Author Topic: Flash Radeon 9800PRO (256) to 9800XT? (Read 521 times)

Octavius · « **on:** February 16, 2005, 09:15:41 PM »

Linkage

Anyone have any experience with this?

Seems like a nice bang for buck deal. I currently have a 9600XT, and I like the XT model thermal controls. It's been a decent card, but I must move on to something bigger and better. The 9800PRO to 9800XT is a viable option for me. Comments?

wombatt · « **Reply #1 on:** February 17, 2005, 02:14:46 AM »

I have been using the 9800pro 128meg card and it does everything I ask It to.
Cant go wrong with ATI IMHO.

38ruk · « **Reply #2 on:** February 17, 2005, 09:07:38 AM »

most of the newer made 9800pros have the r360 core , so flashing to an xt is a pretty good chance , i had a 9800pro 128 that was an earliy model , it had a r350 core so i couldnt do the flash. if its at all possible try and verify that the core is a r360. 38

llama · « **Reply #3 on:** February 18, 2005, 07:43:05 PM »

I have one of those 9800 PRO's that has the XT's R360 core, and even the better memory.

I carefully benchmarked the card before flashing the BIOS to make it an XT, and then after.

And the difference was...

dramatic pause

NOTHING!!! Yes, the card looked different to the ATI drivers and the system, but the benchmarks don't lie.

So I flashed it back to the factory BIOS.

It still works great.

-Llama

AaronM2 · « **Reply #4 on:** February 19, 2005, 03:47:37 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by llama
I have one of those 9800 PRO's that has the XT's R360 core, and even the better memory.

I carefully benchmarked the card before flashing the BIOS to make it an XT, and then after.

And the difference was...

dramatic pause

NOTHING!!! Yes, the card looked different to the ATI drivers and the system, but the benchmarks don't lie.

So I flashed it back to the factory BIOS.

It still works great.

-Llama

Just got new Comp wanted to know how u flash it just got new 9800pro

Octavius · « **Reply #5 on:** February 19, 2005, 10:28:02 AM »

Thanks Llama. Were the clock speeds identical before/after?

I'll be going with an X800 anyway

Changed my mind. hehe

llama · « **Reply #6 on:** February 25, 2005, 07:19:58 PM »

Yeah, the clock speeds were identical. I also overclocked and underclocked the card to see if there was any difference higher up or down low.

Nope.

At any given clock speed, I saw no difference.

That tells me that either the default bios on my Pro had the 360 GPU optimizations already but wasn't telling anybody in public, or the 360 GPU optimizations don't do that much. My Gut Reaction is the former.

-Llama

JimBear · « **Reply #7 on:** February 28, 2005, 04:00:08 PM »

Oct, are you planning on going from a 9800Pro to an X800? I was going to do that and see that the X850XTs are out for AGP,so I am going to wait a bit. If you get there first on the upgrade please post and let us know your opinion on it please

Octavius · « **Reply #8 on:** February 28, 2005, 05:52:28 PM »

I'm going from a 9600XT to X800! It finally arrived this afternoon after first ordering on the 19th. Monarch Computers in Atlanta suck goat.

I went ahead and bought a Connect3D X800 256mb VIVO. VIVO editions can be flashed from normal state to the X800XT. They both have the R420 chip, but the stock card has 12 pipelines and a clock of 475. I'm actually going to flash the BIOS in a few minutes

Cavalear has this same card from Connect3D and was successfull with his flash.

Octavius · « **Reply #9 on:** February 28, 2005, 07:49:23 PM »

Ok, well, cooling is definitely an issue. The stock fan cannot compete for more than 10 minutes (or less!) with the higher default speeds of the new BIOS's (plural). I've tried a few, but haven't been able to unlock the other 4 pipelines. I still have 12.

JimBear · « **Reply #10 on:** February 28, 2005, 08:04:44 PM »

my bad,

damn, good luck on cooling that bad boy and unlocking those pipes.

38ruk · « **Reply #11 on:** February 28, 2005, 10:11:00 PM »

ive read a few threads on the flashing , it seems that some bios flashers leave part of the old bios in place . From what ive read u have to use a bios editor to manually clear that part of the old bios . either that or flash the card to an empty .bin file first then reflash with the xt bios . i was goin to try this on my x800pro , but i would have to connect the laser cut bridges and the success rate is quite small 38

edit : also ive read that some people are actually getting a run of bad pipes with the newer batch of vivo cards. they are having alot of black squares on screen along with pixel haze, whatever that means . also could be they flashed it with the wrong bios so who knows ... fwiw