Radeon 9550 to 9600 Bios Mod

[W1zzard]

Introduction

ATI has recently released the 9550 series, which is a low cost down-cut version of the 9600. Unlike the 9500NP/9800SE/X800 Pro there are no additional pipes to be unlocked, but you can overclock it. Clock speeds are 250/200. Since the 9600 chip can clock A LOT faster than that, ATI added an overclocking protection in the Catalyst drivers. When you set clocks, they reset back to default after a few seconds or when a game is loaded.
There are modded drivers out there (including our softmod drivers) which circumvent that lock, ATITool can even remove it at runtime, but many people would prefer to use ATI's original drivers - that's where the Bios flash described here comes into play.

Performing the mod

Before flashing:

1. Download a 9600 Pro Bios which matches your card's configuration.
   For example, if you have Samsung 4.0/5.0 you could use the Powercolor 9600 Pro 128 MB Bios dated 2003-08-23 11:56. Our large Bios collection can be found here.
   Make sure that the card works stable at the clocks the Bios you want to flash uses. The 9550 I tested on reached 450 MHz core and 265 MHz mem.
2. Flash the Bios file to your video card using the -f parameter. For example flashrom -f -p 0 9600.bin.
   A little sidenote: Many people complain that they get a "file not found" error when trying to flash the Bios under DOS. The problem is that DOS does not know long filenames, so all files are truncated to some funky names like Powerco~1.bin. Either use the dir command, when in DOS, to find out the short filename or rename it to something shorter while still in Windows.
   More extensive flashing instructions can be found here. They talk about atiflash - you use flashrom since atiflash does not support the 9550, usage is the same.
3. After flashing, Windows will recognize a "RADEON 9600 Series" video card with a device id of 0x4152 which is NOT clock locked.

After flashing:

[eudea]

deal all,
i am newbie here. yesterday i bought gecube 9550 extreme edition. and i have tried the catalyst 4.8 for this card. and it was known as 9600series. when i run everest, it known as 9600xt. but the clock is still standar 9550 (core 250 mem 230).
then i tried the bios collection, i use gigabyte 9600 pro (core 400 mem 300) and then flashed it to my card, and the card was just blank. not showing any post mode. then i put my pci card to flash the 9550 extreme edition back again. fortunetly it works. so now, i am still stuck with this 9550xt witt 9600xt in windows but low clock ? is there any one who have experience ? please tell the bios that i should use for this card ? thank you.
oh ya, i forgot something. I try atitool to find the max mem and core, and I got 300 mem and 470 core is still good in standard hsf.
looking forward for some enlightment here... thank you.

PS: please forgive for my bad english.

[W1zzard]

use atitool - available from this site as well

hy y have a asus radeon 9550 and i have tried flashing the bios and dont whork
please help my

[batteryone]

my Gigabyte GV-R955128D too , I can not flash it by any bios 9600pro .

Interesting. I have flashed my Gecube 9550 to 9600pro (from 250/196 to 398/203) using Rabbit to correct memory timings. It worked. Some improvement. 1200 points in 3DMark2001, 6000 in Aquamark3.
Shall I keep the changes? Is there a chance for my card to get damaged?

[bighead]

I am using Gigabyte GV-R9550 too !
How can I mod core/mem of this card ???
Can I flash that card to 9600non-pro ???

[W1zzard]

battery: what do you mean "wont work" ? did you try a bios which matches your card's memory configuration?

I have a Radeon 9550SE from Powercolor with 128 MB. Is it possible to flash it to 9600pro like the 9550 ?
The difference is the ram - it has only a 64 bit bus.
So would the flashing work or would it kill the grafic card ?
I dont know if the 64 bit bus is Hardware restricted or if its soft moddable like the pipes.

Thanks for help in advance,



Chris

[W1zzard]

the bus is hardware restricted.. i think its possible to flash the card to a 9600 - you just need the right bios with 64bit .. no recommendations for this from my side

Ok thank you that helped )

Any idea where to get that bios. I dont think I saw one in yor collection.

regards,

Chris

[W1zzard]

no idea .. get a pci card to flash back then try a few bioses

[batteryone]

I used Atiflash tool to flash many bios 9600Pro to my Gigabyte 9550D but it get error when check ID Rom . I tried to used Gigabyte tool in CD include card , it is the same , not any bios work . After that , I editted bios of own 9550D card : change core/mem from 250/200 to 400/250 ( very stable in my card ) , it was flash ok by Gigabyte tool but had new problem - Win xp could not detect my card even thought Ati tool display core/mem 400/250 , it run default card . Now I reflash old bios and wait to your help . Help me , thanks a lot .

[ati.bob]

I think you should use FlashROM instead of ATIflash.

I also recommend you to try and use other types of BIOS editor like RadEdit.. I'd tried RaBit before and it's terrible, had to reflash my VGA BIOS using a PCI card

i've got a Gigabyte GV-R955128D and i don't know what bios to use..
i was thinking at..

Gigabyte 9600 Non-Pro 128 MB 2003-07-15 23:10 2004-03-14 11:51 324 / 189

Gigabyte 9600 Pro 128 MB 2003-05-12 17:12 2004-03-14 11:51 398 / 297

Gigabyte 9600 XT 128 MB 2003-12-18 11:13 2004-03-14 11:51 500 / 300

if someone else flashed a GV-R955128D, please tell me what bios did you used
thanks.

[ati.bob]

What is your default core and memory speeds?

To flash to a specific BIOS and one that has a higher clock/memory speed, you have to try to overclock your current card to that level and gain 100% stability (no errors/artifacts) before you really tries to flash to a 9600NP/P/XT BIOS..

You can also edit the 9600Pro/XT BIOS and down-clock its core/memory speeds.. I think by default the 9600 Non-Pro BIOS *SHOULD* work without much stability problems..

thanks for you imput ati.bob
but there is anyone else with the same board (GV-R955128D) thats turned it into a 9600 ?
is 450 / 300 stable ?

Originally Posted by Yaris

Interesting. I have flashed my Gecube 9550 to 9600pro (from 250/196 to 398/203) using Rabbit to correct memory timings. It worked. Some improvement. 1200 points in 3DMark2001, 6000 in Aquamark3.
Shall I keep the changes? Is there a chance for my card to get damaged?

Me too, works perfect from 67fps to 103fps (using the 3D view with fps in the atitool, no glitches). This card accept a litle more of overclock but isn't too much and comes unestable.

Yaris you said "... using Rabbit to correct memory timings.". What is "Rabbit?".

!!Thanks!! to the author of the article & the web crew for the BIOS archive.
Good luck for the other 9550ers.

[ati.bob]

Rabbit? Nooo.. It's RaBit (1 "a" only).. It's an ATI BIOS file editor.. have the ability to edit BIOS clockspeeds and RAM timings.. Google it for more info..

[rpintus]

Originally Posted by Yaris

Interesting. I have flashed my Gecube 9550 to 9600pro (from 250/196 to 398/203) using Rabbit to correct memory timings. It worked. Some improvement. 1200 points in 3DMark2001, 6000 in Aquamark3.
Shall I keep the changes? Is there a chance for my card to get damaged?

helo .!
tell me how you flashed the gecube 95550 to 9600pro

[rpintus]

to rpintus@sapo.pt

[ati.bob]

If you need instructions on flashing BIOS from 9550 to 9600, go to the first page of this thread...

Article on BIOS modding : 9550 > 9600

hello all (i`m from spanish and my inglish is....bad bad bad..)
i tell you that i have an club-3d ati 9550 128 bits with 256 mg of ram (elixir)
the frecuencies are 250/200
then i read the great article.... and i try the bios club-3d 9600 pro (elixir)
it´s fantastic....no problem and no errors with the flash procedure..all ok
then windows tell me that i have an 9600 series(exactly 9600 xt)
the new frecuencies are 398/203 and no glitches..all ok..
p.s
i think that the problems may happen when a big overclock with memory
(in my case this overclock is none..only 2mhz)

Originally Posted by rpintus

helo .!
tell me how you flashed the gecube 95550 to 9600pro

I have used hynx bios files found here (9600-C3 and 9600Pro-C3)

[ScHuLtZ]

For all those people with the gigabyte cards, i think the problem is because the pro uses diffrent ram, so waither or not you can edit the pros bios and give that a shot, i should be getting my gigabyte 9550(128bit version) tommorow, so ill do a bit of "tinkering" and let you guys know how i go.