Well w/cing will always help. Remember, ATi cards benefit more in performance from a core o/c than from a memory o/c. So just a simple 10MHz o/c can do wonders to the overall score and gameplay. Personally,I'd upgrade the heatsink first and then watercool, but your high default vGPU is worrying IMO and may not bode well for o/cing.
i had to send my ATI-built 9800pro128 in about 1 1/2 month ago i just checked and i have samsung k4d263238e-6c2a) memory chips guess this whole idea of a mod ain't gonna help mine eh? any way to check what core it is without powering down and popping the hs/f off? and does simply removing the hs/f (for whatever reason, besides i was thinking of getting a better one than stock anyway - maybe go entire watercooling) have any warranty issues? hell, this card has a 5 YEAR warranty, so sez the info sheet i got back with it. i'd hate to void that...
The mod is only valid for 256MB model. But you can still flash the BIOS to a 128MB XT BIOS, without enabling the OVERDRIVE and temperature monitoring function. Sin22: I'm actually using a big heatsink now, Volcano 7 to be exact, but suprisingly, I can't even manage more than 10MHz overclock. The whole PCB still remains hot when running, and the memory chips and the back of the core is burning hot! So I'm wondering if the heatsink is doing a good job in the first place (good contact), that's why I'm considering water cooling it. Just wondering if it's worth the effort, since my card has high VGPU, but the PCB is still very hot to touch. I hope it a temperature issue that I can fix with water cooling.
Well, in truth, I'm willing to bet that you got a dud o/cer. It happens unfortunately. W/cing it may help, but I dont think it will by much.
I never have luck getting a good overclocker unfortunately...sigh... Just wondering, does your PCB feels burning hot at load?
Chai - was that aimed at me? i could flash to the 128MB XT BIOS? what good would that do? for the rest - what about the warranty issue?
not. a. clue. any way of finding out without shutting down and pulling the stock hs/f off? (which, btw i still dunno if doing so voids the warranty...) as Sin22 says, he's got a 128mb card, so i figure if it works for him.. but i have samsung ram on my card, and no idea if it's the 5 or 6 core
Only way to know is to pop the HSF off and check the core. Basically, here in Singapore, its quite a catch 22. Most manufacturers deem any physical modifications and changes to the card from its default state as infringment of the warranty. However, a lot of the distributors here also hold distributorshp over the some commercial VGA coolers like the Vantec Iceberg 4 & Zalman ZM-80A. So they cant say dont change the cooler or else it'll void the warranty and still try and sell these after-market coolers. Most of the time though in my experience, as long as you give them back a card that looks externally fine and aint been volt-modded or condensation proofed to hell, its cool.
From my experience, I have the same experience as Sin22. When my Radeon 9500 died, I modded the heatsink, flashed to another BIOS. But the card died. When I RMA the card, I put back the stock heatsink and send it back. Even the vendor told me, as long as you return back in 'original' state, it will be fine.
howdy! How do I seperate the OLD from the NEW 9800Pro's 256MB. Is it right that the NEW Model uses DDR-1 Memory, the old one DDR-2? Coz all our online retailers here in germany still label all 256MB models with "ddr-2" ram. Help would be appreciated edit: is it safe to buy the Sapphire 9800Pro 256MB? will i likely get a "new" one?
If you actually get to see the actual card, or at least a picture, the OLD one comes with 16 memory chips in front and the back, while the NEW one has only 8 chips front and back. And also note that the OLD one has RAM sinks on the memory. Very easy to differenciate if you can see the card yourself. Check the article too if you are not clear.
I see that everyone is flashing their card with the floppy disk method, why doens't anone use the tool called "Winflash" this program doesn't need a boot disk or what so ever, it's just a Windows based tool and everything is done in Windows, if you are flashing the card the monitor gets black for about 5 seconds then returns to windows - Reboot and you have a fully functional XT It's the best and easiest tool I have ever seen really. So from this point on everyone should use this tool And I don't see any disadvantages compared to the Floppy disk method
Just a question... I was looking at newegg and thay are showing the saphire ultimate edition with 256 DDRII/680MHz mmeory. When I went to saphire they listed this as a 128 meg card. Is newegg wrong? It looks like the ultimate has better cooling. Has anyone tried this mod on this card? any info would be appricated.
ok so I am gonna get the new version form sapphire, and are u sure that the "winflash" thing works, cause I dont want to risk anything!! and should I flash it with the hercules BIOS and not the Sapphire BOIS?? and if I use flash ROM should it be the latest version or 1.3?
H3INZ: I've not used the Winflash before, so I can't really comment on that. But if it works for you, that's great! Do you have a link to download that? civimike: Ultimate Edition comes with Zalman heatpipe in stock, and they are extremely expensive. I don't recommend getting that at all. I don't think you should get that at all. I think the ultimate edition don't sell particularly well due to its ultra high price. You could even get a real XT at the price of the 256MB Ultimate edition! Nuts! Because they don't sell well, there's a very high chance that they might be old stock, and hence the old version of the 256MB. So, I don't recommend that at all! Muqri Omar: Any XT BIOS should work fine on your card, just make sure the BIOS are for Hynix RAMs. You can use either the new version or the old version. Personally, I don't have any issue with 1.3.
