Graphics Softmodding, howto.

u cant softmod the 9600 series of cards.it will only overclock.

 

Too bad... (sadness)

 

Haha, yes, that's how Powercolor X800s seem to come (both of mine have been the same, ridiculous amounts of stuff that isn't even AS) - after I took that pic it took me ages to clean it all up

 

It should be noted that NO 6800 vanilla PCI-E's can be softmodded to 6800 Ultra's
ONLY the AGP versions... The AGP versions use the same chip as the 6800 Ultra and GT PCI-E (NV40), but just has the 4 pipes disabled. On the PCI-E versions it's an NV41 chip only 12 pipes built into the chip.

Also, doing this to agp is better then the overclocking equivalent. Considering the less heat it puts out. Its negligable.

Also you don't want to check Unlock Professional capabilities unless you know exactly what does what. Once wrong click and your toast. With the first one you need to check in order to change it to 16 pipes. (6800 Softmod)

 

Small update to the 6800LE section above, might help gain a few more mhz if you're overclocking, or clean up artifacts if you're having issues.

 

Can you do something like that with a 6600 gt ?

Grtz

 

anything I can do to my card? its a pci-express, Ati x700 pro.

 

I have recently bought a Point of View 6800GS AGP graphics card. I have tried to do what the u said to do with the 6800LE cards, but when i activate the 4th pixel shader, when the PC is rebooted, there are weird little dits on the screen. I believe these are called artifacts. How do i get them to go away? Is it possible? Please get back to me asap on this! I would like to know how if it is possible. Also, what type of a performance boost does this give? Can u plz provide some benchmarks, 3D Mark 05 if possible! Thanks to anyone who helps! Slash.

 

If theres dots then the pipe is damaged.
You could try disabling one of the default active quad, reboot, enable a masked, reboot then re-enable the default quad disabled before...
Might help

 

well, is there much of a point in sending my card back? What type of diffrence graphical does it make? Is it only small, or is it a big increase? Also, I have overclocked my card. Is there anyway that i can set it back to normal and get them to send me a replacement? Ive only just bought the card.

 

You want to send it back cos it won't mod?
Theres no certainty that a card will softmod to enable extra pipes... Performance will be improved, should be able to make a little of the difference up with overclocking though tbh..
There's no way they can tell you've overclocked the card (as long as it was done via software and not a bios flash) however sending a card back just cos it wont softmod is a bit of a p*** take tbh.. It won't mod to 16 pipes live with it.... Doubt you'd get an RMA without there being something wrong with the card... You certainly WONT get a new card just because yours won't run the full 16 pipes without an error......

 

lol i was just wonderin if it was worth it. Dont get angry lol. What is the diff anyway?

 

It's just not the done thing... If a piece of hardware doesnt clock as well as you want, or you break it through fault of your own then it shouldnt really be sent back for a replacement...
Sell it on and get another if you're unhappy with performance DONT send it back...
This thread isnt really the place to discuss this tbh...

The card errors when you softmod. Me first reply offers a possible solution, give it a shot and see what happens. Might also be worth dropping card clocks a tad and see if that helps clear up the artifacting.....

 

I tried what u said, and no luck .

Also, I'm only new to overclocking and all. Whats a high temperature and how much is too much ? Ive alredi overclocked the core from 1GHz to 1.1 ghz, and the mem from 350 to 375Mhz. How much more do u think i could go without it overheating or lowering the lifetime of the product?

 

Post these questions in a new thread mate Save cluttering up the softmod sticky

 

Cheers for the info Highland3r!

First off, the link seems to have changed for the ATI BIOS files to...

http://downloads.rojakpot.com/files.php?cat=21

BUT

I followed your guide for flashing the 9800PRO to XT, and failed on 2 steps, but came with a solution, so thought best posting in here!

I downloaded the same BIOS you used (GeCube Radeon 9800XT BIOS rev1.00 (OVERDRIVE)), but upon testing noticed that the BIOS only enabled 4 of the 8 Pipelines. Now, as the LM63 chip wasn't present on the card, I could only asume the extra 4 pipelines were switcheable from the Drivers?? I don't know as I never got round to installing the Catalyst drivers at this point.

So I downloaded the ATi Radeon 9800 XT (128MB-mod) » ATi Radeon 9800 XT BIOS rev1.00 (E-DIE) BIOS

This then enabled the full 8 pipelines, and also the clock speeds were now 412/365 (the GeCube clocked at 398/351) and without OVERDRIVE (due to missing LM63 chip) I doubt would go higher as they couldnt sense the core temps...

The Card all this was done on was the Saphire 9800PRO 128Mb AGP (SAMSUNG, 256BIT, 2.8ns)

BUT I WARN PEOPLE NOW

DO NOT USE THE BIOS FOR SAMSUNG 2.5ns AS IT WILL NOT GO ANY FURTHER THAN WINDOWS LOADING!! (I tried the 2.5ns SAMSUNG BIOS first, and alas it just didnt wana work properly...)

Hope this helps some people if they come across issues like I did!

 

The BIOS I used was for Hynix 2.8ns DDR, if you used the same one and your card uses Samsung memory, that may have been the cause of your problems.

ATiTool is reporting all 8 pipelines on my card which has been flashed for years without any problems.

The cards with LM63 (9800XT) were very hard to come by. Who needs overdrive anyway

 

I definately used the Samsung BIOS, as I have read too many horror stories of dead/garbled displays when flashing the wrong memory types... kinda more common sense than anything really!