X800 Pro VIVO to XT Mod - Not quite successful...

BinaryE · Sep 16, 2004

Hi,

It's my first post, so be nice.

I've just flashed my X800 Pro VIVO to the X800 XT PE bios. Though it's working ok, I am getting artifacts at 520/560. If I clock it down to 517/555, there is no problem. Do I need to do a voltmod? or am one of the lucky ones with a card that just can't handle it :rolleyes:

.

I also installed an Arctic Cooling ATI 4 cooler on it. If you have an X800, BUY THIS COOLER! It's great. I'm sitting on 33° at idle, and getting to a max of 60° under load. Stock cooling gave me 41° idle and 75° load.

I've attached some pic's if anyone is interested.

NRP · Sep 17, 2004

BinaryE,
Possibly. Most of us VIVO owners had to do a volt mod to get stable XT core speeds, but I personally experienced lockups first, not artifacts. The volt mod is pretty easy to do. I increased my voltage from 1.396 to 1.441, and haven't had any lock up issues since.

Using the ATI X800 XT PE (520/560) Bios, my card showed artifacts at any memory speed greater than 544.5. It turns out this Bios has pretty aggressive memory timings, and I think that was causing my artifact issues. I now use the ATI X800 XT PE (526/573) Bios, which is purported to have more "relaxed" memory timings, and my card runs fine - no artifacts whatsoever. Read the thread I started for all the gory details: here.

P.S.
I also have a VGA Silencer 4, and I agree it is great.

BinaryE · Sep 17, 2004

NRP,

I've just read the other thread you pointed out, and I'm in the exact same boat as you (thats the Powercolor X800 Pro VIVO w/ AC ATI cooler 4 boat). I'll give the other ATI bios a go, and I'll let you know how it goes. I think I'll hold off on the voltmod for now.

I've haven't had my card lockup on me yet, and I've put it through some pretty intense testing at 517/555 (3DMark03, ATiTool Artifact testing, Several hours on CounterStrike: Source and Doom 3). Did yours lockup under load, or was it random?

Do you think the memory timings issue be a common flaw in the Powercolor X800 pro to xt mod?

Has anyone else tried the Pro to XT mod on a Powercolor X800 Pro VIVO, If so, how did it go?

NRP · Sep 17, 2004

My card only locked up under load (3D benchmarking and intense gaming at 1600x1200); it was just fine for 2D stuff. If you haven't locked up, I'd just flash the 526/573 Bios and see if it works. I haven't actually talked to anyone else who has a Powercolor card, but the issues seem fairly common across the 3rd party resellers (Sapphire, Powercolor, etc). A few people claim they flashed their VIVOs to the XT PE 520/560 Bios and everything works great even with stock cooling; however, most seem to have little issues similar to you and me.

I'm not sure if the memory is the weakness of the cards that were supposed to be XT PEs but didn't pass the quality assurance testing at XT PE speeds (though it seems to be the case for my card, because I can run my core up to 550 with no problems). I'd guess that cards destined to be XT PEs that don't make the cut (due to slightly lower core voltages, memory that is just at the low end of the manufacturing tolerance, a combination of both, or whatever) are sold as X800 Pro VIVOs and X800 XTs. Nevertheless, the physical components are the same, so if you make these little tweaks you've got yourself an XT PE.

The ATI X800 XT PE (520/560) Bios is supposed to be the fastest Bios available (probably due to its memory timings), so if it works in a card then one should use it. I don't think the 526/573 Bios is quite as fast, but the extra core/mem speeds help even it out. I like this Bios because I don't have to run overclocking/underclocking software, I just start the PC and get on with the fraggin. However, if you decide that you can live with 517/555 speeds, then just use ATI Tool to create a custom profile that sets these speeds on startup and keep using the 520/560 Bios. Good luck.

BinaryE · Sep 19, 2004

Well, I re-flashed to the 526/573 bios, but no luck. I'm still getting the artifacts almost immediately when I do a ‘scan for artifacts’ in AtiTool. No big deal though, I’ve set a profile in AtiTool to set me to 517/555 on start-up, which is still far better than the standard Pro clocks.

But one other problem has surfaced…

When I boot my PC with the VIVO cable connected (Composite TV Out) the system WILL NOT BOOT. At the moment, I’m getting annoyed having to unplug the VIVO cable before booting my system, and I have to do something about it.

Is this because the XT bios does not support VIVO (caution: newbie question!)??? Will I see a performance difference if I flash from my XT bios back to the X800 Pro (16P) bios, but keep the clocks at 517/555? My logic is that Pro and XT are the same other than pipelines and clock speeds, is this right?

NRP · Sep 20, 2004

I've never tried to boot my system with the composite cable attached. Is the cable connected to an external device that is powered on when you boot (if so, try turning that device off before boot), or does it fail to boot even if only the TV-out cable itself is plugged in? Have you installed ATI's WDM multimedia driver (I think this is required for VIVO functionality)? As I understand it, the VIVOs, XTs, and XT PEs all support the VIVO functionality. Perhaps there is a setting in the Control Panel for VIVO functionality? I don't know why this would happen, try PMing W1zzard about this.

If you flash back to the Pro Bios and use ATI Tool to set your speeds you may notice a very slight performance decrease (due to the memory timing issue). There is also a Connect3D X800 XT 500/500 Bios you could try, but if your card will boot properly with the Pro Bios and the composite cable, then it's probably best to go that way because any performance differences between Bioses are very minor.

By the way, do you know which component is causing artifacts during overclocking: core or memory? In my case, it was memory, but others are limited by core. If it's the core that is causing artifacts, a volt mod will probably solve your problems. However, if it's memory then there isn't much you can do other than turn the speeds down if a Bios with less aggressive memory timings doesn't help. Sorry I can't be of more help, but I'm new to this thing as well.

BinaryE · Sep 20, 2004

I've found that the TV-out cable needs to be removed to get the system to boot. So I've flashed back to the X800 Pro (16P) bios and set the default profile in AtiTool to set the clocks at 530/555 (System boots fine now). I got these clock figures by testing for artifacts and found that it was the memory clocks that were causing the problems. Any mem clocks above 557 show artifacts after about 3 minutes. I've been able to clock the GPU to 543 before the artifacts appear, but i've kept the clock lower (530) to ensure stability.

Dropping the XT bios @ 517/555 for the Pro @ 530/555 has seen a drop in 3Dmark03 points by 82 (11623 -> 11541) which isn't too bad at all.

Thanks for all your help NRP.

mustrum · Sep 21, 2004

Lots of VIVOs can't hit XT PE speeds. Either flash the XT no PE bios and OC with a tool (don't use a pro bios, they are not using thwe 16 pipes fully, see PS2.0 demo in 3dmark) or do a voltmod.
My VIVO can't hit 560 memory speed as well. The core goes up to 550 without a vmod though.

Edit: I use the silencer as well. It totally owns!

Xenn0X · Sep 21, 2004

Mustrum that can be fixed!
go to ati tool and the MEM option. look for the mem REFRESH_Rate "34" and put that on "69".
it should be working fine now cause the 34 is agressive refresh for the memory.
this option worked for 2 friends of mine!

BinaryE · Sep 22, 2004

Xenn0X, I'll try that with my card, unless the mem REFRESH_Rate set to 69 on the ATI XT PE 526/573 bios by default. If it is, then I guess there is no point in me trying it because I've already tried this bios.

Does anyone know if the XT PE 526/573 bios is set to a mem REFRESH_Rate of '69'?

NRP · Sep 22, 2004

BinaryE said:
Does anyone know if the XT PE 526/573 bios is set to a mem REFRESH_Rate of '69'?

Yes, mine is set to "69", but the field just says "MEM", not "REFRESH_rate".

Does anyone know what an acceptable range of values would be? For instance, if 34 is too aggressive but 69 is too conservative, would a value of, say, 52 work okay? Has anyone played around with this? W1zzard gives a very explicity warning in ATI Tool to tamper with memory timings at your own risk!

Xenn0X · Sep 22, 2004

ok a new way!!
http://www.overclockers.ru/cgi-bin/files/download.cgi?file=452

newest rabit supports mem and core edditing so open any bios ya fancy, edit the core and mem speed.. save and flash bios!
now you can make a bios with the speeds you want!

here some eddited ones!

500/500
http://home.wanadoo.nl/c.everdegem/ATI.X800XT.256.500-500.Samsung16.bin

513/513
http://home.wanadoo.nl/c.everdegem/ATI.X800XT.256.513-513.Samsung16.bin

520/520
http://home.wanadoo.nl/c.everdegem/ATI.X800XT.256.520-520.Samsung16.bin

mustrum · Sep 22, 2004

Xenn0X said:
ok a new way!!
http://www.overclockers.ru/cgi-bin/files/download.cgi?file=452

newest rabit supports mem and core edditing so open any bios ya fancy, edit the core and mem speed.. save and flash bios!
now you can make a bios with the speeds you want!

here some eddited ones!

500/500
http://home.wanadoo.nl/c.everdegem/ATI.X800XT.256.500-500.Samsung16.bin

513/513
http://home.wanadoo.nl/c.everdegem/ATI.X800XT.256.513-513.Samsung16.bin

520/520
http://home.wanadoo.nl/c.everdegem/ATI.X800XT.256.520-520.Samsung16.bin

Rabit owns!!
My VIVO hits the wall at 555/550 so i just made me a 540/540 bios based on the XT non PE bios. Works like a charm and no more tools to clock the card required.

X800 Pro VIVO to XT Mod - Not quite successful...

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