How to turn a Radeon 9500 128MB into a Radeon 9700 through software!!

~~Optimummind~~ · Jan 8, 2003, 05:55 PM

Hey guys,

This is great news. So far, though, it's just news although I think it's legit and should be coming soon. Well, here's the little tidbit I've found from www.digit-life.com:

Remaking RADEON 9500 64MB into RADEON 9500 PRO by software! - Cormac @ 15:13
Every day brings new details about remaking RADEON 9500 chips. However, today’s are jus outstanding: there’s a way to transform RADEON 9500 64MB into RADEON 9500 PRO 64MB by software! That’s what Andrew Vorobyev, our video section editor, said:

"...Besides the hardware way of remaking RADEON 9500 128MB into RADEON 9700 by transistor re-soldering, discovered by our colleagues from Overclockers.ru, we, together with Alexey Nikolaychuk (aka Unwinder), the creator of RivaTuner , hoped to perform the same by software. Essentially, it was to find 4 missing rendering pipelines "hidden" by ATI, as R9500 has 4 and R9700 already 8 of them.

Alexey succeeded in finding the blockade and got through using RADEON 9500 64MB. As you know, this card has 128-but bus, so you can’t make R9700 from it, only RADEON 9500 PRO 64MB. But we’ve checked Soft9700 on RADEON 9500 128MB and, voila, we got a complete RADEON 9700.

So, we can state the 100% software pare-down of R300. This method of remaking will be available for everyone in the next version of RivaTuner..."

Here's the link so you can check it out yourself:

http://www.digit-life.com/news.html?1093#1093

If this is true, I may skip on the GeForce FX and buy the 128MB Radeon 9500 to save some serious money.

Zarathustra · Jan 9, 2003, 12:07 PM

Moved and made a sticky

Matth · Jan 9, 2003, 12:36 PM

Link is now
http://www.digit-life.com:/archive.shtml?20030106
As the item is now a news archive.

If the 128Mb is "already 256 bit memory bus" - what was the point of the other hack.

ToshiroOC · Jan 9, 2003, 01:09 PM

The point of the hack is to enable the other 4 pipelines that are otherwise disabled to reduce performance (well, you can't have budget cards that are as good as the real thing, now can you?), and only the first rushed versions of the 9500 on the 9700 board with 256 bit memory bus traces can do it...

Matth · Jan 9, 2003, 01:12 PM

I meant the soldering hack which was to enable the 256 bit bus - unless this software hack also does that in sofware where possible?

Zarathustra · Jan 9, 2003, 03:43 PM

Well the soldering was basically to change the id of the card, which can be done in software now

DriveEuro · Jan 9, 2003, 05:12 PM

Wow...performance of the 9700 for just 150$......once I have an excess or money I just might do it.

reno · Jan 12, 2003, 09:08 PM

If I buy a 9500 128mb, brand new, will this work? Or is it only with certain cards?

digitalwanderer · Jan 12, 2003, 09:20 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by reno
If I buy a 9500 128mb, brand new, will this work? Or is it only with certain cards?

Would someone PLEASE answer this man's question so I can quickly justify the purchase of a new video card!!!

Jeeze, I must have missed this thread! If this can be done with any 9500 pro through software.....

DriveEuro · Jan 13, 2003, 04:38 AM

Only works with sparkle ones I believe...you have to find an old card...it is the ones that were made when the 9500pro first came out

Darksider · Jan 13, 2003, 08:08 AM

I have been reading about this all over since it starting coming about (I'm thinking of buying one myself!

). The card you want to get is a 9500 (non-pro) 128mb. The card has to be on the 9700 boards, which means the DDR is on the top and on the sides of the GPU. If the DDR is in 4 sockets at the top, it is the wrong card.

What the hack does is enable the 4 unused pipelines in the GPU. The 9500np 128mb cards already have the 256bit memory bus, but with only 4 pipelines the card isn't really taking advantage of this wide bus. Once the hack is done, it 'becomes' a 9700np card. Then with a bit of overclocking (which I believe requires a BIOS flash to the Warp11 BIOS), you should have proformance of a 9700pro.

That is what I have all gathered on the subject.

The_Neon_Cowboy · Jan 13, 2003, 08:08 AM

This sound way to much like how some of the newer amds overcocked to a higher speed. Becouse they were relly underclocked and shiped to comensate for a supply poblem. Wich makes me wonder could they have shiped some 9700 cipsets as 9500's ? comanys do that stuff.....

ToshiroOC · Jan 13, 2003, 08:13 AM

The moddable 9500's ARE 9700's - they only have one different resistor on the chip, and that resistor controls whether the extra 4 pipelines are enabled. They have the same stuff as the 9700 pros in every other respect. These weren't shipped as much as for a supply problem as they were shipped because ATI didn't finish the 9500 in time for 9700's launch time... so they fudged it, and killed half of the 9700's pipelines and called it a 9500 until they got the real 9500 out...

JCLW · Jan 14, 2003, 03:29 AM

Having followed this all day in various forums, it looks like any 9500 128mb card will work, but the Saphire 9500 128MB (NON-PRO) cards seem to be the best (Saphire makes the "built by ATI" cards as well, so I think ATI gives them the best chips

). I'd say it's at least an 80% sucess rate (it seems the other 20% have damaged pipelines which result in artifacts) so make sure you can return your card if you're not prepared to live with a regular 9500.

The fact that most work but some don't supports the argument that ATI is binning the cores (ie: if it doesn't work as a 9700, then disable four pipelines and call it a 9500). The yeilds must be very good if they are doing this because so many of them actually work fine with all 8 pipelines working.

- JW

DaSnIpE · Jan 14, 2003, 06:37 PM

U sure it ain't only the Sparkle ones that have the 256 bit PCB ?

DriveEuro · Jan 14, 2003, 06:59 PM

I read that it the Sparkles are easy to come by and that you can actually do this mod on them... But what's the point in modding it? You can just download RivaTuner and turn the 9500 into a 9700

Zarathustra · Jan 14, 2003, 07:56 PM

Yeah I think they are definitely binning the cores. It sounds like some have damaged/flakey pipelines, so the just disabled half of them and sold it as a 9500. Oh and another thing to look for is the proper 128mb 9500s have the power connector on the card.

El_Coyote · Jan 15, 2003, 01:26 AM

ok i did it.
Bought the Sapphirre 9500 128mb (nonpro) and applied the softmod. the result in 3dmark is as follows:

Without the mod:

With the Mod

quite a boost, especially fillrates and point sprites

for reference my system is:
AMD XP 2000+
512mb PC2100 ddr Ram
modded 9500

this is a great value card. i have no artifacts/checkering what so ever.

TEmp69 · Jan 15, 2003, 01:36 AM

Site from the guy who "moded" the drivers!!1

http://www.maxdownloads.com/~ian/wizzard/

Zarathustra · Jan 17, 2003, 12:34 AM

Very nice man your fillrates DOUBLED

I would expect more of a boost though. What speeds are you running the now-9700 at?

El_Coyote · Jan 17, 2003, 12:38 AM

it was stock speeds (275/270) at the time of the tests. But now I've oc'ed it to 340/280 and it runs fine

Zarathustra · Jan 17, 2003, 12:45 AM

Sweet! What do you score at those speeds? I get around 15k w/ my XP1600+ and 9700 Pro. Of course my 1600+ hits 1815mhz and the 9700 Pro does 370/340

El_Coyote · Jan 17, 2003, 12:47 AM

havent tested those speeds, im just happy im running ut2003 @ 4xFSAA

Jan 9, 2003, 01:09 PM	#4
ToshiroOC Unbiased. Join Date: Jun 2002 Posts: 4,812 Rep Power: 0	The point of the hack is to enable the other 4 pipelines that are otherwise disabled to reduce performance (well, you can't have budget cards that are as good as the real thing, now can you?), and only the first rushed versions of the 9500 on the 9700 board with 256 bit memory bus traces can do it... __________________ [img][/img] [color=White]Peace be with you, Joe.[/color] Driverheaven Staff Member (Supermoderator)

Jan 9, 2003, 01:12 PM	#5
Matth Flash Banner Hater Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: UK Posts: 3,426 Rep Power: 93 System Specs	I meant the soldering hack which was to enable the 256 bit bus - unless this software hack also does that in sofware where possible? __________________ Mary had a little lamb, Her father shot it dead Now Mary takes her lamb to school, Between two crusts of bread

Jan 9, 2003, 05:12 PM	#7
DriveEuro HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Gurnee Illinois Posts: 4,677 Rep Power: 0	Wow...performance of the 9700 for just 150$......once I have an excess or money I just might do it. __________________ [color=orange]ASUS P4P800 Deluxe [color=black]-[/color] 2.4C --> 3300mhz [color=black]-[/color] Mushkin PC3200 at 220 5-2-2-2 (cpu limited) [color=black]-[/color] BBAti 9800Pro at 430/375 [/color] [color=black]3[/color][color=gray]D[/color]M[color=black]a[/color][color=gray]r[/color]k[color=yellow]01[/color] [color=black]3[/color][color=gray]D[/color]M[color=black]a[/color][color=gray]r[/color]k[color=yellow]03[/color] 16001200 12801024

Jan 12, 2003, 09:08 PM	#8
reno Painlord of Ichor Join Date: May 2002 Location: bloinkin! Posts: 1,610 Rep Power: 0	nm If I buy a 9500 128mb, brand new, will this work? Or is it only with certain cards?

Jan 13, 2003, 08:08 AM	#12
The_Neon_Cowboy HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: U.S.A. Posts: 16,009 Rep Power: 92 System Specs	This sound way to much like how some of the newer amds overcocked to a higher speed. Becouse they were relly underclocked and shiped to comensate for a supply poblem. Wich makes me wonder could they have shiped some 9700 cipsets as 9500's ? comanys do that stuff..... __________________

Jan 8, 2003, 05:55 PM	#1
~~Optimummind~~ Banned Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Orange, California Posts: 632 Rep Power: 0	How to turn a Radeon 9500 128MB into a Radeon 9700 through software!! Hey guys, This is great news. So far, though, it's just news although I think it's legit and should be coming soon. Well, here's the little tidbit I've found from www.digit-life.com: Remaking RADEON 9500 64MB into RADEON 9500 PRO by software! - Cormac @ 15:13 Every day brings new details about remaking RADEON 9500 chips. However, today’s are jus outstanding: there’s a way to transform RADEON 9500 64MB into RADEON 9500 PRO 64MB by software! That’s what Andrew Vorobyev, our video section editor, said: "...Besides the hardware way of remaking RADEON 9500 128MB into RADEON 9700 by transistor re-soldering, discovered by our colleagues from Overclockers.ru, we, together with Alexey Nikolaychuk (aka Unwinder), the creator of RivaTuner , hoped to perform the same by software. Essentially, it was to find 4 missing rendering pipelines "hidden" by ATI, as R9500 has 4 and R9700 already 8 of them. Alexey succeeded in finding the blockade and got through using RADEON 9500 64MB. As you know, this card has 128-but bus, so you can’t make R9700 from it, only RADEON 9500 PRO 64MB. But we’ve checked Soft9700 on RADEON 9500 128MB and, voila, we got a complete RADEON 9700. So, we can state the 100% software pare-down of R300. This method of remaking will be available for everyone in the next version of RivaTuner..." Here's the link so you can check it out yourself: http://www.digit-life.com/news.html?1093#1093 If this is true, I may skip on the GeForce FX and buy the 128MB Radeon 9500 to save some serious money.

Jan 9, 2003, 12:07 PM	#2
Zarathustra Elite Bastard Join Date: May 2002 Location: The Confederacy Posts: 841 Rep Power: 0	Moved and made a sticky

Jan 9, 2003, 12:36 PM	#3
Matth Flash Banner Hater Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: UK Posts: 3,426 Rep Power: 93 System Specs	Link is now http://www.digit-life.com:/archive.shtml?20030106 As the item is now a news archive. If the 128Mb is "already 256 bit memory bus" - what was the point of the other hack.

Jan 9, 2003, 03:43 PM	#6
Zarathustra Elite Bastard Join Date: May 2002 Location: The Confederacy Posts: 841 Rep Power: 0	Well the soldering was basically to change the id of the card, which can be done in software now

Jan 13, 2003, 04:38 AM	#10
DriveEuro HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Gurnee Illinois Posts: 4,677 Rep Power: 0	Only works with sparkle ones I believe...you have to find an old card...it is the ones that were made when the 9500pro first came out __________________ [color=orange]ASUS P4P800 Deluxe [color=black]-[/color] 2.4C --> 3300mhz [color=black]-[/color] Mushkin PC3200 at 220 5-2-2-2 (cpu limited) [color=black]-[/color] BBAti 9800Pro at 430/375 [/color] [color=black]3[/color][color=gray]D[/color]M[color=black]a[/color][color=gray]r[/color]k[color=yellow]01[/color] [color=black]3[/color][color=gray]D[/color]M[color=black]a[/color][color=gray]r[/color]k[color=yellow]03[/color] 16001200 12801024

Jan 13, 2003, 08:08 AM	#11
Darksider I Play NWN and UT2003 Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 202 Rep Power: 0	I have been reading about this all over since it starting coming about (I'm thinking of buying one myself! ). The card you want to get is a 9500 (non-pro) 128mb. The card has to be on the 9700 boards, which means the DDR is on the top and on the sides of the GPU. If the DDR is in 4 sockets at the top, it is the wrong card. What the hack does is enable the 4 unused pipelines in the GPU. The 9500np 128mb cards already have the 256bit memory bus, but with only 4 pipelines the card isn't really taking advantage of this wide bus. Once the hack is done, it 'becomes' a 9700np card. Then with a bit of overclocking (which I believe requires a BIOS flash to the Warp11 BIOS), you should have proformance of a 9700pro. That is what I have all gathered on the subject.

Jan 13, 2003, 08:13 AM	#13
ToshiroOC Unbiased. Join Date: Jun 2002 Posts: 4,812 Rep Power: 0	The moddable 9500's ARE 9700's - they only have one different resistor on the chip, and that resistor controls whether the extra 4 pipelines are enabled. They have the same stuff as the 9700 pros in every other respect. These weren't shipped as much as for a supply problem as they were shipped because ATI didn't finish the 9500 in time for 9700's launch time... so they fudged it, and killed half of the 9700's pipelines and called it a 9500 until they got the real 9500 out... __________________ [img][/img] [color=White]Peace be with you, Joe.[/color] Driverheaven Staff Member (Supermoderator)

Jan 14, 2003, 03:29 AM	#14
JCLW Long Live The P6! Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: The Great White North Posts: 119 Rep Power: 0	Having followed this all day in various forums, it looks like any 9500 128mb card will work, but the Saphire 9500 128MB (NON-PRO) cards seem to be the best (Saphire makes the "built by ATI" cards as well, so I think ATI gives them the best chips ). I'd say it's at least an 80% sucess rate (it seems the other 20% have damaged pipelines which result in artifacts) so make sure you can return your card if you're not prepared to live with a regular 9500. The fact that most work but some don't supports the argument that ATI is binning the cores (ie: if it doesn't work as a 9700, then disable four pipelines and call it a 9500). The yeilds must be very good if they are doing this because so many of them actually work fine with all 8 pipelines working. - JW

Jan 14, 2003, 06:37 PM	#15
DaSnIpE Driverage Snipe Join Date: May 2002 Location: Montreal, Canada or NYC, USA Posts: 372 Rep Power: 0	U sure it ain't only the Sparkle ones that have the 256 bit PCB ? __________________ Antec SX1030 Case - Enermax 431 W Whisper PS - 4 Case Fans -ThermalRight AX-7 With Panaflo Ultra Fan - Sb Audigy / Logitech Z-560 Speakers / Sennheiser HD497 Headphones WD 80GB 7200 rpm HD - Samsung SyncMaster 955DF - LG 16x10x40x Burner / Pionner 16x Slot DVD View my rig http://nl.dodhq.net/Rig/

Jan 14, 2003, 06:59 PM	#16
DriveEuro HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Gurnee Illinois Posts: 4,677 Rep Power: 0	I read that it the Sparkles are easy to come by and that you can actually do this mod on them... But what's the point in modding it? You can just download RivaTuner and turn the 9500 into a 9700 __________________ [color=orange]ASUS P4P800 Deluxe [color=black]-[/color] 2.4C --> 3300mhz [color=black]-[/color] Mushkin PC3200 at 220 5-2-2-2 (cpu limited) [color=black]-[/color] BBAti 9800Pro at 430/375 [/color] [color=black]3[/color][color=gray]D[/color]M[color=black]a[/color][color=gray]r[/color]k[color=yellow]01[/color] [color=black]3[/color][color=gray]D[/color]M[color=black]a[/color][color=gray]r[/color]k[color=yellow]03[/color] 16001200 12801024

Jan 14, 2003, 07:56 PM	#17
Zarathustra Elite Bastard Join Date: May 2002 Location: The Confederacy Posts: 841 Rep Power: 0	Yeah I think they are definitely binning the cores. It sounds like some have damaged/flakey pipelines, so the just disabled half of them and sold it as a 9500. Oh and another thing to look for is the proper 128mb 9500s have the power connector on the card.

Jan 15, 2003, 01:26 AM	#18
El_Coyote DriverHeaven Lover Join Date: Oct 2002 Posts: 111 Rep Power: 0	ok i did it. Bought the Sapphirre 9500 128mb (nonpro) and applied the softmod. the result in 3dmark is as follows: Without the mod: With the Mod quite a boost, especially fillrates and point sprites for reference my system is: AMD XP 2000+ 512mb PC2100 ddr Ram modded 9500 this is a great value card. i have no artifacts/checkering what so ever.

Jan 15, 2003, 01:36 AM	#19
TEmp69 DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: .at Posts: 38 Rep Power: 0	Site from the guy who "moded" the drivers!!1 http://www.maxdownloads.com/~ian/wizzard/

Jan 17, 2003, 12:34 AM	#20
Zarathustra Elite Bastard Join Date: May 2002 Location: The Confederacy Posts: 841 Rep Power: 0	Very nice man your fillrates DOUBLED I would expect more of a boost though. What speeds are you running the now-9700 at?

Jan 17, 2003, 12:38 AM	#21
El_Coyote DriverHeaven Lover Join Date: Oct 2002 Posts: 111 Rep Power: 0	it was stock speeds (275/270) at the time of the tests. But now I've oc'ed it to 340/280 and it runs fine __________________ Warp2Search.net Newsie

Jan 17, 2003, 12:45 AM	#22
Zarathustra Elite Bastard Join Date: May 2002 Location: The Confederacy Posts: 841 Rep Power: 0	Sweet! What do you score at those speeds? I get around 15k w/ my XP1600+ and 9700 Pro. Of course my 1600+ hits 1815mhz and the 9700 Pro does 370/340

Jan 17, 2003, 12:47 AM	#23
El_Coyote DriverHeaven Lover Join Date: Oct 2002 Posts: 111 Rep Power: 0	havent tested those speeds, im just happy im running ut2003 @ 4xFSAA __________________ Warp2Search.net Newsie