X800 GTO² to X850 XT BIOS Mod

[W1zzard]

Introduction

Sapphire's special version of the X800 GTO is called X800 GTO². As you can see in the following picture it uses an R480 core, which is also used on the X850 Pro, XT and XT PE.

The GTO² is a special product from Sapphire only. Neither the regular GTO, nor the GTO Ultimate use the unlockable chips. If it does not have ² in the name, it can't be unlocked.

UPDATE: The X800 GTO cards from Connect3D can also be unlocked, see page 4 of this article.

UPDATE Dec. 1st 05: It seems the Connect3D GTO modding times are over, read page 4 for an update.

UPDATE Jan 30th 06: Many users have reported that their Sapphire X800 GTO² cards come with 16 pipelines out of the box. According to Sapphire ATI has relaxed their regulations and so they are allowed to sell the GTO² product as 16P card.



The GTO² comes with 12 pipelines enabled by default, but the only lock which limits it to this number of pipelines is located in the Bios.

No cards with defective pipelines have been found yet, which means (so far) the success rate is 100%.

An AGP version of this card does not exist. Some shops list a Sapphire GTO² AGP but this is not a Sapphire product, it's probably regular GTO's which are labeled "wrong".

The mod presented here allows to unlock your X800 GTO² to run at 16 pipelines.

Is my card moddable?

I added this section, since so many people ask "can I mod my card?".

• Download and install ATITool
• Hold down the shift key and click on "settings"
• Now scroll to the bottom of the list, you should see four new values listed. (The screenshot here is from an X850 XT PE)

Only the red marked numbers (marked red for reference, yours will be black) are of interest here. If you do not have F for the red numbers, your card can not be modded.

When you try to mod a card which has a different fuses setting, nothing will happen. The pipeline count stays at 12 and the card will work just as normal. But please make a backup of your original BIOS for your own safety.

If you want to help understand the structure of these registers better, post your screenshot here and include information like model and number of active pipelines.

Performing the mod

1. Download the modified Flashrom from here. You MUST use the modded Flashrom, other flashing utilities will not change your pipeline configuration.
2. Next you will need an unlocked Bios file: Sapphire X800 GTO² | Connect3D X800 GTO.
   (only the number of active pipelines has been changed, clock speeds remain the same).
   
   Original, unmodified Bios: Sapphire X800 GTO² | Connect3D X800 GTO
   Please note: 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 the file to something shorter while still in Windows.
3. Use the modified flashrom to flash the Bios to the card. More extensive flashing instructions can be found here. They talk about atiflash - you use the modified flashrom, usage is the same.
4. After a reboot your card will immediately run at 16 pipelines. No driver installation is necessary.
5. Verify the number of active pipelines using ATITool. Go to Settings -> Overclocking. The list there shows the number of pipelines the card is running with.
   
   
6. If you want to boost your performance even more, you can overclock the video card. In our tests we could go from the standard clocks of 400 Mhz core and 490 Mhz memory, to the XT PE speeds of 540 Mhz core and 590 MHz memory (actually a bit more).
   However, not every card might overclock as well, but all of them should be able to run at the XT speeds of 520 MHz / 540 MHz, probably more on the memory, since it's Samsung 1.6.

Benchmarks

Test System
CPU:	Intel Pentium 4 3.0F (S775; 2MB; Prescott)
Motherboard:	ABIT AL8, Bios 1.4 i945P
Memory:	2x 512MB OCZ PC2-5400 EB Platinum 4-2-2-8
Video Card:	Sapphire X800 GTO² 256MB PCI-E
Harddisk:	Maxtor DiamondMax 160GB
Power Supply:	HEC Power475
Software:	Windows XP SP2, Catalyst 5.8

We did a quick benchmarking round to find out how much performance is actually gained.

• The first benchmark "12p" is with the X800 GTO² running at default, like it comes out of the box.
• "16p" is with the card running at 16 pipelines, but still at the GTO² default clocks for 400 MHz core and 490 MHz memory.
• The "X850 XT PE" series is when then card is running at 16 pipelines and is overclocked to 540 MHz core and 590 MHz memory.

As you can see the performance increases are quite big, especially overclocking seems to help the card a lot.

The performance increase from stock to modded and overclocked is about 30% in all benchmarks. Final performance is the same as a regular X850 XT PE. Quite impressive for a $220 video card and a 100% mod success rate.

Connect 3D X800 GTO

Not only the Sapphire GTO² can be modded, the regular GTO cards from Connect 3D are also moddable. However, the success rate is unknown. If you try this mod, please let me know of your results.

Success 128 : 7 Failed (as of Nov 27th 2005).

Success 182 : 87 Failed (last update Dec 24th 2005).

The steps to do the mod are exactly the same as the Sapphire GTO² mod outlined on page 2.
You just use another Bios.

However, there are some drawbacks compared to the Sapphire GTO² cards:

1. Sapphire uses faster 1.6ns memory, while Connect3D uses only 2.0ns.
2. Sapphire uses a guaranteed R480 core, while Connect3D uses only R423.

The fuses data (see page 1) for the moddable Connect3D GTO cards is as follows:


Update:
Over the last days (end of November) I have received a few reports about unmoddable cards:

• 20 cards from Newegg
• 8 cards from eBuyer.com in the UK
• 3 cards from Watford in the UK
• 2 cards from a retailer in Hungary
• 1 card from dabs in the UK
• 1 card from CCL Computer in the UK
• 1 card from VV-Computer in Germany
• 1 card from webbhallen.com in Sweden
• 1 card from ccl-computer
• 1 card from verkkokauppa.com in Finland
• 1 card from Datorbutiken.com in Sweden
• 35 cards in Finland, one reseller is Elektroni.fi, there is a second merchant, but the name is not known

[djbbenn]

Nice...could the card just be flashed with a X850 XT PE bios and truned into a X850? Or is a whole different PCB and all?

-Dan

[Deathspawner]

Awesome find! That must be one of the coolest BIOS flashes ever!

[AMDCam]

Can't find it anywhere. If I could buy this in AGP for that price I would. Do you think it's possible? I'm looking at a 6800 ultra, but if this is in that price range ($200) then I'll just go with the GTO.

[65tweet]

What cooling was on that thing for your runs? Don't tell me it was like the tiny one that comes on a pro.

Could you please specify the Product Name or Link of that Sapphire Card?

There are 3 different Models available, but none with the Nameing Extension GTO² all are named GTO.

http://www.geizhals.at/deutschland/?...bote+anzeigen+

Please help, to clarify which card to buy ....

Thanks in advance...

regards
ultimate

[W1zzard]

the gto² will shortly appear at resellers it uses the x850 pro heatsink .. the big one, but one slot

[thedivinehairband]

Does this same type of mod apply to the x800gt? it has the same core but only 8 pipelines activated. if so that would be totally awesome!!!!!!

[thedivinehairband]

Bit more research done and I have found that the Powercolour X800 GT contains the r480 core and overclocks very nicely!!! Perhaps a bios update could get this working with all 16 lovely pipelines!!!

[W1zzard]

it does not work on the gt as far as i know

Hexus.net is reporting that the GTO2 is a 16 pipe card at stock settings:

"Other news we are hearing is that ATI love their GT brand so much there will be the GTO and GTO2 launched very soon. Essentially the GTO is a 12 pipeline GT, and GTO2 is X800XL (16 pipeline GT). They have decided that the XL and 850s will be gone for good. So the new lineup will be X800GT, GTO, GTO2, and their new VPUs."

See here: http://www.hexus.net/content/beanz/b...lld19JRD0xNTY4

Is the wrong, or should this article indicate use of a GTO (not 2)?

If it is the standard GTO this mod applies to, is this the product?:
http://www.sapphiretech.com/en/produ...s.php?gpid=119

The clocks and pipeline #s match the card in this article.

[thedivinehairband]

Sounds interesting that does. This could change things when the GTO2 is released. There may be the possibility of using that BIOS to unlock the remaining pipes on the GT card.
Don't you all just love the naming systems. Gets more confusing all the time.

[W1zzard]

hexus is wrong all GTO products are 12p

the GTO and the GTO² are different products. As far as I know, the GTO can not be modded.

"hexus is wrong all GTO products are 12p"

They say, the GTO ist a 12 pipeline version of the GT and they say that the GTO2 is 16 pipelines anyway.
btw, I have problems finding a Sapphire GTO2 card too. On Sapphiretech I can only find a X800 GTO and a X800 GTO Ultimate...

[thedivinehairband]

Reckon most of these GTO thingy's arent in the market yet. Give the companies some time to get the stock in and then we shall see whats called what and what it does. I hate all these fancy numbers. why don't manufacturers just use the core number and the frequencies. that way we all know what we are getting!!

[W1zzard]

the gto² is 12 pipelines .. believe word of mouth (hexus) or a person who actually used as card? anyway, next week we should see more gto² reviews from other sites

Understood that X800GT's aren't softlocked, however the X800RX (Club 3D's version of the X800GT with a guaranteed R480 core) is, apparently. In this case, given that the X800RX is essentially a GTO with 8 pipleines and 2.0ns memory, will the modified GTO bios work with the X800RX?

[thedivinehairband]

Powercolours X800 GT http://www.powercolor.com/global/mai...tail.asp?id=75 also has a guaranteed r480 core. They also do a GTO but no mention of a GTO2.

Rumours are abound though that Club3D's X800RX is a softlocked GT, whereas Powercolour's and Sapphire's offerings are all lasercut.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...4&page=2&pp=25

[JuiCe]

Originally Posted by W1zzard

the gto² is 12 pipelines .. believe word of mouth (hexus) or a person who actually used as card? anyway, next week we should see more gto² reviews from other sites

Happy to hear that... but when will we see the cards themselves? I have looked all over the web shops in Germany and I can't find it

[W1zzard]

i would bet this month

[JuiCe]

Hmmm GTO2= RADEON X800 GTO ULTIMATE ?

For the regular GT here is a tidbit.

In short, IRREGARDLESS of the chip used in the card (R423 or R480), flashing BIOS from X800/X800PRO/X850PRO/X800/X800XL will change nothing or may even aggravate the situation (the number of pipelines may be reduced to 4). That's why the version about ATI's present to overclockers that can be easily modified is a lie. The only thing I haven't tried so far is to weld the broken bridge on the R423. But it turns out that the R423 is running out of stock and nearly all X800GT cards will be equipped with the R480, which are locked inside. Alas, there was no miracle. I guess, X800GT Extreme cards may be launched in future (but using two suffixes - down-grading and up-grading - is an absurd) with unlocked R480 chips. This event is not likely as it may cause the market fall.

Now what concerns overclocking. The samples I've got managed stable operation only at 510-513 MHz. Yep, overclocking is not high. I don't believe when I'm told about such cards running at 560 MHz... Probably for 15-20 minutes. You can manage to complete the tests. And that's it. Under such conditions I managed to run my cards even at 540 MHz (at the core), but only for an hour... Then the cards came to halt... That's no overclocking. What I call overclocking is a mode, in which a card may operate for at least 6-8 hours in succession, or even for twenty-four hours

from digilife http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/video/x800-3.html

man I just bought a 6600GT, looks like I'm gonna have to return it and get me one of these

I don't even know why I got an nvidia card, I miss my radeons.

http://www.allstarshop.com/shop/prod...QDFTT69NHW6CE1