9500np, your experiences?

homicsbane · Jan 23, 2004

I had a 9500pro that I had to RMA because it would start rebooting on tis own for no reason. They sent me a replacement, but its a 9500np with the L ram. I wont have a chance to install the card until tomorrow and when I do, im going to try the softmod. I have no idea what the chances are that it will work without artifacts. If it doesnt work, how high can you usually overclock them and what type of 3dmark scores did you get with them? My 95pro i had ~4200 in 03 and in 01 i had around 14.5- 15k. The system im putting it in had differnt specs:

2500+barton @ 2.3Ghz (11.5x200)
512mb Corsair pc2700@400mhz 2.5-3-3-6
Asus A7N8X (non-deluxe)
80GB WD
Win XP

thanks

PreservedSwine · Jan 23, 2004

At least you got a 256bitDDR bus whether the soft-mod works or not, which willhelp make up for the lost 4 pipes...but it still won't be as good as a PRO unless it soft-mods..it will be close, but the pro and it's 8 piped glory is a heckuva card....

My little R9500np modded succesfully, although it overclocked better before the mod...after the mod, it didn't need to..just incredibly powerfull with that huge bus AND 8 pipes...

I wish you the best of luck...I hope you have better RAM than my loust Infineon, mine 3.3 only hits 290 before artifacting, but the core goes well over 370

JigPu · Jan 24, 2004

If the card softmods, you're looking at an awesome card even if it dosen't OC well. Sucess rates have been quoted from 30-50%, usually more toward the low end.

My modded 9500 will pull ~4200 at stock, and once OCd yanks a nosebleeding 5300.

I don't know about how well OCing is generally, but if me an PreservedSwine are any indication, it should be good. I get 305 with my Infinion 3.3, and 385 on the core.

JigPu

El<(')>Maxi · Jan 24, 2004

Hope it takes the mod for you, they are really great cards when they do.

And if not when overclocked, if you get a decently overclocking card, will in some cases outperform the Pro.

Emericana · Jan 24, 2004

ya mine mods but it refuses to overclock while modded which i find odd... however, running it modded at stock is faster then running it not modded at 410/310 so i just leave it modded at stock.

homicsbane · Jan 24, 2004

Well, i got the softmod to work, but theres a bit or artifacting. Not alot at all, just a little bit, u can barely see it in dark places and its a bit more visoble in lighter areas while paying UT2003. Aren't there a few ways to try and get rid of them?

JigPu · Jan 24, 2004

Underclocking the core can help (since OCing can make it worse), and there's also some special driver option you can disable that has a one in a zillion chance of fixing the artifacts. I'll search the forum and see what comes up.

JigPu

JigPu · Jan 24, 2004

Some things to try:
1) Disable Hyper-Z
2) Disable FastZClear (which sounds exactly like Hyper-Z

)
3) Disable Hierachrial Z
4) Disable anything inlvolving the "Z" buffer

Some are registry hacks (outlined below), and others require a tool to disable (such as Powerstrip, or Unwinder's HeirZ script for RivaTuner).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Originally posted by MissingOneNut

It turns out I needed to disable the 'FastZClear' function to eliminate the artifacts on my card. This was a two step solution.

1 - I installed Rage3D Tweak v3.8c. This let me disable the 'FastZClear' function in D3D applications, but not OpenGl apps.

2 - For OpenGl apps, I needed to modify my registry as follows:

Open Regedit and go to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Contro
l\Video\{CLSID}\0000\OpenGL

(I can't tell you what your CLSID will be because they are different. but I can tell you that there will be only one '0000' folder with a 'OpenGL' subfolder - that is the one you want).

Add a new subfolder under the OpenGL folder and name it 'Private'. Add a new REG_DWORD key with a name of 'rf23twwl2ODyp' and a value of '0'. If you want to re-enable the 'FastZClear' function in OpenGL apps, just set the value to '1'.

Originally posted by herbal'|'

Mod technically worked, i got the performance of a 9700. but i've got checkerboards EVERYWHERE. even in windows. Nothing I've tried has helped (formatting, disabling hyperz, heirchicalz, zmask, zbuffer, antialiasing, overclocking, fast writes).

Originally posted by Black_Paladin

You see, since we have most of the problems with the HyperZ units on these cards as opposed to the 4 extra pipelines, depending on which part of the HyperZ unit is defective, people will not be getting artifacts in the same games in the same fashion. HyperZ unit is something pretty complicated and it is very unlikely that everybody diwould have the same kind of defect in the unit.

Posted later in the same thread...
The reason I'm saying this is that, so far, we know that there are only 2 things that change with the 9500 cards when you mod them into 9700 cards.

1- 4 extra pipelines get enabled.
2- Hierarchical Z unit gets enabled.

...

In addition, Unwinder's HierZ disable script should even increase the amount of artifact-free cards for the poll.

Originally posted by FreeForm
i recently used powerstrip to solve my artifacts by disabling the hierarchical z optimization but after messing around a bit with the different options available i think ive finaly nailed it its not the hierarchical z optimization causing the problems its in fact the fsat z buffer optimization thats causing my artifact problems ive disabled that and no artifacts at all so every one thats getting artifacts try this. im well chuffed i still have the hierarchical z optimization as it gives me about an extra 6- 9 fps on most things. so those that tryed my last way try this maybe this will work. to do it the only thing you need ticked is the disable 32-bit z buffer. hope it works for someone else

From http://www.ocfaq.com/softmod/faq.php

Q: How do I disable Hierarchical-Z? I hear this solves the artifact problem for a small number of people.
A: OpenGL:
In your Registry find a folder called "OpenGL". Make sure you end up in the "CurrentControlSet" branch.
On my system: "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Video\{17B35A74-5588-4 595-A586-8C735F496DB2}\0000\OpenGL". Your ClassID will be different so use text search to find "OpenGL".
Add a folder "Private" under the "OpenGL" folder.
Add a DWORD value there called "An6aYj2vwKuKd9brxl7" with value "0".

Direct3D:
Find the OpenGL folder. Go to the "0000" folder above it.
Add a String value there called "HierarchicalZEnable" with value "0".
You can also try using RTool for exammple to disable Hierarchical-Z.

JigPu

homicsbane · Jan 24, 2004

Well, I tried those 4 things. They made some improvement, but the artifacts are still there. I'm not sure its worth it to keep the softmod on. I'm using the softmod that came with the omega drivers, could changing drivers do anything? Thanks for all the input.

homicsbane · Jan 25, 2004

Well, I decided to take off the softmod and go for overclocking it the way it is. The core (for now) is at 373. The cool thing here is that the ram is infinion 3.3 and right now its at 310 and its 100% no artifacts. My 3dmark scores are better than i thought. I just ran it and got 14150. When i had the card modded it was at 14056. I guess its not that bad after all, i just gotta get an overclocking app that can let me go over 373.

9500np, your experiences?

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