X800 Pro VIVO to XT PE Bios Mod

[djbbenn]

I still believe, that if you don't get the pipes after connecting them and flashing them, you stand no chance of getting them at all. I have seen numorous people do the mod to the PCI-E cards and only very few have succeeded. And the ones who did succeed, some had defective pipes, so they couldn't keep them. Sometimes you need to find a point where you just stop, before you wreck your card for good, and have none at all.

-Dan

[dolf]

Unfortunately you will not be able to unlock the pipes because you haven't xxxxfxxx in 990 register. :( You got xxxxexxx but not f in 5-th position. Looking 994 probably you haven't laser cut on the core. Am I right?

About pictures YES I do want them. (Back side can be very interesting because there are a lot resistors near core with posibility to be soldered on two places.) I am looking on my X800XT PE AGP and will try to make some resurch on this. After that I will post the results of course. ;) If you can also find from somewhere pictures of the back / front side of the same card but with 16 pipes it will be very usefull. :)

I do believe that the secret is hiden not in the core (laser cut is just additional locking method) but on the PCB. Please in connection with this see what is the Part Number of your PCB (left front side near fan connector, if should be something like: PN 109-Axxxxx-xx).
(Who knows maybe I can find something that slips out of the other people :cool: )

Thanks in advance for the support.

[dolf]

Please all the owners of X800PRO's (doesn't matter VIVO or not) and XT's to chech the resistor configuration on the back side of the PCB on the right side of the cooler holding-plate. There are 7 resistors (R339, 340, 337, 338, 341, 342, 576, 577, 580, 581, 582, 583, 578, 579) which have the following configuration on X800XT:

x=resistor, 1234567 - position number, - no resistor

1234567 R579
xx--x--
1234567
--xx-xx
1234567 R578

But on X800PRO I could see something else (it is posible to make mistake because of the picture that's why I want to check by your eyes.)

1234567 R579
xx-xx--
1234567
--x--xx
1234567 R578

I will attach the PRO picture with the checking area marked. Also I consider that it could be the key for unlocking the damn pipes :mad: .

Thanks to all for the support :)

[dolf]

Dil you are one lucky guy. After the last post to you and long night I solve the problem with the pipes unlocking. I will tell you what should be done with your card to unlock the pipes. Please send me the pictures of it and be patient few hours :D . Also I will need info about your core. Do it have laser cut?

[dil]

yes it does have a lazer cut on it and i will send the pic's to you, hopefully by tonight

[SANE]

I still believe, that if you don't get the pipes after connecting them and flashing them, you stand no chance of getting them at all. I have seen numorous people do the mod to the PCI-E cards and only very few have succeeded. And the ones who did succeed, some had defective pipes, so they couldn't keep them. Sometimes you need to find a point where you just stop, before you wreck your card for good, and have none at all.

-Dan


^I agree....I am one of the people who tired the mod....it didnt work...so I sent the card back and forked out a little more for the XT.

[duke21]

please help.
i ve tryed this mod: x800pro to x800pe. i have vivo version: i ve updated bios, windows recognize card like platinum, core and memory 520/560, but there are still 12pipelines. what i ve done wrong?

[dil]

I still believe, that if you don't get the pipes after connecting them and flashing them, you stand no chance of getting them at all. I have seen numorous people do the mod to the PCI-E cards and only very few have succeeded. And the ones who did succeed, some had defective pipes, so they couldn't keep them. Sometimes you need to find a point where you just stop, before you wreck your card for good, and have none at all.

-Dan

djbbenn dolf sane: it looks like i will be taking that advice. so much i could do to it before it would stop working thank you guys for helping me out.

[Unregistered]

Well, thanks to this forum I've turned my Club3d X800Pro VIVO into a fully fledged X800xt pe! complete with 16 pipes.
I also upgraded the cooler to a ATI arctic silencer 4 rev2
Here's the results:
Clock speed 520
Mem speed 560
Idle temp 40-42
Maximum temp under full load 62

Thanks everyone for your help.

[djbbenn]

please help.
i ve tryed this mod: x800pro to x800pe. i have vivo version: i ve updated bios, windows recognize card like platinum, core and memory 520/560, but there are still 12pipelines. what i ve done wrong?

Have you used the modified flashrom (http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/100/images/flashrom16p.zip) ?

-Dan

[Omniverse]

I followed the instructions in this guide to the letter and successfully unlocked all 16 pipelines on my ATI Radeon X850 Pro VIVO. I just wanted to thank the author of this thread for this nice FREE performance gain! :)

[duke21]

yes i used modified flashrom

[duke21]

i did it!!!
well it seems that i did not use modded rom:-)

[Cretin]

Just bought

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814121519

...i'm gonna do the mod....was looking for a suggestion on the bios...and about the Heat issue....why should there be an issue if the same type of cooling is used on the x800xt pe ?

[sin4me]

would be curious to know if you are able to flash this card successfully and unlock the 16 pipes, thanks.


Just bought

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814121519

...i'm gonna do the mod....was looking for a suggestion on the bios...and about the Heat issue....why should there be an issue if the same type of cooling is used on the x800xt pe ?

[bobyjo]

I purchased the Xtasy X800 XT last fall, (almost a year ago now and paid $492.50 del) I have upon occasion OC'ed the card to PE speeds, but I have not left it with that OC all the time. I decided on flashing the bios to a X800 XT PE bios and see if this works. The Xtasy X800 XT is the only bios listed under VisionTek brand. Since I already have this card, that would not help me at all. So I began looking for a X800XT PE bios that matches exactly in size and the X800 XT bios in my card. I found a match, under ATI's line of cards. I downloaded all the necessary files and made the floppy. I saved a copy of the old bios to the floppy. The first time I attempted to flash to the PE bios, I did get an error about the card ID was different than for the ATI bios. After studing about this for a few minutes. I did not see any problem in using the ATI bios. I flashed the bios again using the /f switch added to the command line. WALA the flash went perfect, all verification passed without a hitch. The card had to install the drivers all over again, when finished, it is ID'ed on the screen as IDE X800 XT Platinum Edition, this is for the primary and secondary both. I have played HL2 and MaxPayne2 last night for a couple hours without any serious problems. The only problem I have encountered is if I select restart from the desktop. The system will not restart, I have to turn off the power and then turn back on, then the system starts perfectly. If you can give me good info about that, please do.
ATI Tool shows the fan on the GPU running at 100% and the temp is steady at 41c. GOOD

[Battousai5000]

cause i saw somone who open it to 16 pipes !

see here :

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k3=4237367

and i just bought the PowerColor X800GT 256MB :)

[djbbenn]

I didn't think you could, that link makes no sense in the persons cpu either, they have a 2700MHz Athlon with a 201fsb...that doesn't work. Theres not even one thats stock at 2700. Plus I'd think his score would be way higher than it is. With my pro running 12p, and my Athlon at 2400 stock, and 512mb of ram I get a better score than him. It could be a PCI-E card flashed to a XT, cause sometimes they show up as GT's for some reason or another. Just my thoughts on this. :rolleyes:

-Dan

[Battousai5000]

all i know is OC ...
but i know nothting in pipes opening...
so exept OC i can't improve my card ?

thanks :)

[djbbenn]

Opening pipes is the best performance increase for such a simple task (sometimes). But overclocking will always help, and can give a big performance increase aswell. Depends on how much you overclock. ;)

-Dan

[bobyjo]

Here is an honest to goodness benchmark::

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k3=4009641

My specs are listed just as they should be for all components.

[djbbenn]

Nice bobyjo, now yours makes sense, but the other one has a 200fsb yet the cpu is running 2700MHz. :confused:

-Dan

[bobyjo]

Amen Bro

[Lunar Aura]

Just bought

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814121519

...i'm gonna do the mod....was looking for a suggestion on the bios...and about the Heat issue....why should there be an issue if the same type of cooling is used on the x800xt pe ?
I got the same card, flashed it to the Asus X800XT PE bios (edited with RaBIT to 500/500).

It runs XT PE speeds flawlessly but the card ran too hot for my tastes, so I'm leaving it at XT speeds by default.

Regarding your heat issue question, it's because not all cores are created equal. Some do XT PE speeds effortlessly (and are branded as XT PE's), some run slower (thus are branded XT's), and some have defective pipelines (disabled and then sold as X800Pros).

[bobyjo]

What temp did your card run at PE speeds?
I have flashed mine to PE and if I leave it at 520/560 my card core runs at 41-42c.

This is only about 81f.
I don't feel this is too warm. IMO::

[Battousai5000]

Can i open Pipes in my card ( Powercolor X800GT R480 Core) or not ? #_#

and if i do - how ? :P

thanks :)

[djbbenn]

Can i open Pipes in my card ( Powercolor X800GT R480 Core) or not ? #_#

and if i do - how ? :P

thanks :)

Are far as people know, no you can't.

-Dan

[MillerDuck]

Has anyone had any experience with this particular card? I am planning on trying the softmod, but wanted to know of any issues/pitfalls that anyone else ran into.

Thanks in advance,
MD

[djbbenn]

Theres probably a 95% chance that you can't mod it. It will have a laser cut (may not, but no one has heard of that before) and most of the PCI-E cards mess up by showing up as a GT and the pipes just don't unlock. You can hardmod, but it still prabably wont work. :(

-Dan

[MillerDuck]

Theres probably a 95% chance that you can't mod it. It will have a laser cut (may not, but no one has heard of that before) and most of the PCI-E cards mess up by showing up as a GT and the pipes just don't unlock. You can hardmod, but it still prabably wont work. :(

-Dan
Thanks for the info, I will post here with my results after I take a shot at it.

MD

[bobyjo]

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=8718993

This is the score of my system with the new flashed video card and the new Patriot XBLK memory.

Quite a bit of improvement over the std X800 XT and the Corsair Value Select Memory.
I am happy with this. Don't see any need to OC any farther.
I have had this board to 296x9 the other day.
The Corsair memory would not hold these settings for over a few hours, then began to reboot.
I checked the temps of the cpu=47c, the video card core=42c, have no idea what the temp of the memory was.
Anyway I have things pretty much the way I want them.

[k800]

have you done 3d mark 05 testing ?

as for the vivo pci-e thing, I tried the 16p pro bios, but no display on the monitor at all..
I will try the XT bios next, my card runs 3d mark 05 fine @ 500/500

Depending on the difficulty and danger I might check whether the pipes are actuall laser cut (?). Anyone have any advice on the removal of the heatsink?

[AceFactor]

Heat it up with a hair dryer, this will make the thermal turn into its liquid state :D

-Adam

[bobyjo]

I have ran 3DMark05 on the system prior to the new memory.
I have not ran it today.

[djbbenn]

Thanks for the info, I will post here with my results after I take a shot at it.

MD

Good luck man. ;)

-Dan

[k800]

I flashed my card to x800 xt. This time it booted up, however, it first recognized as x800 SE, and when I installed the drivers it said either x800 se or gt drivers would be compatible. I forced it to install the x800xt drivers, restarted, but it detected only 12 pipelines in rivatuner.. as predicted i guess. Clocks are 500/500. Tested and confirmed to be within ten points to the 3d Mark 05 performance of a overclocked x800 pro to 500/500.

MillerDuck this may be of some use to you since we are in the same situation


I will try now to look under the heatsink and spy the lasercut! ;)



k800

[MillerDuck]

Did you happen to get yours direct from ATI on their "REFURB" clearance? Mine is still in FedEx's hands. It only cost me $179 so I figure I can abuse it a little to try and make this work.

Hurry up FedEx!!

MD

[k800]

Yes, I did. Cool we will try to work together on this...

Although I couldn't get any video on the 16p pro bios, with the XT bios I was able to get into windows, though it did recognize as an SE or GT. So if you are flashing, be prepared to blind flash back, the flash utility has a nice chime that it plays through the speaker when its done, so that's nice.

[k800]

Millerduck, read this thread: http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=129374

especially the posts by the thread starter, underwind, i think, over the first two pages. What are then your results from his check using rivatuner?, I will post mine when I go home later today.

IOW do you have xxxxfxxx ?

[bobyjo]

My card was purchased from Visiontek.
The Xtasy X800 XT PE line was on backorder for over 6 months. After my order was in for over a month. I cancelled it and took a X800 XT instead.
I had that card within a week after changing the order.
I actually purchased this card for a customer. He got defiant over the fact it was not the PE version. This was after I called him and explained the situation to him.
He stated go ahead and order the card and call me when it arives.
Needless to say, I became a little agrivated and refused to give back the deposit he had put up on the card.
I had witness to verify my calling him and his agreement to take the non PE card.
When I confronted him over this, he threw a fit and stated this guy would agree to say anything for me.
This card cost us $492.50 including shipping to our shop. I flashed the bios to the XT PE version last week.
I do not feel bad over the flashing, the card is performing flawlessly before and after.

[k800]

So I guess that's that =/:

256-bit R423 (12x1) with 256MB DDR3 memory
Reg 00000990: eff37fff
Reg 00000994: fffff71e
Reg 0000099c: 00000660
Reg 0000402c: 000227a4

laser locked & an on-die lock according to Unwinder..

k800

[Unregistered]

have tried this mod on my X850 Pro VIVO and no success on the pipes, is a new card so not sure if it would work, but having flashed back to my original bios, I can not get the fan on the card to function atall, any ideas why?
thanks
iZonus

[bobyjo]

The card may be damaged.
I don't think the bios would have control over the fan as to wheather the fan runs or not.
I am sure there are controls over fan speeds and temp regulation, but as to the fan not even turning.
I think I would take it back to where you purchased it and exchange for a new one.

[Unregistered]

cheers, will look into it further and let you kno wat happens, thanks for the responce
iZonus

[MillerDuck]

I will post my RivaTuner results tonight as the card should be here and installed by then.

[Unregistered]

hey, iZonus here, I posted regarding the fan failure on my card post Bios swapping, well after looking into it a bit more, even after flashing an empty bios, and then my original card bios, under Sisoft Sandra's video system information it recognises the chipset as X850 Platinum Edition even though the bios and the chipset is actually X850 Pro, any ideas how I can return it to its proper state?
cheers.

[Zoors]

Looks great, but im unsure about one thing... I have a Club3D X800PRO VIVO and it has no bios in the list (want the XT PE) so what BIOS could I use, if I could?

[bobyjo]

Run ATI Flash -i this will download a copy of your present bios to the floppy disk.
Then look at the file and write down the size of the bios file.
Say if it is 54kb, then go to SapphireTech and find a new bios file that is 54kb and is a XT PE bios.
That bios will work with your card.

The reason I am suggesting Sapphire Tech, they make most of all the ATI Radeon cards out there. You may get an error about the ID does not match, if that happens then run atiflash biosfile -f.

If you are wondering what I ment by "biosfile", this is where you would type in the exact name of the bios file you are wanting to flash your card with.

This f forces the flash to finish on your card.

[iZonus]

would having used Flashrom instead of ATIFlash caused any problems? I can't see how as your merely just changing the bios file, Have tried a number of Bios files and to no evail, the fan still wont come back on, I have read somewhere that you can get problems with voltage peaks on the board fans, and that the motors can go, to save the hassle of returning the card, I have ordered a Zalman VF700CU and will go that route, was going to get an Arctic Cooling ATI V5 Rev2 Silencer, but it attaches to the cards fan socket, so thought I better not risk it, Thanks tho bobyjo for the advice etc. Kudos

[bobyjo]

I have never used flashrom, so I can't give any advise on that.
I always have used ATIFlash and never had a problem with anything.

[k800]

Hi,

bobyjo, does the size of the bios really matter? all the bioses I flashed varied in size with my original bios..

thanks, k800

[Unregistered]

Run ATI Flash -i this will download a copy of your present bios to the floppy disk.
Then look at the file and write down the size of the bios file.
Say if it is 54kb, then go to SapphireTech and find a new bios file that is 54kb and is a XT PE bios.
That bios will work with your card.

The reason I am suggesting Sapphire Tech, they make most of all the ATI Radeon cards out there. You may get an error about the ID does not match, if that happens then run atiflash biosfile -f.

If you are wondering what I ment by "biosfile", this is where you would type in the exact name of the bios file you are wanting to flash your card with.

This f forces the flash to finish on your card.


Thanks for the advice, bobyjo.

The flash did work, thanks w1zzard for that input!

Thow I have a strange problem...

When scanning for artifacts it ATITool says "Delta...bla bla... No Errors" and I got some yellow dot flickering around. This wont go away on any clockspeed, core or mem.

I have stock cooler, but I guess it doesnt have to do with temperature, as it shows up at around 40
C.

Now, playing Battlefield 2 is a boost. No artifacts whatsoever, but with 1600-1200 and all on high I get the normal FPS-tango.

Any idea about those yellow dots? Voltmod needed? My AGP is boosted up to 1.7, but it didnt make a diff.

And 3DMark05 did start up, and after the ballon escape from the monster, it froze. Cant use that. Will try the 03 instead.


Great work, man.

[Zoors]

Well the abov msg was from me... :)

[Unregistered]

Hey MillerDuck! What about the board? Is it R480 w/ 256MB DDR3??

I need to know if it is possible to activate those pipes, cause I might get one of those from PowerColor tomorrow...

Please try to make it work!

[djbbenn]

Thanks for the advice, bobyjo.

The flash did work, thanks w1zzard for that input!

Thow I have a strange problem...

When scanning for artifacts it ATITool says "Delta...bla bla... No Errors" and I got some yellow dot flickering around. This wont go away on any clockspeed, core or mem.

I have stock cooler, but I guess it doesnt have to do with temperature, as it shows up at around 40
C.

Now, playing Battlefield 2 is a boost. No artifacts whatsoever, but with 1600-1200 and all on high I get the normal FPS-tango.

Any idea about those yellow dots? Voltmod needed? My AGP is boosted up to 1.7, but it didnt make a diff.

And 3DMark05 did start up, and after the ballon escape from the monster, it froze. Cant use that. Will try the 03 instead.


Great work, man.


The yellow dots are showing you artifacts...but you say you don'y get any in BF2? Try changing the scanning method of Atitool, to more compatible/old method. Its under artifact scanning in settings. You may have defective pipes, but its weird you don't see any problems in BF2. Myabe try the Pro vivo 16P bios and see if that clears it up.

-Dan

[Tawton_Pro.uk]

im buying a x800pro tommorow ..... i wos wondering what is better a pro or XL ??? :p

[djbbenn]

Well if your not overclocking and not going to do the mod, the XL...if you want to makesure you have the 16p, the XL. If you want to overclock, the PRO, cause a good overclocked pro will beat a Xl even with 12p. And if you get a AGP PRO Vivo, you can try to mod it to a XT PE.

-Dan

[Unregistered]

Hey MillerDuck! What about the board? Is it R480 w/ 256MB DDR3??

I need to know if it is possible to activate those pipes, cause I might get one of those from PowerColor tomorrow...

Please try to make it work!

[djbbenn]

What is the card? More than one card uses that core and mem.

-Dan

[Zoors]

The yellow dots are showing you artifacts...but you say you don'y get any in BF2? Try changing the scanning method of Atitool, to more compatible/old method. Its under artifact scanning in settings. You may have defective pipes, but its weird you don't see any problems in BF2. Myabe try the Pro vivo 16P bios and see if that clears it up.

-Dan


Thanks for the reply, djbbenn

Yes it was much less of "Delta" errors with the old scanning mode. Now it can run for up to ten seconds b4 ne artys detected. And when it does, its 1 or 3 pixels. Seem to be like the BF2 experience. Not noticable. BTW BF2 runs in 1280x1024 2xAA half high half medium.. @ 100 fps !
Couldnt do that with unmodded x800PRO. W1zzard... ur my idol. :)

Now the clocks r 520/560 and idle temp on GPU is 43C with stock fan. (tempchip 36C)
But after a couple of minutes with the 2D artifacts scan, the computer freezes. Allthou BF2 can run forever at above resolution.

I see no need to do a voltmod, but I see a need to buy a aftermarket cooler. My current idea is either the Arctic Cooling ATI Silencer 4 OR Zalmans Fatal1ty FS-V7...

Any hint on whats the best one?


Update! : As I played around with AGP latency, and resetted it from 128 to 250, suddenly I have no artifacts at all.... Gone. They are history. Not even at XTPE default speeds.
But when I reset latency to initial 128... still no artifacts. The card appear to have bin muture in the process... No idea why.

And another thing. When running BF2 in X800PRO default clocks, the temp just goes down 2 or 3 degrees. Its high, around 70 - 75, but the difference is minor. Fan at 100%.
So with a ATI Silencer 4 I oughta bring the card to cousy bedwarmer temp... with dynamite power fps. This is brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.

[MillerDuck]

So I guess that's that =/:

256-bit R423 (12x1) with 256MB DDR3 memory
Reg 00000990: eff37fff
Reg 00000994: fffff71e
Reg 0000099c: 00000660
Reg 0000402c: 000227a4

laser locked & an on-die lock according to Unwinder..

k800

I get:
256-bit R423 (12x1) with 256MB DDR3 memory
Reg 00000990: eff3efff
Reg 00000994: fffff71e
Reg 0000099c: 00000861
Reg 0000402c: 00006e48

So according to unwinder's data, I'm hosed huh? Has anyone ever successfully completed this mod on a 990: xxxxexxx card?

Thanks,
MD

[bobyjo]

I am not on top of what you have done. Did you make your card unusable?
Did you save your original bios before you flashed the upgrade?
If you did, you can go back to the original bios very easy.

[k800]

afaik no

[Zoors]

would having used Flashrom instead of ATIFlash caused any problems? I can't see how as your merely just changing the bios file, Have tried a number of Bios files and to no evail, the fan still wont come back on, I have read somewhere that you can get problems with voltage peaks on the board fans, and that the motors can go, to save the hassle of returning the card, I have ordered a Zalman VF700CU and will go that route, was going to get an Arctic Cooling ATI V5 Rev2 Silencer, but it attaches to the cards fan socket, so thought I better not risk it, Thanks tho bobyjo for the advice etc. Kudos

Hey iZonus,

Isnt the 5 version of Arctic for another GPU?
My card seem to need the 4 version as I have the R420 GPU. Correct?

And I also wonder if it is impossible to use the old VGA Silencer of my unemplyed 9800PRO on this x800pro...

[iZonus]

Zoors, there are two lines of Arctic cooling solutions, one is the NV line (for nVidia GPUs) and the other is the ATI line (for ATI GPUs), according to their site (http://www.arctic-cooling.com/vga2.php?idx=61) the ATI Silencer 5 rev. 2 is compatible with the R420 (X800pro) but also yeah the 4 version is compatible with the R420, just not stated as compatible with the R480s. I would advise against using the 9800 Pro solution with your X800Pro, as it will likely not be effective enough, especially when overclocking, that's if your able to fit it atall. From my reading the best route to go is either with one of the Zalman solutions, or as you suggested the Arctic cooling ATI 4 (rev.2), to give better than stock cooling. Hope this has helped a bit, any more Qs just post.
iZonus

[iZonus]

Bobyjo, yeah I backed up my bios, and tried to restore it, seemed to work fine, but as I said think I have a dead fan, strange I know, but ah well, what can I do. The card is functioning fine, runs 3D fine, no artifacts but gets very hot very quickly, I have a pretty good cooling system in the system, so Iv got all the fans on max to keep it from dying on me, idles around 63degs. which isn't ideal, but shouldnt do any damage. Note for everyone though, when I hadn't noticed I had a problem with the fan, I presumed ATI Tool was reporting incorrectly, I hit temps over 110 degs. and had no artifacts or problems running 3dMark 05, although I wouldn't recommend running this hot for any period of time. Also X850PRO (PCI/e) softmodding does not seem to work, well not for me anyhow, stuck with 12pipes all the way no matter which bios Iv tried. Hope some of this infos handy to some of you guys.

[MillerDuck]

Bobyjo, yeah I backed up my bios, and tried to restore it, seemed to work fine, but as I said think I have a dead fan, strange I know, but ah well, what can I do. The card is functioning fine, runs 3D fine, no artifacts but gets very hot very quickly, I have a pretty good cooling system in the system, so Iv got all the fans on max to keep it from dying on me, idles around 63degs. which isn't ideal, but shouldnt do any damage. Note for everyone though, when I hadn't noticed I had a problem with the fan, I presumed ATI Tool was reporting incorrectly, I hit temps over 110 degs. and had no artifacts or problems running 3dMark 05, although I wouldn't recommend running this hot for any period of time. Also X850PRO (PCI/e) softmodding does not seem to work, well not for me anyhow, stuck with 12pipes all the way no matter which bios Iv tried. Hope some of this infos handy to some of you guys.


Check out this post in another thread, he claims his fan stopped too, but was able to get it going agian:

http://forums.techpowerup.com/showpost.php?p=33055&postcount=221

MD

[bobyjo]

You could purchase a new UGA cooler, and connect the fan header to a 12v lead from the powersupply.
I think the VGA Silencer that uses the 120mm fan actually uses this connection default.

[Zoors]

Zoors, there are two lines of Arctic cooling solutions, one is the NV line (for nVidia GPUs) and the other is the ATI line (for ATI GPUs), according to their site (http://www.arctic-cooling.com/vga2.php?idx=61) the ATI Silencer 5 rev. 2 is compatible with the R420 (X800pro) but also yeah the 4 version is compatible with the R420, just not stated as compatible with the R480s. I would advise against using the 9800 Pro solution with your X800Pro, as it will likely not be effective enough, especially when overclocking, that's if your able to fit it atall. From my reading the best route to go is either with one of the Zalman solutions, or as you suggested the Arctic cooling ATI 4 (rev.2), to give better than stock cooling. Hope this has helped a bit, any more Qs just post.
iZonus

Yeah, I noticed that version 5 was only for X800Pros with R430's (see this one: http://www.arctic-cooling.com/vga2.php?idx=61&data=7&disc= )

And, well if the 9800 does attach to the GPU it indded would be enuff as 9800 is way hotter than the X800. fain.

Thanks for reply anyway!


Anybody that has Zalmans fan-solution and a modded X800Pro that can report temperatures?
(That is the ATITool 3d image temperature vs idle.)
And those who have Arctic 4 or 5?


Club3D X800PRO (only flashmodded to Sapphire X800XTPE)

Idle at X800PRO clocks 475/450 (no 3D view): 42/35 degrees with stockfan at 80%

and running at X800PRO clocks 475/450 with
3D View and 277fpsAVG after about 5 minutes 77/48 degrees with stockfan at 100%

and running at X800XTPE clocks 520/560 with
3D View and 329 fpsAVG after about 5 minutes 84/51 degrees with stockfan at 100%

[Unregistered]

I have a powercolor X850 Pro VIVO it matches all the stats required for this mod, but i dont know how to make a back up of my bios, i am just getting into this stuff, and i realy want the extra pipelines because i bought this card to make it into a xt pe but im starting to feel real uncomferable doing this becasue i dont want to mess up. ive already over clocked my card to 540/560 and its running nice a cool (around 65-75 degrees while playing games in the 50's not playing games). will this mod work on the x850 pros? and is it pritty easy to do?

[dolf]

AGP or PCIx?

[Unregistered]

Pci

[Unregistered]

Pci
PCI Express 16x

[BigD6997]

I have a powercolor X850 Pro VIVO it matches all the stats required for this mod, but i dont know how to make a back up of my bios, i am just getting into this stuff, and i realy want the extra pipelines because i bought this card to make it into a xt pe but im starting to feel real uncomferable doing this becasue i dont want to mess up. ive already over clocked my card to 540/560 and its running nice a cool (around 65-75 degrees while playing games in the 50's not playing games). will this mod work on the x850 pros? and is it pritty easy to do?

i just became a member so i can get updates on this thread, it is a PCI x. it handles the xt pe 's clock speeds 540/590 it could go higher just i have a very badly ventiated case and dont want it to get to hot, put i am getting a power color heatblaster pci fan that should help. ive read the Guide to Video BIOS flashing, but the Boot Sector Image Link does not work for my usb card, and im not sure hot to make a back up of my cards bios. Will the flash work on the x850 pro to give it the extra pipelines and flash it to the x850 xt pe. the manufactuer is Powercolor

thanks

[dolf]

About BIOS save you can choose between flashrom, atiflash or ATITool (I think that it is easier to use the last). Install ATITool and start it. Go to "settings", chose "MISCELLANEOUS" from the fall-down menue on the top. Press "BIOS dump" button. You will have the BIOS dump in the ATITool's directory. Save it on few other places just in case.

At present you will probably not succeed to unlock the last 4 pipes but you can try. (If your card accidentally is dual DVI PRO you will have much much higher chance :confused: ).

Please stay online because I am working on something and probably I will need some information related with R480 cards.

Success and post whatever the results you obtain.

[Tawton_Pro.uk]

Yes im gettin a x800pro agp vivo djbbenn for 170£ (English Pounds) ;)

[dolf]

Great, AGP yessssssssss you probably will have XT PE easy. Just for our information could you please run ATItool, press "settings" button and "shift" and show us what do to have about fuses (bottom of the window ;).

[djbbenn]

Yes im gettin a x800pro agp vivo djbbenn for 170£ (English Pounds) ;)

Nice, you can mod it to a X800XTPE. Just hope you don't have defective pipes. ;)

-Dan

[BigD6997]

now that i made a copy of the bios on my card, how do i get the video bios onto my usb flash drive when i type in the mbtk and all that stuff into my comand prompt it doesnt recongnise it

[Unregistered]

hiho.. i flashed my bios of the x800pro iceq II and now the computer wont start.

i found some good ideas on the internet for reflashing the backup, the blind flash i cannot do, cause the computer dont start up with the x800 card in.

now i get a pci video card to boot up from them and reflash the x800 in dos. now the problem:

i cannot go to dos when i`ve both cards in... the first init thing in bios is set to pci but the computer doesn't really start up, i see a little bit of the start screen but the bios beep from the motherboard dont comes.

whats the problem? do i have to change some more settings in the bios!?

thx 4 help.. and sorry for my bad english -> swiss ;-)

[djbbenn]

Try taking the AGP card out and boot with the just the PCI card. Then put the AGP card back in. It works for some people.

-Dan

[Unregistered]

i tried this but nothing happens...

or do you mean to plug in the card while the pc's running?

[djbbenn]

No don't put the AGP card in while its running, it could damage something. Althought someone did that once and it caused the card to be reconised, but it was a different situation than yours.

When you say the computer doesn't start up, do you mean it doesn't boot at all, or just no screen?

-Dan

[Unregistered]

the computer don't start... in one computer i see the bios screen but only the cpu clock and ram then nothing goes on.
at once i started the bios screen comes full and before the system goes to the disk to boot it comes black and on the left upper side appears a blinking " _ " and nothing goes on.. but this don't happen again-

i just test the option that the bios continue if an error appears.. but the same thing

in the other computer the screens black and nothing beeps.

[djbbenn]

Hmm, not good. So will it boot with no PCI card, like just the X800? I know you said its a black screen, but if you have the floppy in the drive it might just boot. Sorry i'm not much help, but theres not much you can do but just keep trying different combinations.

-Dan

[Unregistered]

the pc boots up when i've only the pci card in..!! no problems, and also when i put my old 9600xt card in the agp slot (without the pci) it works.. so the problem must be on the x800 card.

the dos startdisk works, i testet it with the pci card in (without the x800).

[djbbenn]

I remember when a guy had a problem...the guy I mentioned before. Now that I got a better understanding for your problem, his seems very simular. What he did was stick the AGP card into the slot when the computer was on...that was at boot I believe. He did it, cause the card wasn't working at all, so he said might aswell try, cause theres nothing to loose. It worked too, the card was reconised and he did the flash with the PCI card. I still don't recommend doing it, but if you feel your at a point where you might aswell try, well try. But I would use that as a last resort, cause it could damge the card more than it is, or the main board. I know thats not much help... :(

-Dan

[Unregistered 1]

I just got my card back from RMA today and find that it is a completely new card. The serial and part numbers don't match up to what I did have when it was sent. I knew my old memory was the 1.6 memory but how can I tell what this new memory is? I took these numbers off the chips

Samsung 422
K4J55323QF - GC16
AWD236PAS

Now I am not positive the Q is a Q or an O It is pretty hard to tell even under magnification.

[djbbenn]

Its 1.6ns... GC16 stands for 1.6.

-Dan

[Unregistered]

no problem.. im very happy about your help..! :-)

hmm its very weird.. now im on the 3rd and last computer in our house ;-)
now i know that i can start windows when i put first the 9600xt in and boot, shut down... put the x800 and the pci in and then i can start windows.. but not dos -> then appear the blinking " _ " in the edge..

now i make the dos bootdisk new and test it again.. if i have the pci card not in, i can flash blind, the dos starts.. but there comes a error (i hear it on the speaker) but i cannot see whats the error is, i want to save the bios again in a file (blind) and then i looked in windows to find the generated file, but the file isnt here.. i think the computer cannot see the x800 and make no backup.

now i try it with the new dos startup disk and post again :-) hope im lucky

[djbbenn]

What are you typing to flash the bios to the card?

-Dan

[Cally]

Its 1.6ns... GC16 stands for 1.6.

-Dan


Good to know thank you.

Now I have never flashed a video card bios before and am a bit nervous about doing it. I have flashed the MB bios once and that went ok. I downloaded the xt bios and the modified flashrom program. So I am guessing I copy the modified flashrom program to a floppy along with the xt bios and boot up the computer? Do I need to make a bootup disc on the same floppy? Does it make any difference what I rename the new bios?
I apologize if these questions had been asked before. I did read through the forums posts and didn't find all the information about this to feel comfortable. I sure hate to screw up a brand new card if I do this wrong.

[Unregistered]

so i've tested it again with the new bootdisk.. no succsess.. :-( i think i fucked up the card, but dont know how.

tomorrow i will contact the online shop where i buyed it and maybe they make it free, and if not, i pay something.. i think this is cheaper than a new card.

thx for your help!! and i've you have a idea again, write it, i will try :-)

greez nicus

[Unregistered]

ah.. this i write to flash:

flashrom -p -f 0 old.bin

and to save

flashrom -s 0 save.bin

greez nicus

[Unregistered]

I tried to modify my powercolor x850 pro vivo PCIE with 3 different bios' Still not luck, it can handle the extra speed for about 30 mins then I have to underclock it. What a damn shame no one pays attention to the x850 series. Guess ill stick to my crudy 12 pipelines :(

[Zoors]

I would advise against using the 9800 Pro solution with your X800Pro, as it will likely not be effective enough, especially when overclocking, that's if your able to fit it atall.


Hey folks,

I just took off the stock fan from my X800PRO (flashed to sapphire XTPE) and guess what?

It cooled off the card pretty ok! To do a quick compare...

Running a BF2 Session, before and after, I came upp with the following:
(I have another post where I compare the PRO default clocks and the ATITool 3D screeen)


Battlefield2 peak temperatures GPU/GPU Environment during a looong session.
================================================== =======

Fan...........................Clocks.............. ...............................Temps

Stock PRO..................Earlier Profile "Stable" = 500/540......73.4 / 47

VGA Silencer..............The XTPE Profile = 520/560................60 / 48
(for 9800)



Interestin, huh?
Did the 9800 Arctic Cooling "VGA silencer" fit? Yes.

But... The fan goes opposite direction, sucking outside cool air into the GPU and further into the PC.
Tryed to swap polarities, but then fan didnt wanna move.
And fan speed is on max all times. (Like I allways had on the 9800)
The fan contact did fit even as it was not 3 but 2 pin. Just check the colors and press it in.
So... the PC oughta be hotter inside, you might say. Nope. Idle temp are still 26 for the mobo.

So I prooved it work. But I will anyway buy the ATI Silencer soon as possible. But, hey, no rush! =)

[Unregistered]

Hey folks,

I just took off the stock fan from my X800PRO (flashed to sapphire XTPE) and guess what?

It cooled off the card pretty ok! To do a quick compare...

Running a BF2 Session, before and after, I came upp with the following:
(I have another post where I compare the PRO default clocks and the ATITool 3D screeen)


Battlefield2 peak temperatures GPU/GPU Environment during a looong session.
================================================== =======

Fan...........................Clocks.............. ...............................Temps

Stock PRO..................Earlier Profile "Stable" = 500/540......73.4 / 47

VGA Silencer..............The XTPE Profile = 520/560................60 / 48
(for 9800)



Interestin, huh?
Did the 9800 Arctic Cooling "VGA silencer" fit? Yes.

But... The fan goes opposite direction, sucking outside cool air into the GPU and further into the PC.
Tryed to swap polarities, but then fan didnt wanna move.
And fan speed is on max all times. (Like I allways had on the 9800)
The fan contact did fit even as it was not 3 but 2 pin. Just check the colors and press it in.
So... the PC oughta be hotter inside, you might say. Nope. Idle temp are still 26 for the mobo.

So I prooved it work. But I will anyway buy the ATI Silencer soon as possible. But, hey, no rush! =)

Not having great luck with the longevity of the AC coolers I am buying the Zalman VF 700 CU next week. I have had 2 AC silencers "wear" out on me. One started making noise upon bootup and the other just plain got too noisy and finally quit running. I thought this time out I would try a different approach to cooliing. The cost is aobut the same for either product.

[Cally]

Before I get myself into trouble I need to know if I only put the flashrom and the new bios on the floppy or do I need some other files for dos?

Is the flashrom program specific enough in its running so I will know what to type and when to type it?

Does it matter what I rename the new bios file to before I copy it onto the floppy?

Should I use the modified Flashrom or the ATI one?

[djbbenn]

You need to make the disk bootable. After that just put the bios, and the flashrom on the disk. You have to rename the bios fiel to 8 letters or less. So call it it "newbios.bin" for example. Use the modified flashrom, the ATI one preserves pipes settings so it wont enable the extra pipes. Make sure you save the orginal bios.

-Dan

[bobyjo]

IMO::I recommend that you use "ATIFLASH", I have never used Flashrom so I can't say anything about it.

If you use atiflash this would get the flash done. Copy atiflash and the bios you want to use to a floppy disk. Be sure this is a boot disk. Does not matter what OS it boots to, as long s it is pure dos.

Boot on the disk,

type atiflash -p 0 -r bios file
atiflash -i copies your original bios to the floppy disk.

where I typed bios file, you would use the dir command and write down the exact dos name of the new bios. Then type that name in there. IE::X800XT_040624.bin just for example. All bios files differ in thier exact name.

I know nothing about any pipes etc. So if you have issues with the pipes. I can't help you there.

[djbbenn]

I recommend the modified one, becuase a lot of people have problems with the Atiflash not enabling the extra 4 pipes. The modified one was designed for this mod. But if Atitflash works, sure use it, but if it doesn't use the modified one.

-Dan

[Cally]

You need to make the disk bootable. After that just put the bios, and the flashrom on the disk. You have to rename the bios fiel to 8 letters or less. So call it it "newbios.bin" for example. Use the modified flashrom, the ATI one preserves pipes settings so it wont enable the extra pipes. Make sure you save the orginal bios.

-Dan

That helps a great deal thank you.

[Zoors]

Not having great luck with the longevity of the AC coolers I am buying the Zalman VF 700 CU next week. I have had 2 AC silencers "wear" out on me. One started making noise upon bootup and the other just plain got too noisy and finally quit running. I thought this time out I would try a different approach to cooliing. The cost is aobut the same for either product.

Great, then maybe you could post your temps and clocks?
I have not decided yet =)

Oh, and the fan does change speed. Its so damn quiet that I didnt hear any difference.
Its controlled by pulse width modulation from the X800, and that explains it. There is a third wire on the stock fan, and I guess its for measuring rpm's. On 9800 silencer its just 2 wires.

And I saw the problem with noisy rev 1 of Arctic Cooling ATI Silencer.
My opinion is that they should replace all sold products, asit is a factory defect.- They used a wrong component in the fan, that didnt "survive its duty". The component, a capacitor, job was to just reduce noise, and as it blew, it didnt do its job. So on rev 2 silencers, it has a higher voltage rating.
AC is responsible for that, and Im surprised that people take that sh**.

ANyway the methode to hear the fan speed change is to gently touch the fan with the very tip of your fingerip. Then you can hear the fan frequency louder.

Would be nice to see what your new Zalman does about temps. My CPU all cupper Zalman "flower" heatsink is a total success in my system. But AC is a much quieter solution, I think with th encapsulated fan. Did u know that the police buys Eurocopters because their rear rotots are encapsulated the same way? And the reason is that those choppers gives MUCH lower noise.

[Zoors]

Club3D X800PRO (only flashmodded to Sapphire X800XTPE)

Idle at X800PRO clocks 475/450 (no 3D view): 42/35 degrees with stockfan at 80%

and running at X800PRO clocks 475/450 with
3D View and 277fpsAVG after about 5 minutes 77/48 degrees with stockfan at 100%

and running at X800XTPE clocks 520/560 with
3D View and 329 fpsAVG[/B] after about 5 minutes 84/51 degrees with stockfan at 100%


This test was a flashed Club3D X800PRO with stockfan, using the sapphire bin.

Now, I also moved over the old Arctic Cooling VGA Silencer for the previous 9800Pro card.
Heres the temp results, and I added an OC value, just to show the temps of that:
(old values and temp gain in paranthesis)


Club3D X800PRO (only flashmodded to Sapphire X800XTPE) with old AC VGA Silencer (9800)

Idle at X800PRO clocks 475/450 (no 3D view): 35/34 (42/35 gain=7/1) degrees with AC VGA Silencer at 80%

and running at X800PRO clocks 475/450 with
3D View and 287 (277, gain=10) fpsAVG after about 5 minutes 63/52 (77/48, gain=14/-4) degrees with AC VGA Silencer at 100%

and running at X800XTPE clocks 520/560 with
3D View and 345 (329, gain=16) fpsAVG after about 5 minutes 67/55 (84/51, gain=17/-4) degrees with AC VGA Silencer at 100%

(and running at OC clocks 550/580 with
3D View and 362 fpsAVG after about 5 minutes 68/56 degrees with AC VGA Silencer at 100%
(However... here the computer frooze. Clearly indicating that a Voltage mod is required. Temp is obvioulsy not the problem.)


Conclusion. The stock fan is about 4 degrees better for environment temp. However this diff is neglectable. The old 9800 Arctic Cooling VGA Silencer really does its job. In any case, a voltage mod is required to go higher than the XTPE defaults. I am altough very grateful for coming so far so easy. Next step is to buy the correct silencer and do the Voltage mod for the GPU.

3DMark03 Benchmark: 12341 3DMark03 result (http://service.futuremark.com/servlet/Index?pageid=/orb/projectdetails&projectType=10&projectId=4276007)

[Unregistered]

Does this work with PCI-E models too?

[bobyjo]

The temps of your vga card with the pe bios are almost identical to mine.
I flashed back to the original bios due to, I felt excessive heat.
I am led to believe that thse temps are OK, then.
I probably will go back to the pe bios.
I have replaced two fans in my case to increase air flow.
That should help. BJ

[Zoors]

The temps of your vga card with the pe bios are almost identical to mine.
I flashed back to the original bios due to, I felt excessive heat.
I am led to believe that thse temps are OK, then.
I probably will go back to the pe bios.
I have replaced two fans in my case to increase air flow.
That should help. BJ


I finally went and purchased an Arctic Cooling ATI Silencer 5 rev2.
I am very happy with it, as it includes memory chip cooling, that is really needed.
Heres an outprint from the log during a session of Battlefield 2, video settings on HIGH, and 1280x1024 screen resolution. The card is now max OC'd with help of ATITool, and I allways reduce -20 mhz from the "craschvalue": core 561 memory 600 (craschvalues 581/620mHz)

Note: A also did the Voltage mod (http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/overclocking/voltmods/101). I used a 10k resistor to make my core VCore 1.45V, and used pecil to get the VMEM and the VDDQ maximum as in the text. I left the IGPU current limiting alone, as I feel comfortable at this temp level, dont want a higher Core speed now.



2005-09-25 03:55:09 Temperature: GPU: 56.6°C GPU environment: 48.0°C
2005-09-25 03:55:19 Temperature: GPU: 56.5°C GPU environment: 48.0°C
2005-09-25 03:55:29 Temperature: GPU: 56.5°C GPU environment: 48.0°C
2005-09-25 03:55:39 Temperature: GPU: 56.4°C GPU environment: 48.0°C
2005-09-25 03:55:49 Temperature: GPU: 56.1°C GPU environment: 48.0°C
2005-09-25 03:55:59 Temperature: GPU: 57.4°C GPU environment: 48.0°C
2005-09-25 03:56:09 Temperature: GPU: 56.5°C GPU environment: 48.0°C
2005-09-25 03:56:19 Temperature: GPU: 56.6°C GPU environment: 48.0°C
2005-09-25 03:56:29 Temperature: GPU: 57.0°C GPU environment: 48.0°C



I think its just beautiful :cool:


Thanks again W1zzard, Urlyin and all you guys that made this possible.

[djbbenn]

Looks good Zoors. ;)

-Dan

[Cally]

I screwed up like I was afraid I would. I am not real good at these things and I was afraid I would make an error that would screw up my card this is what I did.
I get a red flashing error message That says ERROR 0FL0I file open error.
First I copied my current bios with ATI Tool and saved it both on the floppy and in a folder.
I made a bootable floppy disc, put the flashrom file and the Sapphire x800xt pe bios I needed on the disc, plus the original bios.
I changed the new bios to Sap.x800xt.bin
I rebooted the computer and the floppy kicks in. I type in flashrom.exe and it runs. Then I type in f
flashrom -p o ( that's O not zero) and sap.x800t.bin. When it stopped I got the message.
So I retried typing Flashrom -p 0 (Zero this time not O) sap.x800xt.bin
Again I got the error message. I ran dir command and see the new bios labeleld as sapx800~1Bin So like the fool I am I typed flashrom -p 0 (Zero ) sapx80~1.Bin
Still I get the error message.

The card is still in the machine and the machine is still running I have not and will not shut it down until I am sure I have corrected this problem.

Can Someone Please help me get out of this mess I made for myself? And please be very specific on what I do so I can understand it all. Thanks

*Edit* I see one thing I did was not make the bios name to 8 characters, mine is nine I will rename it then.

[djbbenn]

It didn't flash, flash using this command "flashrom -f -p 0 bios.bin" Put the name of your bios where it says bios.

-Dan

[Cally]

It didn't flash, flash using this command "flashrom -f -p 0 bios.bin" Put the name of your bios where it says bios.

-Dan

Is the O in front of the bios an O or a Zero?
Ok I renamed the new bios to s.x800xt.bin.
So this is how the line should look before I hit enter: Flashrom -f -p 0 (zero) s.x800xt.bin?

[djbbenn]

Yes it is zero. Try renaming the bios to like 'xt.bin", something simple.

-Dan

[Cally]

Yes it is zero. Try renaming the bios to like 'xt.bin", something simple.

-Dan


Ok Here are the results:
I got this message after doing the last command
Serial Rom
Bios DeviceID = 0x4A50
ASIC = 0x4A49
Exsisting SSID = 0x0002
New SSID = 0x1576
Existing Bios P/N = 113-A26107-103
New Bios P/N = 113-AA15901-101
Flashtype = ST M25P05/C
65536 of 65536 bytes verified.

I don't know if it has been said here before But you are a genius! You saved a darn fool and made him look like a hero. THANK YOU Very Much!

So I take out the floppy and reboot? I already increased the fan speed to 100% through ATI Tool for the reboot.

[djbbenn]

Yes you just take the floppy out and rebout. If you get a blank screen, just do a blind flash or with a PCI card so you can see, and flash your old bios back on there.

Ps: I am no genuis, I'v just done this a bunch of time, and I learnt it form W1zzard. ;)

-Dan

[Cally]

Yes you just take the floppy out and rebout. If you get a blank screen, just do a blind flash or with a PCI card so you can see, and flash your old bios back on there.

Ps: I am no genuis, I'v just done this a bunch of time, and I learnt it form W1zzard. ;)

-Dan

All I know is you helped me out and I really appreciate it. I rebooted uninstalled the drivers, booted into safe mode and used driver cleaner, rebooted and reinstalled the 5.9's. When the computer settled down I checked ATI Tool and it showed 16 pipes core running 520 memory running at 560. I checked CCC and it shows a X800XT PE card in the slot. The card temps are running 41 idle with the stock cooler on it. In 2 weeks I will install a better cooler and see what changes.
I never would have tried the mod without this forum. Modding is just not something I am even close to being good at. I get very nervous and tense when it comes down to actually doing the mod. Before that I had convinced myself I could pull it off. If I hadn't read all the positive posts by those that did the mod effortlessly I wouldn't have done it. But now WOW it is exhilarating to know that this can be done and what you have when you are finished. WOOT! Thanks again!

[djbbenn]

Did you try a game to make sure you have no defective pipes yet?

-Dan

[Cally]

Did you try a game to make sure you have no defective pipes yet?

-DanNo not yet later tonight I will. How will I know any are defective?

[djbbenn]

Trust me, you'll know. But if nothing seems to be wrong, your good and you have yourself a X800XTPE. ;)

-Dan

[Cally]

Trust me, you'll know. But if nothing seems to be wrong, your good and you have yourself a X800XTPE. ;)

-Dan

I think I know what you were trying to say. I couldn't run Gothic 2 or D3 without it crashing, freezing, or artifacts.
What I did next was reflash the bios to the original one. Then I ran ATI Tool and found max core which was 510.75 & max mem which was 570.86. I don't know anything about this stuff but it seems the core is the problem not being able to reach XT PE requirements?
I played around with the core/mem settings and found the card would be stable at the normal XT speeds. I downloaded that bios and reflashed the card. I can play D3 and the other games without a hitch. I didn't get a PE out of it but I did get a XT how can I complain?

[BigD6997]

ive heard some sucesses with the x800 but i havnt heard any with the x850, i have the 850pro and realy want to do this but i dont want to screw it up. does this work with the powercolor x850pro?

[bobyjo]

I don't think there would be any problem with the X850 Vivo Pro going to the XT pe version flash.
I think you should go to the bios page and download the proper bios you need for your card.
The X850 bios is listed on the page. Just follow the same instructions as the X800.

[Unregistered]

But what bios do you pick? I know your supposed to match 1.6 mem with 1.6 mem but does manufacturer matter?

If i have an ASUS x800 pro vivo do I use ASUS x800 xt pe bios? This is the last step i need clarification on before i do my flashing :)

[bobyjo]

But what bios do you pick? I know your supposed to match 1.6 mem with 1.6 mem but does manufacturer matter?

If i have an ASUS x800 pro vivo do I use ASUS x800 xt pe bios? This is the last step i need clarification on before i do my flashing :)

That would be the best option.
Any X800 XT pe bios that matches the size of your bios will work without problems.

[Overfusion]

Hi i am a new italian member :)

I would want to buy the x850pro VIVO PCI-E by Sapphire, because in Italy I have found her to an exceptional price of 245 €.
I wanted know if will be possible to mod in X850XT PE, and if it is worthwhile to sell my X800XL to buy the X850pro Vivo@XT

Thanks!
Excuse me for my english :(

[Bull_Mastiff]

Hey guys...I have read this forum till my eyes are bleeding.
I've got a Sapphire X800 pro vivo...i used the X800 xt bios provided from this site...and the modded flash program. When i boot up im getting x800GT card recognition and card at 500/500. No real frame rate increase with ati tool..actually think its a bit lower...also getting spotted graphics in Americas Army till i turn it down to 475/450....ati still showing 12 pipes...tried uninstalling card and reinstalling...no avail...Q. Voltage in bios next step? Im at aggravatyion level 9/10...HELP ME HELP ME....IM IN NEED OF HORSEPOWER

[k800]

BERY BERY GOOD CHANCE U HAVE ON-DIE locked, or 'laser-cut' locked pipes. IF you have really read this forum you should know what to do.. here's a reminder:

http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=5367

using this as a reference:

http://forums.techpowerup.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=724

^ if you don't have an 'F' in the fifth character after the 'x' on the CONFIG_DIE_FUSES (i.e. 0xXXXXFXXX) line then you have on-die locks for which so far there are no solutions and your stuck with overclocking.

if you don't have an 'F' in the final character of the CONFIG_SUBSTRATE_FUSES line then you have a laser-cut on the chip which needs to be connected, called by some a laser-lock.

You may have a combination of locks, any of which will prevent solely a bios flash from unlocking the extra pipes.

[Bull_Mastiff]

Will check...didnt see this info...thanks for the help.

Moochose grassy azz amigo

[ShaTR]

OK, so i in all these 63 pages of discussion, has anyone successfully modded an X800 Pro VIVO PCI-E card?????????????????????

Please, somebody give me good news

[djbbenn]

Very and I mean very few have. And the ones that did get them unlocked, where on the first PCI-E cards. All the new seem to have on-die locks.

-Dan

[ShaTR]

well, i got my refurb off ATI, so it might be an old one. so ill give it a shot still. thx for the reply djbbenn :)

[lazyparrott]

You gotta love ATI for allowing this to even be possible, and thank you very much for showing us how to do this awesome mod TechPoweUp! I got my ATI Radeon X850 PRO turned it into an X850 XT! I put a blower under the card which helps cooling a lot, keeps it on 38C on idle and no more than 60C full load on a warm day. 3dMark03 on the Pro - 10656 and on the XT - 12025. Thanks again! ATI 4 Life!

[Unregistered]

Ok Here is my issue i check to make sure my sapphire x800 pro would run at 800 xt pe speeds and it did so i did the flash and to gigabyte first for the 16 pipelines and it worked then steped it up to the x800xt pe and again sucess. got a 71,000 on auqa mark and a 6000 on PC mark 05. It was great for bench marks. Then i started to play my games i play a MMOPG and i have to run to instence of the game at one time on my computer well i could play for 15 minutes and then the video card would crap out. I figured this is understandable at the speed i had the card at so i tryed to trun down the GPU and MEM using the ATI tool. Well it droped me down to 45,000 on aquamark where before i did anything to my card i was getting 65,000 so i was like hmmm..... i will reflash my bios and go to a x800xt or a x800pro with 16 pipelines flash. I tried this frist flash for the x800xt and my computer would boot, post, begin loading windows, and then hand up and restart. i have since tried everything from the gigabyte flash, x800xt pe, and the backup.bin i made as well. Any one have a sugestion? this is confussing and hopeing im not out a card ;-/ Let me know what you think. Thanks

[lazyparrott]

Ok Here is my issue i check to make sure my sapphire x800 pro would run at 800 xt pe speeds and it did so i did the flash and to gigabyte first for the 16 pipelines and it worked then steped it up to the x800xt pe and again sucess. got a 71,000 on auqa mark and a 6000 on PC mark 05. It was great for bench marks. Then i started to play my games i play a MMOPG and i have to run to instence of the game at one time on my computer well i could play for 15 minutes and then the video card would crap out. I figured this is understandable at the speed i had the card at so i tryed to trun down the GPU and MEM using the ATI tool. Well it droped me down to 45,000 on aquamark where before i did anything to my card i was getting 65,000 so i was like hmmm..... i will reflash my bios and go to a x800xt or a x800pro with 16 pipelines flash. I tried this frist flash for the x800xt and my computer would boot, post, begin loading windows, and then hand up and restart. i have since tried everything from the gigabyte flash, x800xt pe, and the backup.bin i made as well. Any one have a sugestion? this is confussing and hopeing im not out a card ;-/ Let me know what you think. Thanks




OK, in your post u stated u have a Saphire card, then inputed a Gigabyte bios...... honestly im not an expert but that doesnt sound safe. I heard using empty.bin then inputing your backup bios solves issues and puts the card back in its original state. Well goodluck. If anything, if u can try sending the card back to the store or site u got it from for another one, just act dumb like u dont know why but its not workin right. I know for a fact BestBuy has a 14 day return policy and will exchange the card with no probs, i know cuz i messed up my first X850 pro -_-, but got a new one ^_^. if all fails and the card still acts up after using empty.bin then inputing the backup bios u made, send it to ATI with the backup bios in it. well goodluck again!

[bobyjo]

It doesn't matter which bios from which make card you use as long as it matches the card you wish to flash.
If you were able to run these benchs with no problems, then there should have been no problems in games.
Benchmarks is where the problems usually become visable. If the benchmarks do well, there is not a reason that the games do not run.
Did you go into the game settings and make sure that they were set properly?
It does not matter on iota if you have a Sapphire card and flash it with a Gigabyte bios.
I would have used the Sapphire bios since they have more bios than anyone else.
Sapphire makes virtually all the ATI video cards anyway.
Flash back to the origianl bios, check the card and see if your games will play properly. Then go to the Sapphire bios and pick out a X800 XTpe bios that matches your card.
I did this and I have no problems at all.
My original bios was 55kb. I matched this with a Sapphire pe bios of 55kb and flashed using that bios, both were for 1.6 memory chips.
As far as I know these are the only checks that need to be made.
There are several persons that flashed from a 55kb bios to a 57kb bios and all is working well.
I am just telling you what I do before I flash.

Since you flashed from the OEM bios to a 16pipe bios, then up to the pe bios, this may be a problem. If I were you I would only flash one time to what you want to run.

[lazyparrott]

well I guess it is logical for it to be possible to be able to put a Gigabyte bios on a saphire card. But at the same time, why bother having different bios' from and for different brand cards? Not to say your wrong, I do agree with your theory, but at the same time its best to be safe. But if it is infact perfectly healthy and harmless to grab one bios from one brand like Gigabite and slab it on a Radeon or saphire per-say, this can open doors to other possibilities now and maybe in the future. Very interesting......

[bobyjo]

Since Sapphire is the largest mfg of ATI video cards, yes he could have found a Sapphire bios for X800XT pe bios and flashed that bios to his card.
As long as he matches the bios to his card.
This is not saying the Gigabyte bios would not work.
I think he should read my prior post and pay close attention to what I asked and stated there.

[bobyjo]

well I guess it is logical for it to be possible to be able to put a Gigabyte bios on a saphire card. But at the same time, why bother having different bios' from and for different brand cards? Not to say your wrong, I do agree with your theory, but at the same time its best to be safe. But if it is infact perfectly healthy and harmless to grab one bios from one brand like Gigabite and slab it on a Radeon or saphire per-say, this can open doors to other possibilities now and maybe in the future. Very interesting......

The simple fact is that some cards do not have a X800 XTpe bios listed by thier mfg.
My Xtasy card is made (sold under the Visiontek brand)
There is no pe bios listed for this card.
So I must have to find a bios that will match my card.
It was just that I picked the Sapphire bios for my card.
I could have picked any of a large number of other cards.
I just preferred the Sapphire due to the fact they make such a super product.

[lazyparrott]

Cool, i totally understand now, and WOW you respond faster than lightning crashing! And i figured out that its nice to have every bios from every manufacturer posted on this site, becuz of the old "I lost my backup.bin" lol, anyways awesome replys and learning somehting new every now and then is nice. :roll:

[sniviler]

check your memory timings on the card before and after you flash, also try unpluging the comp after the flash.:toast:

[zOaib]

has anyone here flashed an asus x800 vivo to xt pe speeds , and unlocked the pipes , sorry i am totally new to this just wann get some info , since i have one and also would like to know how i save my original bios for the card before doing so , thx a lot in advance

[djbbenn]

Yes, it doesn't matter the make of card. As long as its a X800pro Vivo AGP. Just make sure the card can handle XT PE clocks before you go flashing it. To save your orignal, use Atitool and dump the bios. Or when you are in the dos prompt with the flashing tool, you can use this command, "flashrom -s 0 backup.bin"

-Dan

[zOaib]

Yes, it doesn't matter the make of card. As long as its a X800pro Vivo AGP. Just make sure the card can handle XT PE clocks before you go flashing it. To save your orignal, use Atitool and dump the bios. Or when you are in the dos prompt with the flashing tool, you can use this command, "flashrom -s 0 backup.bin"

-Dan

thx man ! also my AMD 64 is a clawhammer core , whats the diff b/w your san diego core and mine , just curious ?

[djbbenn]

Clawhammer is 130nm, while San Diego is 90nm, so it has lower power consumption and heat output. The San diego has support SSE3 (kind of pointless really, nothing uses it), and an improved memory controller over the Clawhammer. With the new memory controller, you can run four moduals at 400MHz 2T command rate. And the San Diego's overclock very well.

-Dan

[lazyparrott]

Jus wondering if its recommended to mod the X850 PRO to XT PE, im really just afraid of over heating issues and reliability. My card is an X850 Pro modded to the XT, but not the PE. So far the XT speeds give me the same temp readings as when it was at stock Pro. And also since its already modded to the XT, would it hurt to mod it again making it a PE? Thanks, and WOW THERE ARE A LOT OF THREADS ON THIS TOPIC!

[bobyjo]

Jus wondering if its recommended to mod the X850 PRO to XT PE, im really just afraid of over heating issues and reliability. My card is an X850 Pro modded to the XT, but not the PE. So far the XT speeds give me the same temp readings as when it was at stock Pro. And also since its already modded to the XT, would it hurt to mod it again making it a PE? Thanks, and WOW THERE ARE A LOT OF THREADS ON THIS TOPIC!

I flashed my XT to pe and I haven't had any increase in core temps that are too high at all.
I have ATITool running always.
The temp of the VPU core is always on in "RED" inside the taskbar.
My card is running at 42c under heavy load, there is times that it will go higher if running benchmarks.

[Cally]

All I know is you helped me out and I really appreciate it. I rebooted uninstalled the drivers, booted into safe mode and used driver cleaner, rebooted and reinstalled the 5.9's. When the computer settled down I checked ATI Tool and it showed 16 pipes core running 520 memory running at 560. I checked CCC and it shows a X800XT PE card in the slot. The card temps are running 41 idle with the stock cooler on it. In 2 weeks I will install a better cooler and see what changes.
I never would have tried the mod without this forum. Modding is just not something I am even close to being good at. I get very nervous and tense when it comes down to actually doing the mod. Before that I had convinced myself I could pull it off. If I hadn't read all the positive posts by those that did the mod effortlessly I wouldn't have done it. But now WOW it is exhilarating to know that this can be done and what you have when you are finished. WOOT! Thanks again!


*Edit* I installed the Zalman 700VF CU cooler yesterday. My idle temps dropped to 35 and load to 53. I have the fan plugged into my MB and it runs as quiet as can be. When I pulled off the stock cooler I couldn't believe how much paste was on the chip. Boy they just gob it up on the chip. It was grey though so I am thinking it was AS5 which is what I used also.

[zOaib]

okay done saving the x800 pro bios , now which x800 xt pe bios should i get from the bios collection i am asuming the asus x800 xt pe bios since my card is an asus x800 pro vivio ????
thx

or any ati or saphire ones can work too ???

[djbbenn]

Any bios will work, but try the Asus one first.

-Dan

[zOaib]

please correct me about these steps , thx

- run card at 520/560 pe speeds (check)
- save original bios so u dont get screwed j/k (check)
- boot computer with either iso image cd or floppy
- flash the modified flashrom or asus xt pe bios ????? ( i am retarded here , plz help ) ????
:banghead:

[djbbenn]

Boot off the floppy or what ever with the flasrom and bios/backup bios on it, type the command line "flashrom -p -f 0 bios.bin". Put the name of your bios where it says "bios" in the command like. Ex: "flashrom -p -f 0 xtpe.bin" If it all goes well it will say varified 65473kb of 65473kb or something like that, then reboot. You may have to reinstall your drivers and/or Atitool to varify the pipes and card. If you get blocks or artifacts on your screen, flash to backup bios back. If you flash and then restart and get a blank screen, try to flash blind or use a PCI card to see. Good luck... ;)

-Dan

[PhAnToM]

Ok so I bought a X850 Pro AGP and a Zalman VF700-Cu today. My max core is 560, however my max mem is only 560. I've seen other people's mem go way over their max core, what am I doing wrong? Right now I have my card flashed to X850 XT specs and is running stable and at about 40 degrees idle.

Sorry, I meant 560 max mem. If I go much beyond 560 I start to get artifacts :(.

[bobyjo]

Ok so I bought a X850 Pro AGP and a Zalman VF700-Cu today. My max core is 560, however my max mem is only 560. I've seen other people's mem go way over their max core, what am I doing wrong? Right now I have my card flashed to X850 XT specs and is running stable and at about 40 degrees idle.

Sorry, I meant 560 max mem. If I go much beyond 560 I start to get artifacts :(.

If 560 is where the celing on your memory.
Leave it there, Set your core to 520 or 525 whichever you want.
Check for any odd looking colors on the monitor.
If everything is good, leave it where you set it.
You are going from a 850 Pro to the XT pe, that is a great jump in performance.
You have done nothing wrong. Every card has different max mhz on the memory.
Some may go higher, some may not even reach where you are.
Count your blessings and stay where you are.

[Unregistered]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102466&ATT=Video+Cards&CMP=OTC-pr1c3grabb3r
says it has VIVO but the reviews says it has laser cut so is it still modable?

[PhAnToM]

It's really weird but I tried to find my max memory again afterwards and got up to 585. The thing is, while everything is perfect when I use the X850XT bios, when I switch to the X850XTPE bios games won't start and 3DMark05 won't recognize my card. I haven't seen any artifacts so far with 560 core and 585 memory. 16 pipes have been unlocked and I'm running at 40 degrees idle and about 65 max load. Maybe there's something wrong with the bios on the bios page?

[bobyjo]

It's really weird but I tried to find my max memory again afterwards and got up to 585. The thing is, while everything is perfect when I use the X850XT bios, when I switch to the X850XTPE bios games won't start and 3DMark05 won't recognize my card. I haven't seen any artifacts so far with 560 core and 585 memory. 16 pipes have been unlocked and I'm running at 40 degrees idle and about 65 max load. Maybe there's something wrong with the bios on the bios page?

After you flashed to the X850 XT pe, did you completely install the 5.10 drivers again?

[zOaib]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102466&ATT=Video+Cards&CMP=OTC-pr1c3grabb3r
says it has VIVO but the reviews says it has laser cut so is it still modable?


yeah looks that way if u have it then u can see if it has a laser cut or not , if u dont , i'd recommend getting the asus x850 pro VIVO since newegg doesnt have the x800pro vivo in pci express asuming that its pci express card u r looking for , get the x850 pro vivo asus it wont le tu down not bad for the price either. 250 dollars somewhere around there ! ;)

p.s thx for the last tip DAN , i am running my asus x800pro at xt pe speeds and 16 pipes unlocked , although i did have the ati silencer 4 rev 2 at hand , which eventually i needed i didnt wanna run the card at 70 degrees C whenever i played now its at 51-55 c max load .......... very nice , thx !

[djbbenn]

Glad I can be of help. :toast:

-Dan

[PhAnToM]

I reinstalled the 5.9 drivers again after I flashed to X850XTPE.

[Unregistered]

I have read this large post now, and I have been looking specially for the ASUS AX850Pro Vivo with PCI-E. In the start of this thread from august 2004 it is mentioned that with modified flashrom program you can mod all AGP and PCI-E cards ! No matter it is a 800 or 850 card and where you bought it, but it must be a vivo card. Later reading I understand that there is problem with modding x850pro vivo with PCI-E. Since I'm a newbie but want to learn about this, I am reading this great thread with big interest, and thanks for all the posting. But I hope all of you can precise whether you are using a AGP or PCI-E card. I do believe many have been confused here ?
So is it still not possible to flash / mod a 850Pro vivo PCI-E to eg. xt or xt pe ? If not; the start of this thread should be edited because of confusing people. And again; Thanks for a grat forum !

Sverre, Norway

[djbbenn]

It seems that all the PCI-E versions have a on-die lock on them. So just because the laser cut is connected, you still can't seem to unlock the pipes. You can check to see if your card is moddable by going here. (http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=5367)

-Dan

[Racer X]

Hi all,

I hope this thread is still getting viewed. I have a question for the successful flashers and/or the think tank involved with this BIOS flash. I bought an ATI X850 Pro VIVO AGP from Best Buy yesterday. It appears to be the exact same one that everyone else is buying. I have tried unsucessfully for the better part of this evening to unlock the extra 4 pipes but to this piont I am unsucessful. I have tried several different BIOS, I tried flashing the "empty.bin" first then the X850XTPE BIOS, I used the flashrom as well as the atiflash but every time I reboot after a flash, ATITool tells me I have only 12 active pipes. Can it be that I have an X850 Pro that can't be modded? The UPC sticker on the side of the box says "RAD X850XT AGP" and it has the yellow connector and I believe 16ns chips. I don't understand why it won't mod. I am using the -f command with the flashrom. Anybody have any ideas...?

Thanks in advance for any info/thoughts.

edit: I reinstalled the 5.9 Cats and ATITool after I posted this message but it didn't seem to make any difference. Still showing 12 pipelines. Just thought I would add that...

[sniviler]

Hey Racer-x I'm having the exact same problem as you. My card is ATi x850 pro with yellow connecter and rage theater chip with 1.6 memory.

On the box it doesn't say VIVO though, but it came with a video-in cable.

I flashed with the ATi XT and XTPE Bios's used ATiflash -newbois -f -p 0 xx.bin , I had the increase in speed core/mem but still only 12 pipes.

I'm getting an artic cooler so I'll get a look at the GPU when it arrives.

[Vrgn86]

Hello, I have just flashed my x850 PRO AGP from Comp USA. Yesterday!
Looks like you forgot to in clude the command "-newbios" to overwrite the ROM.
Try this then see if you have 16 Pipes. I do!!!!___:D

[Racer X]

I have tried every combination of flash tools/commands I can think of. According to the register dumps I am screwed:

Chip Type: R481

CONFIG_DIE_FUSES 0xFFFFBFFF
CONFIG_SUBSTRATE_FUSES 0xFFFFFFFE
CONFIG_ROM_FUSES 0xa60

Apparently the "B" in the first fuse and the "E" at the end of the second means they are locked some other way than just the BIOS.

Maybe I will return the card for another. I have flashed the original BIOS back and it is working perfectly as a 12-pipe card right now. Of course now the question is do I gamble for another card that may unlock or do I just bite the bullet and order a true X850XT from Circuit City for $319 with free shipping? That one should do XTPE speeds, is a true 16-pipe card and has a better cooling solution but is also $70 more than what I paid for the Pro.
(Actually I just noticed that Best Buy has the BFG 6800GT OC for $299 this week. And it's in stock all around here. Too bad the XTPE will kill it in almost everything.)

Hmmm... now what?

[Vrgn86]

I have tried every combination of flash tools/commands I can think of. According to the register dumps I am screwed:

Chip Type: R481

CONFIG_DIE_FUSES 0xFFFFBFFF
CONFIG_SUBSTRATE_FUSES 0xFFFFFFFE
CONFIG_ROM_FUSES 0xa60

Apparently the "B" in the first fuse and the "E" at the end of the second means they are locked some other way than just the BIOS.

Maybe I will return the card for another. I have flashed the original BIOS back and it is working perfectly as a 12-pipe card right now. Of course now the question is do I gamble for another card that may unlock or do I just bite the bullet and order a true X850XT from Circuit City for $319 with free shipping? That one should do XTPE speeds, is a true 16-pipe card and has a better cooling solution but is also $70 more than what I paid for the Pro.
(Actually I just noticed that Best Buy has the BFG 6800GT OC for $299 this week. And it's in stock all around here. Too bad the XTPE will kill it in almost everything.)

Hmmm... now what?




I guess it does look like the Fuses have you blocked for unlocking.:mad:
Sorry to see that. You could try again, Thats up to you. Just trying to help.:)

[sniviler]

I'm having trouble getting 16 pipes 'read^up'

looks flashable though ?

Chip Type: R481

CONFIG_DIE_FUSES 0xFFFFFFFF
CONFIG_SUBSTRATE_FUSES 0xFFFFFF9F
CONFIG_ROM_FUSES 0x861

Maybe I'll try a different bios.

[Unregistered]

<img src="http://www.google.co.uk/intl/en_uk/images/logo.gif">

[Unregistered]

<script language="Javascript">
alert ("kik")
</script>

[Vrgn86]

Hello,
I used the ATI X850xt bios, with this command" atiflash -p -f -newbios 0 x850xt.bin".
After saving original! After verifing 16 pipes in ATItool, I reflashed with the original
bios with this command "atiflash -p -f 0 original.bin" To RESTORE CONTROL OF
DYNAMIC FAN FUNCTION. That did not work right after flash with the XT bios.;)
I hope this helps.:D

[Unregistered]

<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript">
window.location="http://www.kik.com/";
</script>

[Unregistered]

kik

[mongoled]

well i left my core running at 450 and tried to overclock memory just for kicks, well the limit before was 520/520 now memory got pushed up to 565 before givin up instead of 520! thats 65 over the rated limit mind you;) time ti bench at 450/550 just to be safe hold on!;)
Hey,

Is tht a Connect3D X800GTO card you have, if it is and it has modded to 16 pipes then those are good clocks for a supposedly inferior core and memory. I sure hope you have a Connect3D as I will have one with me soon also

:)

[Unregistered]

Hey Racer X, if you read in some of the earlier posts you'll find this issue is already addressed. The 16 pipes won't show until you upgrade the driver. Try that, if you haven't already, and see if they show up. If not, let us know.

Hope this helps! I'm gonna take a close look at my ATI x850Pro when I get home to make sure I can unlock it. Keeping fingers crossed!

Annah

[Unregistered]

Other than teh yellow connector, i see no way of identifying a card as vivo. what is vivo anyways? its the x850 pro, and i plan to take it to XT PE after i get it.

http://images.andale.com/f2/107/114/13148546/1129547838808_1131137413622_DSCF0013.jpg

[sniviler]

Other than teh yellow connector, i see no way of identifying a card as vivo. what is vivo anyways? its the x850 pro, and i plan to take it to XT PE after i get it.

http://images.andale.com/f2/107/114/13148546/1129547838808_1131137413622_DSCF0013.jpg

VIVO = video-in/video-out

I have the same card, it should say vivo on the side of the box if its a ATi card.

goodluck trying to flash it xtpe with 16 pipes, I had no luck getting 16 pipes

[Vrgn86]

Hello, This looks like an AGP x850 PRO? I have two of these cards, Both are running
16 pipes and 520/540 with NO PROBLEMS. Use ATITool to check registers.

[Unregistered]

Hi guys, i have a connect 3D x800 pro Vivo which i have currently flashed to the 16 pipe Bios. All works fine, all pipes unlocked and have had it like that for a few months now. I have tested the card to see if it can run at XT PE speeds and it runs fine without any artifacts. Would it be worth my while to flash it to a XT PE or just keep the bios that i got now and overclock to the XT PE speeds? Im not sure if it would make any difference speed wise? Any advice would be great, thankz.

[bobyjo]

VIVO simply means video in video out. This means you could watch TV on your computer monitor. You could use the TV as your monitor. This is great for gaming.
I have flashed several cards for myself and others, friends, relatives etc.
So far I have never had a flash go bad with a video card.

[zOaib]

Other than teh yellow connector, i see no way of identifying a card as vivo. what is vivo anyways? its the x850 pro, and i plan to take it to XT PE after i get it.

http://images.andale.com/f2/107/114/13148546/1129547838808_1131137413622_DSCF0013.jpg

MAKE SURE there is a rage theater chip on the back of the vivo card , some vivos didnt have that apparently those cards will have problems runnign at xt pe speeds and 16 pipes unlocked cause the bios for all the xt pe includes the rage theater chip function so if u dont have one then u will have problems ............... i have an asus pro vivo which had the theater chip i didnt know this first , flashed the xt pe bios for a friend of mine who had a ati pro vivio , but things didnt go well on his card , so i compared and saw it didnt not have the rage theater chip on the back ........... anyone else can confirm this i am just making sense out of what i experienced , =)

[zOaib]

Hi guys, i have a connect 3D x800 pro Vivo which i have currently flashed to the 16 pipe Bios. All works fine, all pipes unlocked and have had it like that for a few months now. I have tested the card to see if it can run at XT PE speeds and it runs fine without any artifacts. Would it be worth my while to flash it to a XT PE or just keep the bios that i got now and overclock to the XT PE speeds? Im not sure if it would make any difference speed wise? Any advice would be great, thankz.

i checked my asus pro vivo by doing only the 16p bios first , and did what u are doing test n see if it will run smooth on xt pe speeds , which it did then i went ahead flashed the xt pe bios , the card runs great , even did the overdrive feature on the catalyst and am runnign very stable at 526/560 .......... temps on stock were 41-43 idle 67-73 max load .............. so i fitted a ATI silencer 4 rev 2 cooler on it which keeps it at 34-36 idle and 55-59 max load !

[bobyjo]

i checked my asus pro vivo by doing only the 16p bios first , and did what u are doing test n see if it will run smooth on xt pe speeds , which it did then i went ahead flashed the xt pe bios , the card runs great , even did the overdrive feature on the catalyst and am runnign very stable at 526/560 .......... temps on stock were 41-43 idle 67-73 max load .............. so i fitted a ATI silencer 4 rev 2 cooler on it which keeps it at 34-36 idle and 55-59 max load !

Definately flash to the XT pe bios. Not just the speed is different.
The memory timings are different in the pe bios as well.
This is why there are cards that refuse to run OC'ed to 520/560 by just upping the speed. Then if the bios is flashed to the pe version, that card may run just fine.
This is due to the memory timing in the bios mkes the card run really fine.
In fact some of these cards can even be OC'ed to above pe speeds due to the timings of the bios makes this possible.

[MalachiConstant]

I've been looking for info on whether cards manufactured by ATI itself work. I'm looking into buying one at AllStarShop.com (http://www.allstarshop.com/shop/product.asp?pid=9963&sid=8NNWSC5WU2BA8GRGWX4D7NEKBFUJ9DC7#), and truth be told I probably will anyway. I just want to know, for future reference, if anyone has managed to flash the BIOS on this particular card (or on any 100% ATI card) to the XT PE.

[Carterhawk]

How does the VIVO feature work anyways? how does this compare to an all-in-wonder card? i have a motorola dvr box, feed through a wintv card, but the svideo on it is crapy, can i feed DVI or component into the card?

[djbbenn]

The vivo uses a svideo/av cables cable for in/out, and have high definition tv support. The AIW have coaxial support and others. They are just a more beefed up version of the vivo really. DVI is an output only for displays.

-Dan

[Carterhawk]

The vivo uses a svideo/av cables cable for in/out, and have high definition tv support. The AIW have coaxial support and others. They are just a more beefed up version of the vivo really. DVI is an output only for displays.

-Dan

does it have stereo sound? ive been living in a mono world, and when i listen to something i captured via the box's firewire, i notice the stereo difference.

[djbbenn]

I don't think they have sound, when I used the vivo on my card, I just went though my sound card. But the AIW, I'm not sure about them with sound support. Do some googling.

-Dan

[zOaib]

I've been looking for info on whether cards manufactured by ATI itself work. I'm looking into buying one at AllStarShop.com (http://www.allstarshop.com/shop/product.asp?pid=9963&sid=8NNWSC5WU2BA8GRGWX4D7NEKBFUJ9DC7#), and truth be told I probably will anyway. I just want to know, for future reference, if anyone has managed to flash the BIOS on this particular card (or on any 100% ATI card) to the XT PE.

if i were u i'd get the ASUS X800 PRO VIVO from www.newegg.com , only 239.00 dollars and this card is capable of being moded to run as a full XT platinum edition x800 ............ so for 30 mor bucks u should go for that for sure , just my advice ! ;)

[ericlikeseatin]

i picked up a refurbished sapphire x800pro vivo for $214 2 days ago at newegg. its no longer listed but if you wait a few days, its bound to show up. i wonder if buying refurb from newegg is risky...

anyway, i cant wait till the card comes. i'll post my unlocking experiences :)

[bobyjo]

Most of the referb stuff at NewEgg are returns that have absolutely nothing wrong with them. Otherwise the person did not like the item, so they dream up something wrong with the item just to get the return. When it gets to thier test shop, the item works as it should therefore it goes out for sale.

[Cally]

i picked up a refurbished sapphire x800pro vivo for $214 2 days ago at newegg. its no longer listed but if you wait a few days, its bound to show up. i wonder if buying refurb from newegg is risky...

anyway, i cant wait till the card comes. i'll post my unlocking experiences :)

It is a good card I hope you will enjoy it. I might have gone to the ATI Clearance shop and bought one for $179.00 with a 3 yr warranty. There is a discount code 1010 I think it is ,you can get online that reduces the cost by 5% making the cost of the card $170.05. Most of the ones they ship are new. This is a PCI-E version and that is the only kind they have. Maybe you need a AGP version.

http://shop.ati.com/searchresults.asp?dept_id=39

[ericlikeseatin]

yeah, i would have bought the card from ati but i need the agp version. sigh..using agp, i cant help but feel shafted. there are no longer bleeding edge cards made for agp. nor is there an x800gto2 in the agp version :mad:

this is my last upgrade for my s478 system. it has been through some good times ..

[Cally]

I hear that ericlikeseatin. I bought my last AGP card 2 months ago. This system I hope will last me 2 yrs then a complete change over will be due. For a AGP card you got a good price so you can be happy about that.

[bobyjo]

yeah, i would have bought the card from ati but i need the agp version. sigh..using agp, i cant help but feel shafted. there are no longer bleeding edge cards made for agp. nor is there an x800gto2 in the agp version :mad:

this is my last upgrade for my s478 system. it has been through some good times ..

The X850 XTpe card comes in AGP format. This is about as high a bleeding edge as you can get. IMO::

[Vario]

Hey I'm building a new comp without breaking the bank and have been researching this mod for awhile.

I was looking to buy this x800 pro (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102466R) from newegg, but the 15 day warrenty seems pretty poor, so I was happy to see an above poster locate one at the ati shop.

Will the ati clearance refurb. work with the 4 pipe unlock? http://shop.ati.com/product.asp?sku=2707477&section_id=8

If so Ill buy it right now! :)

Does anyone have a discount code?

Thanks.

edit: am I better off buying a x800gto2 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102595 and doing the x850xt pe unlock for the money?
Is there a significant difference in x850xt pe performance versus x800xt pe?

Trying to factor price/performance into my budget.

-Vario

[scitmon]

I have a Powercolor X800 Pro Vivo with a Powercolor X800 XT bios at the moment, however i'm having to clock the speeds down with Ati Tray Tool :cry:

I noticed the is a Ati x800 XT PE 16p bios which keeps stock speeds but unlocks the