9700Pro -> FireGL X1?

[Nero]

Has anyone sucessfully BIOS flashed their 9700Pro to a FireGL X1, or their 9600Pro to a FireGL T2? Or, would one need also move/resolder a resistor like the original hardware 9500 mod (or the current QuadroFX mod)?

I have scoured the net and several fourms for an answer, but the only thing I get are vague anecdotes.

[Aslan]

I found a couple sites that might help; this mod looks to have been proven successful, but I didn't check through the links completely and also, you most likely have to do the hardware mod that you mentioned in order to get the flash to work successfully.

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?threadid=44920&perpage=10&pagenumber=1

http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?s=&threadid=33658209

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/video/display/news6109.html

[kct2]

I am currently running my 9700 as a X1. There is a driver softmod, no need to move resistors or flash a bios...

I am using the FreeFireGL Driver from: http://www.hardwarelab.ru/soft.php

the site is in russian, but the driver is english.

I believe they simply applied the SoftFireGL driver patch which is part of Rivatuner to the ATI professional drivers.

[NinjaWreck]

What exactly is the benefit of doing this mod?

[kct2]

It makes 3d programs (CAD, DCC, etc) work better with hardware acceleration. The professional OpenGL driver has custom configurations for specific programs, and is generally more stable.

For example, Rhino3d does not support hardware acceleration with a 9700 using the game driver (it works, but it says it is experimental and there are some glitches). With the professional driver all the OpenGL modes are supported and work perfectly.

[NinjaWreck]

Ok, so for the average gamer it's really not worth it.

[Nero]

Originally posted by NinjaWreck
Ok, so for the average gamer it's really not worth it.

Not @ all. Thanks for the info guys. I asked because my roommate is a CG major and is looking @ getting a new video card. You can get a new 9700Pro for $180 and a refurbished one for only $160, which is a *whole* lot cheaper than a "real" FireGL X1.

[Mr.Radar]

[EDIT: Never mind]

[Nero]

Well, just for the heck of it (and to humor my roommate), I installed the modded drivers on my 9800NP>flashed to XT. Everything went smoothly, and my SpecPerf 7.0 scores went up by a *minimum* of 50%. I have no use for this, but it should help my roommate out.

[kct2]

Originally posted by Mr.Radar
A real FireGL X1 will still be faster, but I think you'd still be able to get good speeds out of a 9700 Pro.

From what I have seen they perform exactly the same. Check this site:

http://www.nvworld.ru/docs/sfgl2_e.html

The graphs at the bottom of the page show the softmod card performing the same as the real thing.

There is no difference between a 9700pro and a FireGL X1; the GPU core is the same (only a resistor on the GPU package is in a different location), the PCB is the same (X1 has 2 DVI ports), and the memory is the same. So beyond BIOS settings, which would have a minimal effect of performance, there is no reason the real X1 would be faster.