ATI X1900/X1950 Driver Modding Guide.

[Kunaak]

This is a Guide for those with X1950's that want to try benchmarking with Earlier ATI Drivers that supported the X1900 cards.

OR:

People with X1900 cards, that want to try the X1950 driver, to see if thats a more optimized driver, then the standard X1900 driver.

Tested with Catalyst 6.9 Beta.

start in Device Manager, Right click on my computer > properties > hardware > device manager.



Update driver. this works best if you update a driver, while you already have a driver installed, and pay attention to what driver your installing, cause theres 2 parts to this. the main driver, then the secondary.
start with the main.
when done, repeat for the secondary driver.



dont let windows auto install anything.
this mod, is completly manual.



again, dont let it install anything automatically, it will defeat the purpose of this mod. choose the lower option.



don't let it search for a driver, you must guide it to the driver, which is what I am getting to.

[Kunaak]

its going to tell you what hardware you have thats compatible with the driver. ignore this. click on the box in the lower right that says "Have Disk".



this will come up next, from here, browse to your ATI driver directory.



go to your ATI directory where your driver was originally installed.



find the file called "driver", in the ATI directory.



find the C2 or CX files, either one will do fine. I use the C2 file myself.

[Kunaak]

now you have the proper directory selected, just click "ok" now.



in the list that comes up, find a suitable driver to install.
in this case, look for a X1900 driver if you have a X1950 and want to try early drivers, like catalyst 6.6 or so.

or if your working the other way, and have a X1900 card, and want to try a X1950 driver to try to see if the driver was optimized at all for it, find the X1950 part of the driver.

NOTE: this is where you need to remember what part of the driver your installing, the Main or the Secondary.
getting this backwards may screw things up visually.



this warning will come up. just say Ok.

of course, any modding you do, is always your risk to take.
no ones making you do this, so if you screw up anything, it's your fault to take and no one elses. no one made you try this.



when successful this is the final screen you will see, then it will ask you to reboot. reboot like normal and you should be just fine.

the X1950 and X1900 are sooooo similar, that theres little to no risk in this kinda mod, other then a chance the driver will be screwed up in some way.
driver modding is a experiment, and should be treated as such, so dont be surprised if somethings not quite right.



and heres the mod half done...

both X1900 driver installed for the main, and X1950 driver installed for the secondary.
this is the half way point.
redo all this for the secondary driver as well, and all will be like normal.

well, as much as normal can be, when making things do things they were never meant to do



For anyone that remembers, I made a guide like this a few years ago for the 5900 NU, which was nearly the same.
I did this mod with the X1950 to see how it would work with a X1900 driver, and so far, with catalyst 6.9 beta, I am finding the driver for the X1900 slower then the default X1950 driver.

sometimes when doing simple driver mods like this, you can find some real nice secrets, sometimes... you get nothing.
so it's always trial and error, sometimes it can pay off nice, sometimes not.

should the driver be completly uncompatible, all you do is reboot, hit F8, enable VGA mode, and uninstall the driver like normal.
thats all.

[Kunaak]

oops, it appears I was using catalyst 6.8.
I got alittle mixed up, I been messing with the catalyst 6.9 beta for Oblivion lately...

[fhpchris]

What are you using to overclock?

I settled on ATI tool to set voltages and LOD, and using ATI tray tools for VGPU and clocks using Overdrive3

Winclk and ATI Overclocker do not start correctly for me, and Rivatuner does not give me the option of changing clocks...

ATI tool beta 16 release 3 and 4 both do not work properly....
Just setting 1005 on the ram can crash or artifact at the desktop

I wish a working ATI tool was here, I dont want to mod the bios each time I want to change 3d clockspeeds...

[fhpchris]

nvm

[Kunaak]

yay... my thread got hijacked...

[G H Z]

Great guide, used this method on VIA chipset installs way back. Hey Kunaak does this change the way ATI Tool detects and overclocks 1950 at all?

[ent]

nice trick, so simple

great work Kunaak

[SIOUX]

Nice Kunnak But i dont get it 100% . If i have 6.10 installed, and wonna go with 6.2 instead, i dont see how to do that, when the driver needs to be installed first to do this?? (thinking of "go to the place where the ati drive is installed" thing)

[ownage]

I cant load the x1950 driver for my x1900gt, the x1950 doesn't even show up in the list. I tried 6.8 and 6.9.

[Kunaak]

ah, well... I guess I need to make this alittle clearer.

you can't extract a ATI driver, without "Almost" installing it.

so take the driver you want to mod, and click on install.
what happens next is it will extract all the files to the ATI file in your program files.
then when it says what card you have and you want to install and all that, just click cancel. then all the needed stuff is extracted.
then you just do the guide from the start.

getting the files extracted is what I should have said.

so say you want to install catalyst 6.2 using a X1950XTX.
then you let the ATI driver extract all the files to the ATI Driver folder, but cancel the install when it asks you what you want to do next.
it will say are you sure and all that, just say yes.
from there, do the guide like normal.

you dont have the install a driver, but you do have to get the file extracted to be able to do this.

as for the X1950...

Only Catalyst 6.8 Beta, 6.9 Beta, and I think 6.10 Beta have the X1950 in thier driver.
theres no Official ATI driver that supports the X1950 yet.
so use the Beta drivers.

[SIOUX]

ah ok..yes i see what you mean now...thanks

[specv]

how is this a mod? to be clear you are just selecting an older driver, i would hope with the talent on this site people would already know how to do this

good tut nonetheless

[Kunaak]

do I really have to explain to you why this would be a mod?
this isn't beginner 101 is it?

[ownage]

My x1900GT runs now with the x1950 drivers, but it completely freaks out with OC'ing.
On stock no performance gain eather, but this mod can be very usefull.
The reason i used this mod is because the GTrev2 hasnt voltage control and i cant tweak timings with Atitool. (x1950 driver didn't make a difference)
Thnx for this mod Kunaak

[pinto]

Kunaak do you think that i could oc my x1950 crossfire with earlier driver than 6.10beta because with those overdrive doesn't work at all atitool to.

[chefnr1]

i did this driver mod with cat 6.5 and now my card show up as a x1900 series hehe, then i could post it like a x1900xtx thats no meaning with that, does'nt it go mod so the card will be as a x1950 as it is with older driver???

[Kunaak]

if you want the X1900 Driver to be read as a X1950 driver, then edit the INF file.

just open it up with notepad, find the X1900 you intend to use, and rename it X1950, save it... and then install from the one you modded.

you can rename it anything you like.

call it "Chefnr1's X19,000 XXX" if you want... call it anything you want.

[chefnr1]

if you want the X1900 Driver to be read as a X1950 driver, then edit the INF file.

just open it up with notepad, find the X1900 you intend to use, and rename it X1950, save it... and then install from the one you modded.

you can rename it anything you like.

call it "Chefnr1's X19,000 XXX" if you want... call it anything you want.

Haha ok thanks will do that