Enabling pipelines on 9600 non-pro

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Black_Cat

Black_Cat

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Jan 11, 2002
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I'm sorry if this has been asked before but after doing a search on the boards (as everyone should :smile: ) I couldn't find the answer to which I'm sure is a very old question. Is there any way to enable the disabled pixel pipelines in a Radeon 9600 non-pro? TIA.

Okay, brain. You don't like me, and I don't like you, but let's get through this thing and then I can continue killing you with beer. -- Homer Simpson.
 
There are no disabled pipelines in the 9600 GPU. The 9600 was designed ground-up with 4 pipelines. The only difference between 9600s and 9600 PROs is clockspeeds.

The 9500 non-pro is the GPU with 4 disabled pipelines. It's really a 9500 PRO gpu with 4 pipelines disabled.

You can enable these pipelines with special drivers (like the omegas) or by soldering/severing bridges on the GPU packaging:
http://www.duhvoodooman.com/9500mod/9500mod_1.htm

By the way, the 4 disabled pipelines have a high failure rate, and the consensus is that they don't work more than 50% of the time. So if you try the mod there is a good chance you will see horrendous artifacts (checkerboard patterns, etc.)

Basically, if the softmod works, it's worth it to hardware mod the card. But if the softmod doesn't work, the hardmod won't work either. So you're stuck with 4 pipes and good-old overclocking. :)


------------------
Radeon 9500 (modded to PRO w/8 pixel pipelines)
AMD AthlonXP 2000+
3dMark03: 3529
 
Hmmm. I was just reading <A HREF="http://www6.tomshardware.com/graphic/20030714/vga_card_guide-04.html" target="_new">this</A> and it states "In the non-PRO version of the card, ATi also chose to disable four of the eight pixel pipelines. Other than that, the chips were identical (~107 million transistors)." It also states "The advantage of the Radeon 9600 compared to its predecessor is its higher core frequency, which allows it to make up for the missing four pixel pipelines."

If indeed the 9600 non-pro does indeed have all 8 pipelines working, would it be a better idea to get a 9500 non-pro and try to mod it?

Okay, brain. You don't like me, and I don't like you, but let's get through this thing and then I can continue killing you with beer. -- Homer Simpson.
 
The article is written in a confusing way. The writer is talking about the 9500... not the 9600... when he is pointing out the disabled pipelines.

"In the non-PRO version of the card, (*** talking about the 9500 non-pro compared to the 9500 PRO*** )ATi also chose to disable four of the eight pixel pipelines. Other than that, the chips were identical (~107 million transistors) (*** the identical chips being the 9500 PRO and the 9500... and even the 9700 ***). As this was a very costly way to produce a budget chip, ATi has reduced the actual number of pipelines to four in the new design (*** the 9600 chip ***) in order to reduce the production costs of this 75 million 0.13µ chip."

The 9600 has 4 hardware pipelines and that's it, but higher clockspeeds.
You can buy a 9500 non-pro and try to mod it, but it's high risk, as the failure rate of the mod is so high.

Still, 9500 non-pros are great overclockers, so if the mod doesn't work I still think they are good budget directX9 cards.


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Radeon 9500 (modded to PRO w/8 pixel pipelines)
AMD AthlonXP 2000+
3dMark03: 3529
 
Thanks for clearing that up, Cleeve. Now I get it. Alright then I think what I'll do is get the 9500 and if we can do the mod then great. If not then I'll just overclock it.

Okay, brain. You don't like me, and I don't like you, but let's get through this thing and then I can continue killing you with beer. -- Homer Simpson.
 
Since your the "softmod guru" of the forum, I was wondering what difference hard-modding we do to a succesful softmod. If your hardmod, I think that would certainly void any type of warrenty. With a softmod, your board is unnafected. Does the hardmod offer any kind of a performance boost? To me, just seems that sticking with softmod would be the safest route.

Hey Black_Cat, if I remember correctly from a couple years back, your from Texas, right?

My OS features preemptive multitasking, a fully interactive command line, & support for 640K of RAM!
 
Your absolutely right UFO... hardmodding will definitely void the warranty. Softmodding is the safest route.

The only real advantage of hardmodding is the ability to use regular drivers. And the boasting rights that your budget card is recognized by the OS as a real 9500 PRO. :)

But since I plan to put heatsinks on my RAM, my warranty is void anyway... so it's worth it for me to hardmod just so I can use the regular drivers.

And mad cat... I forgot to mention: if you can find a 9500 non-pro with the memory in an "L" shape, it has a 256 bit memory bus, and will mod to a 9700! Some manufacturers used the 9700 circuitboard for their 9500 non-pros, and since the 9700 circuitboard has a 256 bit memory interface, these are the 9500 non-pros that are most prized. Even if they do not mod to a 9700, the 256 bit memory bus realy helps take advantage of overclocking gains.

------------------
Radeon 9500 (modded to PRO w/8 pixel pipelines)
AMD AthlonXP 2000+
3dMark03: 3529
 
Texas? Nah. I don't chew tobacco and wear a big hat. I'm from Jersey.

Okay, brain. You don't like me, and I don't like you, but let's get through this thing and then I can continue killing you with beer. -- Homer Simpson.
 
I'm thinking about getting a 9500. Do you have a quick link to the hardmod? (I probably should test with hacked drivers before hardmod'ing).

I like Omega's Drivers but I'm still using Win98SE and the 9500-->9700 hack hasn't been added to that version of the drivers. I'd prefer to continuew using the Omega Drivers if I can. That's why I would eventully need the hardmod.

<b>56K, slow and steady does not win the race on internet!</b>
 
LOL!

Not only am I too lazy to search for myself but I was too lazy to read the whole thread!

I'm not too worried about reversing it. Now that I see it again and have read the last paragraph,

<i>But that didn't slow several people down. Within a couple of days, reports surfaced that it wasn't even necessary to move the resistor. Merely shorting the 1 & 2 pins with the resistor left in it's original position would do the job. People reported using a solder bead or conductive glues & paints for this purpose. As these resourceful individuals dug into the situation further, it became evident that function of the resistor position was merely to determine how the card was identified by the drivers. So if this could be done with a hardware mod, could it be done in a different way with a software hack?? </i>

I now seem to recall that a pencil mod works so it would be easy to reverse.

The problem is if I end up with one of the cards that produces artifacts then I all I have is crappy 9500 that I can't return because I've popped the heatsink.

Time for more digging. I'm pretty sure there are other softmod's other than Omega Drivers, hopefull ones that work with Win98. All I need to do is test.

Question: For those cards that produce artifacts after modding, does a voltage mod cure the problem?

<b>56K, slow and steady does not win the race on internet!</b>
 
I'm not sure about the voltage thing but from what I've seen there is no way to guarantee the mod will work. Many have tried.

You might want to ask around the Rage3d.com forums.

------------------
Radeon 9500 (modded to PRO w/8 pixel pipelines)
AMD AthlonXP 2000+
3dMark03: 3529
 
i HAVE A 9500 NON PRO FOR SALE. Any takers?

These specs are here so I don't have to repeat them. P4 2.4c @ 3.0 ASUS P4P800 dx Geil pc4000 2.5,3,3,6 250FSB 1:1 Radeon 9500 non-pro 2 Maxtor 60gig 7200rpm 8mb cach in raid 0 SB Audigy 2
 
What is your offer? I might be interested in attempting a softmod. Which PCB does your board have? Also, what price are you willing to settle for? I want to keep at least one ATi card in my systems since I'm so dissapointed with Nvidia. (I'm not counting the Radeon 7500Cin my laptop because I don't think that can be upgraded.) Also, if you hav attempted a softmod, and it has failed, will you be willing to sell your card for cheaper?

My OS features preemptive multitasking, a fully interactive command line, & support for 640K of RAM!
 
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