View Full Version : Flashing 9800Pro to 9800XT?
Hey Guys,
I have seen it on a few forums before now where people have managed to turn their Radeon 9800Pro (128mb, R350 core) to a 9800XT.
I know there are probably alot of things you have to do on the hardware side for it to work (suck as fooling it to think it has 256MB of ram and not 128MB etc).
Do you guys know of any guides on how to achieve this?
Alec
kryptobs2000
02-27-2005, 10:23 AM
Why do you want to do this? Unless you have a r360 which would then give you the temp monitoring thing in the control panel there is no point. There are 9800 XT bioses for 128mb of ram, but all your doing is changing the clockspeeds.
Why do you want to do this? Unless you have a r360 which would then give you the temp monitoring thing in the control panel there is no point. There are 9800 XT bioses for 128mb of ram, but all your doing is changing the clockspeeds.
Yeah; therefore running faster :)
I am just trying to get the most outa my card dude; and flashing it to an XT would be one way of getting the most out of it...
What 9800XT BIOS would you recommend for the Powercolor 9800Pro?
I may not keep it flashed to an XT though; it would just be nice to see how well it performs :)
I got an r360 core...if I flash it I will get temp monitoring?
if you have the 128meg card flashing wont give you tempmonitoring. if you have the r360-layout, r360-core, 256mb version, you're likely to enable temp monitoring and stuff. check for my thread i posted about 3/4 year ago.
You wouldnt happen have a link to the thread you started back then, would you?
It would be a little hard trying to find it through all these thousands of posts since then :)
Alec
kryptobs2000
02-27-2005, 11:51 AM
Yeah; therefore running faster :)
I am just trying to get the most outa my card dude; and flashing it to an XT would be one way of getting the most out of it...
What 9800XT BIOS would you recommend for the Powercolor 9800Pro?
I may not keep it flashed to an XT though; it would just be nice to see how well it performs :)
My point is just overclock the card, you'll have the same results. Also, if you want to have it load those clocks, just edit ur current bios that way you don't gotta use any progs it'll always run that.
Yep, I understand.
Though modding it to an XT would make my card seem a better card and also give me higher stock clock speeds :)
What BIOS do you recommend me using to flash it to an XT? Remember I got 128MB of RAM and the R350 Core
kryptobs2000
02-27-2005, 12:00 PM
Not sure, there's a site somewhere with tons of bios's one of them would surely help you out. Maybe someone else can point you to it. Try to overclock it first to xt speeds, make sure it can even run at those speeds.
hehe. Wih the stock BIOS it does 460/378 so I dont think that will be quite such a problem :)
And the site you were talking baout which has lots of different BIOSes for different cards; I think this is it ;) http://www.techpowerup.com/bios/
Think I should just start off with the stock ATI 9800XT BIOS?
EDIT:
OK there doesn't seem to be a default ATI 9800XT 128MB BIOS on that site; but there is one from GeCube. Its default speeds are 398 / 350 and is Hynix2.8
Think I should give that a go? one thing Im unsure about though; is the memory... I think mine is Samsung 2.8
black rose
02-27-2005, 12:13 PM
http://www.rojakpot.com/default.aspx?location=3&var1=92&var2=0
That guide has just about everything needed.
Alec - I'm gonna agree with krypto, there's really nothing to be gained from flashing your bios, besides increased clocks. It'd be just as effective and safer (no flashing involved) to dload something like ATi Tool or Radlinker and set the clocks upon boot with those programs. If you really want to go all the way, edit the bios on your card to display 9800XT instead of PRO and set XT clocks. Anywho, have fun.
I just opened up BiosEdit to see what that BIOS editing program was like and was in for a supprise.
When I loaded my default / backup BIOS file which I backed up before I flashed my BIOS to a different one; I found that it said something different to I had expected:
BIOS:
2004/03/04 09:51 R360 Hynix DDR 113-A07537-103 BIOS
But the AtiTool said differently, it says I have the R350 core...
I have attatched a screenshot so you can understand more clearly...
Do you think its a bug in one of the programs? Do I really have a R360 core?
Thanks in advance,
Alec
[XC] moddolicous
02-27-2005, 04:31 PM
I'd trust the bios over software, although I would take the heatsink off and check. Thats the best way to make sure.
black rose
02-27-2005, 05:35 PM
I'd trust the bios over software, although I would take the heatsink off and check. Thats the best way to make sure.
yep, most surefire way is to remove the heatsink and read the core. since you're overclocking, you might as well replace the crappy stock cooler anyway.
while your looking at the core look at your ram and get a bios for a board taht uses the same ram on the XT.
plus.
the XT bios will give you a slightly lower overclock but alot better performance
alot more is differnt with the bios than just the defalt clock speed run a few benchies with both bios's and the same clock speeds youll see what i mean.
[XC] moddolicous
02-27-2005, 06:15 PM
Yea, if you use RaBiT, it allows you to change ram timings and stuff. Maybe the XT has tighter ram timings. Thats something to look into.
Hey Guys,
I replaced my stock cooler a long time ago, but cannot remember if it was an R350 or an R360 core... If I can find the thermal paste I can take the cooler off later and have a look again.
What code would I need to see on my RAM chips to see if its also a R360 or a R350 core? That would be an easier route since it wouldnt meen me fiddling round witth heatsinks and all.
Alec
LMAO! Just took off the cooler for my GPU and found this:
R360
215R9RBKA11F
ND6379.00
041755
TAIWAN
So it is true... I have teh R360! LOL im totally shocked; Ive been thinking ive had a R350 core for the past erm... 4 months! :slobber:
Also; if you wanna know what RAM I got on my card; I also made not of that:
Hynix K0R
HYSOU28322A
F-2 424A
* W7CDT917U0
... In other words; better mod mine to an XT :D
should be fine then, i flashed my sapphire 9800 pro 128mb R360 to XT no prob :)
caLume
02-28-2005, 09:33 AM
hi.
wanna flash my card too.
got the r360 core and samsung rams
sapphire 9800pro 128mb
but i dunno which bios i have to take.
anyone could help me ?
thx :)
Try the top graphics card link on teh 18th section ('Preparing The BIOS Flash Files')
http://www.rojakpot.com/default.aspx?location=3&var1=92&var2=0
caLume
02-28-2005, 12:28 PM
Try the top graphics card link on teh 18th section ('Preparing The BIOS Flash Files')
http://www.rojakpot.com/default.aspx?location=3&var1=92&var2=0
thanks :)
will try it tomorrow
Good luck man.
As long as you know the dos commands for the flashing utility you shouldn't have a problem...
I have attatched a screenie of my new stock clock speeds and its new uber 'XT' prefix :p:
Alec
You wouldnt happen have a link to the thread you started back then, would you?
It would be a little hard trying to find it through all these thousands of posts since then :)
Alec
this is the link (http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=29788) to that thread. beware it's pretty mucho long, 18 pages in total. it's mostly about the 256mb card (the sapphire one, basically), but there's some talking about the 128mb cards as well... anyway, last post is dated may 2004, so it's not that up to date ;)
also there's other threads about the 128mb type cards. iirc the only "real" 128mb xt bios was a gigacube one, but don' quote me on that. almost a year since that was current gossip. and with the 128mb cards you're chances are pretty much zero regarding unlocking temp.monitoring diodes - that requires the xt-pcb (that only the 256mb cards have) r360 core or not. yadayada :)
caLume
02-28-2005, 11:25 PM
worked for me :)
now run some benchies with the same clock's you ran before i would bet you see 500-700pt improvment in 3dm03
caLume
03-02-2005, 09:45 AM
never run a bench before. useless.
on the whole i am working with watercooling and tec cooling on my pc but in the end i just need 100fps in cs at 1280*1024 :D