9600XT vmem/vgpu and lack of power

[NST6563]

I've done the vmem and vgpu mods on my Sapphire 9600xt a couple weeks ago. Got my speeds to 630/745 with 1.35v to gpu and 2.95v to mem.

however, when I up the vgpu, I cannot clock the mem as high as before. For instance, if I up the vgpu to 1.45 or 1.5 (which gets me a nice solid 660 on the core) I can only clock the ram to around 340/350 (ddr would be 680/700).

is there a way to run a 3.3v line straight to the mosfets on the card so that it can pull the power it needs direct from the psu instead of loading the mb?

[funktional]

Cant you just give the RAM more voltage with your vmem mod? This happened on my card, too. Upping the vmem helped.

[NST6563]

well, when I try that I get artifacts on my ram if I go above 3.05v

[NST6563]

pic of my card in case this helps...
front....


back....


back without the text....

[skate2snow]

on www.unoid.net/9600PRO in the power modding, you will see something called the FDD mod, its exactly what youre asking for.

NOTE: if you have a PSU 3.3V rail mod, it wont work.

[NST6563]

yeah, I'm quite familiar with Unoid's site. Very good and informative...but hasn't been updated much since he received the 9600xt bios'.

I'd love to do the mod, and I don't have a 3.3v psu mod. However, if you take a second look at the pics of my card, it is a rev. 2.0 board and is missing all the components to make the fdd mod work.

If I had a list of those components , I could possibly order them and perform the mod by adding all the missing parts. It would be fairly tough and time consuming...but hey...what fun is modding if it's a 5 minute fix??

I've got an lm63 on order to add the thermal monitoring. However, I won't be adding it until I get the values of the missing caps/resistors that are around it. There's only a few, but it's getting the values that is the problem.

[L337 M33P]

I was thinking about doing an LM63 mod as well - but there are two patches where a chip could go - one has a standarc SOIC landing zone, the other has a more dense pin arrangement. What we really need is someone WITH thermal monitoring on their 9600XT to take a closeup pic and report the component values.

As for the 3.3V mod, have you checked to see what voltage is on the caps?

The GPU MOSFETs are the two little chips side by side at the top left of the picture above. Soldering a power line to the drain legs of the upper MOSFET (in circuit diagram, may not be same on the board!!!) should give you a boost - but you need to confirm which line voltage powers the GPU.

[NST6563]

this may help. I've been googling the idea for a couple weeks now. I have some pics and links I can post for you if you can make anything else out of them. This would be a kickass mod, and not all that hard to do IMO as long as we had the right parts (which I think is just the LM63 and surrounding resistors and caps).

EDIT: It looks as if the right part is an LM63CIMA. There are 3 or four versions of the LM63, all the ones I've seen that are related to the 9600xt are CIMA. And from the pics I've seen, it looks as if the chip is mounted on the larger set of contacts.

check these out...
www.computerbase.de

and some pics I've collected. When I've run across a site that has info on this, they all usually have the same pic... and none are very detailed...disappointing.

[L337 M33P]

Here's the bit where I say :eh?:

That pic you posted at the bottom is exactly the same design as mine, yet it has an LM63 - Sapphire obviously didn't get their heads screwed on right when ordering components for this card :p

I want one too!

[NST6563]

really? bummer. Mine's a Sapphire also...but a *slightly* different design. The only difference I see offhand (not by close inspection) is the area where the vgpu mod is done.

at least we have something to go by though. All we need is someone with that chip to take a macro shot of that area so the other components can be matched.

I'll see if I can find the source of that last pic. I'm pretty sure I grabbed it from a forum...either a thread on Xtreme or OCForums.

[NST6563]

I pm'd the person that had that photo of the lm63. Hopefully they can take and post a hi-res pic of the lm63 area.

I think I know what color codes of the smt caps are missing, but I don't know what value corresponds to them. They are all a shade of yellow. One is a darkish-brown yellow, the other a lighter color of yellow. One just looks like mustard.

[NST6563]

I took some voltage readings from those vr's you mentioned. check out the pic as to what they output.

Looks as if they both output the same thing. However I did notice that the legs that aren't even reading 1v (which should be the ground) have a voltage differential from the rest of the case...which I found odd.

however, if I measure the output pin to the gnd, I get 1.25v on BOTH regulators. but if I measure the vOut to the case gnd, I get a reading that is 1.86v on one vr and 1.5v on the other.

[L337 M33P]

Oops, not those :S

On the other side of the card, directly underneath/on top of where the GPU controller is there are 2 8-pin packages that are most likely the GPU MOSFETs. You should read the voltages from these, but MAKE SURE YOU DON'T SHORT THE PINS!!!

[NST6563]

oh...haha...oops...

That'll be a little more difficult to measure in the case...I'll see what I can do though

thanks.

as far as the lm63, I think all that is needed besides that chip are 3 caps. which I'll be getting the values of fairly soon.

[skate2snow]

where is the GPU controller? and is that for the 9600PRO too(the voltage reading)?

[NST6563]

the reading for vgpu should be the same spot for both 9600pros and XTs.

look at my pic of the back of the card with the labels, where it says "VGPU ISL6522CB pins 5 & 7" with the green arrow pointing to the IC...that's the controller for the gpu.

[skate2snow]

Im so sad, when i try to read on the 3 points i dont get anything(anymore) i hope i didnt fry my board!

[NST6563]

for vgpu, I use the set of points closest to my 10k pot in the picture above.

If you're getting video, but aren't reading anything from those points...I'm not sure what to tell you other than make sure you're reading them right. If the card still works, you prolly didn't fry it.

double check unoid's site, he has a lot of pics of 9600pros. www.unoid.net

[skate2snow]

Its becoze i dont know if i have video or no...LOL. I dont have my CPU yet, so i cant check. I will have my CPU in 2 days. If its dead i will go check for a 9800XT, i have found one for 600$ CND, 375$ US. Good price. But i still hope i didnt fry anything.

[NST6563]

sux man. well, either way, you'll be very happy with a 9800 card. runs circles around the 9600xt...but since I didn't have the money for a 9800 card, I got the 9600xt...and man...it's fun to tweak

don't think I've ever had a card that was this much fun to mod and overclock.

hell, once I took out my sblive and went with the onboard sound on my p4p800-d, my framerates increased a BUNCH! I could actually play Splinter Cell at 1600x1200 with all the eye candy turned on, 2xaa, 16xaf. Now the live lives in a box

[skate2snow]

The problem, is i dont have the money for a 9800XT. But instead of buying a new card that performs not better....

[NST6563]

well, glad I'm not the only one that doesn't have the money for the high end cards

I hope you didn't fry it though...the 9600xt is so fun to mod and overclock.

[skate2snow]

the 9600PRO too!!!! I love this card. And ive said(to me) that i dont whant to spend more money on this gen, and wait the Tejas, R423=AMAZING!!!!!(if its as good that i think it will)

[NST6563]

FYI:!!!

I found the values of the capacitors that are needed. ther are as follows:

2 caps are connected near pin 1 with the values of 100pf and .1uf.
1 cap is between pins 2 and three with the value of 2.2nf.

see diagram below.
I'll be doing this mod as soon as my caps come in!!!!

[L337 M33P]

Those values on the datasheet are designed to be used with the Pentium 4's internal diode. I think the behaviour of the diode in the 9600XT GPU may be different and so using the default values of caps and resistors may give you different readings.

I thought you needed the transistor and extra resistor but it seems that you don't as it's a PWM controller. I have my fan on full all the time, which by the way I modded

I also have some more high-res pics for you to figure out what goes where as you can see the PCB traces in them. Yell if you want them, I will create a gallery of them.