Radeon 9800Pro 2 9800 XT Flash

[Ravilj]

I'm sure most of u know bout the bios's from 3dmaxx that does this? well this interested me so i set out 2 try myself...i suceeded! So if ur interested on how it was done or how 2 edit bios's or get an idea hav a look! And mayb u can help solve the problem with my bios and that from 3dmaxx!

Radeon 9800 Pro bios reflash to Radeon 9800 XT

[spaceman]

Very interesting stuff, just a bit over my head. I grabbed the BIOS that keeps the 9800 Pro IDs, Thanx much. I'll look back and see what progress you make on unraveling the drivers. BTW, what utility do you use for flashing it? Thanx.

[Ravilj]

flashrom can get it from the w1zzards OCfaq!

[Gothic]

is this worthwhile? 'cause i'm thinking that just editing my 9800p bios to Xt speeds would be so much safe and easy...

[spaceman]

Please pardon my ignorance, but exactly what do I need to type in once I'm in the flash utility? I've always been a little lost in the DOS environment. Thanx much.

[Ravilj]

ok pretty much you should have your boot disk and than another disk with flashrom (my preference) and the bios you want to use. Boot using the disk and than place the flash disk in.

Type
"Dir /w /p" - This will than show you whats on the disk and you can see what the name of the bios file is.

Type
"flashrom -i" - This will display all the adapter numbers, use this to check which adapter your radeon is, usually 0. (all instructions from now on use 0 as the adapter number).

Type
"flashrom -s 0 bios file.bin" - This will save your existing bios to the file name you specify. Good to keep a backup of it.

Type
"flashrom -p 0 bios file.bin" - This is where you specify the name of the bios you wish to flash your card with. From here the program will flash the card.

After it says xxx bytes verified than press CTRL+ALT+DEL to reset, dont use your reset button.

If for some reason there is a error message about not being able to flash the card or whatever you can force flash it.

Type
"flashrom -p 0 bios file.bin -f" - This will force flash the card with the bios. And again wait for xxx bytes to be verified and than use CTRL+ALT+DEL to reset.

[neokenzo]

Originally posted by Ravilj

After it says xxx bytes verified than press CTRL+ALT+DEL to reset, dont use your reset button.

What happens if you use the reset button?

[Ravilj]

not actually sure, when started reading up on it, all the sites gave warnings bout that...never tried...

[Ravilj]

Originally posted by Gothic
is this worthwhile? 'cause i'm thinking that just editing my 9800p bios to Xt speeds would be so much safe and easy...

No its not worth while its better to use a pro bios with editted clocks!

[neokenzo]

I must have missed the rest button thing big time. No wonder none of my flash works. Could that be the reason why?

[Ravilj]

quite possibly, there is a big difference between a warm boot (CTRL+ALT+DEL) and a cold reboot (reset key). Give it a go.

[Karnivore]

We've already proven a while back that this procedure is questionable at best, the slight gains a few folks saw could be marked off to any numbers of things.. If you do a bit of searching I believe you'll come acrossed 2 or 3 fairly indepth threads regarding this..

[Ket]

Pro to XT flash does work, most ppl gain 200pts or so - and thats constant, to be honest I wouldnt really bother unless your a performance freak, just edit the Pro BIOS to XT speeds, you wont see THAT much difference from the XT BIOS.

and for reference;

once flasrom has loaded type; Flashrom -p 0 filename.rom
and to save ur original BIOS first; Flashrom -s 0 original.rom

[neokenzo]

If I am not mistaken the 200 points is the only difference when flashing to XT. Nothing else changed much.

[glock19owner]

The 256 with DDR2 and using the XT PCB...those are real XT's just using a flashed Pro BIOS...these are the only cards that the Pro to XT flash mod actually works on...after the flash you would have a TRUE XT...

But it HAS to be a 256MB, 256 bit DDR2 (hynix) Pro using the XT PCB....they do make the 256MB 256bit Pro that uses DDR but still uses the XT PCB...these will NOT work when flashing to a XT...

And if using any other card besides the 256MB , DDR 2 w/XT PCB...then the 200 makrs is from the card running at 412/365...not from the actual BIOS...

I did this flash when it was first known on my 128...I actually get better scores when I reflashed to a Pro BIOS with the settings set at 412/365...

So if not runing the 256MB, 256 bit card with DDR2 Hynix and the XT PCB...its a total waste to flash to a XT BIOS...

[sobol]

glock19owner i wont agree with you.
I got Radeon 9800 NP and im using orginal bios but mod to 411/317 and im getting 5860 points in 3Dmark03 . After hex editing my current bios and changeing id values and names ( to R360 ) my card is recognized as Radeon 9800 XT. Then i bench and i get 6220 points in 3Dmark03 , so about 360 points gain. The problem is i get with XT bios strange artifacts in 3Dmark03 , theyre look like black window frames i get them in test 2 and 3. 3Dmark01 and games are artifacts free. My idea is that when drivers recognize card as xt it launch some features that are supported only by r360 core, ie z-buffer new version or something like this, and this feature also make i get more points in 3Dmark03.

Ravilj im interested in your opinion i used your post to edit my current bios.

Greetz

[Ravilj]

Its as you mentioned there, the drivers read the bios and see it as a R360 core and hence implement the procedures relating to the R360 core, the only way to correct this error is by hex editting the drivers but by doing this you would be shooting yourself in the foot since the only way I can see is to fool the drivers into treating the supposed R360 core (that it thinks it sees) as a R350 core. In this case the 200-300 points increase people see is lost.

When I have some free time, I will mod a stock pro bios to that with an 'XT' id and bench it and than do the same for a stock bios. I'll post the results here, than we can see since the clock speeds will be the same.

[sobol]

Okey , thx for replay.
For me PRO bios and same bios moded to XT ( changed ids ) give me 360 points incrase.

[sobol]

Okey ive worked it out , done with this puzzles.

Thats my theory based on facts:

When you change bios id to XT ,drivers recognize card as Radeon 9800 XT, they enable support for never version of Hierarchical Z ( R360 support it ).
When you run 3Dmark03 you get some missdisplaying coz R350 core is useing older implementation of Hierarchical Z, but you gains extra points. To get rid of missdisplaying with R350 to 360 mod you must disable Hierarchical Z.

3Dmark2003 ofcoz use Hierarchical Z ,and bench gains frames/points from its ussage.

When you total disable Hierachical Z 3Dmark2003 get lowest score.

And why only 3Dmark2003 have missdisplaying and other vid progz not ? coz probably only 3dmark2003 useing those Hierarchical Z procedures.


Now how ive found that all.
Radeon 9800 411/317 ( PRO BIOS ) - 5860 points
Radeon 9800 411/317 ( XT CHANGED ID IN BIOS ) - 6220 points
Radeon 9800 411/317 ( XT CHANGED ID IN BIOS ) with disabled Hierarchical Z ( used rTool ) - 5740 points
Radeon 9800 411/317 ( PRO BIOS ) with disabled Hierarchical Z ( used rTool ) - 5735 points

Conclusion. There is no sense to mod R350 to 360 to gains extra 300 points in 3Dmark03 , you will get your points but you will have missdisplaying. And another thing , nothing in real world will use Hierarchical Z procedures so you will have same fps. Only owners of Radeon 9800 PRO 256 MB with PCB same as XT will benefit with proper display.

[M4D]

Good post's guys, Most of it i understand, .

But,

I have a sapphire 9800 pro 128mb and i've tried loads of XT bios files but
none give me any improvement at all in any way to be honest and since all
the messing around with bios's XT and Pro i decided to just make a copy of the
original pro bios and change the clock's to XT speeds and flash that and it
seems to be running fine, .

I have the R360 core and samsung 8E "2.8ns ? I believe ?" memory which both run fine overclocked .
The highest i've had stable with various tools is 425.25 - 378.00 Which is ok but
i wanted more and so i've just volt modded the gpu and mem for a little extra juice,
i've got tweakmonster sinks and a vga silencer on the card and loads of 120mm fans
blowing in that direction, and it's seems ok "Cool enough" for now at 1.8 gpu and 2.8 mem
but before i change anything else i decided i want to get my hands on someone who is willing
to help me edit my original bios so that it shows up as an xt !!
I don't want to flash another xt bios i just want windows to detect it as an xt but i dont know
how to edit the bios properly to do that ? Any ideas ? or can someone do this for me ? .

Im not scamming someone or selling the card off as an xt or anything like that im not selling this for a long
time hopefully, I just want it like that, if you can understand .
It might even give me a nice big head when someone askes me if it's really an xt, . Come on you know what i mean, It's all bragging rights yes, !! ...

[sobol]

I can change it for you without problems.
Pm on private for place where to send your bios.

[Ravilj]

Yup agreed sobol.

[M4D]

Originally posted by sobol
I can change it for you without problems.
Pm on private for place where to send your bios.

Nice one mate, And thank you, You should also have a pm .

And heres my original bios i want editing ...

[sobol]

Okey modding done. Ive changed names and ids in bios. Also ive changed core/mem speed to 411/365.

About your bios, it had structure ( positions of values ) exacly same as XT bios but walues was from PRO/NP.

Greetz

[Ravilj]

I've created a monster... heh heh heh! sobol nicely done, glad people are benefitting from this!