two weeks I installed the Arcitc Cooling ATI Silencer 5 (which is the one HIS uses one their IceQ's.)
I bought it in july last year and waited a bit first to see how everyone was doing with their flashes, before stepping into the endeavour.

[atlantis]

Thanks all for the info

[digitalwanderer]

I used the stock cooler on mine after flashing for a looong while with no problems, but that's also why I only flashed it 500/540 too.

[atlantis]

I could also try the "16 pipes, pro speeds" bios on techpowerup then raise clocks via software

But first I'll wait R520 launch

[neliz]

Originally Posted by atlantis

I could also try the "16 pipes, pro speeds" bios on techpowerup then raise clocks via software

But first I'll wait R520 launch

what you WANT to do is change your clocks anyway. I run at 350/300 clocks in 2D and then 3D clocks at whatever I want that day.

what you can also do is, flash to xt bios, (that unlocks the 16 pipes) and then go back to a pro bios.
A lot of people did this in the beginning as well and it turns out that the 16 pipes remain unlocked.
That is the "techpowerup" trick, it essentially is the same trick, just with the extra step of downgrading the bios afterwards...

[atlantis]

Originally Posted by neliz

what you WANT to do is change your clocks anyway. I run at 350/300 clocks in 2D and then 3D clocks at whatever I want that day.

Sure
When running 350/300, the fan does reduce speed?
It should help to lower fan noise, right?
I'm asking cause it would be cool to build a (relatively) noiseless pc.

what you can also do is, flash to xt bios, (that unlocks the 16 pipes) and then go back to a pro bios.
A lot of people did this in the beginning as well and it turns out that the 16 pipes remain unlocked.
That is the "techpowerup" trick, it essentially is the same trick, just with the extra step of downgrading the bios afterwards...

Kewl
But also running with the XT BIOS should work fine, no? (Given the fact that pipelines are not defective, card can tolerate higher clocks, etc)

Thanks

[neliz]

Originally Posted by atlantis

Sure
When running 350/300, the fan does reduce speed?
It should help to lower fan noise, right?
I'm asking cause it would be cool to build a (relatively) noiseless pc.

Yes, use atitool or atitraytool to even have control about which temperatures and which fan speed.
Install a "silent' cooler (like zalman or ArcticCooling) and even benefit more...

Kewl
But also running with the XT BIOS should work fine, no? (Given the fact that pipelines are not defective, card can tolerate higher clocks, etc)

Thanks

Yes, you only might see some improvements when you tinker with memory timing.. but that is VERY dangerous (the XT-PE might have a bit more aggressive timings than the XT.)

[digitalwanderer]

Originally Posted by atlantis

(Given the fact that pipelines are not defective, card can tolerate higher clocks, etc)

Uhm, a note: after you flash to enable that extry quad your GPU will run hotter at the same speed. Just flashing the quad enabled and not changing your card's clockspeed will still result in your GPU running hotter....it's just got more going on now.

I used to crank up my stock cooler's fan using a third party app to help compensate for it.

Not a biggy, but make sure you realize that after flashing a pro to an XT that you are dealing with a different card. Also as Neliz points out different bios' have different levels of aggression on their memory timing, you have to do your homework and some experimentation to find out which will work best with your particular card.

[JoshMST]

I had one of the latest X800 Pro VIVO's and no matter what I did, I could not get the extra quad unlocked. I have heard that many of the latest cards are very had to transform into full 4 quad products.

[neliz]

Originally Posted by JoshMST

I had one of the latest X800 Pro VIVO's and no matter what I did, I could not get the extra quad unlocked. I have heard that many of the latest cards are very had to transform into full 4 quad products.

Did you check it properly? 1.6ns on both sides of the board? if that was not the case upon purchase, it's a sure bet that the card won't be flashable