Best BIOS for Sapphire 9800Pro 128M 2,86ns

[Per Hansson]

Hi, I've got a Sapphire 9800Pro 128MB card with Samsung K4D263238E-GC2A 2,86ns memory.

I dumped it's BIOS, here is the text from it:

2003/04/29 15:31 DvN7 R350 Samsung E-die DDR BIOS - P/N 113-A07518-100 (C) 1988-2002, ATI Technologies Inc. BK-ATI VER008.004.008.019. nhbf2527.848 v611 .R350AGP DGD1UN

Right now it does 421/372, I was hoping to be able to push it a bit further, I do have heatsinks on the RAM and a Zalman ZM80C-HP heatpipe cooler with a fan blowing cool air over the whole card...

[INSTG8R]

I would say by the BIOS name it is just an R350 so I dont think an XT flash is possible. My Sapphire 9800's BIOS (R360 Hynix DDR 113-A07537-103 BIOS)

[Per Hansson]

After reading this thread on rage3d (http://rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?t=33738657) I decided to try the Giga-Cube E-Die bios P/N 113-A07518-100 dated 8/29/03 and I sure do not regret doing so; I went from a max stable memory speed in ATITool of 372Mhz to 383Mhz!

[INSTG8R]

Then what more is you expect/want from your card? I think have proabably already chosen the best BIOS for your card

[Per Hansson]

Then what more is you expect/want from your card? I think have proabably already chosen the best BIOS for your card
I started this thread before I tried this BIOS so... ;-)

But does anyone know of any BIOS editor that works with these "new" ATI BIOSes? I want to see how much they relaxed the memory timings in these BIOSes...

[INSTG8R]

I use RaBit 1.7 and it can adjust timings etc. you can get it HERE (http://www.mvktech.net/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=26&func=fileinfo&parent=folder&filecatid=801) keep us posted on your timing experiments as I would be interested in your findings. my TT Giant II should be here tomorrow so I will be pushing on mine some more as well

[Per Hansson]

Thnx INSTG8R; that application was exactly what I was looking for!

Compared the performance of the two BIOS'es now.

When both the Gigacube and original BIOS is set to the same frequency of 378/338 my system scores 5673 points in 3dmark03 with the Gigacube BIOS and 6211 using the original BIOS

The reason that the original BIOS perform better on the same clockspeed is because of these faster memory timings: (the original BIOS is on the left side of the slash and the Gigacube on the right...)

write recovery time: 2/3
memory refresh rate: 29/2A
shift of rbs signal for read data: 2,5/3
shift of erst signal for read data: -1,5/-0,5
shift of qsreq signal: -1,5/-0,5

With these more relaxed memory timings the Gigacube is supposed to have a memory that will run at a higher speed and thus make the performance loss due to the timings disappear... So lets so how my card did:

The max stable overclock with the Gigacube BIOS was 383Mhz, at this speed I got 6211 points in 3dmark03. The highest memory clock with the original BIOS was only 367Mhz, 16Mhz lower than the Gigacube. However the 3dmark score was 6251, just a tad faster then with the Gigacube BIOS...

So for me it really does not matter which of the BIOSes I use, I get pretty much the same performance at their respective top speed. However more than likely the majority of cards will overclock more than mine did using the Gigacube BIOS and thus not only make up for the performance loss due to the timings but also surpass the originals performance by a nice margin...

That's all; hope this proves useful to someone...

[BSDman64]

>Newbee< I was 'smart' enough to buy a Sapphire 9800Pro that had both 256MB/256bit. Am I reading that I can flash my cards' BIOS to an XT? O' great INSTG8R what would you suggest? :D
My EEPROM's signature is {R360 Hynix DDR BIOS W THERMAL CONTROL - P/N 113-A18805-105}

Through ATITool, I'm running @ core=420 and Mem=369. (41C)

TIA

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