Overclock or Flash? (x800Pro)

[MeTal_RaWker]

Hello.

I've been reading thorugh the posts...and i've found mixed opinions. Can't do this, do that...and i'm still rather confused.

My main question is, I have a Regualr ATi Raedon 9800Pro (R350 according to ATi Tool) Still stock. AM i able to flash this (soft mod i believe?) or should i stick to overclocking. I have the "ATi Tool" program...but is there a more reccemmended one..

thanks eveyone :)

[felinusz]

First off, ATiTool reads your core type from the BIOS. So, you can't know for sure whether you have an R350, or an R360 core, untill you actually take off your heatsink, and look at the core.

As for flashing vs. overclocking, it's really up to personal preference. If you have an R360 core, I would flash your card with an XT BIOS.


Just flashing your BIOS will set your card right at XT speeds, a very slight overclock above 9800 Pro speeds, from which you can continue to overclock higher if you so desire.

Simply overclocking your card achieves the same thing, and will likely leave you with a similar maximum stable card overclock.


To get the most performance out of your card, you'll be overclocking regardless, whether with, or without a BIOS flash beforehand, is up to you.

[MeTal_RaWker]

Awesome...i'll take it off tonight and check it out. Is there much preformence diffrence between the Pro and XT?

[MeTal_RaWker]

:) Checked and i have a R350 Core....what would you suggest? (does this mean no Flashing for me..)

[felinusz]

Is there much preformence diffrence between the Pro and XT?

The XT has higher clock speeds, and as such, outperforms the Pro. Of course, overclocking your card to XT speeds would close that difference.

You might want to read this article, that contains some fairly detailed comparisons between the Pro, and the XT: http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NTI5

Also, a lot of people find that an XT BIOS gives them a good ~400 point boost in 3DMark 2001, which is justification enough if you are into benchmarking.


Checked and i have a R350 Core....what would you suggest? (does this mean no Flashing for me..)

It's really a personal decision.

But me, I would stick with a 9800 Pro BIOS, and just overclock my card to the nines to close the Pro/XT performance gap :)

[MeTal_RaWker]

Ya..i just went out today and baught a iCEBERQ 4 Pro cooling kit for it...came witha big-o fan, and 4 RAM heat sinks. I was thinking about going ahead and Volt-Modding it. since when i try overclock it now, using ATiTool.. that amx i can get right now is 383.06/366.19 without any artifacts. I have read that people are getting it to 412/365 (XT speeds i believe?), would they be Volt Modding it?

well..thanks again :)

P.s.
i just seen yours.."R350 ATi Radeon 9800 Pro @ 532 MHz/414 MHz" how did you accolmplish this? :)

[ViperJohn]

:) Checked and i have a R350 Core....what would you suggest? (does this mean no Flashing for me..)

If the card still has it's original bios look in the ATI Control Panel under "Options - Details"
and post the the Bios 113- Part Number shown.

If the card has been flashed what are the numbers off one of the memory chips.

Viper

[MeTal_RaWker]

and post the the Bios 113- Part Number shown.
Viper

BIOS Part Number 113-A07518-100

[ViperJohn]

BIOS Part Number 113-A07518-100

if that is the original the card will have an R350 Core, Samsung 8E-GC2A memory chips and
be built on a reference 109-A07500-xx PWA. The original BbATI bios date will be 4/29/03
but that date is a lousy memory overclocker.

Use the Giga-Cube 113-A07518-00 dated 8/29/03 available here:

www.techpowerup.com/bios/Gigacube.9800PRO.128.Samsung.bin .

The stock clocks with that bios are 398/351 and stock memory OC's in the 390's are almost
a slam dunk.

Viper

[MeTal_RaWker]

The original BbATI bios date will be 4/29/03


I checked out the Bios Date annddd...BIOS Date 2003/04/29
its 2004 instead of 2003.....should i still continues loading the gigacube bios?

It is SAMSUNG ram on the board with the 8E-G32A code (end of the long code..)

and it is built on a 109-A07500-xx Board :)

[Mr.Guvernment]

flashing to an XT bios could also change things related to your ram - causing instabilities no ? since the PRO and XT use different ram...

[ViperJohn]

I checked out the Bios Date annddd...BIOS Date 2003/04/29
its 2004 instead of 2003.....should i still continues loading the gigacube bios?

It is SAMSUNG ram on the board with the 8E-G32A code (end of the long code..)

and it is built on a 109-A07500-xx Board :)

The 8/29/03 version of the 113-A07518-100 bios is the one you want to use.

Viper

[ViperJohn]

flashing to an XT bios could also change things related to your ram - causing instabilities no ? since the PRO and XT use different ram...

He isn't going to flash to an XT bios. He has an R350 core on his card and an XT or XT'ized (edited)
bios would cause display errors in DX9.

If the card had an R360 then he could have used the XT'ized (edited for R360 core cards) version
of 113-A07518-100 dated 8/29/04 no problem.

Viper

[MeTal_RaWker]

so how woudl i go about doing this...you say i need to use the 03 Bios, but how do i get to there enable to use the Gigacube Bios?

i'm tryin...:(