Trying to flash 9800 pro to xt

[Liquidus]

Hi, I have a 128mb Sapphire Radeon 9800 pro video card I bought in August 2004. It's no longer listed on newegg, but the customer review page is still there:

http://secure.newegg.com/app/CustratingReview.asp?DEPA=0&item=14-102-268

I want to flash it to xt, but the problem is I don't know whether I have the r350 or r360 core. I can't figure out how to get the heatsink off, theres two knob things that hold the heatsink to the card and I can't get them off. I tried messing with them and my fan stopped working 🙁 . (I was able to get a replacement). Is there a way I can check it without messing with the card. I also don't know how to figure out whether my card has 8 or 16 memory chips, Samsung or Hynix memory, and 2.5ns or 2.8ns. How do you figure out all those? Thanks for the help.

 

[angry_ducky]

Try Googling your card or downloading ATI Tool or CPU-Z.

As for how many memory chips the card has, just look at the card and count them. I'd attatch a picture of a card with the memory chips circled, but I don't know how to.[/img]

 

[Liquidus]

Well, according to ATItool 0.24, i have the r350 core. Just my luck 🙁 OH well, thanks for the help angry_ducky.

 

[angry_ducky]

OH well, thanks for the help angry_ducky.

You're welcome. Sorry it didn't work. You can still overclock it using ATI Tool, though. Just keep an eye on temperatures, and keep good airflow around the card. If need be, get some VRAM heatsinks and Arctic Silver.

 

[tenaciousleydead]

no atitool is wrong you have to open the heatsink and physically look at the number trust me i have a 9800PRO and ati read it as an r350 then i opened it and it was 360.

 

[tenaciousleydead]

o and 128Mb cards only have 8 memory chips.

 

[Liquidus]

Ok, I've taken a look at my radeon card and it does seem to have 8 memory chips (four on top and four on bottom at the same spot). On the memory chips it says

Hynix

HY50U283222A

F-28 436A

Does anyone know whether I can determine whether I can flash to XT WITHOUT taking off my heatsink? I'd rather not mess with my card physically if I don't have to, and if I do, do I have to buy new thermal grease? Buying thermal grease just to look at a card's core seems a bit of a pain.

I've been looking at these two guides for information:

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/101/1

http://forums.rojakpot.com/showthread.php?t=8340

According to the first guide, it says: If your board has 16 chips, it uses the R350 and cannot be transformed. But if it has 8 chips, it uses the new R360 core and can be changed to a Radeon 9800 XT with this tutorial.

Is this absolutely true? And what does PCB mean? Thanks for the help.

edit: If I do flash, do I have to change the voltage the card is getting? I have no idea how to do that. Also, a non-stock cooling solution in not necessary right? Since the 560 was made to run at XT speeds, technically is it not really overclocking?

 

[ChipDeath]

I honestly wouldn't bother. Just overclocking to XT speeds will basically give you XT performance.

My 9800Pro was a R360 core, but flashing it just made it go all fcuked up (flashed it back and it was fine though) so if you really must do this, I cannot overstress how important taking a back-up of your current BIOS is.

The HSF is quite easy to remove - game for a little while to warm the card up (the thermal stuff on them is a bit sticky, warming it should make it easier to remove), then remove the card and just squeeze the little plastic tabs on the back of the card together, and push them back through the card. Then carefully try to remove the HS. Those two little plastic things are the only thing holding the HS on, so if they're not getting in the way it's just going to be the thermal goop, and just carefully apply more and more pressure until it pops off.

You may as well buy a VGA silencer or something if you're going to remove the HSF. the stock HSF sucks on those.

 

[BadTrip]

PCB = Printed Circuit Board

 

[ChipDeath]

Well my Ti4600 has a massive HSF onto which I've bolted an 80mm fan... :tongue:

[/pointless one-upmanship]

 

[ChipDeath]

I remember having to hunt around to find the right one...

It worked, but gave nasty coloured blotches everywhere on the POST screen, so I never even bothered trying to boot into windows.

At a guess I would say the XT BIOS tightens RAM timings and does very little else, but I don't know that for sure of course 😀.

 

[tenaciousleydead]

hmm i forgot the program but you can loosen the timings or tighten to whatever you like. for bioses go to techpowerup.com (best place). its almost proven that flashing to xt core gains atleast a couple hundred points in 3dmark(dunno why). o and my 9800pro heatsink is a pain in the @SS to get off and it will randomley pop off. well good luck, Peace.

 

[aceprowler]

I flashed my old 9800pro to an xt a good year ago. It wasn't worth it, it's nice to do the flash just to say you did it. I sold mine on ebay a couple months later for close to the xt used price.

Anyhow, don't worry about the flash, you won't see the difference. Benchmarks yeah. JMO

 

[Liquidus]

thanks alot for the help, I've decided not to flash it since its too much hassle if it doesn't increase performance all that much. PLus i"ll eventually just buy a new card.