ANY 9500 non-pro can be softmodded, the problem is that many of them start displaying garbage when all eight pipelines are running. This is likely at least part of the criteria for ATI binning those R300 cores into the 9500np pile... Nevertheless, you also sometimes get lucky and find a 9500np that does work ok with all eight pipelines working.
If you ARE one of those lucky few, then you have one of two things going on:
1. if the card is built with the memory chips all in a straight line OR you have a 64mb card, then you now have a 9500 Pro. That means eight pipelines but only a 128 bit memory bus.
2. if the card is built with the memory chips all in an "L" shape AND MUST HAVE 128mb, then you now have a 9700 non-pro. THat means eight pipelines and the full 256 bit memory bus.
If you're one of the "unlucky" ones that the chip flakes out and goes crazy when all eight pipelines are turned on, that doesn't necessarily mean you're totally dead. You still have one of two things going on:
1. if the card is built with the memory chips all in a straight line OR you only have 64mb, then you really are stuck with a true 9500 non pro. 4 pixel pipelines, only 128 bit memory bus. Not a lot going for you here
2. if the card is built with the memory chips in the "L" shape AND MUST HAVE 128mb onboard, then you've still got a great card! This is the older equivalent of a 9600 -- four pixel pipelines, but with the full 256 bit memory bus. You can usually overclock the everloving stuffola out of the core (I've seen these types of cards hit 400+mhz on the core easily when the softmod doesn't work) and they become VERY fast! Not quite 9700 fast, but still very quick for the pricetag -- even faster than the fastest overclocked 9600's out there.
So basically, so long as you find a 9500 non-pro with 128mb of ram AND the memory chips are laid out in the "L" shape, you're getting a very good deal anyway. Being able to softmod it for all 8 pipelines to work is just extra icing on the cake.
