9800XT 128MB RAM Bios files for 9800SE/NP/PRO

me972

you can do what ever you wish with your card. if you know what your doing then feel free to do so.. with all the best wishs for a good moded card.

rgds me927
:-)

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Intel 2600K - ASRock Fatality1 Pro(Gen3) -16GB Ram 8-8-8-24 - M4 128GB

ßùStä·

Thanks

Hey I was looking at Newegg.com for a PCI Video card, but the cheapest I could find was $17. Do you know of any good sites where I can find a cheaper one?

me972

why do you need a new one??? go to the back side of any computer store near you they surly must have a few in the garbage :-)
you don't need a card that supports 3D and things....just a really old one that you might even get for free...17$ is a waste of money.

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Intel 2600K - ASRock Fatality1 Pro(Gen3) -16GB Ram 8-8-8-24 - M4 128GB

ßùStä·

I already ordered it. There aren't really any computer stores near me, oh well

$20 total with rush ordering, should be here wednesday :P

BWX

I'd get some more ramsinks too... Those BGA nickel plated copper ones are nice...

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reaps

Ello, new to the forums etc but I just flashed my 9800 pro to an XT last night following your (mini guide).... It's all nice and stable with the XT bios @ 400/350 (need better cooling) but i am a bit perplexed as to the bios i 'should' have used. I flashed with the powercolor samsung bios but what are the other ones, i.e. the e-die ones?

Just curious as to what they are for, different mem config perchance?

Reaps

Oh yeah.... with the regards to the above post.... anyone know where i can get some ram sinks in the UK? I've had a look at all the mainstream stores (overclockers, kustom etc) but can't seem to find any

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me972

Welcome to the world of moded XT cards. :-)
The PowerColor BIOS is the fastest in the group, at least for my card it gave the best bench's , from other peoples expreinces and mine I found that the GigaCube will work on almost any 9800 samsung/hynix card and is considered to be very stable. (not that the PC isn't - I haven't had problems with it).

as for the core o/c speed - with a PRO card you should be seeing speeds of at least 410 - 430 with out any problems. but you have to take care of the cooling iisue as you've said - I sugest you use the VGA SILENCER ver 3. I have it and its great. I can o/c my card to 460 for benchs and 430 for stable use. althought I dont punish my card that much and normaly use XT standard core/mem speeds.

as for mem sinks- just installing them wont give you much if you dont insatll a fan to blow cool AIR over them either from the top of the card(ONE FAN) or from both sides(2 fans more noise).


as for mem sinks in England I bet some fellow county man here can help you I surly cann't.

BTW: when you O/C the card do it in small steps. 5 MHz each time and bench the card using AquaMark03 or 3Dmark03 to see if all is well so as not to burn your card.

good luck.
Me972

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Intel 2600K - ASRock Fatality1 Pro(Gen3) -16GB Ram 8-8-8-24 - M4 128GB

reaps

Thanks for the reply The VGA Silencer is on my list of things to buy along with another half a gig of RAM. Since i'm using stock cooling atm i'm not pushing the card too much (only had it a week don't want to fry it) so i chose some conservative oc's. Both are stable in AM03 and the artifact tester that comes with the omega drivers.

As for the mem sinks, i have a fan blowing over the card so it should be alright once i find some that fit the bill and don't dent my pocket

Getting back to the bios question tho... do you (or anyone) know the difference between the power colour bioses? I.e.

Just wondering if i'm using the right bios

Btw, the card i have is a sapphire 9800 pro (oem build by the looks)

Reaps

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me972

well reaps I looked around for a good answer for you about the memory chips and found a simple article to explain that E-Die is the new generation memory chips from samsung where as the former is the ordinery. meaning that if your card has E-DIE mem chips then it can hold better O/C.
this is how the article explains it:
Samsung is already shipping samples of DDR-II at 512Mb, but in Q4 this year it will release 1.8 volt 667/533/400 DDR-II. In Q3 of next year, it will introduce a new die, the E-die, for these parts at x4, x8 and x16, and in densities of 256Mb.


the full article is here.

if your Card can hold the E-DIe bios then its holding better memory optimizations.
thats why with the E-Die you can either get better O/c results since the memory can handle it. or you dont cause it cant handle the tighter handling..

P.s. if any one has a better answer on this issue I'll be glad to see and read about it. :-)

good luck.
Me972

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Intel 2600K - ASRock Fatality1 Pro(Gen3) -16GB Ram 8-8-8-24 - M4 128GB

reaps

Thanks for the link. I'm guessing my newly bought Sapphire 9800 Pro doesn't have these chips as it's an ATI reference board design. I've checked the chips before and other than the long 'model name' (?) it just has Samsun 346 and then GC2E.

Either way, it looks like i've flashed with the right bios

Ta

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startx

Will the Sapphire ati 128 9800 pro... Work with this?

oh.. by the way... how do i flash this thinngyy..

reaps

Yeah it does, i flashed my card (which is the same as yours). I would warn you though that when the pc boots after you flash it'll goto stock xt speeds so you'll need to downclock it with radlinker (also set the clocks to boot aswell).

Read this page to get the files and the info you need.

Reaps

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startx

Thanks


oh by the way.. what bios did you use? ---

Also, im using a Zalman VGA Heatpipe Cooler ... is this good enough.. or i should buy an Arctic Vga Cooler?

reaps

I'm using the Connect3d one (not the connect3d e-die) and it works like a charm... the only thing is atm is i have a problem with heat... mainly getting rid of it I'm going with the Arctic cooler over the zalman but i'm sure the zalman is quite capable.

If i'm not mistaken that's the heatpipe cooler without the fan... if so... i would get the fan

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startx

I got the optional fan, and I have a 2 80cm fan on the side of my case, which is there by default. :P

case is only Clear acrylic case... I think better than ordinary...


Ill try to check if i can xt this pro..

reaps

I've had to put mine back to 9800 pro stock speeds in the meantime as i get white dots in far cry which should definately not be there

Off to bed

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startx

How DO I GET THE 732 MHZ?

I got a MAX of 573/573 ...

me972

you dont have to downclock the card using radlinker by defualt.
before flashing the card O/C step by step untill you get safly to XT stock speeds 412/730MHz at those speeds run tests for like 2-3 hours using a heavy game. Like FARCRY (Final) or FLight Sim 2004 etc... and if the card can hold it safly then you know that you can move on to flashing the card to XT. but dont worry if you can't reach XT speeds an must stay at PRO speeds then you still gained about 5% increase then your normal BIOS.

also I'd start the first flash with the GigaCube bios since GigaCobe and SaPhire share the same BIOS. if all goes wll and the card can hold this bios throught some testing again and is 100% stable you may flash with the PowerColor Bios E-DIE bios
which is a little faster than then gigacube as its designed with faster memory timings. as you've said your card has samsung 2.8n mem chips. so surly they can hold this fast bios. I have a Hynix 2.8 and they are holding fine.

two more things:
1. MAKE A BACKUP of the original.
2. read tha manual carfuly.

Good luck
Me972.

P.s.

Startx & reaps - be good sports and post some bench results on your cards... :-) I want to see how much you gained.

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Intel 2600K - ASRock Fatality1 Pro(Gen3) -16GB Ram 8-8-8-24 - M4 128GB

me972

DONT forget that using radlinker - your only seeing the base clock rates. seeing as the memory is DDR you have to multiply the clock rate and thats the real speed. if radlinker shows that your memory is 360Mhz then your already at 720Mhz DDR
if you've reached 573 Mhz on radlinker the quickly downclock the card before you BURN it....

Core speed = 380 - 412Mhz
Mem speeds = 360X2 = 720Mhz.


Rgds Me972

p.s.
startx and reaps. do me a favoure - ask if your not sure before you do any thing - I would hate to see a post from you that you've burned your card. :-)

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Intel 2600K - ASRock Fatality1 Pro(Gen3) -16GB Ram 8-8-8-24 - M4 128GB

startx

425.25 384.75

Im running at this.. and all is well... I dont see any improvement though.

me972

First of all - these are good speeds.
second- if you realy want to suck the life out of your card and squeez every bit of life it has to offer then
install FARCRY - final release 3.6GB and try to run the game at 1280X1024 or higher for more then and hour - if your card can hold it then your alright or else you'll see many graphics problems.

you should not run at core 425 if you haven't upgraded your cooling. and Zalman is not any better then stock, you should consider VGA Silencer all reviews show it to be much better.
I'm currntly running at XT speeds and have no need to run it any higher then that even though my card is bench stable at
470/812Mhz. (on VGA S. & AIR)

the reson i told you about FARCRT is because it is very Shader heavy and loads the card very much. my SE@XT has problems only with this game and quickly OverHeats even with the VGA Silencer. (I guess thats why it was released SE and not PRO).
so I have to Downclock the card to 350/730Mhz - but even at thoes speeds my AVG FPS is 75FPs well enought for a good game play all over.
any other game I have I run at full graphics and resolution levels with out any problems.
so be carefull and test everything so as not to fry your card.

Rgds me972

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Intel 2600K - ASRock Fatality1 Pro(Gen3) -16GB Ram 8-8-8-24 - M4 128GB

startx

ic.. Ill try to reinstall farcry later... im still playing knightsonline... its free.

anyway... I just upgraded my heatsink compound for my zalman from ordinary white... to Arctic silver 5....

Which took me half and hour to remove all compound and clean everything... seem its working perfect now...

will be back later here to inform how my card handles well...

Thanks me972.... for the info..

werty316

I've read that the Power Cooler 9800SE 256bit version softmods great in to a 9800Pro. This is gonna be my next upgrade unless I feel like spend the extra $50 for a 9800Pro straight up. $50 buck is still $50 and since I live in Canada $50 is more like $70 in canadian funds.

me972

if you have the exra 50-70$ then you should buy the PRO - do you all forget that a moded SE card still has defects or else it would have been release as a PRo card ( has extra 4 pipes). my card for instance has a over heating problem with super heavy
Shader using games like FARCRY - so you should make the effort and by a full PRO prefobly with 256MB ram and use an original XT bios to UPGRADE it. most likly be more stable after being moded.

BUT - if you have monye problems and most of us DO.... then going with the moded SE card is the best value for monye. cause even without the bios flash - using just the OMEGA drivers. - (if you were lucky enough to get a card that has well working 8 pipes) then you have a PRO card like evey other pro. just know where you buying and check if you can test th card befor you actualy pay for it.
I was lucky enough that I found a store that did test mine for me. :-)
and if you were unlucky enough then you still have a card that preforms better then a 9600 series...so ...make your calculations and see if your OK with the risks involved...

Brgds
Me972

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Intel 2600K - ASRock Fatality1 Pro(Gen3) -16GB Ram 8-8-8-24 - M4 128GB

me972

UPDATE: I just wanted you guys to know that the new Omega 4.4 solved my FARCRY problem while using maximum graphics level along with XT clock rate...I can now play the game at full RES and Drict3D TAB with AA and AAF at max. and not glitches at all... :-)
and with all that said the card rans at avg. FPS of about 40.
and with AA & AAF Disabled I get AVG of 80-90 FPS at full graphics level. seems like this game had problems with 4.3 but is now ok.
Core/Mem = 420/760Mhz.

rgds
Me972

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Intel 2600K - ASRock Fatality1 Pro(Gen3) -16GB Ram 8-8-8-24 - M4 128GB

startx

Well, My Mod works fine.... Even on higher clock speed...

Anyway.. is it really.. 9800XT? or ATI RADEON XT?

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reaps

Just did a clean format there and i've ran some tests to find out if there is any speed increase in changing the bios from pro to xt...


Sapphire 9800 Pro Bios (stock pro speeds 39914

Powercolor 9800XT Samsung E-Die Bios (stock pro speeds) 39919

These were run just after boot and with the appropriate bios(es). The Powercolor.9800XT.128MB.Samsung.05.23.bin, when flashed, corrupted the windows desktop (artifacts all over the place).

The only conclusion i can come to, with me being a 9800 pro user, is that it's not worth changing the bios as it only give u a very small (if any) perfomance increase.

On the other hand for other users (9800se etc, like the above post) the performance increase is a bit different

Btw, from reading other posts upgrading the bios does give u some more overclocking ability ~20mhz so even though the clock for clock performance isn't changed it may give you more oc'ing power

Reaps
back to the pro bios

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me972

reaps - what you said is very true AS I've said many times before... the "XT" bios files for 9800 based cards that have 128MB ram on them are realy PRO bios's that have been Moded to XT. so the Optimizations on them are better then 9800/np/SE
but when it comes to PRO - you might gain some O/C power and a little better results if your successfull in fingind a different brand BIOS that works well with your card. then you might get better memory handling and better timings ....
in your case specificly the PowerColor bios didn't give you much and gave you problems with your Saphire...so you can either use the GigaCube XT bios which is a converted GigaCube Pro bios wich is identical to saphire PRO (like yours).
so it might be the same as your PRO but at least you get the XT name brand.

Its all another story when you have a 9800Pro with 256MB ram - cause then you can use real XT bios files and take advantage of the extra optimizations of the real XT.

so dont be quick to rool out the BIOS flash before you know the hole story. :-)

you may want to test a few more XT bios and see which is the most stable and fastest for you...

good luck
Me972.

__________________
Intel 2600K - ASRock Fatality1 Pro(Gen3) -16GB Ram 8-8-8-24 - M4 128GB

reaps

I wasn't ruling the bioses out i was just stating, from what i have tested, there is no super performance gain from just flashing straight to the xt bios and not upping the speeds.

I'll try the Gigacube bios after this defrag is finished and i'll post the results

I'm not a noob... Just new to ATI

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reaps

Just benched with the Gigacube driver... same performance as b4

Going back to my orig bios until i get my new cooling...

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