ATI 9800 pro 128mb flash?

[Betray]

I heard you can upgrade this card to a XT? only if i got a R360? when i took out the card to look at it, it said 360. but on ati TOOL, it says 350? so im very confused. even if i wanted to try it, where do i download it to try it?

[djbbenn]

It has a R360 core but it shows it as the R350 because its a PRO. You already have the 8p enable so you don't need a flash. You can get the XT performance just by overclocking it. :D Or if you want you can flash it with the XT bios and it will sows as a R360 with XT clocks.

-Dan

[Jimmy 2004]

You can download the bios from the bios section on this site and use flashrom to update your bios!

[gR3iF]

hmpf just oc its same speed without risk of anything

[djbbenn]

Ya but people are all up on the flashing so... :rolleyes: Most still want to flash even though theres no need. In this case its way easier to oc.

-Dan

[INSTG8R]

djbenn you are terribly misinformed, the R360 core(XT BIOS) uses different shader instructions and RAM timing adjustments and will perform 15% better by just that alone,when I first flashed mine with the SAME(stock Pro) clocks but with the R360 core set it scored 500 more marks in 3Dmark alone not to mention the FPS improvements overall,I would reccomend the Gecube XT Bios for anyone not feeling brave as it uses "reasonable" clocks of 398/351 which is safe for most R360 Cored 9800 Pros as most have 2.8ns RAM

[djbbenn]

Yes your are right about it having tighter timings while using the XT bios, but I am not "terribly misinformed". The 9800pro still has the R360 core. You are not garanteed that the pro flashed to the XT will be stable with the XT bios do to the timings, it probably will though. Its easier to oc to or past those clocks of the XT. Its not like he can unlock any more pipes. Yes I agree with you about the timings and shader. But its much easier, not to mention safer to overclock with Atitool. There is no risk of messing up th bios like you hear of so much.

-Dan

[grisnak]

djbbenn> If there is a chance of improving performance without having to change memspeeds and corespeeds too much, by using the r360 instructions with a xt flash, then why wouldnt that be considered safer? I still remember when we burned my pals 9800 rams :/

He could always do a blindflash if anything goes wrong.

[watzup_ken]

Yup, clock for clock a 9800XT will outperform a 9800Pro with R350 core. After flashing your card to 9800XT, you should get a few hundred points increase in 3D Mark 03.

By the way threadstarter, the best way to see if your card comes with a R360 core is to remove the heatsink and check. ATI Tool detects the core through the Bios, so may report wrongly. Anyway, if you intend to flash it to an XT if its a R360 core, which is good, you should try overclocking your card to XT speed first using ATI tool. BUt my advise is to change the stock heatsink cause 9800s runs pretty hot in operation and at XT speed, you def need some decent cooling. Change the stock heatsink and try to see if your card is stable at XT clocks. If its alright, then you should flash it to an XT.

I flashed my Sapphire 9800Pro with R360 core to a 9800XT and slap an Artic Silencer on it. So its pretty cool and its def faster than a R350 core at the same clockspeed. :)

[watzup_ken]

By the way, you can still flash it to a 9800XT even if it cannot hit XT clockspeed. Just haev to use a Bios editor to lower the stock clock to ensure that you flash it to XT with lower clockspeed. :)

[INSTG8R]

I CANNOT say this enough you DO NOT I repeat DO NOT need to remove the Heatsink to find out if its an R360 Core you just need to dump the BIOS and check it in a BIOS Editor if its an R360 core its using an R360 BIOS simple as that, I flashed mine a week or so after I got it and never physically looked at my core(removed the HSF) until months later when I installed my Heatpipe, SURPRISE the core was exactly what the BIOS said it was ;)

[djbbenn]

djbbenn> If there is a chance of improving performance without having to change memspeeds and corespeeds too much, by using the r360 instructions with a xt flash, then why wouldnt that be considered safer? I still remember when we burned my pals 9800 rams :/

He could always do a blindflash if anything goes wrong.

As I said before, I agree with having a xt bios at stock pro speeds will give better performance. All I am trying to say is, when you flash a bios it may not work. There will always be a chance of the bios flash messing up. And if it does mess up there is a chance of not fixing it. If you just overclock and the card artifacts or gets errors, you can easily turn it down. But if your card can't handle the xt mem timings for some reason its going to crash, and you may have troubles going back to the orginal bios. Maybe he will be better oc'n first then doing the flash if he wants more from his card. And by oc'n first he will see how the card will perform like with the higher clocks. But I think his questions is anwered and he has two choices, as to which one he uses is up to him. I am just sharing my advice from what I have read/heard and done. :) Sorry for causing any disagreement.

And grisnak, how did you/friend burn out the mem chips on your friends 9800? :eek:

-Dan

[jml75]

Hi guys, I just bought a sapphire 9800 pro with a R360 core.

I'd like to upgrade it a bit, get a higher core and mem speed, not to much because I like quiet computing and I'm not to much of a gamer but still get more from my card.

I'm using linux so can't simply overclock the card, I can test it's potential in Windows with ATI tool but I'm looking forward to get the changes made in the BIOS so that in Linux, it will be clocked at the same speed as in windows.

I've noticed that in the ATI bios collection section on the site, it is possible to choose the advanced download option for the BIOS and it shows that it is possible to select the speed settings you want for the BIOS you will download.

Is that a catch or is it for real? Does it really download a modified BIOS to the wanted setting?

Had anyone tried it?

Thanx!

[djbbenn]

You can edit a bios in a bios editor, and change the default speeds a bit.

-Dan

[grisnak]

bjbbenn What editors are avalible for linux then? :O

Or maybe you can just wine it?

[jml75]

But what about the bios in the ATI bios collection...

Is it true that it makes you download a bios modified to the selected values?

Thanx!

[djbbenn]

He said right in his post he got access to windows before...I am sure he can do it again. He said he wants to get in Linux like he can have it in windows. I am just going by the way I took it, that he had access to windows. My bad if I misread his post.

-Dan