Getting the most out of my X850 Pro...

[quadomatic]

I'm trying to see if I can squeeze a little more juice out of my X850 PRO.

It's a Sapphire Radeon X850 PRO 256MB PCI-Express VIVO.

Is it possible for me to mod my card to an X850 XT Platinum Edition? If so, can someone point me in the direction of a guide?

If that isn't possible, is there anything else I can do to increase performance?

Thanks.

[niko084]

http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/overclocking/vidcard/100

Other then that the obvious overclocking.

[cdawall]

flash it with the XTPE BIOS and oc the card

heres a guide to flashing the BIOS on your card

http://reference.techpowerup.com/Video_BIOS_Flashing

and here is the X850XTPE BIOS for sapphire

http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/600/Sapphire.X850XT.256.Samsung16_041108.html

[quadomatic]

So the bios flash mod is even possible on a PCI-Express X850 PRO?

[sneekypeet]

These guys kinda jumped the gun on the help here.

A few things needed to be known before I would recommend a flash.

What core is on your card for starters...

Secondly what are the max Core/Memory clocks in MHz that you are able to run stable now?

[cdawall]

you can use AtiTool to find all of those things out

[quadomatic]

I think my core is an R480.

Right now the best I can do is 569mhz core and 601mhz memory, and this is on stock cooling. This is further than the Sapphire X850 XT PE PCI-E is set to. ATITool showed yellow dots on higher clocks in the artifact scanner and still didn't register them as artifacts, but I decided not to go any further than where the yellow dots appeared.

I'm still unsure of whether I can do the bios flash since I'm PCI-Express.

Could another person with a Sapphire X850 PRO PCI-E VIVO could confirm whether it worked for them?

Anyways, even if the bios flash isn't possible, what else can I do? I read something about a volt mod. Is that difficult, and would I see much performance gain from it?

[cdawall]

you would need to get a new cooler to replace the stocker before you tried a volt mod

[sneekypeet]

I have personally flashed a X850XT to a PE but really all I gained was the clocks being default.

It is a lot of hassle for little gain when ATItool is already running those speeds for you.

TBH if you want more out of her, you are going to need to mod it to do so , but I dont believe there is a real need to flash it!

The thing to realize with any mod is you are taking a chance that it may not recover. Always be sure you are willing /able to loose said component if you go wrong!!!!!!

[quadomatic]

you would need to get a new cooler to replace the stocker before you tried a volt mod

Really?

http://www.hothardware.com/articleimages/item695/big_02050004.JPG
http://www.hothardware.com/articleimages/item695/big_02050005.JPG
http://www.hothardware.com/articleimages/item695/big_02050001.JPG

The fan pushes air from the fan through the heatsink. I figured it was decent.

I'm not sure I want to bother with buying another cooler, since I planned on buying an HD3850 soon.

[cdawall]

yea with a volt mod that HSF would be pretty useless

[trog100]

artic cooling used to do the cooler for that card.. cant remember the exact name.. i still have one in my second machine..

similar to the one that comes on many HIS cards..

trog

[quadomatic]

artic cooling used to do the cooler for that card.. cant remember the exact name.. i still have one in my second machine..

similar to the one that comes on many HIS cards..

trog

ATI Silencer. They don't make it anymore. They planned an Accellero for it, but it never was released.

[Kursah]

I bought a pro a couple years ago at ATI's big x800XL, x850pro Clearance, tossed an AC ATI Silencer 5 rv2 (iirc) and it was in fact able to be modded to an unlocked x850xt pe. Make sure to follow the guide's instructions, I used Dolf's provided ISO (burned to CD for bootable flash util) to flash my card, it was very easy and painless. Just make sure you verify in ATI Tool that the fuses allow for unlocking of the extra 4 pipelines. Just doing that made a difference, and then I was also able to OC quite a ways beyond XT PE speeds. The card is still running very strong and cool in my G/F's gaming rig, still one of my favorite cards ever.

:toast: