Sapphire X800 GTO AGP pipe unlock

[dolf]

no no i have a x800gto with R430core

The software reads R430 but probably under the cooler is hiden R480 beast ;) . Overclock of 580MHz is absolutely imposible for R430. The only way to be 100% sure is to look the core with you eyes.

[dolf]

Ok so before i go and screw up my card can someone verify that im unlockable.

My fuses all show the same as others posted on here with the exception of the substrate fuse setting reads 0xFFFFF instead of the 0xFFF9F everyone elses seems to read.

Also attached is my Bios File

Oh yeah forgot to mention its a sapphire X800GTO

http://img.techpowerup.org/060607/tool_pic910.jpg

Go to post N152 of that thread and download the utility and the instructions.

Good luck

[dolf]

My friend the accuracy of the clocks (memory and core) is not so high that you want. If you find your max. core and memory it doesn't mean that you have to work at them. For the core is acceptable 10 MHz less than the max. for the memory 10-15MHz less than the max ;) .
All that means that 420MHz for your R430 is absolutely enough.

[dolf]

Ok so what I need to do is ask you to adjust the bios down to 420gpu/540mem and all is said and done. And I will reflash the bios one last time and be happy :) If you could create another ISO with those speeds it would be most appreciated.my email is maestro_mark@yahoo.com
Maestro

I will but you have to wait a litle :) .

[Maestro]

I will but you have to wait a litle :) .No problem take your time and thank you! :toast:

Maestro

[dolf]

Maestro, please look the top-front side of your card. There should be printed on the PCB a Part Number. (Something like that: PN xxx-xxxxxx-xx). I want to know that PCB PN for your card?

[Maestro]

Maestro, please look the top-front side of your card. There should be printed on the PCB a Part Number. (Something like that: PN xxx-xxxxxx-xx). I want to know that PCB PN for your card?

Here is what I found

(PN 1024-CC66-00-SA) I found this on the back of the card.. I looked all over the card and that is only thing I found closely resembling what you asked for.

Is that what you are looking for?

Maestro

PS. If you can make the card 425/535 that would be awesome as well thanks in advance.

PS:It said on the card (Radeon X800GTO AGP 256 V/D/VO) The Card is a Sapphire X800GTO stock speed settings are 400/490 and is and was flashed 16p successfully and fully recognized by ATItool .24

PS. Sorry it took me so long was taking care of a errand...

[dolf]

Thanks I needed that. (I will update the flash instructions file to avoid mistakes). If you have digital camera please take two pictures (max. possible resolution) and send it to me. If you haven't just compare the photos from the .pdf instructions hosted in post N152 and tell me whether your card looks like that on the picture?

Finally what is the color of the card? (red or blue)
Thanks in advance

[groovy247]

Hey all,
I checked and I d have the right core. I looked at the guide and I tried to make a bootable floppy but for some reason I just can not get it to work. Can someone please send me that .iso file for a bootable cd? It would be much appreciated. My e-mail is nerdherd247@aol.com Thanks again for all your help!

[bretts31344]

I have a X800 GTO AGP with the R430 core. I am posting the picture of ATI Tool with the fuses (I think thats what it's called), and attaching my cards BIOS.

http://img.techpowerup.org/060608/ATItool.jpg

I would just like to know if my card can unlock the extra pipes. Please tell me if I need to post more info about the card. Any help is greatly appreciated.

[groovy247]

I do believe it can.

[bretts31344]

I do believe it can.

Cool, so what BIOS should I flash it to? Thanks again.

EDIT: I already flashed it. THANKS TPU!

[dolf]

The Card is Red but post N152 not sure I understand what you mean? Could you put up linkage to it and instantly I could tell you.

Maestro

Post N152 means that you have to go back in this thread (the post number is indicated in the right-top corner of every post) to post N152. For example the current post has N #266. To be exact page 16 of the current thread.

[Maestro]

Thanks I needed that. (I will update the flash instructions file to avoid mistakes). If you have digital camera please take two pictures (max. possible resolution) and send it to me. If you haven't just compare the photos from the .pdf instructions hosted in post N152 and tell me whether your card looks like that on the picture?

Finally what is the color of the card? (red or blue)
Thanks in advanceLooked at the PDF and the pictures are EXACTLY the SAME :D Everything front and back is the same.. Hope that helps some more! Sorry I did not understand what you intially meant by post 152 :P

Maestro

[dolf]

Sorry I have made a mistake talking about post N152 and so on :) .

Thanks for the replay. That information could help to somebody else not to me that's why it is even more important to have it.

[Maestro]

Sorry I have made a mistake talking about post N152 and so on :) .

Thanks for the replay. That information could help to somebody else not to me that's why it is even more important to have it.

Thank you for all your help and guidance!

Maestro

[xing]

Hi all, I bought a Saphire X800 GTO AGP 256 MB Retail from Newegg. My card is a little bit different from the one in dolf's instruction because that one is an OEM version. I'm not sure if it's safe to use dolf's package to get 16 pipes. Any advice will be appreciated. Here is what I got from ATI tool:

[dolf]

Hi all, I bought a Saphire X800 GTO AGP 256 MB Retail from Newegg. My card is a little bit different from the one in dolf's instruction because that one is an OEM version. I'm not sure if it's safe to use dolf's package to get 16 pipes. Any advice will be appreciated. Here is what I got from ATI tool:

If you are not sure just give me your BIOS to compare it with the one in the utility or return to post N152 from the current thread and download the utility and the instructions. Open your current BIOS with RaBit 1.7 or later and go to "Logging" section scrool down and search for:
Desc: RADEON X800 GTO
Info: 11X-CC6600SA-004, CC6600SA.004, 01/20/05,14:19:32

If your current BIOS has the same description use the automated utility without any doubts :) . If the BIOS has different description let me know :) .

[xing]

Dolf, Thank you so much. I'll go check it and let you know the result later. Have a good weekend!

[xing]

Hi, dolf, it works!!! Thank you so much! I can enjoy my weekend now.

[quinnyh]

I got a new card back from newegg.."SAPPHIRE 100131L Radeon X800GTO 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 AGP 4X/8X Video Card - Retail" version. It's red btw.

As best I can tell, etched onto the core was;

R430

215R R or a B baka1f

N16249.00

050aay

a sticker on the back read;

1024cc6600sa

11066-02


I found RaBiT 2.0 and attached the info found under logging.

Everything looks like it does in the file on n152 and my atitool info matches Xing's posted thumbnails as well.

I don't see anything like the " Desc: RADEON X800 GTO
Info: 11X-CC6600SA-004, CC6600SA.004, 01/20/05,14:19:32" that dolf mentioned in that rabit info but I could be looking in the wrong spot.

Any advice on what I should do? I've got the flash utility and the last time I tried this, I used the bios from this link;
http://www.techpowerup.com/articles//overclocking/vidcard/127/2

I'm guessing that was the wrong bios. Anyways, any help from anyone would be appreciated. I've got tonight n tommorow off and would like to enjoy the 16 pipes if possible. I doubt Newegg will rma me another card if I screw this one up too so I'm worried about doing this on my own. Thanks folks :)

Edit: I found more bios info under the ati control center;

Graphics Card Manufacturer Powered by ATI
Graphics Chipset RADEON X800 GTO
Device ID 554F
Vendor 1002
Subsystem ID 1600
Subsystem Vendor ID 174B
Bus Type AGP
Current Bus Setting AGP 8X
BIOS Version 009.008.001.004
BIOS Part Number 11X-CC6600SA-004
BIOS Date 2005/01/20
Memory Size 256 MB
Memory Type DDR3
Core Clock in MHz 398 MHz
Memory Clock in MHz 493 MHz
Primary Display Yes

[dolf]

Dude the BIOS in the link is for PCI-E card and you flash it to AGP card with Realto bridge. That's why RMA should not be accepted (but you succeed fortunately). My advice always is just read BEFORE to flash. The new card has the same BIOS like that in the utility. Flash it using the automated utility. The BIOS has the same number by reason of that problems are not expected ;) .

[quinnyh]

Dude the BIOS in the link is for PCI-E card and you flash it to AGP card with Realto bridge. That's why RMA should not be accepted (but you succeed fortunately). My advice always is just read BEFORE to flash. The new card has the same BIOS like that in the utility. Flash it using the automated utility. The BIOS has the same number by reason of that problems are not expected ;) .

and that is why I'll never claim to be anything close to being intelligent :)

I burned the iso and flashed and wonder behold, it worked. Using the right bios is apprently a miracle. I do have a question or two though now. Is it safe to use the O/C bios under the 16 pipe unlock option in the lil utility now too? I put an arctic silencer onto the card before I installed it. Is there anyway the atitool can control the speed of the new fan for when the card is being pushed? and for my dumbest question, how can I find out the temp the card is running?

Thank you for the bottom of my black greedy heart, dolf and others :) so far this had made my week.

[dolf]

Use ATITool to find max overclock for the core and the memory. You can flash BIOS which have clocks as follows:
10MHz less than the max. for the core and 10-15MHz less than the max. for the memory. Test tha max. clocks for app. 1 hour just to be sure that they are stable.
If you meet the above you can use the OC BIOS in the utility. I also have other revision of the utility with 420/540MHz. If you want more MHz on the memory let me know.

For the temp. monitoring use the latest version of RivaTuner 15.8 or ATITool.

[quinnyh]

Use ATITool to find max overclock for the core and the memory. You can flash BIOS which have clocks as follows:
10MHz less than the max. for the core and 10-15MHz less than the max. for the memory. Test tha max. clocks for app. 1 hour just to be sure that they are stable.
If you meet the above you can use the OC BIOS in the utility. I also have other revision of the utility with 420/540MHz. If you want more MHz on the memory let me know.

For the temp. monitoring use the latest version of RivaTuner 15.8 or ATITool.

I used the atitool to find the max core...I think. I started the test and came back 7 minutes later to a dead screen. Rebooted and atitool said it had crashed and the last working freq was Core 450.69 and mem 492.23

I've looked through atitool n riva n to my shame I don't see any temp/fan controls. Can you possibly be as blunt as possible and tell me where they are..my cave man brain isn't working well this morning :)

Btw..thank you again for all you're help :)

[mark11211]

i have a sapphire x800 gto 256mb AGP, ati tool , ati flash and attached is a veiw of my fuse's.

Now what do i need to do?

reynolds121@msn.com

[dolf]

See post N268 of that thread (use RaBit 1.7) and after that go to post N152, download what is hosted there, read the instructions and have nice weekend with 16 pipes :) .

[mark11211]

Cheers Dolf, and a big thank you to all concerned! I now have 16 pipes and FLYING.


mark

[GTGear]

Hi, I just bought a Sapphire Radeon X800GTO 100131L and I would like to know can mine be unlocked as well.

http://img.techpowerup.org/060610/X800961.jpg

And if so, How would I go about doing this? My email is GTGear@Gmail.com. Thanks!

[dolf]

You can unlock to 16 pipes just read post #277 (above) and proceed further :) .

[GTGear]

You can unlock to 16 pipes just read post #277 (above) and proceed further :) .

I understood that part about going up to read post #277 but this just lost me.

See post N268 of that thread (use RaBit 1.7) and after that go to post N152, download what is hosted there, read the instructions and have nice weekend with 16 pipes

That part just lost me..Sorry my english isn't that great..

[Shohan]

Has anyone had any problems OC'ing their Sapphire X800GTO AGP after unlocking the 16 pipes? I've got the R430 core according to ATITool, but I can't get anything out of my card. I've got the card at 395/490 stock, but if I try to bring it up to 400/490 I get all types of artifacts. Also, if I leave the core at 395 and raise the memory I can get up to 508 before I start to get artifacts.

Is this a heat problem? After using ATITool and 'Scanning for Artifacts' for 3 minutes temps peak at 59C. I'm not sure if this is a reliable measure of temps under load though. Anyone have any suggestions?

[GTGear]

Well, I just unlocked the 16 pipes on my X800GTO. Thanks! Also, does anyone know a safe overclocking speed for this videocard?

[dolf]

I understood that part about going up to read post #277 but this just lost me.



That part just lost me..Sorry my english isn't that great..

Look the N268 post shows how to check your own (original) BIOS whether it is the same like in the utility. Post N152 hosts the needed tools ;) .

[GTGear]

Look the N268 post shows how to check your own (original) BIOS whether it is the same like in the utility. Post N152 hosts the needed tools ;) .

Thanks, yesterday I finally got what you had said and unlocked my videocard to 16 pipes:) I'm too nervous to overclock it though. Can you recommend me soem good speeds?

[atom069]

Has anyone had any problems OC'ing their Sapphire X800GTO AGP after unlocking the 16 pipes? I've got the R430 core according to ATITool, but I can't get anything out of my card. I've got the card at 395/490 stock, but if I try to bring it up to 400/490 I get all types of artifacts. Also, if I leave the core at 395 and raise the memory I can get up to 508 before I start to get artifacts.

Is this a heat problem? After using ATITool and 'Scanning for Artifacts' for 3 minutes temps peak at 59C. I'm not sure if this is a reliable measure of temps under load though. Anyone have any suggestions?


sorry dude you got a bunk card get RMA mine rocks out

[mmx]

Has anyone had any problems OC'ing their Sapphire X800GTO AGP after unlocking the 16 pipes? I've got the R430 core according to ATITool, but I can't get anything out of my card. I've got the card at 395/490 stock, but if I try to bring it up to 400/490 I get all types of artifacts. Also, if I leave the core at 395 and raise the memory I can get up to 508 before I start to get artifacts.

Is this a heat problem? After using ATITool and 'Scanning for Artifacts' for 3 minutes temps peak at 59C. I'm not sure if this is a reliable measure of temps under load though. Anyone have any suggestions?
Maybe one or more pipes are broken and when you unlock them, then the artifacts appear.
Or maybe your PSU is poor, post your computer spects.

[Shohan]

Maybe one or more pipes are broken and when you unlock them, then the artifacts appear.
Or maybe your PSU is poor, post your computer spects.

CPU...P4 2.4GHz @ 166 x 18 1.5375v 2.99GHz
M/B...AOpen AX4SPE MaxII
HSF...Zalman CNPS7000-Cu
MEM...2x 1GB G.Skill DDR500 F1-4000usu2-2gbhz @ 415MHz 2.5-3-3-7
GPU...Sapphire X800 GTO 256MB AGP @ 16pp @ 395/980
SND...Sound Blaster Audigy Platinum
PSU...Antec 400W

[mmx]

CPU...P4 2.4GHz @ 166 x 18 1.5375v 2.99GHz
M/B...AOpen AX4SPE MaxII
HSF...Zalman CNPS7000-Cu
MEM...2x 1GB G.Skill DDR500 F1-4000usu2-2gbhz @ 415MHz 2.5-3-3-7
GPU...Sapphire X800 GTO 256MB AGP @ 16pp @ 395/980
SND...Sound Blaster Audigy Platinum
PSU...Antec 400W
PSU seems to be ok, the only thing i can think now is there must be one o more broken pipes, and thats why they war locked.
Whit 12 pipes how far could you overclock??

[Canibal]

Hi,

I have a Sapphire X800 GTO 256M GDDR3 PCI-e with 12 pipes. Dolf or anything can help me to update my bios to 16 pipes? Thanks for advanced, i appreciate your help.

I attach screenshot of ATITOOL and Bios write with ATIWinflash.

My path number is: 11X-BC6000SA-001.

[fishingeek]

Hey guys great post going here. I will flash when my card gets here Tues...


Thanks for the help! :toast:

Geek

[Shohan]

PSU seems to be ok, the only thing i can think now is there must be one o more broken pipes, and thats why they war locked.
Whit 12 pipes how far could you overclock??

I actually never tried to OC it before I unlocked the pipes. Just ran 3DMark03 for score a few times, played some games to test it out, then the next day I unlocked the pipes and tried a bit of OC'ing.

It's a bit disappointing that I can't OC very much, but atleast I was able to unlock the pipes. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe I'd see more of a performance boost from unlocking the pipes then just being able to OC correct? 3DMark03 Score: (12pp @ stock) 9100 (16pp @ stock) 10100 (GF4 TI4600 @ stock) 2100 :laugh:

[mmx]

Hi,

I have a Sapphire X800 GTO 256M GDDR3 PCI-e with 12 pipes. Dolf or anything can help me to update my bios to 16 pipes? Thanks for advanced, i appreciate your help.

I attach screenshot of ATITOOL and Bios write with ATIWinflash.

My path number is: 11X-BC6000SA-001.
here is your 16 pipes mod bios
use atiflash -p 0(zero) -newbios bios16.bin

[quinnyh]

hiya gang. I'd like to bug someone smarter then me for help here with the sapphire. I unlocked the pipes with Dolf's help and now I'd like to O/C it abit. I ran atitool's core check and it crashed out. Rebooting the pc gave me a message saying the last good results were 450 core and 492 mem. I ran a mem test and started getting artifacts between 575 and 583. For some reason I can't get atitool to show me the card's temp, but using Riva shows the card running at 31c normally and up to 47 playing Gal Civ 2. I have an arctic silencer on the card, but can't seem to find a way in atitool or riva to set the fan speed to go higher at different temps.

Any ideas on how high I can safely take the card or would it be simpler to use Dolf's O/C bios on his utility Cd? Any input is greatly appreciated.

[mark11211]

2006-06-12 15:37:39 ATITool v0.25 Beta 14 started.
2006-06-12 15:37:40 D Successfully connected to driver, version 124
2006-06-12 15:37:40 D Found ATI device: 0x1002 0x554F bus 1 dev 0
2006-06-12 15:37:40 D fbPhy: 0xE0000000, mmrPhy: 0xF1000000.
2006-06-12 15:37:40 D mmapped mmr to 0x13F0000
2006-06-12 15:37:40 D BIOS at 0xC0000
2006-06-12 15:37:40 D mmapped bios to 0x1400000
2006-06-12 15:37:42 D LM63 temp chip detection: failed (0x23)
2006-06-12 15:37:42 D F75373 temp chip detection: failed (I2C)
2006-06-12 15:37:42 D Temperature monitoring: Not detected
2006-06-12 15:37:42 D Device initialized successfully

I am getting higher temperature reading on my system since i installed my x800gto agp on Saturday. When i look at the log file on ATI tool this is what it says: see above do you think this could be the reason my temps are rising. My system is:- Abit IC-7G mobo, 3.2ghz P4 skt478, Arctic Cooling Super Silent 4 Ultra, 4x512mb DDR400, Hiper R-Type 480watt and Sapphire x800GTO 256mb AGP.:confused: :(

[cornellfOo]

just wanted to say thanks in advance to everyone helping in the thread. :respect: i am getting my x800GTO from newegg this week and will no doubt be posting for help w/ the flash (i have the worst luck w/ my computers...) :D

[KoncreteAngel]

Use atiflash. The proper command to flash(that will always work) is

atiflash -newbios -p -f 0 yourbios.bin
(If you do not include all of those commands it gives you a possiblity of a bad flash)

make sure to back up your old bios and follow the instructions for setting up a atiflash boot disk.

[666terrorist]

I have an sapphire x800 gto agp 256 MB with the F's in the settings.
Could i get the utility to change my pipes to 16 as well?
My email is alberticek@centrum.cz
thanks a lot

[666terrorist]

I have an sapphire x800 gto agp 256 MB with the F's in the settings.
Could i get the utility to change my pipes to 16 as well?
My email is alberticek@centrum.cz
thanks a lot
here is bios of my agp x800 gto card, sory guys im just a noob

[dolf]

I have an sapphire x800 gto agp 256 MB with the F's in the settings.
Could i get the utility to change my pipes to 16 as well?
My email is alberticek@centrum.cz
thanks a lot
here is bios of my agp x800 gto card, sory guys im just a noob


Return to post N152 and download the utility. You have the same BIOS (like in the utility) and can flash without any worry ;) .

[666terrorist]

Thank you Dolf, it works well- 16 pipelines unloked

[666terrorist]

3dmark 05 4948points, that is not bad thanks again

[KoncreteAngel]

3dmark 05 4948points, that is not bad thanks again

Not good, I got over 6.5k on my unlocked gto.

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm05=2057644

[dolf]

Not good, I got over 6.5k on my unlocked gto.

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm05=2057644

It is better to mention that you compare R480 GTO (520-600 plus MHz) with R430 GTO (400-440MHz) just to understand that 5000 3DMarks05 are very nice result for that card ;) .

[sturmgewehr]

Hey guys is it possible to unlock pipes to 16 on a powercolor x800gto with the R430 core?

CONFIG_DIE_FUSES 0xFFFF7FFF
CONFIG_SUBSTRATE_FUSES 0xFFFFFF9E

I have a feeling I cant :(

[dolf]

Hey guys is it possible to unlock pipes to 16 on a powercolor x800gto with the R430 core?

CONFIG_DIE_FUSES 0xFFFF7FFF
CONFIG_SUBSTRATE_FUSES 0xFFFFFF9E

I have a feeling I cant :(

Unfortunately your feeling is correct you can't unlock. Sorry :mad: .

[KoncreteAngel]

It is better to mention that you compare R480 GTO (520-600 plus MHz) with R430 GTO (400-440MHz) just to understand that 5000 3DMarks05 are very nice result for that card ;) .
No mine is the r430, that is not a gto2. Took alot to reach that clock on the r430.

[SiegeX]

I just wanted to say thanks to all those involved in this mod. Reading post #268 and #152 was all that I needed to unlock all 16 pipes on my card that I just received from Newegg yesterday.

[berghie23]

Well, looks like I flashed an incorrect BIOS too. After flashing the BIOS, I rebooted and get a black screen and the computer beeps once at me. I have tried to reboot with an old PCI card in (and the new X800GTO installed), but it won't bring up a screen. The PCI card only works if I uninstall the X800GTO card, but obviously I can't reflash it back to old BIOS if the new card isn't installed at the time.

I have attached a copy of the bin file that I had used...

Anyone have a recommendation in this scenario??? Dolf, can you provide a miracle for me?

[scope006]

Hey guys! I am finally going to be buying my x800 GTO off newegg.com on Friday. However when I was browsing around during lunch I found something else on newegg. Just wanted to get the "official advice / opinion".

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102609
VS
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814125139

It seems the later of the two is the better value and faster, however it has the 420 core rather than the 430. Please advise.

Thanks again,
scope006

[chonga]

Hey guys, first post here... i've been reading a lot but never posted.

found a great deal (new lowered price)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102609

will this particular card be able to have the 4 extra pipelines unlocked??

and if so, is a floppy preferred over a cd at bootup??

thanks!

[SiegeX]

Well, looks like I flashed an incorrect BIOS too. After flashing the BIOS, I rebooted and get a black screen and the computer beeps once at me. I have tried to reboot with an old PCI card in (and the new X800GTO installed), but it won't bring up a screen. The PCI card only works if I uninstall the X800GTO card, but obviously I can't reflash it back to old BIOS if the new card isn't installed at the time.

I have attached a copy of the bin file that I had used...

Anyone have a recommendation in this scenario??? Dolf, can you provide a miracle for me?

Go into your BIOS and look for a setting which asks you which Display to Boot first. You should be able to toggle it between PCI and AGP, obv you want PCI.

[SiegeX]

Hey guys, first post here... i've been reading a lot but never posted.

found a great deal (new lowered price)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102609

will this particular card be able to have the 4 extra pipelines unlocked??

and if so, is a floppy preferred over a cd at bootup??

thanks!

This is what I bought and just flashed yesterday. I just burned the ISO image found in post #152 and flashed the card with the slightly overclocked+16pipes bios. Also, I downloaded RaBit and followed the instructions in post #268 to make sure I had the right default bios before I flashed. You'll need AtiTool to dump the bios and you can google for "RaBit" to check the bios version.

[berghie23]

Hey SiegeX,

Thanks alot for the help. I was able to reflash with the correct BIOS16.BIN file now, and opened the 16 pipes up. Appreciate your help here at this great forum.

Thanks again...

[dolf]

Well, looks like I flashed an incorrect BIOS too. After flashing the BIOS, I rebooted and get a black screen and the computer beeps once at me. I have tried to reboot with an old PCI card in (and the new X800GTO installed), but it won't bring up a screen. The PCI card only works if I uninstall the X800GTO card, but obviously I can't reflash it back to old BIOS if the new card isn't installed at the time.

I have attached a copy of the bin file that I had used...

Anyone have a recommendation in this scenario??? Dolf, can you provide a miracle for me?

The attached BIOS is for PCI-E video card (Device ID - 5D4F). Your core should be R480 which is very nice. But that thread considers X800GTO AGP (with R430 bridged to AGP using Realto bridge).

You have made serious mistake to flash AGP BIOS to PCI-E card. I will try to help you but the problem is complicated because you can't see the PCI-E card at all. If it is the situation you have to find somebody who can unsolder the EEPROM chip from the card and to re-program it on external programmer.

You can try to flash it blind. Remove the PCI video card, prepare bootable floppy disk, put atiflash on it and your original BIOS (rename it to something simple like old.bin). Try to boot from the floppy, wait until it boots. Type: atiflash -f -p -newbios 0 new.bin press "enter" and wait few seconds.

Succes

[berghie23]

Hi Dolf,

Thanks for the help post, but I posted about the same time as you, and all is working fine now, with 16 pipelines open. Thanks for your help, as you guys are very knowledgable here.

[chonga]

This is what I bought and just flashed yesterday. I just burned the ISO image found in post #152 and flashed the card with the slightly overclocked+16pipes bios. Also, I downloaded RaBit and followed the instructions in post #268 to make sure I had the right default bios before I flashed. You'll need AtiTool to dump the bios and you can google for "RaBit" to check the bios version.


sorry for the newb questions but ...

basically i just need to make sure i have to do the following: (???)

1. install my x800GTO AGP and make sure i have the right default bios
2. make a copy of my default bios ( in case seomthing goes wrong)
3. burn the iso (do i need any kind of software for this to burn correctly onto a cd????)
4. restart my computer with the cd in the drive
5. select 16 pipeline option thing (and where do you get the slightly overclocked one?)
6. restart, uninstall and re-install all drivers

does that sound about right??

and by dumping do you mean copying the bios?

[SiegeX]

5. select 16 pipeline option thing (and where do you get the slightly overclocked one?)

Its a menu option along with normal clock w/16 pipes and Default BIOS incase something gets messed up.

does that sound about right??

Sounds perect

and by dumping do you mean copying the bios?

Yes, I use that term since that is what AtiTool says as well.

[fishingeek]

Yet another satisfied user. Thanks for the help.

My 3DMark06 scores

9700PRO 611
RADEON X800 GTO stock 1384
Unlocked to 16 1722

Great improvement for my aging machine!

Thanks again dolf :toast:

Geek

[rford]

Hey Dolf, I read every page :rockout: of this thread and I thought I was smart. Ran ATITool .24 and have a qualified Sapphire X800GTO AGP with aCONFIG_DIE_FUESE AT OxFFFFFFFF & CONFIG-SUBSTRATE-FUSES at 0xFFFFF9F. Backed up the original GTO bios to a bootable floppy (bios attached) and downloaded your bootable CD ISO from holmBoys site (N152) and burned using Roxio 7 Data tools. I also set all core and mems to default using ATI tool and ran RaBit1.7 and found the exact same strings.

Now the problem is I boot the CD and get 4 options; when I select option `1 or 2 to flash the bios to get 16 pipes, I get the dos error

"DOS/32A fatal (4003) not enough extended memory to load the application exec. "A:\ATIFLASH.EXE" and it aborts.

Got 3GB of DDR400RAM and a A8V Delux mobo with an AMD 3800+ brain. Maybe I didn't hit the "next button" enuf. but did not see this error caught by anyone else in this thread.

Help appreciated since you are the master!

Thanks a lot!

rf:) email is rbford@cox.net

[chonga]

i'm going to be ordering the card on friday and just want to be sure... (like i said im new)

when you do a bios dump of the original x800gto specs, should you just save it onto a thumb drive or something like that?

also, it seems pretty simple... almost like all i need is dolf's attachment back on page 16 and boot it up after i burn it onto a cd.

what program do you guys use or does windows media player offer a feature to burn the .iso image onto a cd???

thanks again guys! :rockout:

[dolf]

Hey Dolf, I read every page :rockout: of this thread and I thought I was smart. Ran ATITool .24 and have a qualified Sapphire X800GTO AGP with aCONFIG_DIE_FUESE AT OxFFFFFFFF & CONFIG-SUBSTRATE-FUSES at 0xFFFFF9F. Backed up the original GTO bios to a bootable floppy (bios attached) and downloaded your bootable CD ISO from holmBoys site (N152) and burned using Roxio 7 Data tools. I also set all core and mems to default using ATI tool and ran RaBit1.7 and found the exact same strings.

Now the problem is I boot the CD and get 4 options; when I select option `1 or 2 to flash the bios to get 16 pipes, I get the dos error

"DOS/32A fatal (4003) not enough extended memory to load the application exec. "A:\ATIFLASH.EXE" and it aborts.

Got 3GB of DDR400RAM and a A8V Delux mobo with an AMD 3800+ brain. Maybe I didn't hit the "next button" enuf. but did not see this error caught by anyone else in this thread.

Help appreciated since you are the master!

Thanks a lot!

rf:) email is rbford@cox.net

Try to burn the image with NERO or Alchohol120%. Probably the problem could be in the Roxio software or the OS installed on your PC. It could be also not good contact (electrical) of the memory module or so. In order to flash with the utility you haveto boot, to choose the option and to press "enter".

[Akernodt]

Hi, I'm writing from Chile... I have the sapphire X800 GTO AGP 256mb GDDR3 256-bits which I bought from newegg. Well, the card was fine... The card arrived 2 days ago, I played COD2 without problems, I played Fable excellent. Then, today I played Fable again and I activated the AAx2 option and a little high graphs and the graphs changed... there were some visual errors on 3D, when I came back to the desktop I realized there were some pixels on the screen. I thought it was a problem of drivers or something like that. I have tried almost everything and there's no solution and I'm still don't know what the real problem is. I have read a lot form internet and there are people who had suffered the same as I, but there's no possible answer.

Please, I would like to know if someone could help me, or telling me what happens, before sending it back to USA.

Thanks a lot... ;)

[Akernodt]

Actually, it's becoming hard to read because of color pixels in and between letters.

PS: I uninstall drivers, and there is no problem... but when I the PC starts, there are some pixels on the black screen of booting. I think those are called artifacts, correct me if I'm wrong.

[rford]

Try to burn the image with NERO or Alchohol120%. Probably the problem could be in the Roxio software or the OS installed on your PC. It could be also not good contact (electrical) of the memory module or so. In order to flash with the utility you haveto boot, to choose the option and to press "enter".


Dolf, How about emailing the 2 bios files, the one that unlocks pipes and the one that does the same and overclocks a bit. My email is robertbford@cox.net

Just so you know, I installed Alcohol120% and copied the .iso with the same result as roxio. It boots to the CD and presents the 4 options, but anytime you invoke ATIFLASH.EXE I get the same extended memory error. When I boot to WinXPsP2 I cannot see the contents of the CD to copy the bios files manually. When I boot to the ISO CD I cannot see the hard drives, so I'm stuck. There is something on the iso image that is not setting the OS parameters up properly. I can boot from floppies just fine. What I was going to try was to flash your bios with a flashbios.exe that I have on a floppy which also contains a backup of my default bios in case things fail. Will that work? If so, I would appreciate an email of your tweaked bioses.

thanks

rford

[rford]

i'm going to be ordering the card on friday and just want to be sure... (like i said im new)

when you do a bios dump of the original x800gto specs, should you just save it onto a thumb drive or something like that?

also, it seems pretty simple... almost like all i need is dolf's attachment back on page 16 and boot it up after i burn it onto a cd.

what program do you guys use or does windows media player offer a feature to burn the .iso image onto a cd???

thanks again guys! :rockout:




There's a pretty good guide here to create a recovery in case the bios flash fails
http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=1633&page=1




Chonga, see my response below, I would dump it to a floppy or other bootable offline media that has a routine that allows you to recover in case of a problem
Dump the bios to an offline media that you can use to recover. As you can see from my response below, I'm having some issues with the ISO bootable CD that others in this thread are not having.

There's a pretty good guide here to create a recovery in case the bios flash fails
http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=1633&page=1

[chonga]

would yoiu guys say that this is a feat achievable by an average pc user?

on a scale of 1-10 i would rate myself a 6.5-7

im just worried if i mess up that im screwed since i don't have a pci card and barely make $190 a week to buy the x800GTO

[dwax]

chonga... It's pretty straight forward.The biggest problem I had was burning it to a disk LOL. I was a bit worried too. But when I saw the boot up screen I went for it :) All in all it's pretty easy,but there is a chance it could go sour.If you have the right card, and if your not sure ask dolf he's the pro here :p

[cornellfOo]

finally got my card from newegg and it looks like it's unlockable! I wanted to make sure with you guys before i did it, though. here's a screen of the ati tool and attached is my bios.bin

edit: doh. pic didn't show up. attached.

[dolf]

Dolf, How about emailing the 2 bios files, the one that unlocks pipes and the one that does the same and overclocks a bit. My email is robertbford@cox.net

Just so you know, I installed Alcohol120% and copied the .iso with the same result as roxio. It boots to the CD and presents the 4 options, but anytime you invoke ATIFLASH.EXE I get the same extended memory error. When I boot to WinXPsP2 I cannot see the contents of the CD to copy the bios files manually. When I boot to the ISO CD I cannot see the hard drives, so I'm stuck. There is something on the iso image that is not setting the OS parameters up properly. I can boot from floppies just fine. What I was going to try was to flash your bios with a flashbios.exe that I have on a floppy which also contains a backup of my default bios in case things fail. Will that work? If so, I would appreciate an email of your tweaked bioses.

thanks

rford

The problem could be the Mobo adjustment and also the number of the memory modules :confused: . You are the first with similar problem. Try to use bootable floppy disk with atiflash on it and the BIOSes that I sent you.

[dolf]

finally got my card from newegg and it looks like it's unlockable! I wanted to make sure with you guys before i did it, though. here's a screen of the ati tool and attached is my bios.bin

edit: doh. pic didn't show up. attached.

Go to post N152 for the flash utility download but just in case spend 30 seconds to chech your card's BIOS using RaBit (how see: post N268). Dump it using ATITool and open it with RaBit.

[BigErn314]

would yoiu guys say that this is a feat achievable by an average pc user?

on a scale of 1-10 i would rate myself a 6.5-7

im just worried if i mess up that im screwed since i don't have a pci card and barely make $190 a week to buy the x800GTO

I just downloaded an .iso of the BIOS flash CD, burned it, rebooted with the CD, selected the menu option to unlock to 16 pipes and OC to 420/530 and hit yes when prompted. It worked perfectly and when I rebooted and fired up the ATI tool I saw the 16 pipes and the OC speeds and it worked perfectly.

[chonga]

hey guys, to burn this .iso that was made pack on p 152, you guys said you recommend using nero?

i googled it but it seems like you may have to pay for the software.... are there any freeware programs that will burn the iso image onto a cd-r??

[BigErn314]

hey guys, to burn this .iso that was made pack on p 152, you guys said you recommend using nero?

i googled it but it seems like you may have to pay for the software.... are there any freeware programs that will burn the iso image onto a cd-r??

I burned it with Roxio 6.0. I have yet to encounter an .iso that it won't burn. I'm sure there has to be a freeware CD burner, but I don't know off hand.

[rford]

I burned it with Roxio 6.0. I have yet to encounter an .iso that it won't burn. I'm sure there has to be a freeware CD burner, but I don't know off hand.


You can download a trial version of Alcohol120% at downloads.com

rford

[x800professor]

I used the bios flash on my card because I had the same bios as other people that successfully flashed along with all the same bridges and whatnot. It worked wonderfully for about 5 hours and then started showing artifacts! :banghead: I flashed back, and it didn't help. I put it in another computer...same deal. Dumb thing died I guess. I RMAed it to newegg and now have to wait for another one. I don't think they'll be able to tell that I flashed the bios because I flashed it back to the original one before sending it in.

Anyway, does anyone who has had experience with these cards think buying a better fan setup (like a zalman) is worth it? I mean, is this card temp limited on how high it can go with the stock setup or is it simply limited by the core and the memory? I know a better fan and heatsink setup will lower the core temp, but I’m just wondering if I will be able to get any extra performance out of it…once I get my new one that is. Thanks in advance! Oh, and an extra thanks to dolf for everything he has done for everyone in this thread!

[chonga]

just picked this card up from newegg for $96 !!!!
$30 promo + $30 rebate = saawwweeeet deal

can't wait to get it and hopefully succeed with the flash.

how does this card perform stock with no flash?

[rford]

Before I bought my Sapphire x800GTO, I looked everywhere (in vain) for benchmark data comparing it to the NVidia 6600GT in an AGP system. So now I hope I can keep someone else from looking as hard as I did..;) Everything I read indicated you could OC the crap out of the Saph x800. The XFX that it replaced was also that way, but not THIS good. You can see the system specs on the left, Check it out, benched with 3DMark 2003 since my rig is almost 2 years old:

XFX PV-T43A-NDF7 Sapphire x800GTO 100131L
Nvidia 6600GT ATI x800GTO (R30)

Stock 8262 9507 (12 pipes)

OC (mildly) 8735 (522/1156) 10,780 (418/526-16 pipes)

Yahoo! (There's more to life than megahertz)

Thanks to Dolf for supplying the 16 pipe unlock and OC bios and SUPERB response time. FYI, Things worked great when I created my own bootable floppy and loaded it up with atiflash v3.15 with new and backup bios files. The fact that I couldn't use the bootable CD iso due to an xmem error remains a forgotten problem. Who cares about " extended memory" anymore. Will burn this in and try to nudge core;/mem up if needed. Hopefully I have squeezed a little more life out of this AGP system

Hey chonga, where did you get the card for $96? I just checked newegg.com and the retail board is selling for $155 - $30 MIRebate; OEM is $165

rf

[x800professor]

just picked this card up from newegg for $96 !!!!
$30 promo + $30 rebate = saawwweeeet deal

can't wait to get it and hopefully succeed with the flash.

how does this card perform stock with no flash?

You must have a powercolor PCI Express card. I don't know if that is flashable or not. Stock....think medium settings on most modern games above 1024x768. It's still a pretty good card with 12 pipes...especially at that price.

[x800professor]

By the way, when my card was working, it played Age of Empires III on high settings at 1920x1440! I have a 22" Compaq P1220 CRT, which can go up to 2048x1536, and this is the first time I've actually been able to use anything above 1280x1024 in games. That card was great while it lasted. :( By the way, if you want a cheap ($120-140) monitor with amazing picture quality and resolutions that eat LCDs for lunch...look into that P1220 on ebay. That is, of course, if you have the room for the monster.

[rtkothe]

Hey guys bought the x800GTO from new egg like everybody else (R430).

I used ATIFLASH and the X800XL AGP 256 BIOS and a DOS Floppy to flash it.

After I rebooted the display settings were set back to the lowest resolution and two unknown device errors popped-up after the booting (asking me to install drivers, etc.)

I looked and I have the 16 pipes.

I looked under device manager and it has two question marks (?) and says it is related to the X800 series card.

My question is do I have to reload new X800XL drivers since I flashed it with the X800XL BIOS?

Which BIOS is everyone using from DOLF? AND anybody see these unknown device errors?

Thanks A bunch. - Ron

[chonga]

You must have a powercolor PCI Express card. I don't know if that is flashable or not. Stock....think medium settings on most modern games above 1024x768. It's still a pretty good card with 12 pipes...especially at that price.


nope sapphire AGP 4x/8x
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102609

if you call customer support and tell them you tried buying one when they were out of stock, sapphire had an 8 hour sale of $30 off instantly, they *might* honor it, but being that i did actually try to buy it during that time period they honored it

so it was $155.99 - $30 instant 8hr promo - $30 mail-in rebate

can't beat that!

[bobaboy]

Just bought the x800gto from newegg, can someone please verify this is unlockable? Thank you!

http://static.flickr.com/74/169039526_96a525c86e.jpg?v=0

http://static.flickr.com/48/169039528_3e03bdfea9.jpg?v=0

[x800professor]

nope sapphire AGP 4x/8x
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102609

if you call customer support and tell them you tried buying one when they were out of stock, sapphire had an 8 hour sale of $30 off instantly, they *might* honor it, but being that i did actually try to buy it during that time period they honored it

so it was $155.99 - $30 instant 8hr promo - $30 mail-in rebate

can't beat that!

Wow, good job on that one. Yes, that SHOULD be flashable. Just make sure before you do it, but you should be good to go.

[x800professor]

Be careful with this card and ATItool's find max core tool. I think that may have run the core on mine too high, which caused it to crash, which caused it to produce an insane amount of artifacts no matter what I did to it. When I say artifacts, I mean windows was unusable. ATItool took my core up to about 550 with no artifacts, which I thought was a bit high but I didn't stop the test fast enough...and then everything shut down. I hope that newegg doesn't figure that one out.

[x800professor]

To save all the e-mailing and give Tool483 a break (Thanks, BTW) I hosted the zip file with the ISO and the Instructions PDF both included. Have fun!

The link: http://www.xmission.com/~theholmboy/FlashCDX800GTOAGPR430.zip

That's what I used. Yeah, I know, three posts in a row. Should have added it all to one...but they were three different topics.

[chonga]

for some reason when i unzip the file from post 152, the .iso file is not visible on my PC.

do i need some sort of plug-in or app to be able to view .iso files on my pc? im using winRAR and when i unzip the contents i get either nothing or anything zip file.

thanks.

[dolf]

Hey guys bought the x800GTO from new egg like everybody else (R430).

I used ATIFLASH and the X800XL AGP 256 BIOS and a DOS Floppy to flash it.

After I rebooted the display settings were set back to the lowest resolution and two unknown device errors popped-up after the booting (asking me to install drivers, etc.)

I looked and I have the 16 pipes.

I looked under device manager and it has two question marks (?) and says it is related to the X800 series card.

My question is do I have to reload new X800XL drivers since I flashed it with the X800XL BIOS?

Which BIOS is everyone using from DOLF? AND anybody see these unknown device errors?

Thanks A bunch. - Ron

You have flashed VIVO BIOS on a card without VIVO. Just use XL BIOS (non VIVO or open the VIVO BIOS with RaBit and uncheck the VIVO feature and save the BIOS. After that flash with the new saved BIOS ;) .

[rtkothe]

You have flashed VIVO BIOS on a card without VIVO. Just use XL BIOS (non VIVO or open the VIVO BIOS with RaBit and uncheck the VIVO feature and save the BIOS. After that flash with the new saved BIOS ;) .

Dolf you were right on. Thanks!!!! Man have I learned a lot today. Learned what a .rar file was. learned how to flash, learned about the Atitool, used rabit, Now I know why people like to tweak. people like to learn. I hope others find this fix.

THanks, Again!!!!!! :toast:

[JBS]

Looking for advice on better buying AGP choice currently, between the AGP Sapphire X800 GTO *OEM* card and the AGP Powercolor similar card.

Performance and the ability to open up the full 16 pipes are my concerns - the price difference at both New Egg and Chief Value is about $16, and I'd prefer the better card rather than the better price.

The *retail* Sapphire is sold out everywhere I've searched, and I have no idea when it might be available again.

Between the OEM Sapphire and the Powercolor - which would you recommend?

Thanks for any advice on this - reading the forum today made me realize how knowledgeable and helpful you guys are.

[chonga]

go with the sapphire as i believe they have a higher rate of success to unlock the 16 pipes

check newegg.com for availability as i just ordered one on friday.

retail or oem shouldn't matter, but stick with the sapphire brand.

[JBS]

Thanks, chonga - I have been checking Sat and Sunday - only OEM. ALMOST went for a fairly rare now GeForce 6800 GS AGP, for a few dollars more. But leaning towards the Sapphire.

[Desperado]

A question for the BIOS gurus inhabiting this forum:

I have a Sapphire X800GTO (AGP) with the R430 core. I have checked ATI tool and got the following fuse responses:

CONFIG_DIE_FUSES: 0xFFFFFFFF
CONFIG_SUBSTRATE_FUSES: 0xFFFFFF9F

It looks to me like it can have all 16 pipes unlocked. However I did a BIOS dump and looked at the version in RaBit and the BIOS does not match the version used on Dolf's magic burned CD. Am I still able to flash the BIOS? See attachment for a copy of my BIOS.

Despy

[chonga]

i wouldn't risk it, you may get a bad flash.

instead get into contact with dolf as he has helped those with different bios'

i may have the same problme, not sure yet as i get my card in the mail wed or thurs.
*crosses fingers*

[chonga]

btw, what drivers are you guys using for best performance after the flash???

[x800professor]

I used the bios flash on my card because I had the same bios as other people that successfully flashed along with all the same bridges and whatnot. It worked wonderfully for about 5 hours and then started showing artifacts! :banghead: I flashed back, and it didn't help. I put it in another computer...same deal. Dumb thing died I guess. I RMAed it to newegg and now have to wait for another one. I don't think they'll be able to tell that I flashed the bios because I flashed it back to the original one before sending it in.

Anyway, does anyone who has had experience with these cards think buying a better fan setup (like a zalman) is worth it? I mean, is this card temp limited on how high it can go with the stock setup or is it simply limited by the core and the memory? I know a better fan and heatsink setup will lower the core temp, but I’m just wondering if I will be able to get any extra performance out of it…once I get my new one that is. Thanks in advance! Oh, and an extra thanks to dolf for everything he has done for everyone in this thread!

Does anybody know about the temp issue?

[dolf]

A question for the BIOS gurus inhabiting this forum:

I have a Sapphire X800GTO (AGP) with the R430 core. I have checked ATI tool and got the following fuse responses:

CONFIG_DIE_FUSES: 0xFFFFFFFF
CONFIG_SUBSTRATE_FUSES: 0xFFFFFF9F

It looks to me like it can have all 16 pipes unlocked. However I did a BIOS dump and looked at the version in RaBit and the BIOS does not match the version used on Dolf's magic burned CD. Am I still able to flash the BIOS? See attachment for a copy of my BIOS.

Despy

You can unlock your card to 16 pipes but the BIOS is litle different from that in the utility, that's why if you have time wait untill tommorow and I will prepare and sens you utility with your BIOS moded to 16 pipes.

[Desperado]

dolf,

Thanks a bunch!

Depsy

[chonga]

hey everyone, i got the card today but having problems to even getting it started.

i just bough a new 450watt power supply from newegg (not a cheap one either) and whenever i plug the 4-pin adaptor into the sapphire x800GTO, my cd drives will not work nor will the green poewr button light up on the front of my tower. when i disconnect the power cable from the card nothing works, but when i disconnect the card completely from the AGP slot, then the cd drives and power button will work

any suggestions?> thanks!

this is also weird, when i power my PC up without the x800 in the AGP slot but with the power cable plugged into it, everything is fine... then i plug the card into the AGP slot and it works!! but then when i reboot the cd drive and power button will not work again.... strange

[x800professor]

hey everyone, i got the card today but having problems to even getting it started.

i just bough a new 450watt power supply from newegg (not a cheap one either) and whenever i plug the 4-pin adaptor into the sapphire x800GTO, my cd drives will not work nor will the green poewr button light up on the front of my tower. when i disconnect the power cable from the card nothing works, but when i disconnect the card completely from the AGP slot, then the cd drives and power button will work

any suggestions?> thanks!

this is also weird, when i power my PC up without the x800 in the AGP slot but with the power cable plugged into it, everything is fine... then i plug the card into the AGP slot and it works!! but then when i reboot the cd drive and power button will not work again.... strange

Give us a link to the PSU you purchased so we can check the amp ratings. Also, list everything you are running in your system. Meaning what kind of motherboard, how many fans and fun stuff like that.

[chonga]

system:

eMachines t2615
CPU: AMD Athlon XP 2600+
MOBO: VIA KM266 & VT8235 Chipset
Memory: 1024MB PC2100 (2x512)
Drives: DVD and CD-RW drives (separate) and 3.5 Floppy
HD: 120GB 2mb cache
GPU: Sapphire radeon x800GTO AGP 4x/8x
PSU: Thermaltake 430watt ATX

no extra fans or anything, just the mobo fan with heatsink

LINK TO PS: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817153023

and like i said, when i unplug the PS, connect my graphics card and power up, the cd-r drive and power light button do not function. When i boot up without my GPU connected to the AGP slot BUT with just the power plug in, it'll boot up fine and then when i put the GPU into my AGP slot while the PC is running, everything is fine. It's only when i reboot then that it goes back to my cd-r and power light not working.

[Lord_Garshna]

Itell you what helped me with unlocking my pipes and made it much easier on figuring out... seeing how this was my first time I didn't know much about dos commands or anything of that nature. Heres what I did... I just downloaded the bios mod posted by dolf on the second page, post was second to last... thanks for this dolf worked wonders. Then I took the easy route instead of trying to flash the bios through dos, I just downloaded winflash wich is available in the downloads section on the homepage. Loaded the program selected the bios to replace the old ones... and presto, didn't even have to exit out of windows to now have 16 pipes!! As far as benchmarks I haven't tested it yet... though I do know when you atitool's 3d view before i was geting around 187 fps average... now with 16 pipes I get around 210 fps average! Also oblivion runs so beautifully smooth now compared to the hiccups here and there before.

[error_f0rce]

it'll boot up fine and then when i put the GPU into my AGP slot while the PC is running, everything is fine. :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

Ok, first off don't ever plug in a card of any kind while your PC is running... :shadedshu bad idea, especially if you have the card power connected. You will find this difficult to troubleshoot this if you fried the card ;)

Secondly, do you have an onboard graphics card? If you don't have a graphics card plugged into your computer (AGP/PCI/PCIe/onboard) your computer shouldn't allow you to boot at all. If you have an onboard graphics card, which is sounds like you do, go into your bios and disable it. This should allow your AGP slot to function.

Also, your Sapphire X800 GTO should have come with a 4-pin "y" splitter. Read your user manual to learn how to install this between your PSU, hard drive and graphics card... and next time you spend over $150 on something, I strongly advise you read the user manual before installing it :)

[chonga]

:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

Ok, first off don't ever plug in a card of any kind while your PC is running... :shadedshu bad idea, especially if you have the card power connected. You will find this difficult to troubleshoot this if you fried the card ;)

Secondly, do you have an onboard graphics card? If you don't have a graphics card plugged into your computer (AGP/PCI/PCIe/onboard) your computer shouldn't allow you to boot at all. If you have an onboard graphics card, which is sounds like you do, go into your bios and disable it. This should allow your AGP slot to function.

Also, your Sapphire X800 GTO should have come with a 4-pin "y" splitter. Read your user manual to learn how to install this between your PSU, hard drive and graphics card... and next time you spend over $150 on something, I strongly advise you read the user manual before installing it :)

lol i knew not to do that, it's just that i was so anxious and super frustrated so i tried it, and the card worked, just wouldnt work when i rebooted :wtf:

well see i had an older agp video card that worked fine, so i uninstalled all of the drivers for that and the integrated video was uninstalled way back when i installed my previous agp video card.

also they did not provide a user manual and the one on the cd did not even work.

how do i tell if the card is fried for future reference? lol

i did as the little picture that came with the card did with the power cable and connected one of the peripheral cords into the splitter and ran one to the harddrive and the other to the graphics card.

also, how do i go into the bios?.... i called ati and they said since i have an old motherboard, i might need to update the mobo?

any other suggestions much appreciate!

[Desperado]

Well thanks to dolf I have had success unlocking the extra pipes. The 16 pipes has had a noticible impact on my performance. Previously I could never get the card over 5000 in 3dmark05. With the pipes unlocked and overclocked to 425/550 I get a score of 5545! This is basically a 12% improvement over the 12 pipe overclocked version. Yes sir, I like it a lot. I played Halflife 2 for a short while last night and was able to bump up the AA with no problems. No heat problems either.

dolf is a genius.

Despy

[Desperado]

system:

eMachines t2615
CPU: AMD Athlon XP 2600+
MOBO: VIA KM266 & VT8235 Chipset
Memory: 1024MB PC2100 (2x512)
Drives: DVD and CD-RW drives (separate) and 3.5 Floppy
HD: 120GB 2mb cache
GPU: Sapphire radeon x800GTO AGP 4x/8x
PSU: Thermaltake 430watt ATX

no extra fans or anything, just the mobo fan with heatsink

and like i said, when i unplug the PS, connect my graphics card and power up, the cd-r drive and power light button do not function. When i boot up without my GPU connected to the AGP slot BUT with just the power plug in, it'll boot up fine and then when i put the GPU into my AGP slot while the PC is running, everything is fine. It's only when i reboot then that it goes back to my cd-r and power light not working.

Okay, a couple of things:

1. A possible problem is that your motherboard BIOS may be forcing devices to a specific IRQ address. This means that your CD drive might be ending up stuck at the same address as your new video card. You will need access to your BIOS to check for this.
2. You motherboard (and machine) may contain proprietary devices which will not allow certain upgrades. That is a risk you run with any 'off the shelf' computer from a branded manufacturer.
3. Make sure that the power plug for the video card is not branched off of the same plug as the CD drive.

That's a few things off the top of my head. From your machine specs, you will be bottlenecked by the CPU and especially the memory before you come close to the limits of your new card.

Despy

[x800professor]

system:

eMachines t2615
CPU: AMD Athlon XP 2600+
MOBO: VIA KM266 & VT8235 Chipset
Memory: 1024MB PC2100 (2x512)
Drives: DVD and CD-RW drives (separate) and 3.5 Floppy
HD: 120GB 2mb cache
GPU: Sapphire radeon x800GTO AGP 4x/8x
PSU: Thermaltake 430watt ATX

no extra fans or anything, just the mobo fan with heatsink

LINK TO PS: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817153023

and like i said, when i unplug the PS, connect my graphics card and power up, the cd-r drive and power light button do not function. When i boot up without my GPU connected to the AGP slot BUT with just the power plug in, it'll boot up fine and then when i put the GPU into my AGP slot while the PC is running, everything is fine. It's only when i reboot then that it goes back to my cd-r and power light not working.

That PSU only has 18A on +12V....hmmm....I wonder if that will be enough. I would have recommended over 20A, but I don’t know exactly what it needs to run properly. You have to remember that wattage is not everything. 18A should be enough, but I'd consider that a minimum. Now that you tell me that you have an eMachines computer, I'm starting to wonder if it will work at all. OEM motherboards tend to be the devil. There is no bios upgrade for you on the eMachines webpage, or I would have told you to download that. The fact that it works when you shove it in the AGP slot while running is surprising (don’t ever do that again). Wait a minute, do you mean that you boot off the onboard video, stick the card in after bootup, and then switch the monitor to the card? Or do you mean that you just stuck the card in and kept the monitor on your onboard video and your CD drive didn’t shut down?

[x800professor]

Okay, a couple of things:

1. A possible problem is that your motherboard BIOS may be forcing devices to a specific IRQ address. This means that your CD drive might be ending up stuck at the same address as your new video card. You will need access to your BIOS to check for this.
2. You motherboard (and machine) may contain proprietary devices which will not allow certain upgrades. That is a risk you run with any 'off the shelf' computer from a branded manufacturer.
3. Make sure that the power plug for the video card is not branched off of the same plug as the CD drive.

That's a few things off the top of my head. From your machine specs, you will be bottlenecked by the CPU and especially the memory before you come close to the limits of your new card.

Despy

He'll be lucky if he can even change IRQ addresses with that mobo. I think it's time for a new mobo and probably a new tower to fit it in. Oh, some new ram would help too. Well, it will help performance.

[chonga]

lol im thinking about just returning all of this stuff and buying an xbox 360 now!!!

what i mean is that i booted up my pc up with the integrated video. it ran fine, then i disconnected the vga cable from my onbaord video, (the power cord into the vidoe card was plugged in befor boot up) and i slipped the x800GTO card into the agp slot and put the vga cable in and it worked. but as soon as i reboot then the cd rom drive will not work and my monitor says "no input"

my old geforce 5500 worked fine and i've heard ppl with older model emachines like mine got this card up and running so im here without a clue.

lol what a mess this is turning into

how is newegg's return policy, lol?

anyone want to buy an x800GTO cheap?

[x800professor]

lol im thinking about just returning all of this stuff and buying an xbox 360 now!!!

what i mean is that i booted up my pc up with the integrated video. it ran fine, then i disconnected the vga cable from my onbaord video, (the power cord into the vidoe card was plugged in befor boot up) and i slipped the x800GTO card into the agp slot and put the vga cable in and it worked. but as soon as i reboot then the cd rom drive will not work and my monitor says "no input"

my old geforce 5500 worked fine and i've heard ppl with older model emachines like mine got this card up and running so im here without a clue.

lol what a mess this is turning into

how is newegg's return policy, lol?

anyone want to buy an x800GTO cheap?

Do you have a friend or family member with a newer computer that you can plug that X800 into to check? If you do, I'd check it in their computer before sending everything back for a refund, because newegg will keep 15% of your money on a restocking fee.

By the way, I foresee price wars in around a year with the X360 vs. PS3 vs. Wii (I hate that name), so I'd hold off.

[chonga]

well what kind of price do you see for the 360 premium package?

i've seen a few for $300 basically new locally in classifieds

[error_f0rce]

also, how do i go into the bios?.... i called ati and they said since i have an old motherboard, i might need to update the mobo?

Ok, typically, to enter your mobo bios, you press and hold the "DELETE" button right after you power your computer on. This will take you from the start-up screen into a setup display. Good luck!

Well, if you get an xBOX360, have fun with your low resolution... people think it's the greatest thing ever, but only like 2% of people out there have a TV that's 1080i capable and that's rubbish anyway when you compare it to the graphic capability of an x800 GTO. But to each his own...:slap:

[chonga]

Ok, typically, to enter your mobo bios, you press and hold the "DELETE" button right after you power your computer on. This will take you from the start-up screen into a setup display. Good luck!

Well, if you get an xBOX360, have fun with your low resolution... people think it's the greatest thing ever, but only 2% of people out there have a TV that's 1080i capable and that's rubbish anyway when you compare it to the graphic capability of an x800 GTO. But to each his own...:slap:


well i would love to keep the x800gto but as many ppl said, i'm held back by my cpu and ram and i don't have the money to buy a new mobo or pc. if i got the 360 i would use the money from retruning this stuff and also save a headache of trying to re-install everything from buying a new mobo

[Desperado]

well i would love to keep the x800gto but as many ppl said, i'm held back by my cpu and ram and i don't have the money to buy a new mobo or pc. if i got the 360 i would use the money from retruning this stuff and also save a headache of trying to re-install everything from buying a new mobo


Well, that can be very tempting. I actually thought about going the console route before my last upgrade. There is something to be said for having it 'just work'. I curse my system whenever an upgrade doesn't go right and I swear I will go to a console. But in the end, I can not get over the fact that I like some games that are only on a PC (Civ 4, etc.). I can not afford both, so it remains a PC. The trick is to do the research so that you know how to build a system that remains upgradable for at least a few years.

Good luck!

Despy

[Sceptor1]

Sapphire x800GTO AGP r430 400/490

Tried using atiflash to flash one of Dolf's bios16.bin with the command given and I get the 0FL01 error, also stating that "Adapter not found" right before the error.

Attached is my original bios dumped from ATI Tool

Wasn't sure how to get a picture of my fuses but I'll type out the lines.

CONFIG_DIE_FUSES 0xFFFFFFFF
CONFIG_SUBSTRATE_FUSES 0xFFFFFF9F
CONFIG_ROM_FUSES 0xA61
400/490

Would appreciate any help to unlock the pipes that I think I can unlock :)

[dolf]

Sapphire x800GTO AGP r430 400/490

Tried using atiflash to flash one of Dolf's bios16.bin with the command given and I get the 0FL01 error, also stating that "Adapter not found" right before the error.

Attached is my original bios dumped from ATI Tool

Wasn't sure how to get a picture of my fuses but I'll type out the lines.

CONFIG_DIE_FUSES 0xFFFFFFFF
CONFIG_SUBSTRATE_FUSES 0xFFFFFF9F
CONFIG_ROM_FUSES 0xA61
400/490

Would appreciate any help to unlock the pipes that I think I can unlock :)

Use that link to download all needed: http://savefile.com/projects.php?pid=971168

[SPYcorp]

After waiting long 1,5 weeks i got my AGP Sapphire x800 GTO (lite) today. [my 9800pro@XT died 2 weeks ago]
So i build in my new card and reinstalled drivers and was wondering a lot while checking for unlockable pipes with ATI tool.

ATI tool already showed up 16 active pipes with R430 core ?!? wtf

These are my ATI tool reading @ factorydefault

http://img.techpowerup.org/060621/x800 16pipes factory.jpg


The card was original packed and sealed. So no other Person is possible to unlock it before (except a friendly Sapphire Employee).

Anybody got same strange things ? Testing OC of that card will follow. Now first i had to catch up my lost gaming days ;)


So. Seems to be a poor OC Card. Raising the Core more than 10MHz, temp goes to 85° (same for Rams with stockcooling).
@ Desktop / idle the card is running ~50 degrees. Is that normal?

[chonga]

hey guys, i tried a different power supply with my card and same result.... so its not the power supply.

any thoughts on how to figure out if its my mobo or card causing these problems?

i dont know how the card or mobo would cause my cd drive not to work when i use the x800gto

[error_f0rce]

After waiting long 1,5 weeks i got my AGP Sapphire x800 GTO (lite)

So. Seems to be a poor OC Card. Raising the Core more than 10MHz, temp goes to 85° (same for Rams with stockcooling).
@ Desktop / idle the card is running ~50 degrees. Is that normal?


Ok, first off what is this "X800 GTO (lite)" stuff? And no, that's not normal for it to run that hot. You either have an issue with a bad card, or you're using a microwave as your computer case :laugh:

Do you have any venting, airflow in your case? My AGP Sapphire X800 GTO 256mb R430 (with 16 pipes) runs idle at 37c, and under heavy load (3DMark05) only ever runs as high as 52c. That is stock cooling. I also have a cr@p load of fans cooling my case (see my specs), but yours still shouldn't be running that hot.

Is it possible somehow you got a refurbished card? I've seen those for sale online from "retailers" with 16 pipes unlocked. IMO send it back and get another one if you can. You'll have to check, but sometimes they don't charge restocking fees for an exchange. And don't get hung on the 16 pipe thing, it's easy enough to do with your next one.

Question for all: People seem to be having a lot of trouble flashing their bioses for X800's. What is the standard DOS command that people are using? I used "atiflash -p -f 0 -newbios newbios.bin" and that worked first time, like a charm. Often I see people not adding the -newbios parameter... what exactly does that do?

[SPYcorp]

lite just means no extra software. --> Sapphire x800 GTO lite (http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000F6ZGFS/qid=1150978237/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl/028-8248623-9813355) (just an example)

Card was new and original packed. No sealbreaking visible.
The strange Ting are these already unlocked pipes. Maybe reelly refrurbished.
The 50° are in an 30° envirorment and no extra Fans working except CPU und PSU fans.
Damn. My whole System shows ~ 60c had to rebuild my cooling. But for errortracking i deinstalled all possible errorpart, to dedect my dead 9800pro as damaged.

[dolf]

-newbios is a key which allows to the atiflash to overwrite the "preserved" parts of the BIOS (such part is the active pipe number information) ;) .

[SPYcorp]

Hmmm....
I think i´ll send it back.
Playing 15 minutes NFS:MW the GPU temp raise 75°C (Roomtemp ~27°c / CPU ~60°c / Northbridge ~55°) :(
3D mark05 same tempissue.

A 120cm fan blows direkt to the x800 (idle temp GPU: 46°/43° and CPU 55°/40°).

[rf900]

Hi

SPYcorp: I have the same model as you. The card is different than the one that dolf shows in the instructions pdf. I also have 16 pipes enabled when I bought it and temperatures are very high.

I have in a Shuttle (barebone) so you can imagine. The gpu fan is nearly touching the case..

I am getting around 50-55ºC on idle and 90ºC at load on the Gpu. I should return it but the shop where I bought it gives everybody headaches, I will never buy there again.

[dolf]

Hi

SPYcorp: I have the same model as you. The card is different than the one that dolf shows in the instructions pdf. I also have 16 pipes enabled when I bought it and temperatures are very high.

I have in a Shuttle (barebone) so you can imagine. The gpu fan is nearly touching the case..

I am getting around 50-55ºC on idle and 90ºC at load on the Gpu. I should return it but the shop where I bought it gives everybody headaches, I will never buy there again.

Can you please show me picture/s of the card?

[rf900]

Here is a review of the card with images:

http://www.digitalreviews.net/reviews/200512/sapphireradeonx800gto-3.html

They say that it is hot at around 60ºC, but they do not specify if it is in idle or at load.

I will try to mount the card on a bigger case, but will take some days. Still the air flow in the shuttle is quite good, and the gpu is the only component that gets really hot. The cpu is around 50-55 with the fan on full.

I did a test with the case opened and the Gpu was at 90ºC (this was before applying a termic paste) now I guess it will be 85ºC with the case opened, as it is 90ºC with the case closed. What a mess... hope it is undestandable.

[dolf]

It is different card (native AGP board) the same like old X800PRO AGP (in fact it is renamed X800PRO). It should uses R420 (or R481) and for sure is hotter than the card listed in my "flashing instructions" for X800GTO R430 and Realto bridge. The normal working temperatures for such card with 12 pipes under load should be 70-80C (deppending of the frequency up to 580MHz core). If it is unlockable to 16 pipes and is used with the original cooler the temp. should go even higher :eek: .

Please to post here fuse values of card like that just to estimate the unlocking potential and eventually the BIOS image.

[SPYcorp]

Fuses of my Card are 1 Page before.
The strange thing is, that it was already unlocked to 16 pipes, when i bought it (new and sealed).
(Sticker on card and Properties also say x800GTO)
According to the Benches of bf900´s link my card seems to be faster then the testet one (because auf the 16 pipes) and the layout doesnt 100% fit to the pictures.

Doom 3 runs high @ 1280 no AA/AF @ 65 fps and 4xAA/AF ~50 fps
Will test 3D Mark 05/05, too
My card carries a R430 core (info from ATI-tool) and has the correct unlocking fuses.
But overclocking is sensless because of the temps. So no x850 clocking is possible /w overheading the card.

P.S. Damn hard do not write nouns in capital letter *g
P.P.S How do i detect it has Realto or not ?!?

[dolf]

You can see the Realto bridge on the back of the card and the PCB should be bigger than present. I consider that your core is R481 (almost impossible to have R430). Try to overclock and if you achieve more than 450MHz on the core (480-560MHz) it will be indication that I am right. What is your PCB Part Number? (Something like that PN 109-Axxxxx-xx - in the top front side of the card near the fan connector). Here you are one review of Sapphire X800GTO AGP: http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/video/sapphire-14.html

Here you are link to the review when you can see Reference card ATI RADEON X800 XL AGP with Realto bridge: http://www.ixbt.com/video2/sapphire-13.shtml

[error_f0rce]

Playing 15 minutes NFS:MW the GPU temp raise 75°C (Roomtemp ~27°c / CPU ~60°c / Northbridge ~55°)
3D mark05 same tempissue.

A 120cm fan blows direkt to the x800 (idle temp GPU: 46°/43° and CPU 55°/40°).

If you want to keep the card, think about getting a cooler, like a Zalman VF900-cu or an ATi Silencer 5 rev. 2. I just installed a Zalman VF900-cu on my X800 GTO last night, here's the results:
Stock Idle: 38c :)
Stock Heavy Load: 52c ;)
w/ Zalman Idle: 32c :cool:
w/ Zalman Heavy Load: 45c :D
OC'd (stable) @ 438|555 w/ Zalman Heavy Load: 47c|42c :rockout:
3DMark05 Stock: 5138
3DMark05 OC'd: 5592

Now that's what I call cooling!! :roll:

[dolf]

SPYcorp, looking the review you have X800XT (non VIVO) and probably if you flash X800XT BIOS it will be transformed in real XT card (you have to disable the VIVO feature within the BIOS). The only problem that I see is the DeviceID changing which usually remains unchanged (on AGP cards). It happen when I have tried to flash X850XT BIOS on my X800XT. You have to try X800XT AGP BIOS and to see whether your Device ID will be changed from 55xx to 4Axx. If the flash results in Device ID 55xx it means that you have to reflash to the original BIOS. If you succeed to change the first 2 digits of the Device ID (I doubt that it will happen) your card can be flashed to X850 also.

I am 100% agree that you need better cooling.

[error_f0rce]

Question for all:
When I was taking the stock cooler off my AGPSapphire X800 GTO last night, I noticed the chip said PCIExpress on it... is that normal for an R430 chip? :confused:

[dolf]

Question for all:
When I was taking the stock cooler off my AGPSapphire X800 GTO last night, I noticed the chip said PCIExpress on it... is that normal for an R430 chip? :confused:

It is normal but the PCI-E chip (R430) obligatory should be bridged to AGP with Realto bridge. You can see that combination also on X800XL AGP. R430 is native PCI-E chip (also R480 and R423) but R430 is build to be cheap (11 micron technology) and is used for the low-end cards.

[SPYcorp]

Better cooling, of course.
But i was really wondering, that my card is running such high temps with default clocks and stockcooler. So before i destroy my warranty by removing the stockcooler i want be be sure, that my card is OK.

Here a (poor) handypic of my card.

http://img.techpowerup.org/060623/x800 front543.jpg
http://img.techpowerup.org/060623/x800 back.jpg

While searching the bridge i realiszed, that the cooler doest fit exact on the card.
It a bit slope (sorry, hope the word is correct taken from dictinary ;)).
The cooler lays an a cardpart wich retains the coller to be plain on card. Maybe my tempissue ?

@ dolph Here are 2 numbers from the card.
PN 1025-CC66-0A-SA
SKU ' 11066-2

I my opinion flashing to XT is not nessesary, because they are the same except the clocks and pipes. And higher clocks isnt possible at the moment.

[error_f0rce]

Along that same line of thought: what performance differences, if any, have been noted between simply unlocking the additional 4 pipes on an R430 and actually flashing an R430 with an XT bios?

[error_f0rce]

yeah, that doesn't look like my Sapphire X800 GTO... must be different.
Here's what mine looks like:
http://img.techpowerup.org/060623/x800-gto-agp.jpg

[dolf]

Oooo SPYcorp, this is different GTO and it is with R430 and Realto. Don't flash any BIOS different than the original. With 16 pipes it should be OK. But the temperature seems too high for R430. Check the cooler (how hot is on touch) because the termal compaund between core and the cooler can be poor and to cause "peak" heat problems. (Fast heating and high constant temperature, high fan speed without result.)

[error_f0rce]

I agree. If it feels pretty hot to the touch, I would take it off and at least clean it and re-apply some thermal compound (get Arctic Silver 5). That might solve your problem all together, especially if you're saying your cooler looks slanted, or tilted to one side.

When you take it off, scrape off the excess thermal compound (DON'T USE METAL!), then use q-tips with rubbing alcohol (at least 70%) to get the rest off. Finish by wiping it down with a lint-free cloth, or use a coffee filter, those work great (no fibers!). Make sure not to touch the GPU or RAM chips with your fingers (OIL!) For GPU's I'd recommend only using a tiny amount of thermal paste, spread it evenly, scraping it flat along the GPU with a credit card, or anything else long, thin, flat, stiff, that won't scratch it. There should only be about 1 mm or less of thermal paste on top of the GPU when you are done spreading it. Do the same for the RAM chips that are touching the cooler as well. Put it back on and see what temps you're getting then!

Good luck!

[SPYcorp]

@ error force
Yes. And your Rams are cooled, too. Mine are free to air :(
These are two differnt boardlayouts, so i´m unshure, a AC Silencer will fit wich one. mine or errors ?
Im really interesstet, cooling rams,too because my old 9800 i just clued some passiv sinks on ram. The new ATI Silencer 5 v2 promisses ramcooling. but for wich board ?

@ dolf
according to the no flash, because realto. should i´m be happy that there are already unlocket all 16 pipes and keep that card ?!? because all available (Sapphire) GTO´s should have the same layout as mine. And GTO at all become more and more rare on market.

[dolf]

Depending on where you live you can search for other card and to keep that until you find better (X800PRO VIVO / XT; X850PRO VIVO from ATI or MSI or the same like Error_f0rce). In Europe there still left X850PROs for 200-220 EUR. In USA only Connect3D X850PRO VIVO remains which is not modable to 16 pipes.
Your card and Error_f0rce card have the same cores R430, probably the same 2.0ns memory and should reach comparable results. Just the colour, the shape and the cooler are different. (My opinion is that the cards like of Error_f0rce has far more better cooling and can be clocked higher with 16 pipes). But it was me the final decision is yours.

[rf900]

SPYcorp: I am nearly 100% sure that we have the same card... I also noticed the slope, you have 2 screws for the fan/dissipator part, and it seems that it is lower on one side, but there is no screw on the other side to compensate it. Therefore it seems that the dissipator is not well flat on the gpu. For me this could be part of the problem, the other part is that the fan is quite small and slow.

Ati tools also tell me that I have the chip r430.

I applied a good quality temic paste and it lowered the temp of my cpu and gpu by 5ºC. Still not enough.

I can only OC to 420 the gpu. With 440 it hangs. And funny if I put it to 300 it also hangs up.

[SPYcorp]

unfortunatly my 9800 died and i have not enough money to spend more than ~150 bucks for a new card. the x1800pro is bit weaker than x800 (because of 128 bit) so only a x800 GTO was valuable for AGP.
I´ll write a mail to AC after i tried to compare there "height restriction drawing" and go for an Silencer5

@ rf9000
I missread your post. That card you postet isnt yours. OK. And as you discribed, your card (incl. slope cooler + 16 pipes already enabled) is the same as mine.
Maybe we try together to solve the problem ;)

[error_f0rce]

If you want a cooler that your KNOW will fit, go with the Zalman VF900-cu. It fits ALL ATi X*** series and X1*** series and comes with 8 RAM heat sinks for your VGA RAM chips. Also, my stock cooler used to hum really loud at 100%. Now on my system, even with the Zalman fan @ 100%, I can't hear it at all... literally cannot hear it. Fully OC'd to max, my R430 only reaches 47c and the RAM at 42c. If we have the same card but just different stock coolers, then I'd assume you can expect the same results I got heat wise. It's up to you, but that's my 2 cents.

[error_f0rce]

OR, you could buy the exact card I have http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102609R
they even have an open box for $139 (100131L)... now that's hard to beat ;0-

[SPYcorp]

I think shipping to europe/germany will exceed the price ;)

Hmmm. zalman v900 33.- vs. AC Silencer 20.-
When it fits ill take the AC (because the AC exhaust the warm air outside).....maybe ;)

[rf900]

Well I think I will leave it alone for a while. In case it burns I will use the guaranty :mad:

Playing Farcry it stays stable at 85ºC, maybe it is not that bad. Also I am buying a new case for another computer, I will test the card there to see if it gets better. And maybe I leave the Shuttle alone and buy a new case and put a Zalman or Artic Cooling.

error_f0rce: You say that after putting Zalman you get 47ºC, is that at load? what was the temperature before putting it?

A guy says that he got his 6600 gt from 80-88ºC to 55-60ºC at load with Zalman. For me that would be the best solution. I was so happy with my Shuttle :shadedshu

[SPYcorp]

error_f0rce: You say that after putting Zalman you get 47ºC, is that at load? what was the temperature before putting it?

I think for idle it where no improvement *g

I was so happy with my Shuttle :shadedshu
Its note your shuttle. Even i got the same *hot* card

[error_f0rce]

Playing Farcry it stays stable at 85ºC, maybe it is not that bad.
:shadedshu No, that is very bad and will fry your card if you continue doing that for very long.

error_f0rce: You say that after putting Zalman you get 47ºC, is that at load? what was the temperature before putting it?

No, 45c under HEAVY load stock. 47c is under HEAVY load while OVERCLOCKED to 438|555 (400|490 stock). 3DMark05 score of 5592 with that OC. This Zalman VF900 is unreal :rockout:

I think for idle it where no improvement *g
You might be right. My idle temp was 38c stock and dropped to 32c with the Zalman. But I have a very well modded/ventilated case, so I can't speak for your Shuttle. Consider investing in a new case, or perhaps modding the one your already have. If you decide to mod, make sure you study some airflow charts/diagrams and decide on negative or positive pressure before starting.
Hope this helps! :)

[error_f0rce]

A guy says that he got his 6600 gt from 80-88ºC to 55-60ºC at load with Zalman.
I don't know about that, but I'm guessing my OC temps would have been in the 70's... so I figure under load (or if you have a "hot" card) you could expect anywhere up to a 20-25 degree drop in temp, depending on your card, environment temp, case cooling, room temp, etc.

[stevorob]

rf900

I had the same overheating problems that you are having after unlocking my extra pipes. I had to open up my case and stick a fan next to it to keep it cool, otherwise I would reach 90C very easily under full load on stock clock speeds.

I bought the silencer, and I have ZERO regrets about it. 52C load on max overclock (432/545) from stock of 400/490. And my case is closed up now. Its barely audible at 100% too. Idle is down to 35C, and I have poor ventilation. The good thing is that it ventilates out of the back of the case. I don't think the zalman does that.

[error_f0rce]

The good thing is that it ventilates out of the back of the case. I don't think the zalman does that.

2 points about the Zalman:
1.) it has individual heat sinks for all your ram chips (more effective), which are located underneath the fan. So virtually you have an HSF on EVERY ONE of you RAM chips, as well as the GPU.
2.) it uses dual heatpipes (better heat disipation).

however... now that you know it the Silencer fits, it's likely stevorob is right, in an inclosed case the silencer might be the way to go since it does vent rearward.

Sounds like this will solve your problem either way :toast:

[SPYcorp]

but steve didnt answer wich of both layouts he has.
And on some reviewpages they writing about Silencer 5 rev.2 doesnt fit on some Sapphire x800 (but they dont tell wich one´s)

(I hope this is not to OT. because we are taking 3 sides about that strange GTO Revision.)

[stevorob]

Plus, the silencer pulls hot air out of the case... so it keeps case temps down a bit as well...

Ah I see... I have the layout that error_force has... red board with the same fan.

With a better quality pic, it may be possible to compare the cards side by side, to figure out if the screw holes on the silencer line up. My guess is that they are... the only thing different is the shape of the fan and the color of the board.

[SPYcorp]

Damn. The Silencer5 can´t fit.
I compared a installinstruction, where 5 holes are needed für Silencer incl. Ramsink.
Mine has just 2 mountingholes. wtf

http://img.techpowerup.org/060623/x800 back144.jpg

And also the factoryheadsink clash with a part of the card so its not plain.
What going on with Sapphire ?!? Low budged instead of Quality ?

P.S. Also the Silencer4 cant fit...... I think about turn that card back.
A retailer here got a special with already unlocked cards for same price i bought that sapphire

P.P.S. Is that Zalman ZF700 weight OK to fit it with 2 mountingholes (Nipples).
maybe its the last way out.

[error_f0rce]

P.P.S. Is that Zalman ZF700 weight OK to fit it with 2 mountingholes (Nipples).
maybe its the last way out.

:confused: I'm not sure if you mean the Zalman VF900-cu, but the 700 doesn't have dual heatpipes. Anywho, the VF900 WILL fit your card. If you want to send it back, go for it. If you want to mount the VF900, YES it mounts fine on 2 holes (same as mine) and is extremely light weight.

[SPYcorp]

ähmm. Typo. Mean VF-900cu.
I think i´ll spend that money for it and hope the best.
Because send my card back and order another i had to wait 1-2 weeks with TNT2 GFX again. And changing Heatsink was already plannen for OC. I hope i can raise more than 420MHz with better cooling.

[rf900]

dolf:

Sorry to bother you but could you give me a bios that puts my card back to 12 pipelines to see if I get lower temperatures.

Here are the details, and my current bios, thanks.

SPYcorp: if you buy the zalman please let us know how it goes ;)

http://img.techpowerup.org/060623/bios1.jpg
http://img.techpowerup.org/060623/bios2.jpg

[KJMach]

I need help tweaking my newely purchased Sapphire X800 GTO Fireblade 256mb PCI-E. Im not sure if i am able to unlock the 16 pipelines. I really want to flash it since it has the R480 core...

http://floorboardracing.net/bios.jpg

[stevorob]

I dont know if your card can be unlocked with those fuses... but since you have the R480 core, then you have super OCing potential.

[KJMach]

Yeah, i heard the pipes are cut for these cards. but with that R480, im thinking i can flash it pretty decently...

[sjcrew3]

hey to dolf or anyone that is expert in this area

i am new to this forum. i have been looking around for the 16pipes utility and finally came upon you expert here. i have a sapphire x800 gto with 12 pipes need to unlock to 16,i have attached my bios. hopefully you or anyone could help me, also maybe with instructions, too thanks in advance

[stevorob]

Post up a screenshot of your ATI Tool fuse configuration.

To do it, just hold shift and click settings, and it should show up on the menu.

[error_f0rce]

And while you're u/ling pics, why not post a picture of your card as well (from the manufac website is fine, as long as we can see the cooler & card). It seems people can no longer simply say Sapphire X800 GTO and have it mean the same thing. Interested to see if this one is my version, or SPYcorps'.

[KJMach]

And while you're u/ling pics, why not post a picture of your card as well (from the manufac website is fine, as long as we can see the cooler & card). It seems people can no longer simply say Sapphire X800 GTO and have it mean the same thing. Interested to see if this one is my version, or SPYcorps'.
Alright, why not a picture from my fresh install of my Zalman on my brand new card today :D
http://floorboardracing.net/g4.jpg

http://floorboardracing.net/g5.jpg

[KJMach]

I really need to flash this thing if possible. i wanna squeeze somemore benchmarks out of her. My current highest 3dmark05 score is 6606 with this ol girl cranked up to 626/637 (626/1274)

[stevorob]

We really need to see the fuse data in order to determine if the extra pipes can be unlocked... but to be honest, I don't think I remember seeing many people with the GTO Fireblade able to unlock those 4 extra pipes.

[KJMach]

We really need to see the fuse data in order to determine if the extra pipes can be unlocked... but to be honest, I don't think I remember seeing many people with the GTO Fireblade able to unlock those 4 extra pipes.
Thats ok, im mainly just wanting to Flash it to something better. Ex a 850 or something of that nature. anything with better stock settings or something
ill repost my fuse data:
http://floorboardracing.net/bios.jpg

[stevorob]

I guess we have to wait for dolf... I'm not sure if this one will unlock, but if it has to match the GTO's fuses, then it won't...

dolf can let you know for sure.

[SPYcorp]

Interested to see if this one is my version, or SPYcorps'.

He mentioned a PCIe Fireblade. So it can´t be "mine".

Bit interessting to see, the fireblade has all 5 mountingholes (also other layout than mine)
In another forum a user guessed my card is an outsourced x800XL wich dind´t reached the clocks for XL. But i dind´t find a pic of a Sapphire x800xl

[dolf]

Thats ok, im mainly just wanting to Flash it to something better. Ex a 850 or something of that nature. anything with better stock settings or something
ill repost my fuse data:
http://floorboardracing.net/bios.jpg

Unfortunately the number of pipes will remain 12. You can overclock it to the max. or even to voltmod the core to 1.5-1.6V (with 12 pipes you will reech higher core clocks than with 16 pipes).

[KJMach]

Unfortunately the number of pipes will remain 12. You can overclock it to the max. or even to voltmod the core to 1.5-1.6V (with 12 pipes you will reech higher core clocks than with 16 pipes).
Ok, thats alright then. Is there any way i can have you flash her to something better so i can achieve better clocks?

[rf900]

Tried the card on a big well ventilated case...

It was 50 on idle and 72 at load. The only thing is that it is an old socket A motherboard, with Agp x4 instead of x8. could this be the reason of the low temperatures?

dolf: anything about the bios? can I use the utility you provided us before to restore settings to 12 pipes?

[dolf]

Tried the card on a big