Radeon X800 Pro Pencil Voltage Mod

Just like the pencil mod for the 9800XT

From: http://www.vr-zone.com/?i=817&s=1

http://www.vr-zone.com/reviews/ATi/X800Pro/VGPU-2.jpg

"Locate the resistor as shown above and start to pencil it slowly, a few strokes should be sufficient to increase the VGPU from 1.31v to 1.4v. I have tried higher voltages but i have found that any voltage higher than 1.45V seems to be a little too much and the card will start artifacting during benching. Therefore i have left the VGPU at 1.4v which is pretty sufficient for air cooling."

Anyone try this yet...... I am thinking about it but want to see a few results from some people on this forums before i try.

ok i tried it.... default vgpu 1.4 max overclock 510
vgpu 1.88 max overclock 618
37c idle 48c full load.

pretty happy with 618/585

I had a quick question. What are you supposed to pencil? the white line around it, in the fashion pointed out by the green line? or am I wrong here.

basically along the side of the resistor on the pcb.... you want the graphite to make a connection between the ends.

Humm...that VRzone article says the default core voltage is 1.31. I just measured mine with a Fluke 88 and it's 1.4v default ??

Are theise cards comeing with different core voltages ?

yes. mine was 1.4 by default also

where is the check point?


Edited: That's alright, I found it.

Wow, nice OC with the mod I got to try it on mine, are you using a waterblock to get those temps? My max OC was 560 stock.

Quote:

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Originally posted by piercedandtatto
ok i tried it.... default vgpu 1.4 max overclock 510
vgpu 1.88 max overclock 618
37c idle 48c full load.

pretty happy with 618/585

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Wow, very nice o/c
I think I'm going to have to give this vmod a shot myself :D

Btw, my vgpu was 1.41 stock also, so I think that article just had a typo

well I got the core up to 625 with 1.71vgpu..about 37c load.
Might go a littler higher on the gpu later...reall need to vmod the memory though. I'm maxing out at 573


For you guys that have done this mod and use ATI Tool...have you noticed a Vgpu drop when your using ati tool...particularly when its doing its "heat-up". My Vgpu drops almost .1 and I'm wondering if my PSU is crapping out, or if thats normal

mighty expensive gfx card to be slapping voltage too :o

meh... if the cooling has been improved its par for the course :D

I wouldn't overvolt a stock cooled card at all.

are you guys giving it up to 1.71 in air? cause the article says you shouldnt put more than 1.4v on air..

I'm putting 1.7v to it under water/80w pelt cooling. I wouldn't dream of that voltage on air cooling. Not to a $400 card anyway:)

Quote:

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Originally posted by EmineM
are you guys giving it up to 1.71 in air? cause the article says you shouldnt put more than 1.4v on air..

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That article also says that 1.3 is the stock voltage... and its not. He also said that hes getting artifacts at that voltage which is why he stopped.

I'm on water and my load temp hasn't gone over 35c, and no artifacts. I know quite a few people that have been running 1.7+V since the cards came out, so I'm not to worried. Besides, weres the fun in leaving it stock? :cool:

hrmm my x800pro vivo modded to 16 pipes only has 1.32v. but this core also doesnt want to do more than around 510 after the mod and did 517 before.

I have seen some people on forums point out a certain resistory for the vmem mod to pencil in, but none have worked. I tried the exact resistor and it didn't change the voltage for the mem from 2.0v. Does anyone know which resistor to shade in for a vmem mod? Thanks.

If you read the guide, it clearly tells which resistor to outline...

that resistor doesn't work. if you would have read my post you clearly would have seen that. I was wondering if anyone knows the correct resistor to raise the voltage b/c that one does not work on my powercolor x800 pro vivo.

Have a look over here http://www.techpowerup.com/articles

I don't believe there is a working pencil vmem mod :(

Quote:

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Originally Posted by GregUMR

that resistor doesn't work. if you would have read my post you clearly would have seen that. I was wondering if anyone knows the correct resistor to raise the voltage b/c that one does not work on my powercolor x800 pro vivo.

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If you're sure you're looking at the right resistor, R1597, just draw on top of the resistor itself. I couldn't get mine done drawing on the PCB either. Same card Powercolor VIVO. Using an Alpha PAL HS, and slower Delta 80mm fan, I have mine @ 1.52v, for 560/580 very stable. :cool: Stays under 50C, so I might end up trying for more sometime. :D

Hey guys, what kinda voltage are ya using to get 600/600 ish clocks? I'm using 1.6v now, and still maxing out @ 580/590 stable. Not stock cooling, I'm using an Alpha cut down to fit, and more air than most folks would consider sane. ;) Temps are never higher than 52/35.

Whats igpu ?? vr-zone says 500k or 50k poti and Techpowersay 250k poti ???

how many pencil strokes for 1.4? 3-4 on the side or 3-4 on top?

With 1.6v I have been running 600x600 with the stock HSF.

3DMARK 05 X800PRO@600x600

I helped a friend of mine do the Pencil Mod and he got to 650 core with water cooling..then the Fooker got my ORB spot.. :stick:

I was glad to see it though since he is off to Boot camp (Navy Seals) a rather nice thing to have happen just before his life gets "FUN" :p:

http://www.freepichosting.com/Thumbs.../3/553/671.jpg

EDIT: This is a pic of the mem mod my friend tried last night..it did not go so well..his 2d is working OK but not 3-D..long story..I say he just corrupted his OS but he was leaving and didnt have time to Format.

http://www.freepichosting.com/Thumbs.../0/600/537.jpg

I've tested my stock voltage on my Sapphire XT-PE and it was only reading 3.86v, so I did use the pencil mod to actually get it up TO 1.4v....which actually yielded 10 or 15MHz on the core, but I have a question:

Is it supposed to take this long to get the voltage to go up from making the pencil marks or is my pencil bunk? I go back and forth about 7 times along the top and then make the side marks the same amount of times and it goes up by like .15v???

Just thought I'd like to throw in my input here, that the mod DOES work, but i seem to be doing something wrong....as it takes so bloody long to get anything to effect the voltage...and sometimes after penciling it a bit more the voltage goes down a touch. Must have something to do with my pencil...any ideas?

Cornelious, check out the pencil mod here

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Urlyin

Cornelious, check out the pencil mod here

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Well, I haven't been keeping people up to date, but I have already done the pencil mod to "toy" with the card a bit....and I'm waiting on my OCZ 520W right now so that I can actually have my cpu overclocked WITH the card....stupid drooping 12v. :(

But yeah, i got a kick out of when it listed off those safe voltages for different forms of cooling. Not only do a have numerous friends that run their (plain) Maze4 cooled XT-PE's at 1.8v at clocks of 660-680, but I actually got mine benchmarking just fine at 1.64v with the stock cooler.....630MHz core. I can't wait to get the Maze4 isntalled on the XT-PE next week and get it up to about 1.7-1.8v and see what she'll do.....I'm looking for 650+, which looks like it'll already be done. ;)

I hear ya Corn.... but to be honest, to tell someone to clock their card at those voltages just wouldn't be responsible :rolleyes: it's mostly for those who did the Pro VIVO to XT softmod and their card needed a little juice to make it stable .... I'm not one to advise people to vmod to the Xtreme with their new 450 to 600 dollar card :explode: ... nice OC on the Sapphire , was it a Xt PE from the start? What temps was that puppy hitting with the stock fan? Using the ATITool to crank up the fan to 100% helps ....

And I thought 1.55v on the core was pushing the limits.

I idi mine but didn't have a multimeter handy.. guess thats a lil dumb no xtreme LOL :stick:

Before: 580/550
After: 650/550

~Bob

Well, it has come down to the point where it's merely temps holding me back. The way I have come to this conclusion is by noticing that at 1.64v /w the card clocked at 636MHz I can bench fine.....but 640 is a no-go...and when Aquamark3 crashes to the desktop I get a quick glimpse of my GPU temp from ATITool....a massive 76C!!!!! That's a whole 40C higher then my idle temp. :eek:

Obviously that just won't do, and I'm predicting that adding the Maze4 in the next month (getting my case painted before adding the Maze4) should take me to 650 or so.....and then I'm gonna push for 675MHz or so with 1.8v or so in the end....should be fun. :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Cornelious0_0

Well, it has come down to the point where it's merely temps holding me back. The way I have come to this conclusion is by noticing that at 1.64v /w the card clocked at 636MHz I can bench fine.....but 640 is a no-go...and when Aquamark3 crashes to the desktop I get a quick glimpse of my GPU temp from ATITool....a massive 76C!!!!! That's a whole 40C higher then my idle temp. :eek:

Obviously that just won't do, and I'm predicting that adding the Maze4 in the next month (getting my case painted before adding the Maze4) should take me to 650 or so.....and then I'm gonna push for 675MHz or so with 1.8v or so in the end....should be fun. :D

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Corn... don't sweat the 76c temp, those GPU are rated to go as high as 125c and your safe at 76c. Worry at 90c... obviously it's not good long term to run your card that high if you want it to last awhile.. you may have just reached the top mhz for your card ...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Urlyin

Corn... don't sweat the 76c temp, those GPU are rated to go as high as 125c and your safe at 76c. Worry at 90c... obviously it's not good long term to run your card that high if you want it to last awhile.. you may have just reached the top mhz for your card ...

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I don't believe that it IS the top MHz actually....here's why:

With my multimeter hooked up I would be constantly be monitoring the voltage on the card as I ran Aquamark3 each time. I noticed that there are two points where the voltage dips the lowest, essentially when the fps is the lowest. If I had the card clocked too high at any given voltage it would lock up at either of those two points, and nowhere else. 636MHz @ 1.64v would clear the test just fine.....just 640MHz would lock up not at either of those two "low points" but about halfway through the test when the fps was at one of it's high points. This is what leads me to believe that it's temperature related...as when it would crash back to the desktop the card was still running at like 76C, which is MUCH higher then I had ever seen it before...and it's not to hard to believe that it just couldn't handle that clock rate anymore once the temp scaled that high.

I realise that there are technically certain temps that these cards are designed to handle...but I don't follow those temp guidelines at all. When I had my 6800GT, my overclocks became unstable at a MUCH lower temperature then most other ppl with the stock cooler, and when I got the NV5 I got another OC boost, because even though the temp wasn't that high...the card still didnt like it. I saw a lot of ppl running their 6800GT's at 80C+ load and still overclocked beyond Ultra levels, but mine did next to nothing for overclocking once it hit 70C, dont' ask me why.

I'll see how things work out when I get the Maze4 for the XT-PE, as the drastic temperature drop alone should give me a bit of a boost at 1.64v...and I will then have even more headroom to raise the voltage and scale the card even higher. I'll let you guys know how it turns out, but I'm not giving up yet. :D

hey guys i have a silly question... does it matter if you do the pencil mods while the comp is on? ...
probably.
does it matter if you're using a 2b or an HB pencil?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by sh33p

hey guys i have a silly question... does it matter if you do the pencil mods while the comp is on? ...
probably.
does it matter if you're using a 2b or an HB pencil?

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I would never DREAM of doing the pencil mod while the computer is running. Partially because the graphite is conductive, and if you accidently touch the wrong component with the pencil, or pencil to "wide" and make contact with something else, say bye bye to your card. I suppose you could do it with the card installed, but not with it running...it's just too risky IMO, and it's easily worth the few minutes of your time to shutdown the computer and take the card out to do things right. At least that way if you DO mess up you can erase the graphite and try again and you won't be left with a $400 paper-weight. ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by sh33p

hey guys i have a silly question... does it matter if you do the pencil mods while the comp is on? ...
probably.
does it matter if you're using a 2b or an HB pencil?

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Don't do the mod will the computer is on. Very bad idea. The 2b pencil should lay more graphite down, but I'd say either will work.

A big reason for NOT doing the mod with the computer running is that the graphite shaves off the pencil tip as you're grinding away.....and those're a lot of little conductive shavings that you don't want sitting on your card, one false breath and you could be out of luck. ;)

I got a good Pro VIVO which doing 580/600 after modding.

Hi Corn, I'm using Maze4 on it already, the core hit 666 with ~1.7V and can finish 3dmark05. Without maze4 I think the core will burn alive with a lot of pops and firework for sure :P

Use nature test in 3dmark01 for torture testing the core. My core dropped from 1.7V idle to 1.66V when looping nature. If it can pass nature (set test count to 100000, so that it loop non-stopply without the loading screen) for some hours, it can run everything.

For now i'm setting with ~1.6V and 636MHz core, happy enough for me already.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ahfung

I got a good Pro VIVO which doing 580/600 after modding.

Hi Corn, I'm using Maze4 on it already, the core hit 666 with ~1.7V and can finish 3dmark05. Without maze4 I think the core will burn alive with a lot of pops and firework for sure :P

Use nature test in 3dmark01 for torture testing the core. My core dropped from 1.7V idle to 1.66V when looping nature. If it can pass nature (set test count to 100000, so that it loop non-stopply without the loading screen) for some hours, it can run everything.

For now i'm setting with ~1.6V and 636MHz core, happy enough for me already.

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Cool, your clocks and voltages are actually fairly in line with mine.....at at 1.64v or so I hit 636MHz.....so I'm still hoping that with 1.75v I'll be able to do 675MHz. :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Cornelious0_0

Cool, your clocks and voltages are actually fairly in line with mine.....at at 1.64v or so I hit 636MHz.....so I'm still hoping that with 1.75v I'll be able to do 675MHz. :)

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A good PSU with a little overvolted 12V is need for high Vgpu, as it dips more at high MHz. Temperature is also an issue even for watercooling, and the memory and other components can get very hot in long run. Better get some active air cooling b4 considering more extreme voltage.

Good luck!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ahfung

A good PSU with a little overvolted 12V is need for high Vgpu, as it dips more at high MHz. Temperature is also an issue even for watercooling, and the memory and other components can get very hot in long run. Better get some active air cooling b4 considering more extreme voltage.

Good luck!

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Don't worry bro, I know full-well what I've gotta do to try and hit those kind of clocks.....and I've got it all covered except for the h2O on the XT-PE....which is coming this month. :p

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Cornelious0_0

A big reason for NOT doing the mod with the computer running is that the graphite shaves off the pencil tip as you're grinding away.....and those're a lot of little conductive shavings that you don't want sitting on your card, one false breath and you could be out of luck. ;)

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but then ... even if its off... and you accidently blow some around, there's still a possibility of shorting something?

daamn. now i'm scared.
not worried about killing the mobo just the card. i can't believe the card cost more than a new mobo and ram...
wouldn't mind a new mobo. =D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by sh33p

but then ... even if its off... and you accidently blow some around, there's still a possibility of shorting something?

daamn. now i'm scared.
not worried about killing the mobo just the card. i can't believe the card cost more than a new mobo and ram...
wouldn't mind a new mobo. =D

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Guy, with the small amount of shaving that are typically left behind you can EASILY blow it off without worrying about any being stuck on the card.....but yeah, you've gotta be comfortable with the concept of what you'd be doing first.

hi im new here so bear a lil with my n00bish questions...and also to share a lil progress working on my card.
anyway ive got a hisx800provivoiceqII and at stock bios it hits 505/575 atitool max core max mem.
i noe the core speeds aint impressive at all...
anyway im thinkin of openin up the xtra 4pl using the x800provivo 16pl bios ( any idea if this is jz a xtpe bios wif pro clocks? ive heard that this bios reads the card as a pro card too, this is better for my as i love the idea of having 16pl but still get my 3dmark as a pro card ) over at techpowerup.com using the modified flashrom.
and then i'll get going and do some pencil mod on the core and the mem.(anyone succeeded in doing the vdd mod? they have the link to the thread is posted in here already and it includes a very comprehensive guide to pencil mod the core and the mem voltages)...
im not quite into 24/7 running high clocks.. i may even get my card running at stock after all the benching... not going for watercooling either.. jz ripping off the cover of the ati silencer and getting a tornado sitting on it and having dual nidec 120's blowing at it... cooling the rams wif lil alu ramsinks too... if i manage to get the temps cool ( in a air conditioned room as its always hot here in malaysia) i may get some extreme voltages going thru the card.
....till i purchase a multimeter!