does flashing 9500->9700pro increase voltages? its a big deal...

after replacing the stock hsf on my sapphire 9500 np, modded to 9700 pro via omega's hacked drivers, with a danger den maze3 gpu block, and cutting up some ramsinks, I have reached about 365/317. Any higher on the mem and I can complete benchmarks, no artifacts at all, but when I reboot everything goes all screwy and powerstrip drops the clcoks to around 100 each. I have seen very many 9700 cards at over 420 gpu and some unlocked 9500's as high as 440 - Don't I have the same GPU as the 9700 exactly? Then shouldn't it be a matter of voltages keeping the clock back? I know my 3ns ram is not quite as fast as a 9700 and as such will go no further without volt mods, but what about the gpu?

has anyone taken out a multimeter and tested their voltages before and after a bios flash (Not a soft-mod) from 9500->9700? anyone notice extra overclockability after teh flash (that was overclcoking using powerstrip/rivatuner and the softmod previously)

I know I have a kickass card already for the $140 I spent on it, but you know, always further....

and yeah I know this 9500-9700 stuff gets old, but I have not seen any good info about voltage changes when flashing. only rumors......

I dont have an answer for you but I do have a question..

Where did you get that bios for it and did the new bios improve your memory overclockability from what you got with just the softmod? I cant get my mem (infineon) to go over about 610 without getting some artifacts. I get about 405 gpu with a Swiftech MCW50 on it. Was only about 380 with stock cooling. That's with the agp voltage cranked.

I can answer one of your questions.
These 9500's do have the same R300 gpu as the 9700s

I have and never saw any changes in voltages. It was a while ago and I tried with 3 different BIOS'es.

It is normal to see big differences among cards from the same manufacturer. Some are simply better than others. The ones that reach amazing numbers out of the box are the ones you want.


Maxi~

I did notice a difference when I went from softmod + default bios to softmod + Mufu bios (connect3d r9500).

After flash it kicked out of games/3d programs more often at previously stable speeds.
(this was not a limit of the core (already modded) or the ram (oc-limit went +20mhz))

Didn't measure any voltages..

Better cooling solved it.

yeah i know some will just be better than others - I just have a hard time believeing that you can hit 440gpu and I can only hit 370 or so - with a well lapped gpu WB. Did you increase voltages via resistors to get that? voltages do not scare me, check my sig....


as for the mem - I only hit 317 after adding some pretty serious ramsinks (homemade) to the top mem, and some bga ramsinks to the bottom.

I could get 380/297 stock on my Sapphire Infineon3.3.

After vmod's, well you saw my sig I guess.

VGPU 1.79
VDD 3.238
VREF 1.338

This is an air cooled card btw. You can look at the '03 score to verify my clocks if you doubt them.

Your card would come close to this with the mods. Maybe better with the H2O cooling.

But what does this have to do with your original question?


Maxi~

I think I remeber something about the 9500's bios not letting you overclock beyond a certain frequency.

Thats for a Pro card