9500

well i am looking into upgrading my current 7500 and have enough money. I have my eye on the 9500pro 128mb from my local comp shop.

how many different versions of the card are there and whats the differents in ram timings? are they any to really stay away from? thanks

One thing to consider is going for a 9500 128mb non-pro version, and hoping that it can be turned into a 9700. It worked for me, and success rates are supposed to be around 70%. What you're looking for is a Sapphire radeon 9500 128mb (not the pro version) With 2 memory chips above the ZGPU and two to thse side. More details here: http://www.maxdownloads.com/~ian/wizzard/

ok well the pro is not much more then the non-pro

whats the differences between the to.
and whats the ups/downs"

Ok so i think i am going to get the

ATI Radeon 9500 128MB (non-pro)
i will do the 9700 thing.

a few questions i have.

if the 9700 thing dosn't work would i have been better off to buy a pro?
why can't a pro get changed.
are there any signs of cards dieing from this?
the card is oem does that matter?
should i inspect the card before i purshase it what what should i look for (#of ram chips/ brand of ram)... how can you tell if its a shapire?
anything else i should no?
thanks alot

If the mod doesn't work, then a 9500 pro would be better. Follow the forum link at the bottom of that page I posted to see what results people have gotten.

The reason the pro can't be changed is the reason the sapphire non-pro can be changed: rendering pipelines, and a 256-bit bus. What I mean is this:

9500 non-pro 128mb : 8 rendering pipelines, but only 4 enabled, 256 bit memory bus

9500 pro : 8 rendering pipelines, 128 bit bus

9700: 8 rendering pipelines, 256 bit bus

The card being modded uses the same PCB as a 9700, so there is a 256 bit memory bus as compared to the pro's 128 bit bus. This increases memory bandwith by a fair bit.
The cards being modded seem to have 8 rendering pipelines, but only 4 are enabled. There is speculation that on some cards, some of those pipelines are faulty (hence being labeled as a 9500 non-pro) and create checkboarding if activated. No one knows for sure though.

As for an OEM card, I don't think it really matters wether it's in a retail box or not, but the card everyone is using is called "Sapphire atlantis radeon 9500 128mb" Sapphire is the name of the company producing the card.

Basically, if you're not too sure, I'd stick with the 9500 pro, but great performance can be had rather cheaply with a modded 9500 non-pro

ok great thx alot. Besides asking is there any way to tell if its a Sapphire atlantis radeon 9500 128mb ?