ATI Radeon 9550 Overclocking and BIOS modding FAQ Guide

[ReconCX]

Alright, I've decided to make a FAQ guide for the ATI Radeon 9550 for overclocking and BIOS flashing because I think about a hundred people ask about this everyday. Please post your suggestions, Q & A so I can revise this and keep it up to date. Thanks!

ATI Radeon 9550 Specifications (ATI Standard)

# 4 parallel pixel pipelines
# 2 programmable vertex shader pipelines
# 128-bit dual-channel DDR memory interface
# AGP8x/4x
# Support for Microsoft® DirectX® 9.0 programmable vertex and pixel shaders in hardware
# 2x/4x/6x Anti-Aliasing modes
# 2x/4x/8x/16x Anisotropic Filtering modes

Standard clockrates are 250/200x2*.
Variants include 128MB/256MB RAM and 64-bit memory.

*GeCube 9550XT's are overclocked by default.

Question #1 - How do I overclock my ATI Radeon 9550?

By far, this is the question that is asked the most. Simply download ATITool (http://www.techpowerup.com/atitool/) and use that!

Question #2 - Why can't I overclock my 9550?

There is a driver lock in the ATI drivers that prohibits the card from being overclocked. Everytime an attempt is made, the drivers defaults back to original clock speeds. You have three options here. First, you can download softmod drivers (http://www.techpowerup.com/softmod/). Second, you use ATITool's disable overclock lock option (in settings). Third, you can flash your 9550 BIOS into a 9600 where the overclock isn't disabled.

Question #3 - How do I reflash my 9550?

Go HERE (http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=463).

Please test your card to see if it can run at 9600Pro speeds first (400/300x2) beforehand or you MAY wind up with a paperweight!

Question #4 - Does XXXX BIOS work with my card/Which BIOS works with my card?

I really get tired of this question because it gets asked over and over again. It's a hit and miss chance, one BIOS might work with yours and not work with someone elses. Manufacturers change things through revisions be it memory, architecture, or materials. Somethings may work with yours while others don't. Get yourself a PCI VGA card and download a bunch of BIOS. Backup your own BIOS first and then go at it. You may get lucky, or you may not.

Question #5 - Should I get better cooling?

You should ALWAYS get better cooling if you're going to overclock. Especially if your 9550 features only a cheap aluminum heatsink! Arctic Silencers are a good choice. For more extremes, get the Zalman ZM80D + OP1 combo.

Question #6 - How fast can I get my card going/What can I expect?

As fast as it goes without producing artifacts in ATITool. Like I've said many many times, you get what you pay for. If you buy a cheap $50US 9550, then you're gonna get cheap results. Why? Because manufacturers cut corners then. They use cheaper PCB's (less layers), cheaper resistors and capacitors, slower memory, redesigns that vary from the standard.

For memory, you can calculate theoretically how fast your card can go. For example, 5ns RAM: 1000/5ns = 200. That's 200mHz is your "theoretical" speed. That doesn't mean you'll get to it, it also doesn't mean you can't surpass it. That's what it's suppose to be able to run at. And since it's DDR SDRAM, then it is written as 200x2 (dual) which is 400mHz effective.

My personal best is 500/333x2.

Question #7 - What kind of RAM do I have?

Look on your graphics card. Look at your RAM chips. Then look at the model number that is displayed. Then GOOGLE that and you'll find what type of memory you have. Remember, Google is your friend!

W1zzard also made this nice table of memory types (http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=225) that you can compare to as well.

Question #8 - Which is better? Flashing or overclocking?

Overclocking is best considering the risks involved: First, overclocking doesn't void your warranty like flashing does; Second, it's easier; Third, there's much less risk in killing your card than it is with a bad flash.

Overclocking is recommended for the cheaper 9550's where you just can't squeeze that much out of them... For the rest of you guys with the better ones, read on:

Through my experience with my 9550, I came across several things that will increase your performance more than just overclocking will. It seems in the 9600Pro BIOS, the memory timings are more aggressive which allows for better performance. Also, it seems that voltages are increased as well (unconfirmed). I was able to overclock more with a 9600Pro BIOS than with a 9550 BIOS (both with the SAME memory timings).

Thus are the benefits of each, it's up to you to decide. Just, when you're flashing, ALWAYS ALWAYS have your original BIOS saved and have a PCI VGA card!

Non-flashable brands: ASUS, GeCube, Gigabyte


-Revision 01-

Question #1 - How do I find the maximum clock speeds on my 9550?

It is recommended that you run ATITool's "Find Max" function for 6 hours (3600 seconds). This will give you the best stable clock speeds.

However, some people report this as not too reliable so the way I personally do it is manual adjust the clock speeds, then "scan for artifacts" and if none are detected then run several hours of 3dMark 2003. If no problems arise, rinse, lather, then repeat.

Question #2 - What are artifacts/How do I know if I found an artifact?

I asked the same question before I started overclocking my card. Artifacts are graphical glitches caused by hardware malfunction either by heat or incompatible hardware/software (such as BIOS modding). You'll know it when you see it. It could be simply bad pixels (different colors, inverted), geometric errors (extended shapes, abnormal models), or a completely fuzzed out screen. Clipping in games isn't an artifact, that's just bad programming. :D


-Appendix 01-

Example Radeon 9550/Radeon 9600Pro Memory Timings (May Differ)

Write Latency tWL = 1.0/1.0
CAS Latency tCL = 4/4
RAS to CAS Read Delay tRcdRD = 5/4
RAS to CAS Write Delay tRcdWR = 3/2
Row Precharge Time tRP = 5/4
RAS Latency tRAS= 10/9
Row Activate to Row Active Command Time tRRD = 4/3
Read to Write Turnaround Time tR2W = CL+3/CL+3
Write Recovery Time tWR = 3/3
Write to Read Turnaround Time tW2R = 2/2
Write to Read Turnaround Time for Same Bank tW2Rsb = Use tWR Rule/Use tWR Rule
Read to Read Turnaround Time tR2R = 2/2
Memory Refresh Rate MemRR = 24/24
Refresh Row Cycle Time tRFC = 17/15
Shift of RBS Signal for Read Data tRBS = CL+3.5/CL+3.5
Shift of ERST Signal for Read Data tERST = CL+0/CL+0
Shift of QSREQ Signal tQSREQ = CL+0/CL+0
Shift of OE Signal for Write Data tDQM = WL-0.5/WL-0.5
Shift of OE Signal for Write Data Strobe tDQS = WL-0.5/WL-0.5

[Nergal]

gj m8 by making this:D

and I believe you can add ASUS to that list of non-flashable,
unless someone proves me wrong?

this post should be a sticky:)

[ReconCX]

Thanks, yea, hopefully, this will cut down on the amount of repetitive questions people post about the 9550, or at least keeps it focused in one thread so it's not spamming the forum...

bump, can a mod please sticky this?

[Rule-R]

If im gonna OC my Asus 9550GE, should i buy additional cooling for it? So i might overclock it some more than below the max? And if so, what cooler shouldi use? An Arctic? I read many topics that some coolers arent fitting on an 9550 or on an 9550GE. What is the best to buy? And should i stick some Northbridge Heatsink - Aluminium 37x37x47 mm ZM-NB47J at the chips? Or is a cooler enough for it?

Ahh well those heatsinks arent gonna work i guess lol

[ReconCX]

in order to fit one of those coolers, your HSF must be clipped onto the card itself through two pins/screws. If it's just pasted on with thermal compound then better cooling won't work.

ADDITIONAL COMMENT:

You mean i need to remove the stock cooler from my 9550GE, and put on for instance a zalman which i hold together with 2 clips/screws?

Isnt artic cooling better, or is that working with pasting it on the chip?

Im a nOOb as this thing...

[Rule-R]

I got the card, ran atitool.

Max Core: 417
Max Mem: 275x2

These settings togheter gave artifacts.

Put it on 400/250x2 and no artifacts. Maybe with better cooling more result.
And again? what cooling is good and does fit on an ASUS 9550GE/TD?

3dmark 2001 SE results:

1152x864x32 no AA stock: 6068
1152x864x32 no AA 400/250x2: 7205

1024x768x32 no AA stock: 6503
1024x768x32 no AA 400/250x2: 7435

Any requests about diff settings.. be my guest.

[ReconCX]

those clocks aren't bad, good on the mem and core is pretty high up.

I posted memory timings for the 9550/9600pro. I wrote this a while ago but I feel it would be more convenient to add it here as well...

[Rule-R]

Yeah but remember.. all is still stock.. no heatsinks or better cooling.. This, the extra cooling, could boost the performance some more yknow..

3dmark 2003 v360 on default 400/250x2: 2734

[ReconCX]

you could if you want. I recommend some ramsinks then, tweaking the BIOS mem settings might work too... you could try a better cooler but i'm not sure about investing in an AS or ZM though... anyone got a second opinion?

[Rule-R]

mem settings tweaking? like how? I mean: i could get somewhat higher with atitool and tahn change the powercolor 398/203x2 bios with rabit to that value. I need to see or i can overclock it some more to evantually change it again .. (changed it to 400/250x2 allready)

[zAAm]

ReconCX, what brand memory do you have on your dataland?

btw, my memory timings are much more aggressive than what you posted:

Write Latency : 1
CAS Latency: 3
RAS to CAS Read: 4
RAS to CAS Write: 2
Row Precharge: 5
RAS Latency: 8
Row activate to row command: 3
Read to write turnaround: CL+3
Write Recovery time: 2
Write to read turnaround: 2
Write to read turnaround for same bank: Use tWR Rule
Read to Read turnaround: 2
Memory Refresh Rate: 17
Refresh row cycle: 14
Shift of RBS signal for READ: CL+3.5
Shift of ERST signal for READ: CL-0.5
Shift of QSREQ signal: CL-0.5
Shift of OE signal for Write Data: WL-1
Shift of OE signal for Write Data Strobe:WL-1

Is that the reason why I can only get to 260MHz on the memory you think?

[zAAm]

in order to fit one of those coolers, your HSF must be clipped onto the card itself through two pins/screws. If it's just pasted on with thermal compound then better cooling won't work.

There's a way to take off that thermal epoxy so that you can attach another cooler in anyway if there's at least two holes in your card. ;) What you do is:

Instructions
1) Put your card in a zip-lock bag,try to get most of the air out and seal it shut.
2) Put the zip-lock in another bag (shopping plastic bag or dispenser bag), again while trying to get most of the air out of the bag, tie the open end shut and tape it so that no air can enter or escape. (This is very important! You want as little as possible condensation so your card doesn't by any chance come out looking like an icicle! :( )
3) Put the whole thing in the freezer ( :D )
4) Wait about 2 hours
5) Take it out of the bag, and then with a butter knife, GENTLY pry the heatsink off the chip. (Use a credit card to shield the components of the board against the leverage)
6) Your HSF should pop off, leaving the GPU clear. (Otherwise use acitone to clean off the remaining goop)
7) Your card is now ready for another, better cooler to be attached! :D

That's that!
Hope this might help some people?

[Rule-R]

I didnt take a real good look @ my cooling but what i do know is that it is an active cooler, attached with 2 screws.. so prolly an other cooler will fit on it, though my question still is: what cooling is itting right. Coz everywhere i come i read some coolers dont fit on the 9550/9550Ge Can anyone tell me if they have experience with this and what cooler DOES fit..

[ReconCX]

ReconCX, what brand memory do you have on your dataland?

btw, my memory timings are much more aggressive than what you posted:

...

Is that the reason why I can only get to 260MHz on the memory you think?

On my Dataland, I got 2.8ns Hynix memory. What vid card do you have?

LOL zaam. that's a lengthy procedure. I just kinda *ripped* mine off ^_^

[W1zzard]

nice thread - stickied

keep the input coming ... some good ideas here ..

[zAAm]

Uhm, a Gigabyte 9550 128bit 256MB with 5ns Hynix RAM (with damn passive clunk of metal and no ramsinks :( But I'm thinking of getting a Thermaltake Giant3 with copper ramsinks btw you think it's a good buy?). I was wondering if it might not be the timings of maybe Gigabyte boards that makes them so incompatible with other BIOS's?? Probably not, but it's worth a thought. And yeah, I guess you COULD just rip it off, but there are cases where the top half of the GPU kinda came with the heatsink, so it's all up to you?? :D

[Rule-R]

Just this: My core oc with atitool quit @ 417, and my mem @ 274x2.
What im gonna try now is:

(Adviced when first doing this is using atitool find max'es to know or it can handle the speds mentioned.)

Download the PowerColor 9600pro 398/203x2 bios. ( Suggestion, dont use the sapphire 398/250x2, it hung on me for some reason.. GeCube has bios with same settings suggestion also .. dont try it.. might give same problems. Sounds crazy but i think this one has its acces timings set right fast.. faster than the other ones.)

Edit it with RadEdit and put the speeds @ 405/265x2.

Put Flashrom on a diskette plus the stock and the 9600 bios.

Using this command line: flashrom -f -p 0 *****.bin (***** must be something like 9600s s for sapphire or p for powercolor.. this must be a short name coz DOS doesnt regocnize long names)

It should give a beeping sound when its done..

Close down pc.. w8 for like 10 or 15 seconds.. and start it up again..

When it gives artifacts... (like it did with me on the sapphire one) follow same procedure BUT: *****.bin must be stock.bin. (a dumped stock bios by atitool maybe?) do this real quick and you wont have to get your pci card.. if it does go blank. Go get ya an PCI card :D, as i didnt need that could some1 give me more info on this?)

I didnt try to get higher clockings from my card with atitool yet cause my hd's arent recognized by now :eek:, so i need to clear that and than try it again..

My card: Asus 9550GE/TD ( GE = Gamers Edition ) with 4.0ns from Samsung

[Rule-R]

Maybe i can get more out of it coz the timings and all are better set on an 9600pro bios..

I will give the results asap.

[ReconCX]

if you managed to flash to a 9600pro, it should overclock a few more mhz...

[Rule-R]

New Results.

After a bit tweaking and oc'ing i found out that i could set my bios ( PowerColor 9600Pro 398/203x2 Samsung 4.0ns ) @ 405/256.5x2.

After i flashed it i tried to get the mem and core somewhat higher. It didnt accept on going higher on the mem, but i managed to get the Core @ 409.5.

So Its running @ 409.5/256.5x2. This is an increase of 63.8% @ the Core, and 28.25% @ the Mem.

I ran 3dmark 2001 SE again and had this score:

3dmark 2001 SE default: 7468. ( Celeron B Tualatin 1300 @ 1500 )

Im planning on getting ramsinks and a better cooling, untill that time i will give the 3dmark 2003 and 2005 points.

[GoLLuM4444]

Question #8 - Which is better? Flashing or overclocking?

Overclocking is best considering the risks involved: First, you don't void your warranty by flashing your BIOS; Second, it's easier; Third, no risk in killing your card with a bad flash.

I think there's a typo in there about voiding warranty ;). Glad you see you did this in the end. It was getting kind of annoying answering all those questions over and over again. Thanks.

[ReconCX]

what do you mean? does it not void the warranty?

yea, typing the same answers over and over again started getting on my nerves...

[GoLLuM4444]

I think flashing does but overclocking doesn't void the warranty. Is that not what you were trying to say?

[ReconCX]

hmmm. maybe i should reword it to make it more clear...

[GoLLuM4444]

Better. :)

[Rule-R]

3dmark 2003 v360 default: 2787

3dmark 2005 v120 default: 1126

[ReconCX]

not bad, the gap between score is definately because of that celeron ^_^

[Rule-R]

After tweaking the Mem Timings, plus a little OC on a bios and flashed it, i got these settings: 415/260x2

And

tWL = 1.0
tCL = 3
tCMD = 0 clock
tSTB = equals tWrL + 1/2 clocks
tRcdRD = 3
tRcdWR = 3
tRP = 4
tRAS = 14
tRRD = 2
tR2W = CL + 3
tWR = 3
tW2R = 2
tW2Rsb = Use tWR Rule
tR2R = 2
MemRR = 20
tRFC = 14
tRBS = CL + 3.5
tERST = CL - 0.5
tQSREQ = CL - 0.5
tDQM = WL - 1
tDQS = WL - 1
tDQM_Adv = As specified
tDQS_Adv = As specified

Instead of

tWL = 1.0
tCL = 3
tCMD = 0 clock
tSTB = equals tWrL + 1/2 clocks
tRcdRD = 5
tRcdWR = 3
tRP = 4
tRAS = 17
tRRD = 2
tR2W = CL + 3
tWR = 3
tW2R = 2
tW2Rsb = Use tWR Rule
tR2R = 2
MemRR = 30
tRFC = 15
tRBS = CL + 3.5
tERST = CL - 0.5
tQSREQ = CL - 0.5
tDQM = WL - 1
tDQS = WL - 1
tDQM_Adv = As specified
tDQS_Adv = As specified

3dmark 01 SE Default: 7534

3dmark 03 v360 Default: 2875

3dmark 05 v120 Default: 1151

Ps. Any suggestion on better Mem timings?

[Rule-R]

For some reason getting the timings down more.. will get the card slower?? ( in line with lower core and mem speeds?)
Ahh well.. its givin me some better performance than not OC'ed..

I think this is the best i can get it for stock cooling.
Im planning to buy a VF700-AlCu, it says it fits all 9xxx series.. Any info on this?
Mine goes @ 415/260x2 (412/259x2), so what performance should i expect after i place the cooling?

Feel free to react.

[nyioo7@hotmail.com]

i overclocked my msi 9550 128 mb card with samsung 4.0 to gecube 9600 pro and it is working great. but what i like to know is , is the fast write still on and why is there no smartgart in my ati setting. can these setting change the performance?

AMD Athlon XP 3200+
MSI K7N2 Delta2-LSR
1 GB kingston 3200 dual
MSI ATI Radeon 9550 128 mb 250/203
Maxtor SATA 80 GB

[Rule-R]

Good grief.. that AlCu doesnt even FIT!!

Better zalman designs an 9550 version of that cozz it rocks..

Anyway.. does the VGA Silencer, Rev.3 fit on my card??

[ReconCX]

no clue...

not bad with the memory, remember, hardware has an "optimal" performance level... too aggressive timing may cause it to drop in performance instead.

If you're up for it, voltmod that thing =)

[Rule-R]

Well yeah, i think i found the max for the stock cooling that is.
Might be diff with a diff cooling.
Voltmod ey? That supposed to mean that i connect transistors or something by molding it with tin?
Too dangerous for me.. the video card will perform better with new mobo+memory+processor+harddisk than voltmod it. I will go for the first option..

Still: Does the VGA Silencer Rev.3 work on my videocard? Any reviews.. Compatibility lists or something? Help would b much apreciated.

[ReconCX]

try asking the people at arctic cooling.. they respond fairly quickly

also, voltmodding can also be tweaked via BIOS, not specifically thru circuits and whatnot. I've yet to do that to mine yet but I imagine it will up the performance.. just, be sure to have good cooling first.

[stordoff]

max core: 460
max mem: 220

how do i volt mod this card?

[Rule-R]

Hmmmm strange.. SmartGart says that i have agp 2x, though on the motherboard i can see its on 4x.

I checked intel site for the chipset and stuff ( i815 ) but it doesnt have any special AGp driver or something. I will check the asus site for a diff bios for my tusl2-c.

Anyone who could help me on this ... thanks.

[ownage187]

i see such low benchmarks score's for the 9550's except all my scores are well over 10,000 all with setting of 1024x768 32bit d3d pure hardware t&l 13,476

running a p4 3.0 prescott 512 dual ram 60 gig something forgot and im sure u dont care about the burned etc.

[ownage187]

forgot 04 05 04 = 8,000 05 2,324 >X not giveing exact clock speeds i got the card set 2 but its well over what i see ppl getting >X

[Inteleron]

I Find this subject very helpful since im in need of an upgrade vid card, and im looknig at the Asus 9550 Gamers Edition since i can get it for $101.00 at Tigerdirect.ca Rule-R I would liek to know how this card performs in cs:s since thats the only game im going to be playing, also do you think if u got soem good aftermarket cooling, and modify a 9600XT bios it woudl turn into a 9600XT?

[zAAm]

All 9600XT BIOS's need hardware monitoring support if I'm not mistaken? So you could flash it to 9600Pro but no XT.

[Rule-R]

This card performs as u expect from it to perform.. Not performing on budget level, neither on high end. 101 euros is way to expansive.. u should get it for less.. here in Holland we can get it for aproximatly 75 euros. And how it performs in ?CS?=Counter Strike? I wouldnt know.. i dont have the game nor play or played it. If i think it is the game i heard of, than i think @ medium settings it would perform not bad... ( i am guessing here ). For the cooling: Zalman 700 Cu/AlCu doesnt fit, from what i heard is that Arctic VGA Silencer Rev.3 fits when you bend some corner of it? Other coolers im not sure of. As for the overclock results: Mine is running with a Powercolor 9600Pro bios with speeds of 389/203x2 modded to 411.75/256.50x2 and overclocked a wee bit to 411.75/258.75x2. As far as i know.. you cant reach the XT speeds of this card unless you have serious cooling on the pc, vid card and such. I hope i answered your questions.

[Rule-R]

i see such low benchmarks score's for the 9550's except all my scores are well over 10,000 all with setting of 1024x768 32bit d3d pure hardware t&l 13,476

running a p4 3.0 prescott 512 dual ram 60 gig something forgot and im sure u dont care about the burned etc.

Did you have a look @ my specs yet? I think not..
There you will see that i have a crappy system for real good performance.. like the HD and Processor, and yes i know i need to upgrade to let it perform well.
ANd yes also, i will say when i upgrade and have better points.. Thank you.

[ownage187]

the 9550 make good at cs dod i play them all on it at basic speeds it handled the game but i also got my ocd now but even before it did fine and u can find this card for like 50 bucks on newegg or geeks.com

[ownage187]

i wasnt makeing fun of your computer im just saying ppl giveing the 9550 bad specs etc. with better proc and ram etc. u will get much better performance so the stats u get will be dif then mine >X

lil upgrade and u will get better results

>X and make sure your mobo handles 8x agp and that its not runing at 4

[ReconCX]

given you tweak your computer a bit and not be a junkie with a million things running in the background.. with a nice stable system with a 9550, you'll get around ~50 fps average in CS:S. HL2 also performs nicely. I ran it at 800x600 with everything at medium setting. My bottleneck is more my processor/mobo and slow HDD..

[Inteleron]

Rule-R its [$101.00] Canadian dollars for the Asus 9550GE http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1239429&CatId=0

Then i can get the Abit 9550 [$87.06] CAD
http://ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=13644&vpn=R9550-128CDT&manufacture=ABit

Or the Sapphire 9600 PRO advantage which is clocked at 400/223 (446 DDR) [$124.20 CAD] or $130.00 CAD at a local computer shop.
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=12989&vpn=1024-NC20-0F-SA&manufacture=SAPPHIRE

Which do you guys think is the best performing card, and can mod to a true 9600 PRO?

[ReconCX]

buy a 9550 that's fairly priced, not the cheapest but not the most expensive.. take a look at the PCB and see if it looks like the manufacturer "cut corners" if it's built to standard, it will have the most potential. I'd say around $80-$90 for the best price/performance card. Just for reference, mine costed $100

[Inteleron]

How does the Abit 9550 (the one in the second link look?) it looks like a good card to me and i liek price, its a little cheaper than the Asus 9550GE, but has a standard pcb design? also im getting a 128mb model becasue i was reading the 9800pro-XT softmod guide at adriansrojakpot and it said that there was hardly any diffrence between the 128mb and 256 mb model, and even when when there was it was by the slightest margin which isnt worth the extra 100$ for the 256model, AND THATS ON A FLAGSHIP CARD so i can immagine how significant 256mb would be on a 9550 :rolleyes: also i think that 128 usualy overclocks better.

[ownage187]

i got this 1 http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=14-102-434&depa=1

well kinda i got the saphire model but there cheap cards that run most game i run doom3 on high with a lil core speed changeing >X

[Inteleron]

sry but thats a 9250 in that link, im either gunna get the abit or the asus but id rather get the abit for 87$ :p

[ReconCX]

if you're interested, I'm selling my 9550 for $100 + shipping. It's hsf is a zalman zm80d + op1 and you can see my scores and such in my sig...

there are pictures here: http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?p=15358

I chose to end the auction early on ebay cause they jacked up their prices again and i would be losing money.

[redrose9802]

hello....i'm still a newbie and want to find some experience to oclock my Asus A9550 GE.....it got Samsung 5.0 ns on it.....previously I ovclock it using ATitool with the stock fan,and manage to get core:486/mem:256 and try benchmark it....the results: 3dMark03@1024x758:3414 and 3dMark01@1024x768:115++ .....any comment???.....by the way...i got myself now an arctic cooling rev3....maybe looking forward to ovclock it even further....i dont dare too flash the bios....cos i'm afraid it would turn out bad....still a newbie as i said....anyone knows how to change the memory timing and what's the optimum timing?....is there any temperature monitoring software for this card???....thanks....

[ReconCX]

use ATItool do memory timing. read the first page of this thread.

[Inteleron]

Sry Reconcx I know its a great deal and all but, im going to have to turn down your offer, you probly wouldnt wanna ship to me n e wayz i live in canada, im probly gonig to get the Abit 9550, i would liek to know which ram and the specs that each company uses first becasue id hate to get stuck with sum non-overclockable ram, im hoping for 4ns ram. maybee we could put together a 9550 ram chart. :)

[ReconCX]

the lower number the better, hynix i think is best. the lowest mem i've seen is 2.8ns Hynix on a 9550.

[Inteleron]

which one was that? we should put together a chart u know like i know that the HIS 9550 IFAN VIVO has 4ns hynix, we need to ask ppl whi post in this thread what their 9550 is running in ternms of ram, i think the Asus 9550GE runs 4ns. WE NEED INFO PPL!! POST THE RAM SPECS OF YOUR 9550!!

[Rule-R]

I heard of 5.0 and 4.0 samsung for Asus. i know for sure the Gamers edition of the 9550 has 4.0 samsung ( i have it myself ).
Others i dont know xactly

[ReconCX]

the hynix 2.8ns was on none other than mine =)

[Inteleron]

What ram would be on this Abit card? http://ncix.com/products/index.php?...anufacture=ABit
Also i heard, DON't QUOTE ME ON THIS!! that the Abit 9550 GURU, not the one above thats just a plain 128 meg 9550, but the GURU version with all the fans and heatsinks, run 3.3 or 3.6ns BGA ram. But id realy liek to know what the one in the link has cuz im just about ready to buy that card :D

[redrose9802]

I got samsung 5.0ns on my Asus A9550GE :( :(

[Inteleron]

lolz sry maybee its becasue u live in Malasia?

[ownage187]

can someone tell me high how they got the core and mem when overclocking the 128 i know how high the 256 goes just wanna see the dif >X

9550 sapphire defauilts core = 200 mem = 250
oc core = 250 mem = 320

[Inteleron]

.o.k first of all ur question is hard to understand bcuz ur english is crap, second of all its a stupid question? if ur gunna post stupid questions dont post at all. Now id liek to know what ram the Abit cards have on them, the 9550 ragular and the guru version.

[ownage187]

how bout if your going 2 be a rude a$$hole then dont replay or maybe it because u have no life and all u got is free time on ur hands to be rude u realize ignorance is bliss and your pretty ignorant now go find urself a life in ur meaningless place in the world and leave people alone k thats nice

[ReconCX]

GUYS! KEEP THE THREAD CLEAN. TAKE IT ELSEWHERE. I DIDN'T START THIS THREAD FOR PEOPLE TO FLAME EACH OTHER.

ownage187, your question isn't specific enough, what are you talking about exactly?

Inteleron, i can't find the answer to your question cause ABIT conveniently didn't put that in their specifications chart on their website.. the only way to know exactly is to find someone who's got that card, and get the ram serial off of it.

[ownage187]

im asumeing that a simple your question isnt clear enough woulda worked,

What i meant is What is the core clock and the mem clock of the 9550 128 meg card (as in speed for those that dont understand)

cause i already know what the 9550 256 meg is

there was no need to be rude i was more then likely drunk when i wrote it and didnt realize that i didnt make it clearly >X

Meaning 200 core 250 mem defauilt

[ReconCX]

default is 250/200x2.

your overclock rate is based on the type of mem you have.. an approximation would be
suppose you have 2.8ns ram on your card, then it would be 1000/2.8 = ~357(x2). but that is strictly hypothetical and doesn't mean your card can reach that high. It also doesn't mean it won't surpass it either. Voltmods also change variables here too..

[ownage187]

thanks for the reply >X

[Inteleron]

Yah w/e >X that means :rolleyes: thanks for your reply, i guese ill have to jsut ask arround but im pretty sure its 4ns, im also hunting arround for the Guru version with 3.3ns ram. :D

[testemo]

Someone has tried this pencil Vmod? it appears you can get OC much higher!!
(U have to draw a line between at those green ] for Vmod VPU and Memory)

http://img105.exs.cx/img105/6007/gecube9550xtv21vgpupencil1zm.jpg


http://forum.lowyat.net/lofiversion/index.php/t131139.html

[richmi]

Hi, I've also tried to OC my Ge-Cube 9550 5.0ns hynix using atitool, but in every second game I got VPU recovers, even running on much lower clocks than those which still worked without artifacts. So i've decided to try a bios flash (the thread with gecube as non flashable I've noticed today :( ). Got GEcube 9600pro 398/203 hynix one and flashed it. Everything is working ok except that: 1) after resume from sleep/standby state the monitor screen stays black = need to cold reboot. Could this be caused by the new bios? What woul you recomend me to do to fix it? (don't have pci vga card to risk flashing more than necessary).
Please help, anybody.

Thank you very much
Rich CZ

[Inteleron]

How would u do that mod using resistors?

[Inteleron]

This thread must be dead its like pulling teeth to get a response. :mad:

[ReconCX]

dunno, beats me.. sorry, been really busy/sick/finals this past week!

[iiee]

I just bought an ASUS A9550GE 250/200 5.0ns and applied 9600pro bios on it. I'd tried powercolor and Gecube bios at 400/200 but having the same following problem:-

The screen was very very slow during start up (I mean the words displayed). If went into bios, it took about 5 seconds to display a page (because words come up one by one like typing). In windows everything was normal, detected 9600 series and recorded 11xxx in 3dmark01 without artifact (99xx with 9550 bios). In short, the card had no problem in windows mode but very very slow during startup. **** in real dos mode everything is ok; just the starting got problem.

Please help, thx~

[curious]

I have ASL Ati Radeon 9550 128 bit 128 Ram but it has locked BIOS /I cant flash it/ Can you tell me whether it will be possibly to unlock the Bios so I can flash it to 9600 non pro. Tred both atiflash and flashrom without sucess- they say Cant write to rom 0FL01 Error /the BIOS is locked/. If possibly name program.
Running with ati tool 24 b 7 Core 378 mem 210 artifacts free
AMD Athlon PR 1800@ 1667
VIA KT266A
256 400Mhz ddr@ 290 /Becouse of the MoBo/
R9550
3d 2003- 2642
3d 2005- 1071

[Digital Demon]

also, voltmodding can also be tweaked via BIOS, not specifically thru circuits and whatnot. I've yet to do that to mine yet but I imagine it will up the performance.. just, be sure to have good cooling first.

Could you be a bit more specific about that? Namely, how can I voltmod my Connect3D Radeon 9550 through BIOS, without doing any soldering on the PCB?

[Rule-R]

Hmmmm, on the ASUS website it says that the TUSL2-C is able to handle up to 4x AGP. Though CPU-Z tells me that it is running on 2x AGp, and only capable of running on 2x AGP. Does this mean i need a new/other motherboard, or can i unlock something? And does this come with the ATI Radeon 9550 or not?

[DFT]

Here is voltmod guide about 9550ultra overdrive.
http://www.comptest.ru/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=530&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

[tmarkala]

Hello everyone!

I have few questions about editing memory timings with RaBiT! I have Gigabyte Radeon 9550... It's overclocked with ATITool to 372/249...

These are my default mem timings:

Write Latency tWL = 1.0
CAS Latency tCL = 3
RAS to CAS Read Delay tRcdRD = 4
RAS to CAS Write Delay tRcdWR = 2
Row Precharge Time tRP = 4
RAS Latency tRAS= 8
Row Activate to Row Active Command Time tRRD = 3
Read to Write Turnaround Time tR2W = CL+3
Write Recovery Time tWR = 3
Write to Read Turnaround Time tW2R = 2
Write to Read Turnaround Time for Same Bank tW2Rsb = Use tWR Rule
Read to Read Turnaround Time tR2R = 2
Memory Refresh Rate MemRR = 24
Refresh Row Cycle Time tRFC = 14
Shift of RBS Signal for Read Data tRBS = CL+3.5
Shift of ERST Signal for Read Data tERST = CL-0.5
Shift of QSREQ Signal tQSREQ = CL-0.5
Shift of OE Signal for Write Data tDQM = WL-1
Shift of OE Signal for Write Data Strobe tDQS = WL-1

What should I change? Is it better to have higer or lower value?

Thanks in advance...

[ReconCX]

lower.. use ATITool to test it out first. if you get artifacts, put it back up..

[deranged]

Got a quick question, when using a 9600pro bios flash does the memory need to be the same? I am wondering because I have a sapphire 9550 256mb with 4ns Vdata memory. I can't find any other flashes with this memory.

[tuleggi]

Hello everyone!

I have few questions about editing memory timings with RaBiT! I have Gigabyte Radeon 9550... It's overclocked with ATITool to 372/249...

These are my default mem timings:

Write Latency tWL = 1.0
CAS Latency tCL = 3
RAS to CAS Read Delay tRcdRD = 4
RAS to CAS Write Delay tRcdWR = 2
Row Precharge Time tRP = 4
RAS Latency tRAS= 8
Row Activate to Row Active Command Time tRRD = 3
Read to Write Turnaround Time tR2W = CL+3
Write Recovery Time tWR = 3
Write to Read Turnaround Time tW2R = 2
Write to Read Turnaround Time for Same Bank tW2Rsb = Use tWR Rule
Read to Read Turnaround Time tR2R = 2
Memory Refresh Rate MemRR = 24
Refresh Row Cycle Time tRFC = 14
Shift of RBS Signal for Read Data tRBS = CL+3.5
Shift of ERST Signal for Read Data tERST = CL-0.5
Shift of QSREQ Signal tQSREQ = CL-0.5
Shift of OE Signal for Write Data tDQM = WL-1
Shift of OE Signal for Write Data Strobe tDQS = WL-1

What should I change? Is it better to have higer or lower value?

Thanks in advance...

Hi!
I have the same card with the same timings...
Have you tried the official BIOS update or our Gigabyte?
It didnt succed because it appears my card reference is low... maybe you can try yours, maybe it is the right reference!!
And then if you secced could you tell us the new timings? Thanks! :)

[tmarkala]

I couldn't flash it either! I've got message that my BIOS is allready the newest version... But it is not!!! I don't get it! What BIOS do you have? Are you using one of the 9600's BIOS? What is your GPU and memory clock? Mine is 372/242 MHz! That is maximum whitout getting artiffacts in ATITool...

[Inteleron]

Can u ppl post sum CS:S fram rates cuz all im buying it for is CS:S nothing else, so if this card can hold up well in cs:s ill buy it, i might also just buy a 9600XT cuz i can get 1 for 140$

[curious]

[QUOTE=tmarkala]I couldn't flash it either! I've got message that my BIOS is allready the newest version... But it is not!!! I don't get it! What BIOS do you have? Are you using one of the 9600's BIOS? What is your GPU and memory clock? Mine is 372/242 MHz! That is maximum whitout getting artiffacts in ATITool...

ASL 9550 128bit 128mb with standart 9550 BIOS
378/216 /bad ram/

Read my previous posts for 3d mark results

[tuleggi]

I couldn't flash it either! I've got message that my BIOS is allready the newest version... But it is not!!! I don't get it! What BIOS do you have? Are you using one of the 9600's BIOS? What is your GPU and memory clock? Mine is 372/242 MHz! That is maximum whitout getting artiffacts in ATITool...

Read here:
http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=2951

PS: I have the same Bios than testemo

[Inteleron]

Guys can u post some screen shots with ur net_graph frame rates of Counter-Strike Source plz, cuz im buying this card for CS:S i'd liek to know the performance b4 i buy it.

[DFG]

Some one tested Abit Ati Radeon 9550 Guru ? I have this card and I test it
3d mark 2003 - 4556 CF 561 MF 351 AI High 149 Performance Latente 42593 0x28 14

[curious]

Some one tested Abit Ati Radeon 9550 Guru ? I have this card and I test it
3d mark 2003 - 4556 CF 561 MF 351 AI High 149 Performance Latente 42593 0x28 14

DFS, what are your video RAM configuration /nanoseconds and memory brand/? If that result you have posted is real you beat them all /including non clocked 9600 pro/!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Also can you be more specific aboit standard and clocked GPU and memory MHz. Hope to hear from you soon.

[curious]

Some one tested Abit Ati Radeon 9550 Guru ? I have this card and I test it
3d mark 2003 - 4556 CF 561 MF 351 AI High 149 Performance Latente 42593 0x28 14

Me again. I saw that you have the same motherboard like mine. When i clock mine over 161 mhz bus spead it refuses to start. I can only lift the cpu voltage by 75 mV. Also I have notised that with bus and ram freq lifted it gives me less 3d mark points than with nominal FSB /133MHz/ but twicked ram 2,5-2-2-5 Bank interleave 4. Is it the same with you?

[DFG]

I buy this card Abit ATI Radeon 9550 guru one month ago and I have mb syntax sv266A FSB 149 I try 150 but it give an error in 3d mark 2003 file corupt at 3 game memory modules 256 ddr elixir 333 at 266 on my mb because it suports just 266 and 256 ddr 400 geil I don't change many things in mb bios i just follow the bios settings from www.omegadrivers.net, so I used omegadrivers and I install the seccond driver mode for 9500 -> 9700 because first I install all radeon and it give less points in 3d mark 2003 i used omega drivers 2.6.25a for overclocking i used my card overclocking program OC Guru, well this programs makes the difference because I can oc the mem frecv core frecv and memory voltage and core voltage, alse ajust the cool fan and many options but these are more important, so I raise the voltage for core and memory, and I oc core at 561 with ocguru and atitool an memory at 351 I modify the latency at 4 2 5 9 3 0x28 14 if I change the 5 with 4 it gives artifacts. I put under vga card an cooler http://www.ultrapro.ro/magazin/Produs_PP.jsp?pr_id=21897&cat_id=2158 and a fan from an power source , I start the fan from power source when I oc over 500 and 350 because it make noisebut my card is cold :), and when I start 3d mark 2003 i close all the other applications and I used task info 2003 to set the 3dmark2003 process priority at real time and then I close task info, at mb i get the new bios and i flash it i make the software update for via
http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=1039
http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=997
http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=984


Me again. I saw that you have the same motherboard like mine. When i clock mine over 161 mhz bus spead it refuses to start. I can only lift the cpu voltage by 75 mV. Also I have notised that with bus and ram freq lifted it gives me less 3d mark points than with nominal FSB /133MHz/ but twicked ram 2,5-2-2-5 Bank interleave 4. Is it the same with you?

[curious]

I buy this card Abit ATI Radeon 9550 guru one month ago and I have mb syntax sv266A FSB 149 I try 150 but it give an error in 3d mark 2003 file corupt at 3 game memory modules 256 ddr elixir 333 at 266 on my mb because it suports just 266 and 256 ddr 400 geil I don't change many things in mb bios i just follow the bios settings from www.omegadrivers.net, so I used omegadrivers and I install the seccond driver mode for 9500 -> 9700 because first I install all radeon and it give less points in 3d mark 2003 i used omega drivers 2.6.25a for overclocking i used my card overclocking program OC Guru, well this programs makes the difference because I can oc the mem frecv core frecv and memory voltage and core voltage, alse ajust the cool fan and many options but these are more important, so I raise the voltage for core and memory, and I oc core at 561 with ocguru and atitool an memory at 351 I modify the latency at 4 2 5 9 3 0x28 14 if I change the 5 with 4 it gives artifacts. I put under vga card an cooler http://www.ultrapro.ro/magazin/Produs_PP.jsp?pr_id=21897&cat_id=2158 and a fan from an power source , I start the fan from power source when I oc over 500 and 350 because it make noisebut my card is cold :), and when I start 3d mark 2003 i close all the other applications and I used task info 2003 to set the 3dmark2003 process priority at real time and then I close task info, at mb i get the new bios and i flash it i make the software update for via
http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=1039
http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=997
http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=984

Thanks DFG

[Rule-R]

Now i know why my results are so shitty! My Mobo can only handle 2x agp! Shit, i definetly need new parts! hmm i put down my memory timings for my memory from ?7-9? to 5-7?, anyone know what this means? ( timings from my memory, so not the vidcard memory )

Edit: my card ( ASUS radeon 9550GE/TD ) has rv350 chip, right? When i run everest it comes up with that i have rv360 chip, and have an 9600xt? ( yes, i flashed bios and it should b 9600pro with rv350 ) Hmm, awright: funny!

Edit: Hmm, that bios was set for 398/203x2, while the real speeds should if it really was xt bios: 600/500x2.

Edit: Not my memory timings but chip timings? Everest still showed them as 7-9 instead of 5-7?

[zAAm]

Edit: Hmm, that bios was set for 398/203x2, while the real speeds should if it really was xt bios: 600/500x2.

9600XT's run at 500/300x2... ;)

[Rule-R]

wooops, my fault! but still. dont u think its weird?

[Inteleron]

Isnt the Asus 9550TD 64-bit also?

[Rule-R]

I dont have the td, ive got GE/td. that one is 128bit

[denise]

5/7 or 7/9 show you SDRAM cycle time TRAS/TRC(you system memory) and unrelate with video card mem timings
i dont know why Everest still showed them as 7-9 instead of 5-7
SDRAM TRAS Timing mean:
The minimum bank active time.
SDRAM TRC mean:
Bank cycle timing, or the minimum cycles between consecutive activations of the same bank.
The shorter the better for performance, at the possible expense of stability.
i have got a intel815 chipset mobo,too-and that support AGP4X(AGP ver 2) and you can use everest to get information about it(in motherboard/chipset)
any way,about manli 9550,who have it?is this a good card?

[Inteleron]

Yah i got one of those cheap Intel D845PEBT2 mobos with 4x AGP :mad: Im still running my Radeon 9100 128mb 250/200 @ 300/520 DDR, I get 45-65 Frames per second in Counter-Strike Source, I can immagine what a 450/520 DDR 9550 can do, proby 100 frames.

[curious]

Now i know why my results are so shitty! My Mobo can only handle 2x agp!


Rule R, it is not only because of the Agp 2x , With your mobo 4x will give you approx 11-12 marks in 3d mark 2003. The problem is mostly in CPU-MoBo configuration, i Believe.

[Inteleron]

Does anybody play CS:S with your 9550?

[ReconCX]

Yea. 800x600, 2xAA/Aniso, everything high steady 40+ FPS

[Inteleron]

Thats nice, i play on 1280x1240 LCD but with all settings on low, and i get 40-50 fps on my 9100, if I were running a 9550 OC at all low settings which is what i play on, id probly be getting in the 70-80's. Try it on all the lowest settings and tell me wat u get.

[Inteleron]

Iunno wut to do i can get a Sapphire 9550 128mb for $69.99 CAD, but i know for a fact that the Sappire 9550's have 5ns Ram, that dont oc much, all i want is for the ram to hit 250x2. Lets say the ram only hits 220-230, if i vmod it, will it give it the extra juice to hit 250x2?

[wazzledoozle]

Does anybody play CS:S with your 9550?
1024x768 2xAA 2xAF
ANd im running my CPU at 2.4 GHz to compensate for summer heat. Butter smooth framerates until there are 10+ people on screen.

And I dont think you can vmod 9550's

But at this point it would be better to not get a radeon 9550/9600 series at all, save up for a lil bit more and get a 9800 Pro, which are $125 at newegg.com

[Inteleron]

umm I live in canada, cant shop off newegg, and i think im just gunna put together a temporary system,

-Sempron 2800+ Palermo 90nm S754
-Asus K8N4-E Deluxe Socket 754 nForce4
-OCZ PC-3200 DDR400 Enhanced Bandwidth Platinum Edition 512MB (2x256MB) Dual Channel Kit (OCZ400512EBDCPE-K)
-ASUS EN6200GE/TD GeForce 6200 128MB DDR PCI-E w/ TV-Out, DVI -[Pray I can open all 8 pipelines]-
- 80Gig hdd
-Some funky cheap Black case with side windaow and lights
-Hopefully i can get some water cooling for my vid card and cpu.

[Phelllip]

I have a Sapphire 9550 256mb with crappy Mezza 5.0...I have a custom made vpu cooler and ramsinks on it and I cannot overclock it more than 410/225...if I go more than 410, the screen freezes, if I go more than 225, I get artifacts..so beware of this Sapphire..unless it has better memory on it

[DFG]

try to change the core and mem voltage and get better cooler

[Phelllip]

Actually I don't think heat is the problem because I have big ramsinks on each side and my cooler is a P4 socket 478 that was modified to fit on the card...It's more because of bottom-line components

[Inteleron]

yea its pretty usless getting a 9550 these days their about $80-100 Canadian, and i can get a 6200 for 130 or a 9800pro for 160 CAD. I Think ill get a pro, or build my system and put my 9100 in there for a while till the prices of the 6800LE/NU Come down to 250-300 here in canada, cuz rite now their liek 370 for a NU, can't realy find any LE's here.

[Rule-R]

Bwah, for the ppl with little money (like me) it isnt useless to purchase a card like this. Its as good as the ti4200 @ dx8.1. If you overclock it as nicely as i did, its even performing better than the 4200 and it used dx9.0. I wont pay €150 for a 9600xt if i can overclock an 9550 almost to it. THat would cost the 3 times less.

[tmarkala]

Can somebody tell me how can I change the core and mem voltage... :confused:
Is there a program or something to do it?

[Inteleron]

hehehe Hell for $280.00 CAD I can get a BFG 6800OC, i might just go crazy and buy that card then open it to 16x6 and oc it to GT speeds.

[ReconCX]

Can somebody tell me how can I change the core and mem voltage... :confused:
Is there a program or something to do it?

RaBiT works i think. be careful when you're doing it tho.. don't wanna fry your card.

[Zanr Zij]

Some one tested Abit Ati Radeon 9550 Guru ? I have this card and I test it
3d mark 2003 - 4556 CF 561 MF 351 AI High 149 Performance Latente 42593 0x28 14


For U :) ;)

http://img48.echo.cx/img48/6257/506820wu.jpg






Link ORB :

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k3=4012501

[Inteleron]

WOW IS THAT A SAPPHIRE 9550? CORE: 670 MEM: 612 IS THAT VOLTMODDED? W0W. DOESNT THE 128mb SAPPHIRE CARD HAVE 5ns MEMORY?

[mikechinym]

wow!! how do you do that?? the core speed!ram! i use a gecube 9550gt and find max at only 480:240x2. 3dmark 2003 at 2995 only.how do you oc that?pls tell me

[NjoelTheMan]

I think that values unbelievable.

[ReconCX]

I also wanna know how you got those values. My 9550 card is in a closet right now (gor rid of my desktop) and I might hafta pull it out just to play with it some.

[NjoelTheMan]

i just clocked with rad clocker it just stable and give me 11xx on 3dmark01..and plan to change my bios either, those 6xxMhz GPU..i dont believe it.its has been PhotoShoped it, or its a different GPU.

[b1k3r]

:) nice ,nice

[stordoff]

i cant be photoshopped, it has been sumbitted to ORB, meaning it must be valid

[mixa]

I need some volunteers to test a BIOS moded by me which in most cases icreases performance by 10% (not for sure).Everyone who wants to test send me a PM and I`ll send you the BIOS image.It works both on Samsung and Hynix memories (4ns and 5ns).
You do this on your own risk !

[b1k3r]

what what???


:confused:

[Zanr Zij]

It is ASUS 9550GE flashed Sapphire 9550 BIOS. Voltmod GPU : Normal i measure : 1.16v, raised to 1.9v :D

[mixa]

How do you keep the card cool?
How much did you score on 3dm03 ?

[b1k3r]

3500 pts.

[Episode]

3500 pts.

hey b1k3r , i have the same asus 9550 and wont to know how to voltmoded ??!!
Please give me a shot if you can
My asus9550TD/GE use infineon 5ns memory
My best score with Atitool ---> clocked to 450/275 - 3D Mark 03 - 2780 points
==============
esd

My sys spec : Intel Celeron 1300 , RAM 294 / ...and i know that my system sux folks/

[b1k3r]

i dont overvolted my ASUS RADEON ,i only change the bios and make some changes in the bios with Rabit(The program).Thats all i've done :)

[Dark Ride]

I flashed my Asus 9550GE 128MB with a GeCube 9600Pro 128MB BIOS and now EVEREST says I have a 9600XT[with a RV360 core.the 9550 is a RV350 core].That's strange, but it works very well.I used Rabit to change the clocks [see signature].

@ b1k3r

Do you have the GE or normal ASUS 9550 ? what cooling do you use and which BIOS did you use to flash your 9550 ?

[Rule-R]

As i posted earlier this year.. my ASUS 9550GE/TD with !!4.0 ns!! RaM is also detected as 9600XT. I Used the Powercolor Bios. Others have 5.0ns RM which is slower and they might get diff results.. Something like: the RaM chip run less hot so they can get higher speeds out of it..

[Dark Ride]

Others have 5.0ns RM which is slower and they might get diff results.. Something like: the RaM chip run less hot so they can get higher speeds out of it..
ummm ... what ? I didn't get you :confused:

btw, which bios did you use exactly [link ?]

[Rule-R]

the normal 9550's have 4.0 or 5.0 ns memory.. 4.0ns memory is faster thus gets hotter. 5.0 ns memory gets less hot so you can overclock more b4 beginning to see artifacts. And as your vidcard has 5.0ns memory.. the bios i used cant be put on your card.. or at least i wont try..

[mixa]

I flashed my Asus 9550GE 128MB with a GeCube 9600Pro 128MB BIOS and now EVEREST says I have a 9600XT[with a RV360 core.the 9550 is a RV350 core].That's strange, but it works very well

ALWAYS when a 9550 is flashed with 9600 BIOS the Device ID is changed to 4152 which coresponds to 9600XT Device ID with RV360 core.

This is how you card is identified when you flash it 9600 BIOS
"RADEON 9600 SERIES " = ati2mtag_RV360, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_4152&SUBSYS_00021002

And here is how a real 9600XT is identified (FIC in this case).
"FIC RADEON 9600XT" = ati2mtag_RV360, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_4152&SUBSYS_9A361509

[Inteleron]

How does the 9550 hold up in new games like liek battlefield 2.

[stordoff]

it runs hl2 fine

[Anzilla82]

I have an ATI Radeon 9550 256MB (Samsung 5.0) and have been trying to flash a GeCube 9600Pro 256MB (Samsung 5.0) bios to it without any success, I always get an error code, I didn't write it down unfortunately but I will get it and post it if anyone is interested. But that aside, I figured I will try to use a Powercolor bios from this site, but the memory is only listed as Samsung.... so I d/loaded it and opened both my stock ATI and the Powercolor with RaBit, needless to say the memory timings are different. Should I change the Powercolor timings to match my ATI's before trying to flash it?

BTW, using ATITool I was able to get my 9550 to 380 core/225 mem, is this good or should it be better?

[djbbenn]

Ya if you could tell what the error is, that would be great. Most comman errors are the bios has to be forced, so you just add " -f " to the command line. Or the other one is that people don't rename the bios file to less that 8 characters. Dos doesn't reconize file names longer than 8 letters.

-Dan

[Anzilla82]

The error I am getting is 0FL01. To let you know I am forcing it and the bios is simply named bios.bin... I'm using the CD image I downloaded from here but I do extract the bios and use RaBit to set the core/mem clocks and then add back into the ISO...

[syke]

Hi

I have tried a few different bios's and it seems that my bios is locked on the video card. Is there anyway to unlock it or is it stuck like that.

Using ATITOOL or RivaTuna i can overclock my card to 475/280X2(560) without artifacts and it runs fine but i want to get it to a 9600 and see if there is a difference.

Stock my card gets 7800~ in 3dmark2001 but clocked to 475/560 i can get 11002.

Can anyone help me with the bios, The ram chips are infineon and i assume they are 5.0ns chips as 5.0 is the last number on the chips ID number (think its the Chip ID Number) I have ram sinks on them now so i cant see it anymore.

Thanks in advance :)

[Anzilla82]

I have an ATI Radeon 9550 256MB (Samsung 5.0) and have been trying to flash a GeCube 9600Pro 256MB (Samsung 5.0) bios to it without any success, I always get an error code, I didn't write it down unfortunately but I will get it and post it if anyone is interested. But that aside, I figured I will try to use a Powercolor bios from this site, but the memory is only listed as Samsung.... so I d/loaded it and opened both my stock ATI and the Powercolor with RaBit, needless to say the memory timings are different. Should I change the Powercolor timings to match my ATI's before trying to flash it?

BTW, using ATITool I was able to get my 9550 to 380 core/225 mem, is this good or should it be better?


Anyone have some knowledge/answers they would like to share with me? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Bob7317496]

This is just a general info post for anyone looking for it - Ordered an ASUS 128mb 9550GE refurb from Newegg and got it to do 400 core/260 mem on stock cooling - it went up a bit further than that, but I like to give myself 10-15mhz of headroom when I overclock video cards. It came with Hynix 5.0 RAM.

[syke]

Can anyone who has a asus card that could flash it tell me if they had to do anything special or if it just let it flash the card. Since i get the bios is locked all the time even when i try and force it i was just curious.

Thanks

[Bob7317496]

For me, it just worked... I used FlashROM to flash the card, and the GECube Hynix 5.0 9600 PRO BIOS to flash it with. Here's what I typed in at the command prompt (I booted from a floppy):

Flashrom -f -p 0 9600.bin

Where -f is the forcing parameter, -p is the flashing parameter, 0 (zero) is the ID of of the card (which can be viewed by typing "flashrom -i" at the command prompt) and 9600.bin was the new BIOS file. Also, make sure you use the "-s" parameter to save your old BIOS if you want to (to find out what all the parameters mean and how to use them, type "flashrom /?").

I had the ASUS 9550GE 128mb 128-bit card, so I can't promise that it'll work with anything else, but that's all I had to do, and I'm pretty sure that's the "standard" method for doing it. Good luck!

[syke]

I have tried doing it that way. maybe because my card is a 256mb version.

I guess ill just have to be happy with the overclock that i can get with it.I might just change that bios so i can not have to worry about using atitool or the omega drivers.

[mixa]

The 256MB versions made by ASUS can`t be flashed.Use software overclocking

[nyioo7@hotmail.com]

hey does anybody know if msi 9550 card will work with biostar's xgp slot?

[WestPoint]

should i flash my bios on MSI RADEON 9550 256 mb Samsung 5.0 to 9600np or 9600pro??i have sapphire non pro bios and GeCubu pro bios,samsung 5.0 both and 256mb also.

[Bob7317496]

Westpoint - as far as I know, the two BIOSes are identical except for core and memory clock speeds. Use ATITool to find out the speeds that your components will run, and go from there.

[jox]

Hi,

I have Sapphire card with stock fan, I got 385/233*2 Mhz but today I buy new cooler ( Primecooler PC-VGAHG1 CU ). After mounting this i try overclock more. :)

[Visceral]

I wondered about overclocking this thing and was pleased to find your guide as the first result in my search. :) I've got an ATI 9550 with 256MB of 5.0ns Samsung. I added sinks to the RAM and I've got it up to 400/231x2 with the stock GPU heatsink. 1785 3Dmark 2k3 score at default speeds, 2579 currently. I'm looking forward to pushing it higher once my Arctic Cooling HSF arrives. In short, you rock. Thanks for posting this. :D

I haven't touched the memory timings yet, any recommendations for going about it safely? "At your own risk" warnings are a bit ominous when you lack any other information as to how to proceed. (Current settings: TRCDRD=4, TRCDWR=2, TRP=5, TRAS=8, TRRD=3, TWR=2, TR2W=CL+3, TW2R=2, TW2R_SAME_BANK=Use TWR Rule, TR2R=2, MEM_MODE_REG=0x32, WR_LATENCY=1.0, CAS_LATENCY=3, CMD_LATENCY=0, STR_LATENCY=WR Latency + 1/2, REFRESH_RATE=0x17, TRFC=14)

[jox]

Hi,

I have Sapphire card with stock fan, I got 385/233*2 Mhz but today I buy new cooler ( Primecooler PC-VGAHG1 CU ). After mounting this i try overclock more. :)

With new cooler and sinks I have little higher frequency. 410/255*2. In aquamark3 I've obtained this score: now-27571, before 24761, no oc-14693. I am rather disappointed .

[stordoff]

why are you disappointed?

[Visceral]

Big problem: my card has no power connector on it for the HSF, as it ships with a simple heatsink and not a full HSF unit. What are my options for getting the thing plugged into 12V power? There are 3-pin to 4-pin converters, but they use the larger, standard 3-pin fan connector type and not this one, which is smaller. Are there converters out there for this connector type? If not, could I cut off the standard connector from another fan and the little connector on my HSF and just connect the black wire from the HSF and the black wire to the standard connector, and likewise for red?

EDIT: Cut off the 3-pin connector and spliced on a standard one with heatshrink tubing. Works like a dream.

[jox]

why are you disappointed?

I assumed the gpu clock will be higher, at least 430Mhz :(. ATItool find finaly this frequency: 413/255. But the cooler is ultra quiet :D , now I hear working HDD :eek:. All other fan is ultra silence 15-20db.

[Visceral]

What the hell is wrong? With silver thermal compound and the Arctic Cooling unit I can overclock the core a paltry 10MHz more than with the crappy stock heatsink (which did not include a fan) and its cheap thermal paste. I'm thinking I just wasted 40 bucks on a fancy HSF that looks cool but does very little!

[Dark Ride]

I wonder why you guys get such low OC freqs.Look at my sig, I have the stock ASUS cooler and no ramsinks.

[jox]

I wonder why you guys get such low OC freqs.Look at my sig [look at my sig].I have the stock ASUS cooler and no ramsinks.

yes, becouse the ATI company may use low-quality chips on radeon 9550 series. You have original 9600 card series. :confused:

[Dark Ride]

yes, becouse the ATI company may use low-quality chips on radeon 9550 series. You have original 9600 card series. :confused:
I don't know what you mean.I have a ASUS 9550GE 128MB card.
By the way, the chip is the same on almost all 9550 cards [RV350 chip].

[jox]

I don't know what you mean.I have a ASUS 9550GE 128MB card.
By the way, the chip is the same on almost all 9550 cards [RV350 chip].

Yes, sorry. You have truth, but this is the same as standard CPU. Better CPU allow run on higher frequency and poor quality CPU set on lower frequency. btw. There is not the difference betwen CPU or GPU, becouse one make higher frequency and other from the same production line make lower frequency.

[dpalyu]

Under misc the unlock is grayed out. When trying to mod bios using Flashrom or ATI flash unable to change bios. Any hints?

[Dark Ride]

What card do you have ?

[dpalyu]

Rosewill Radeon 9550 49CRT5493094, Model name VGA-9550-128C, 128 meg, 128 bit, 4X/8X.

[kirkhammet]

Hi,
after some overclockin tryouts with Flight Sim. 9 i just decided to flash the BIOS of my ATI 9550.
And what happend?
-=NOTHING=-

I got no PCI Graphiccard, only my onboard.

Is there a Chance, to reflash the backup or is my card damaged for ever now?

If there is a Chance, i will be glad if some one can give my an instruction

[Inteleron]

w0w sry to hear that, but i don't know, i just might make the move and buy a Powerecolor 9550 128mb cuz i can get one for 74$ and i plan to jsut mod the hell out of it vmods gallore and bios flashing basicaly jsut a test card. By the way how does ur 9550's handle BF2? how many FPS?

[kirkhammet]

What´s BF2?

In Flight Simulator 9, i had about 20 fps max, average 10 - 20 fps @ medium details, bilineared without Anti aliasing @ 1024x768.

I tried Aquamark 3 benchmark. Frames were OK. But most times I fly, and FS9 takes a lot of Resources, RAM and graphical performance.
So i need a Card that kixass, but i don´t want to spend more than 250 $ / 200 €.

If i can´t restore the BIOS, i´ll buy an Nvidia i think.
Do U know a good one for AGP?

[Inteleron]

yah get the Leadtek A6200 128mb, its a 6200 with 4 pipelines that can be modded to 8 pipelins and flashed to 6600.

[kirkhammet]

What are these pipelines?
Sry, i don´t know all about grafix :rolleyes:

Is there a FAQ for detailed descriptions this page?

[Inteleron]

lozl ill tell u were these pipelines are located, lozl their hidden but flashing to 6600 can unlock them.

[archery]

I'm wanting to flash the BIOS of a sapphire 9550 256mb Samsung 5.0 ns memory (part codes end in TC50).
There is no Sapphire 9600 pro BIOS for this memory on the site. The max memory clock speed on ATI tool seems to max out at 217 Mhz while the core clock speed got to when up to 460 before I stopped it.
I assume my memory is letting me down, as most of the memory speeds for the 9600 pro are stated as 250 Mhz. Are there any other flashes I should consider for this card, I have looked exhaustively so any help would be appreciated.

[Dark Ride]

my advise is not to flash the BIOS.It doesen't do much, but causes trouble.It's not worth it.

[deadboby]

I have Sapphire Radeon 9550 256mb with samsung 5ns chip. Now my simple question is Which 9600 bios should I use to overclock it? as there are no bios for "Sapphire Radeon 9600 256mb samsung 5ns" in the following site

http://www.techpowerup.com/bios/

please advise....

thanks

[simoneisgod]

hi this might be a silly question but here is goes anyway

iv stuffed up my sappire radeon 9550 with a bad flash and i dont think its recovable however i do have another one of the same card still in the box untouched if i put this in my system will it work or will it brake this card to?

thanky

[Pala]

First I'm sorry for my English.I need help,
I've flashed Asus Radeon 9550@Radeon 9600(with radeon 9600 aiw bios).This bios was good.But I said why can't this card work better and I flashed again with 9600XT bios.Now I can't boot my computer.I have an onboard vga on my mobo.Bu I can't use my card with onboard vga together to reupdate my bios.What can I do this?If can't do this,how can I recover my bios?

[mikechinym]

First I'm sorry for my English.I need help,
I've flashed Asus Radeon 9550@Radeon 9600(with radeon 9600 aiw bios).This bios was good.But I said why can't this card work better and I flashed again with 9600XT bios.Now I can't boot my computer.I have an onboard vga on my mobo.Bu I can't use my card with onboard vga together to reupdate my bios.What can I do this?If can't do this,how can I recover my bios?

sounds like you are in trouble,as other said, there is only a way to flash back if your card bios is bad.
1.get a pci display card and slot in
2.get in the bios and set the first display unit to pci(this mean boot to pci first)
3.ready the bootable disc that make from this side with bios together(select from the bios page)
4.get in dos and flash it back.

this method i had tried once and success

[tat2z4evr]

I just flashed my Asus Radeon A9550GE/TD (Hynix 5ns) with that BIOS: http://www.techpowerup.com/bios/Asus.9600SE.128.Hynix50.040304.bin (it says 9600 SE 128 MB, OK), and it works, but after the restart the OS re-detected it again as Radeon 9550. I checked the BIOS with RadEdit, it's correct for 9600, but Windows detects the card the same. Could it be possible that I am doing it wrong, or because the EEPROM was locked (I used the -f command), or else? Ideas?

[Pala]

Thanks for help,
I got a pci card but i can't use it with monitor.It's one of connecting points for monitor hasn't a hole(very fun situation :D ).But I can boot my computer without monitor,i can't see anything.Everything works but monitor.Could you tell what do I have to do?Which steps should I follow?

[mikechinym]

Thanks for help,
I got a pci card but i can't use it with monitor.It's one of connecting points for monitor hasn't a hole(very fun situation :D ).But I can boot my computer without monitor,i can't see anything.Everything works but monitor.Could you tell what do I have to do?Which steps should I follow?

do you means the output adapter from ur display card jack cannot socket into your monitor?without the display on monitor you cant flash.maybe others guy can help you out on this forum.sorry

[Pala]

do you means the output adapter from ur display card jack cannot socket into your monitor?without the display on monitor you cant flash.maybe others guy can help you out on this forum.sorry
My card came back from dead for me ;).I made a hole on close point(Türkish mind :D ).After this,pci card worked as well as Radeon 9550.I flashed Asus9550GE with sapphire128 9550bios.There are some intersting things i wanna ask you.Before I flashed it with sapphire bios,I was using it 414\540 but i use it now 420\560.How could this be possible.Did i make voltmod to this card with the new bios?Thanks from now...

[h0tsauce]

will this work on an old 9500np 64mb?

[mikechinym]

My card came back from dead for me ;).I made a hole on close point(Türkish mind :D ).After this,pci card worked as well as Radeon 9550.I flashed Asus9550GE with sapphire128 9550bios.There are some intersting things i wanna ask you.Before I flashed it with sapphire bios,I was using it 414\540 but i use it now 420\560.How could this be possible.Did i make voltmod to this card with the new bios?Thanks from now...
voltmod can only be mod from the mbo and cannot mod within the bios.so, dont worry.by the way,when doing bios flashing,it just depends on your luck.like my one,i flash from gecube to asus bios but still run,with only some problems during the games.sometimes, it crash.

[mikechinym]

will this work on an old 9500np 64mb?

depends on your luck. mostly,i think cannot.for some user, they look for the ram type whether it is samsung,hynix or other brand.one more thing,bios mod wont gurantee speed raise because the material that build on that card had its own limit.biosmod is risky.

[Pala]

Thanks to all.I've sold my9550 to my uncle.Today I'm gonna buy a Leadtek6800LE.How can i open its pipelines?After I open its close pipelines i will write the scores.

[Vladu]

Hi,

I could use some advices. I got a new video card - Saphire Ati Radeon 9550 - 256 MB. I've just reinstalled windows and now the quality on my movies, videos etc is very poor. Let me give you an example. I have a video movie made with High Definition. Before installing windows was crystal clear but know I can even see some pixels. Can you please tell me what can I do now to solve ? Thank you in advance for your advices !

[simoneisgod]

were you running windows befor? if so try reinstalling media player i had loads of trouble with games and videos on mine and was blaming the card but it turns out it was my media player il even give you this handy link http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/mp10/default.aspx

hope this is of some help

[patman]

I want to know how I do to connect my Ati Radeon Sapphire 256mb to tv out, and how much can increase the speeds mem and core (actually 410-217)

[mikechinym]

I want to know how I do to connect my Ati Radeon Sapphire 256mb to tv out, and how much can increase the speeds mem and core (actually 410-217)

use the cable that provided when you purchase that card.simply plug in to your card and the other end plug into your tv "s-video in"port(you can see the port if your tv had the "s-video" in port othervise buy another tv).i only use the tv when i am watching movie othervise i can't even see the icon text in windows.after all had been plug,boot up your pc,you will then see the windows post and booting screen.you know what to do next... :)

[cotzy]

What Core and Mem do you recommand me on a Connect3d 9550 256 Mb with no cooler,but whit a cheap radiator.
I have an Asus A7A266 motherboard and an AMD DURON 1300 MHZ and 512 DDR
P.S. Please excuse my bad english.

[tepabajo]

In my bios, Asus K8n-E Deluxe, I can change the mhz setting of the AGP slot from 66 thru 75. If I use the ATI tool to overclock the card is there any reason/advantage to selecting a higher setting than the default of 66?

[cotzy]

I've just installed the rivers to my Ati Radeon 9950.After i restarted my pc when to get in windows(you know when i choose the user) on my monitor appears check your signal cable and i have to reset it.Please help me:respect: :respect:

[cotzy]

I installed the video card on Gigabyte motherboard(in don't remeber the model) with Agp 8x and it worked.What do i have to change on my bios to make it work.My motherboard is Asus A7A266 with Agp 4x.PLEASE HELP ME

[wacko]

Hi all

I see you all managed to oveclock your radeons very good. I clocked it too. it works on 400/290 without artifacts. But i have one problem, you see i ahd 256 ddr ram so i upgradeed my comp with 1 more 256 stick iand i got huge porblems. When i paly gaems or watch movies i my comp freeze. I have upgradeed my maniboard bios but still i haev problems. My configuraton is p4 2.4 northwood 2x256 pc3200 mobo: asrockp4vt8+ (it supports agp 8x and ddr 400 mem). I was thinkin to flash my graphic card bios but it seys in faq that asus bioses are non flashable. And also its funny i bought asus radeon 9550 GE 256mb 128 bit but when i go to display properties or i everest it says 9600 series and in ati tool device id is 4150 not 4152 or 4153 so is nmy card flashabale or is there any other solution to fix this problem( i cannot buy now on 512 ddr stick casue im ut of money):D

[curious]

Does anybody know How to flash ASL /axle/ 9550 . It's 128bit 128 MB and I think it's locked but I might be wrong. Anybody with the same card who got the success story?

[cotzy]

I've got a problem with AtiTools 0.24.A mark "Remove Radeon 9000/9200/9550/9600 clock" and i overclock the video card.But after i restart my Pc the clock is reseted and "Remove Radeon 9000/9200/9550/9600 clock" is still marked.Is there another solution besize downloadin the softmod drivers???
Please Help

[sjust]

Hi I just flashed my 9550 to a 9600xt the BIOS I used had the memory speed 5ns as what my card has. now should I have uninstalled the drivers first? and should I be useing omega drivers at all? when I firsted booted up after the flas windows reconized it as a new card so I uninstalled the drivers and reinstalled everything was fine for a few minutes then the screen went black I know that the flash went well but not sure about the omega drivers? should i just use ATI drivers. the core speed is a little higher on the 9600xt then what I was running overclocked but the memory was a little slower

9550 375/204
9600xt 500/202
Should I just stick with overclocking?
any help would be nice
also I read on the forum the it dosn't matter what memory it is as long as the speed matches or is who makes the card

[mikechinym]

Hi I just flashed my 9550 to a 9600xt the BIOS I used had the memory speed 5ns as what my card has. now should I have uninstalled the drivers first? and should I be useing omega drivers at all? when I firsted booted up after the flas windows reconized it as a new card so I uninstalled the drivers and reinstalled everything was fine for a few minutes then the screen went black I know that the flash went well but not sure about the omega drivers? should i just use ATI drivers. the core speed is a little higher on the 9600xt then what I was running overclocked but the memory was a little slower

9550 375/204
9600xt 500/202
Should I just stick with overclocking?
any help would be nice
also I read on the forum the it dosn't matter what memory it is as long as the speed matches or is who makes the card

for me,i am stick with my oc timing.500/500ddr. the risk is,my card life will be shorter.i know this is not good. its been 2 months,i stick with it.
so,the conclusion is take your risk.

[sjust]

Ihave overclocked got the gpu up to 425 but the memory only goes to 206 before I start to have artifacts at least that what ati tray tools tells me. I have mira memory on a powercolor 256 megs. is there any way to get the memory to go faster?

[mikechinym]

Ihave overclocked got the gpu up to 425 but the memory only goes to 206 before I start to have artifacts at least that what ati tray tools tells me. I have mira memory on a powercolor 256 megs. is there any way to get the memory to go faster?

well, it depends. the quality of the product is the main factor.
to score the best,i use the latest atitool.
use the catalyst 5.9 from omega website.
i find the maximum for both gpu and ram
my ram is hynix 5.0ns,i also dunno why it go so high.
besides of that, i place 2 psu fan for both side of the card, to cool down the temp of the ram.
i didn't pu heatsink on ram.
there might be a risk that the card will burn.:banghead:
actually, increase the gpu wont effect much.
increase ram will be more useful.

[sjust]

That might be my problem the memory is getting to hot. I work in a factory so I think i'll try and make some heatsinks for the memory. just wondering how thick I should I should make them. we have alu slugs at work that should work but they are .25 inch thick. we do have some thinner .125 inch thick. anybody with some suggestions

[g_tar_playa]

I'm glad I found this forum.

Just bought a $100 Sapphire 9550 128 bit 256 mb. I only have played around overclocking with TRIXX thus far. The card has a fan on it, and I rigged a case fan up against/across the immediate 4 PCI slots below my where my vid card is ( nifty eh? ). So, its cool i guess. I am interested in the whole "flashing the Bios" idea. Seems possible to get it to at least a 9600 from what I've read. I don't plan on beefing up my cooling. I can't notice any significance in what I'v been doing with TRIXX but i guess thats because I am only running games like Medal of Honour and Call of Duty.

* I don't have ATITOOL, but ill get it right after submtting this post.

* In TRIXX i cannot see the card temp or VPU temp, is that critical to know?

* If anyone has any warnings or thumbs up stories, hit me with them please

* I have a Sempron 3000+ OC from 2.0 Ghz to 2.27 Ghz

* Anyone know if the jumper on the board is for stock/turbo modes? If so,whats the diff in speeds?

If your reading this line then thank you for taking the time to
read everything above!


:rockout:

[sjust]

I just found the jumper on my card as well and was wondering what it was for myself. I have a Sempron 3000 myself but can only get it up to 2.1. I think it's the memory I have(Kinston pc-2700) and the power supply (400 wats). Getting a new ps 550 wats but not here yet. going to see if I can rig something for a fan to blow on the card as well.

[E.J.]

hello, I recently bought a Connect3D Radeon 9550 (RV350LX) 256MB 128Bit.

I want to know how much i can get from this videocard.

http://media.schottenland.de/pi/Connect3dRadeon9550.jpg

I have read a lot in this thread but nobody ever talks about this card. The first thing clear for me is that if i want to overclock it i'll need a "real" cooler. :)

If somebody knows more about this card or can redirect me to some site where i could find more info i'd be very gratefull.

My system specs:

Motherboard: MSI K8T Neo-V Socket-754
Processor: AMD Semprom 64bit 2600 Mhz
VideoCard: Connect3d Radeon 9550 (etc)
RAM: Kingston DDR 512MB 333Mhz
HardDisk: 2 x Gateway Barracuda ST340014A 40Gb

Regards, E.J.

[Mad Man]

Is there anyhope to flash gigabyte 9550 to 9600 ? I tried and it say bios is locked, how to unlock ? Plz show me some clues, thx

[ngocrebel]

I just have this card, Use ATITool OC and find out artifact pretty soon. Then I decide to flash BIOS. This card use Samsung 5 so I use the BIOS of Powercolor 9600 pro (Aug 23 03). It works find at 400/240 in Window. But there is a problem at POST SCREEN, when I boot the computer, the screen just refresh VERY SLOW. Same thing happen when I'm working with MOBO BIOS SCREEN. I did try reflash other BIOS (Saphire 9600pro samsung 5, MSI 9600 pro Samsung 3.3) and got a worse result in Window (very high artifact with the same clock) and the problem with POST SREEN still exist. I did try several others 9600 BIOS with different clock but the problem with POST SREEN exist and the only POWERCOLOR BIOS give the best clock. Should I give up or stay with powercolor and get VERY SLOW POST SREEN POST SREEN.

Thanks
Ngoc Nguyen

[ngocrebel]

i overclocked my msi 9550 128 mb card with samsung 4.0 to gecube 9600 pro and it is working great. but what i like to know is , is the fast write still on and why is there no smartgart in my ati setting. can these setting change the performance?

AMD Athlon XP 3200+
MSI K7N2 Delta2-LSR
1 GB kingston 3200 dual
MSI ATI Radeon 9550 128 mb 250/203
Maxtor SATA 80 GB

How fast your card does after flash GeCube?
I have the MSI 9550 128, but I thing It's Samsung 5. It got 400/240 with Powercolor 9600 pro BIOS and worked smooth in window.
BUT there is a problem with POST SCREEN when the computer is BOOTING, It refresh very slow???

Do you see this problem???

[Mad Man]

Already flash to 9600XT, i used Gecube bios to flash with Flashrom. To flash with clocked BIOS like Gigabyte's, adding the parameters -sst -f . That's so simple but seem like noone here care to answer.

@ngocrebel: your name so familiar, u come from Vietnam ?

[ngocrebel]

I see some guy talk about Voltmod. Why do we have to modify the board. I use the Asus P4C800 Deluxe and it can be adjust the votage for AGP port (also for CPU and RAM). But I don't know how safe it is then just keep the default setting. If you have an idea then please share, I'm kind of guy that don't like the "DEFAULT THING"

Asus P4C800 Deluxe
P4 3G Prescott, 1MB L2 (OC 3.4G)
1GB Kingston PC3200 HyperX dual Channel
2WD 80GB SATA RAID 0 for window, 2 Seagate 160 SATA
MSI 9550 128MB flash with Powercolor 9600 pro (400/240x2)
500W ultra X connect PSU.

[RuMoR]

I'm not normally one to ask for help, but I have come to a problem or two that I cannot seem to figure out on my own. I am trying to simply unlock my card at the very least. I have used ATItool ATI, RaBit, ATIFlash, WinFlash, ATI Tray Tools, and Radonator to no avail.
I have also flashed my card to almost every bios on the bios page that matches Samsung, I believe mine is Samsung 4.5 or something to that affect. I had a few that wouldn't even post, and a few that would post 8/16bit flashing boxes. Idealy I would like to flash it to a 9600SE ViVo. I haven't been able to find a bios to match that, if there even is such a card, which I do believe there is.

One more little thing, Does anyone have any idea what that little yellow jumper is for?

Thanks in advance
RuMoR

My system:

Processor GenuineIntel ~2386 Mhz
Memory 512.00 MB

This is all the info on my card.

http://www.hisdigital.com/newimages/products/9600_9550_r8k25d_500.jpg

Catalyst Control Center reading

Card Manufacturer Powered by ATI
Graphics Chipset HIGHTECH EXCALIBUR RADEON 9550SE Series
Device ID 4153
Vendor 1002
Subsystem ID 201C
SVendor ID 17AF
Bus Type AGP
Current Bus Setting AGP 4X
BIOS Version 008.017D.016.00
BIOS Part Number BK-ATI VER008.017D.016.000
BIOS Date 2004/04/21
Memory Size 256 MB
Memory Type DDR SGRAM / SDRAM
Core Clock in MHz 250 MHz
Memory Clock in MHz 196 MHz
Primary Display Yes


System Information reading

Name HIGHTECH EXCALIBUR RADEON 9550SE Series
PNP Device ID PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_4153&SUBSYS_201C17AF&REV_00\4&6B9BF1C&0&0008
Adapter Type ATI RADEON 9550 AGP (0x4153), ATI Technologies Inc. compatible
Adapter Description HIGHTECH EXCALIBUR RADEON 9550SE Series
Adapter RAM 256.00 MB (268,435,456 bytes)
Installed Drivers ati2dvag.dll
Driver Version 6.14.10.6583
INF File oem10.inf (ati2mtag_RV350 section)
Color Planes 1
Color Table Entries 4294967296
Resolution 1024 x 768 x 75 hertz
Bits/Pixel 32
Memory Address 0xE0000000-0xEFFFFFFF
I/O Port 0x0000EC00-0x0000ECFF
Memory Address 0xFF8F0000-0xFF8FFFFF
IRQ Channel IRQ 16
I/O Port 0x000003B0-0x000003BB
I/O Port 0x000003C0-0x000003DF
Memory Address 0xA0000-0xBFFFF
Driver c:\windows\system32\drivers\ati2mtag.sys
(6.14.10.6583, 1.33 MB (1,391,104 bytes), 25/08/2004 1:28 AM)

Name HIGHTECH EXCALIBUR RADEON 9550SE Series - Secondary
PNP Device ID PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_4173&SUBSYS_201D17AF&REV_00\4&6B9BF1C&0&0108
Adapter Type ATI RADEON 9550 Secondary AGP (0x4173), ATI Technologies Inc. compatible
Adapter Description HIGHTECH EXCALIBUR RADEON 9550SE Series - Secondary
Adapter RAM 256.00 MB (268,435,456 bytes)
Installed Drivers ati2dvag.dll
Driver Version 6.14.10.6583
INF File oem10.inf (ati2mtag_RV350 section)
Color Planes Not Available
Color Table Entries Not Available
Resolution Not Available
Bits/Pixel Not Available
Memory Address 0xD0000000-0xEFFFFFFF
Memory Address 0xFF8E0000-0xFF8EFFFF
Driver c:\windows\system32\drivers\ati2mtag.sys
(6.14.10.6583, 1.33 MB (1,391,104 bytes), 25/08/2004 1:28 AM)

This Card has the same Bios Number, so i looked for a bios for it, I couldn't find one.

Manufacturer: Gecube
Model: Radeon 9600 (PRO)
Chipset: ATI Radeon 9600 (PRO)
Interface: AGP 8x
Memory Size: 256.00 MBytes
Memory Type: DDR
Default Engine Speed: 498.25 MHz
Default Memory Speed: 195.75 MHz
BIOS Version: 008.017D.016.00 2004/12/28
OS Drivers: Catalyst 5.6
OC Engine Speed: 437.80 MHz
OC Memory Speed: 216.00 MHz
Cooling Info: stock cooling, very reliable!

[Lekamies]

I see some guy talk about Voltmod. Why do we have to modify the board. I use the Asus P4C800 Deluxe and it can be adjust the votage for AGP port (also for CPU and RAM). But I don't know how safe it is then just keep the default setting. If you have an idea then please share, I'm kind of guy that don't like the "DEFAULT THING"

Adjusting agp voltage is different than voltmodding video card. When you voltmod your video card it means more voltage directly card gpu and memory. I had Sapphire radeon 9550 last winter and make the voltmods on it. It ran stock voltages gpu:420Mhz and mem:240 (not the fastest).
Then I rise gpu voltage ~0,2v and memory voltage ~0,2v. result: gpu:515Mhz & mem:275Mhz.

[sjust]

I have a jumper on my card as well and would like to know what it is for myself. Powercolor 9550 256 mgb. I have googled it and have found nothing about it. I have a couple days off this week so I might change it to see what it does hope it dosen't burn up. Let you all know what happens.:wtf:

[Bangungot]

I have a ATI 9550 256MB PRO and I recently overclocked it. I attained 445/245x2, however, I didn't want my card to stress too much so I lowered the core speed to 399. My card is cooled with Zalman VF700 AlCu (http://www.gadgetophile.com/zalman-vf700-alcu-installreview/). Since my card doesn't have a built-in thermometer, I don't know the temperature of the card. But when I place my hand near the fan of the Zalman, I feel a very hot air. If the fan is blowing off hot air, then the VGA chipset might be twice as hot. My question is, is this normal or my card is close to getting fried? I'm looking for suggestions. Thanks.

[sc00terx]

where can i find the bios for my card sapphire 9550 256 elilxer mem card <

also what bios to use to take it to a 9600 for clocking <<

eny info would be kewl thanks as ever
Sc00terx

also seen this from another site

""""I fixed the 9500Pro BIOS. It's now overclockable!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I did a comparison of the 9700Pro BIOS, the 9700 non-pro BIOS, and the 9500Pro BIOS and was able to find the one hexidecimal value that is keeping the 9500Pro and 9700 non-pro from overclocking.

Address Line: 00000070h
Originally: 44 76 4E 37 91 08 02 10 02 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

Edited: 44 76 4E 37 90 08 02 10 02 00 00 00 00 00 00 00


ATi is setting the same hex value on the 9500Pro and 9700 non-pro to keep them from overclocking. I tested this change on both a 9700 non-pro and 9500Pro and it works. All of the overclocking utilities functioned correctly...Rage3D Tweak works great with it!


Download the new 9500Pro/9500non-pro/9700non-pro overclockable BIOS's and the newest version of ATIFLASH here:

http://www.3dchipset.com/bios/index.php

You may need to uninstall/reinstall your ATi Drivers and Control Panel."""""

[mikechinym]

where can i find the bios for my card sapphire 9550 256 elilxer mem card <

also what bios to use to take it to a 9600 for clocking <<

eny info would be kewl thanks as ever
Sc00terx

also seen this from another site

""""I fixed the 9500Pro BIOS. It's now overclockable!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I did a comparison of the 9700Pro BIOS, the 9700 non-pro BIOS, and the 9500Pro BIOS and was able to find the one hexidecimal value that is keeping the 9500Pro and 9700 non-pro from overclocking.

Address Line: 00000070h
Originally: 44 76 4E 37 91 08 02 10 02 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

Edited: 44 76 4E 37 90 08 02 10 02 00 00 00 00 00 00 00


ATi is setting the same hex value on the 9500Pro and 9700 non-pro to keep them from overclocking. I tested this change on both a 9700 non-pro and 9500Pro and it works. All of the overclocking utilities functioned correctly...Rage3D Tweak works great with it!


Download the new 9500Pro/9500non-pro/9700non-pro overclockable BIOS's and the newest version of ATIFLASH here:

http://www.3dchipset.com/bios/index.php

You may need to uninstall/reinstall your ATi Drivers and Control Panel."""""

is that mean u are able to change a card from 9550 stock to 9700 non-pro by just change its bios.
that is amazing.if like that u can open the pipelines also right.
if i use the bios u modified, can i run on my gecube 9550gt

[sc00terx]

sorry mike i think i got that a bit rong its for a 9500Pro to be a 9700pro but if i am rong again some one will say :)


as ever sc00terx

[yozh]

Hi I have a quick question,

I just bought a GIGABYTE GV-R955128D Radeon 9550 128MB

and I was reading that you cant flash gigabyte cards with not gigabyte bios, but I was wondering if I could flash it with gigabyte 9600 bios its the same manufactere bios would that work ? I just want to save my hastle of reflashing the card 300x.

Any help would be appreciated.

[mikechinym]

i think the 9550 is come to its end already.
although i oc it up to 500/500
it is still cannot stand together with the 9600 score:ohwell:

[fat joe]

Hello, i'm newbie here, just bought gecube 9550 x-speed (9500gu-c3) heres the summary from ati tool:
evice ID 4152
Chip name RV360
host i