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9800 Pro -> XT flash ?

DiscoKandy

DiscoKandy

DiscoKandy

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20 Oct 2002
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901
Location
Surrey
Hi,

I'm trying to squeeze the last bit of performance out of my system before I look to upgrade. I remember a while back hearing about how people flashed their 9800 Pro's to XT as the card was essentially the same with a different bios.

I've tried searching on here and on google and can't find a definitive guide suggesting how to do it, and what cards are capable of even being flashed.

Anyone got any experience on this topic? My card is an ATI (not sure what brand) 9800 Pro 128MB.

Am i likely to see any considerable increase in performance in games ?
 
Unless anythings changed recently there is no software that can do this - you need to remove the heatsink/fan and have a look at the GPU.
 
Tim said:
Unless anythings changed recently there is no software that can do this - you need to remove the heatsink/fan and have a look at the GPU.
Click to expand...

Correct.

All software takes its reading from the GPU BIOS. So even if you had a r350 cored 9800 flashed to XT (pointless, but helps me to illustrate), software would think it was an r360.

You HAVE to look at the core.
 
I do remember something that was indicative, but is NOT 100% certain. And sorry but I can't remeber the details. If the HSF is held down by copper pins then it is one type, if its held down by plastic ones. I THINK plastic was the R360 core. Some hunting round these forums should help.

As other have said the only way to be 100% sure is by removing the HSF.
 
I flashed mine R360 to an XT and TBH you won't notice a massive difference in games.

However the process was kinda cool LOL


Seeing your 9800 PRO as an XT in Device manager :D




memories memories memories lol :p
 
easyrider said:
I flashed mine R360 to an XT and TBH you won't notice a massive difference in games.

However the process was kinda cool LOL


Seeing your 9800 PRO as an XT in Device manager :D
Click to expand...

That was the main reason I flashed mine, because it looked cool showing up as an XT:D

...Was a sad day when that card died. I had it running without a case on the carpet underneath my desk and I hadn't cleaned the dust from the Arctic cooler on it out in a while. I was playing CSS and started getting artifacts, then the PC locked up and when I rebooted I got no signal from the graphics card:(

Had a look and the card was too hot to touch, was a nice thick layer of dust stopping any air from cooling down the GPU! Thats been the only piece of hardware I've ever killed through overclocking!
 
sup3rc0w said:
as far as i can remember, ATI tool showed you the core as well :confused:
Click to expand...

Yes, because as I've already said, it reads it from the GFX BIOS.

It will read whatever the BIOS says, so no use at all for finding out what PHYSICAL core you have.
 
I just use ATItool to overclock my 9800 pro. It saves flashing it and if you don’t know what core you got I guess its the safest thing to do as I think im right in saying it doesn’t matter what core you got using this method though don’t quote me on that.

Apparently you don’t see any performance difference by only using ATItool than you would if you flashed it on this card.
 
Slackjaw190 said:
Apparently you don’t see any performance difference by only using ATItool than you would if you flashed it on this card.
Click to expand...

I suggest you read the thread I linked to in my first post.

People were finding that flashing to XT increased their 3DMark score, when using LOWER clockspeed on the cards. Clock for clock, the XT is faster than the PRO due to its revised rendering path.

You will however find that r360 cores generally don't clock as far as r350's though.

As for safe, you have to remove the heatsink, take a quick peak, and then put it back on. Its not "unsafe" at all.
 
will it still be ok considering the fact he only has a 128meg 9800pro? (it's almost definatly going to be an r350 core) as all the XT's were 256meg? or would it not affect the flash as long as its got a 256bit interface and not a 128bit?
 
The BIOS'es contained within my flashing disk are for 128MB 9800PRO's. And no it's not true that 128MB PRO's cannot contain an r360 core. Pretty much all late revision 9800PRO's were r360 cores (pretty much all 9800PRO's made after 9800XT introduction, due to it being cheaper to only make one core chip type).

So long as the card has a 256-bit interface as you say, it will work fine if the card genuinely has an r360 core. You do have to make sure you chose the BIOS flash with the correct RAM type however, as the differing RAM types used different timings.
 
thats what i was trying to get at :)

i didnt know the later pro's with only 128megs of ram had mainly r360 cores though. learn something new everyday
 
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