Digit Life convinced that 9500 Pro is a 4x2 with 256 bus
- Thread starter McElvis
- Start date
Uttar said:
Yes, even then. Even if not CPU limited system bandwidth/bus limited.
Thanks, Dave.
Slides, it only works with the 128 MB Radeon 9500s that do not use the new PCB design that ATI made. It must use the Radeon 9700 PCB design. The reason is that 64 MB Radeon 9500s using that PCB have a 128 bit memory bus simply because four of the memory banks are empty and unused. This results in 4 32 bit banks remaining, for a total of 128 bits. Filling those banks results in 8 x 32 bits for a total of 256. What that the mod that that Russian site figured out does is enable the four pixel pipelines that are otherwise dormant and unused in Radeon 9500s.
There's a potential problem, though. (Now I'm not -entirely- sure on this, so if anyone sees that I am totally wrong on this, please correct me.) The Radeon 9700 and 9500 use the exact same R300 chips. Because of this, ATI would be losing alot of money if they were simply using a chip that could potentially power a Radeon 9700 and disabling 4 of the pixel pipelines. It still costs the same amount of money to produce the two chips, after all. Thus, the 9500s are basically the chips where one to four of the pixel pipelines are not working properly. These chip would normally be discarded, but instead ATI simply disables those pipelines and makes money off of them that would otherwise be lost.
Slides, it only works with the 128 MB Radeon 9500s that do not use the new PCB design that ATI made. It must use the Radeon 9700 PCB design. The reason is that 64 MB Radeon 9500s using that PCB have a 128 bit memory bus simply because four of the memory banks are empty and unused. This results in 4 32 bit banks remaining, for a total of 128 bits. Filling those banks results in 8 x 32 bits for a total of 256. What that the mod that that Russian site figured out does is enable the four pixel pipelines that are otherwise dormant and unused in Radeon 9500s.
There's a potential problem, though. (Now I'm not -entirely- sure on this, so if anyone sees that I am totally wrong on this, please correct me.) The Radeon 9700 and 9500 use the exact same R300 chips. Because of this, ATI would be losing alot of money if they were simply using a chip that could potentially power a Radeon 9700 and disabling 4 of the pixel pipelines. It still costs the same amount of money to produce the two chips, after all. Thus, the 9500s are basically the chips where one to four of the pixel pipelines are not working properly. These chip would normally be discarded, but instead ATI simply disables those pipelines and makes money off of them that would otherwise be lost.
Slides said:
Well, assuming the same mod can be applied to the 9500s that use the new PCB specifically designed for them, all it would do is create a Radeon 9500 Pro. This is because those new PCBs aren't built to have a 256 bit memory bus. If the mod can be applied, then ATI might seek a way to correct it. I say "might" because they may decide that the number of people willing to do such a thing to their expensive new video card will be relatively small. After all, this does void the warrantee on the card.
