Gigacube 9800pro bios?

Ive heard alot of good things about this bios for the 9800pro, but only good things, about how much extra OC they got out of their cards, elevated 3DMark scores and such, but i never heard where this bios came from and what it actually does.

Anyway, here are my questions:

1. What EXACTLY is this Gigacube bios? What does it do to your card.

2. Does it work with all 9800pro cards or only ones with the R350 core and/or Samsung 2.8ns ram?

3. Is it worth getting? Are there any risks?

4. Where can i find it and where can i grab some good flash utilities?

check this out.... possibly what you're looking for.

http://www.rojakpot.com/default.aspx?location=3&var1=92&var2=0

That's not it. Im looking for a bios that is supposed to enhance overclocking ability and general performance clock for clock, but not a flash to XT.

it's been mentioned before somewhere, it dosnt turn your card into an XT, but is reported to have increased OCs a few MHz and raised 3DMark scores at stock speeds.

Now when i search, all i get is the pro to XT bios.


Ahh, here it is: http://www.techpowerup.com/bios/ Scroll down to Gigacube and look at the 9800pro 128MB.

But before getting it, does anyone have any info on it?

Check out the below link for some more information on this BIOS

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=295383

The first batches of 9800 Pro cards used Samsung RA-GCxx RAM, which was discontinued in September of 2003.

The 9800 Pro cards manufactured between August 2003 and October 2003 all used Samsung 8E-GCxx RAM, but still came flashed with the BIOS the older cards with RA-GCxx RAM came flashed with - a BIOS which is optimized for the RA-GCxx RAM the newer cards don't actually have.

The "Giga-Cube Ultimate Extreme" BIOS is optimized for Samsung 8E-GCxx RAM chips, and will give signifigant (~25 MHz) gains on the maximum stable RAM overclock of cards that have Samsung 8E-GCxx RAM chips.

The Giga-Cube BIOS is set with stock speeds a bit higher than factory stock 9800 Pro speeds; the Giga-Cube BIOS is set to 398 core / 351 memory as opposed to factory stock 9800 Pro speeds of 378 core / 338 memory.

In the link I posted above, I've uploaded two versions of the Giga-Cube BIOS, one with the higher stock speeds, and one that I've altered to have factory stock 9800 Pro speeds, for ease and safety of use.

If you have RA-GCxx RAM on your card, you should be using the Powercolor 9800 Pro BIOS, which is optimized for the RA-GCxx RAM.

In my experience, neither of these BIOS images will increase performance at stock speeds, or even make any difference performance-wise when comparing with another BIOS, at the exact same speeds.

Your highest stable memory overclock is the only gain you are likely to see - still well worth the BIOS flash .

I got em. They work pretty good. You have to have samsung ram. Let me know if you need them.

I have a Sapphire 9800pro with the R350 core and Samsung 8E ram. It's actually quite a late model card, after the 9800XT came out. I got it because of the massive price drop.

Will this card still have the bios optimized for the old samsung ram? Still worth the flash?

Edit: Oops, forgot, yay, just earned by 5th star

Yea it will work. Here it is. gigacube

It's definetely worth your time to try .

Flashing your video card is pretty easy, and very safe - you can always blindflash back to your old BIOS if there is a problem or a mess up.

Hi guys!

Do any of you know what exactly do the Giga-cube Bios change?
Besides this:

The Giga-Cube BIOS is set with stock speeds a bit higher than factory stock 9800 Pro speeds; the Giga-Cube BIOS is set to 398 core / 351 memory as opposed to factory stock 9800 Pro speeds of 378 core / 338 memory.

Click to expand...

Memory timmings maybe?

Thanks!

I would imagine that it has something to do with RAM latencies - the RA and 8E chips are clearly different in some manner, even though equivelently specced chips exist. That's just speculation on my part though, I have no evidence to back up the guess.


For an accurate and technical answer, it's definetely worth your time to PM ViperJohn here on the forums - he knows a lot about ATi video cards, and he'll probably be able to direct you to some of the information that you're looking for .

Hi guys!

I found this thread here. I thought it was a good read although it did not answer what i needed to know.

For posterity:

AIW9800P_____Gigacube 8/29/03
TWR = 2.......................3
MEMRR = 29.....................2A
TRBS = CL+2.5...............CL+3
TERST = CL-1.5................CL-0.5
TQSREQ = CL-1.5................CL-0.5

These are the differences I found between both Bios

Click to expand...

I also posted that on the link above.