X850 Pro for $119.00

Cirrith · Aug 1, 2006

Hey guys. ATi is selling the X850 Pro AGP for $139. This card is VIVO, which means that the extra 4 pipelines are (supposedly) guaranteed to be unlockable. I ordered the card and confirmed that the BIOS flash does work. For anyone interested...

X850 Pro
Flash Instructions

Also, using the coupon code ATILL5off will net you 5% off and free shipping, bringing the grand total to $144.26 shipped. Not bad for what is essentially an X850 XT.

ziggo0 · Aug 1, 2006

Some can be flashed, some cant. I was unfortinate enough to get one that couldnt.

Cirrith · Aug 1, 2006

Was yours a VIVO? Most of the sites I've read say that the VIVO models have a 100% success rate.

Also, I initially thought mine was a failure, because the XT PE BIOS caused massive artifacts. However, when I went back and used just the XT BIOS, the pipelines unlocked without incedent and the card now runs great.

Just my experience.

yo4444 · Aug 1, 2006

Actually, the price after the code is $132.05, not $144.26

Cirrith · Aug 1, 2006

$12.21 for tax, for some reason.

yo4444 · Aug 1, 2006

oh.. ATI must be in TN then. I had no tax added... unless I didn't get far enough in the process

cegha · Aug 1, 2006

anyone know where i could get this card (or hte x800 pro vivo) for a cheap price like this, but for PCI-E.

Cirrith · Aug 1, 2006

ATi has the X850 Crossfire Edition PCI-E for the same price, if that helps.

cegha · Aug 1, 2006

Cirrith said:
ATi has the X850 Crossfire Edition PCI-E for the same price, if that helps.

Is it VIVO? Can it be modded to the X850XT PE, like in the guide?

Where is it at, i can't seem to find it on there site?

Edit: http://shop.ati.com/product.asp?sku=3019316

Is that it? Question still stands, can it be modded. Me and a friend are upgrading and i thought this would be a good route for both of us to go.

Edit 2: Do i need a crossfire motherboard, if i plan to only run 1 video card?

ziggo0 · Aug 1, 2006

Cirrith said:
Was yours a VIVO? Most of the sites I've read say that the VIVO models have a 100% success rate.

Also, I initially thought mine was a failure, because the XT PE BIOS caused massive artifacts. However, when I went back and used just the XT BIOS, the pipelines unlocked without incedent and the card now runs great.

Just my experience.

Some AGP cards are Die & Laser locked, which completely disables the 4 extra pipelines. You can view this by shift clicking settings in ATITool. I flashed mine to XT PE and it just gave me the higher clocks, not the extra pipes, messed with it for about 5 hours, nothing, found out my card is hardcore locked

. It is a VIVO, some are just unlucky.

Cirrith · Aug 1, 2006

ziggo0 said:
Some AGP cards are Die & Laser locked, which completely disables the 4 extra pipelines. You can view this by shift clicking settings in ATITool. I flashed mine to XT PE and it just gave me the higher clocks, not the extra pipes, messed with it for about 5 hours, nothing, found out my card is hardcore locked . It is a VIVO, some are just unlucky.

Very, very interesting. You would definitely be the first VIVO I've heard of to be locked at the physical level. Your card had the yellow audio connector next to the power socket?

BossBorot · Aug 1, 2006

I've know about these deals for awhile now and the x850pro that ATi sells cannot have not been able to be unlocked by people who bought them, and are lazer locked! The x800xl is a better deal as that card was made to replace the x850pro and is also agp.

the x800xl is also 20 bucks cheaper then the x850pro; the x800xl also as the vivo chip.

Cirrith · Aug 1, 2006

BossBorot said:
I've know about these deals for awhile now and the x850pro that ATi sells cannot have not been able to be unlocked by people who bought them, and are lazer locked! The x800xl is a better deal as that card was made to replace the x850pro and is also agp.

Brochief, listen. I bought one from ATi. It was delivered yesterday. It wasn't laser locked. I now have 16 pipelines. So...there.

Cirrith · Aug 1, 2006

cegha said:
Is it VIVO? Can it be modded to the X850XT PE, like in the guide?

Where is it at, i can't seem to find it on there site?

Edit: http://shop.ati.com/product.asp?sku=3019316

Is that it? Question still stands, can it be modded. Me and a friend are upgrading and i thought this would be a good route for both of us to go.

Edit 2: Do i need a crossfire motherboard, if i plan to only run 1 video card?

I can't tell if it's VIVO or not. Probably not. You don't need a Crossfire mobo to run a single card.

cegha · Aug 1, 2006

BossBorot said:
I've know about these deals for awhile now and the x850pro that ATi sells cannot have not been able to be unlocked by people who bought them, and are lazer locked! The x800xl is a better deal as that card was made to replace the x850pro and is also agp.

the x800xl is also 20 bucks cheaper then the x850pro; the x800xl also as the vivo chip.

Hmm... can the X800xl be modded though?

Lazer is spelled laser. Seems Cirrith, got his unlocked.

Cirrith do you mind posting a few pics that shows yours is unlocked?

Cirrith · Aug 1, 2006

Yeah, I'll post some screens once I get home from the office. And I'm not sure on the X800XL...besides, even if it could be unlocked, it would only be an X800 XT. Maybe XT PE. I think you're better off with the X850.

BossBorot · Aug 1, 2006

Many people bought this card due to the hardforum [H]otdeal threat on it. http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1070975&page=18&pp=20

out of 353 posts so far no one who has bought the x850pro has sucessfully unlocked it. The odds dont look very good even if some one has unlocked it, you could take a risk and go for the x850pro for 20 bucks more if you feel lucky but that gamble is up to the buyer.

btw good job on the unlock!

You should post over in the hardforum thread to tell others of your success, if they do unlock most of the time you could help save some buy the better of the two cards. From info up until now no one has unlocked the cards from ati's clearance.

if you can unlock the x850pro its deffinately the better of the two deals. Also I like to spell laser as "lazer" after watching austin powers a few years back.

cegha · Aug 1, 2006

Cirrith said:
Yeah, I'll post some screens once I get home from the office. And I'm not sure on the X800XL...besides, even if it could be unlocked, it would only be an X800 XT. Maybe XT PE. I think you're better off with the X850.

Ok kool, i was just wanting to see for sure, not that i don't trust you.

But he said that the x800xl could be had for ~$20 cheaper. Assuming it could be modded, wouldn't that still be a better deal?

Cirrith · Aug 1, 2006

Here's a quote from the AnandTech review of the X800XL.

"This isn't to say that the X800 XL won't be a good overclocker, but you shouldn't expect it to be able to hit clock speeds as high as the X850 series."

Review can be found here.

The X800XL has a core clock of 400MHz. The X850 Pro is 500MHz. Mine is currently running at 540MHz. So no, even if it could be unlocked to 16 pipes, I don't think the clock speeds would ever reach X850 levels. Now, if you're talking about an X800 with 16 pipes versus an X850 with 12 pipes, you could make a decent argument. But, based on my experience, that's not the case, and so the X850 wins hands down.

BossBorot · Aug 1, 2006

Cirrith said:
Now, if you're talking about an X800 with 16 pipes versus an X850 with 12 pipes, you could make a decent argument. But, based on my experience, that's not the case, and so the X850 wins hands down.

edit: a better compairison between the x850pro (12 pipe) vs the x800xl from the same source Cirrith used.

http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=2290&p=8

basically a 12 pipe x850pro = a 16 pipe x800xl. These are the cards that ati is selling, the x850pro is 20 bucks more.

the x800xl does have 16 pipes* out of the box and the x850pro has 12. The x850pro, even with 12 pipes, competes on basically equal footing with the x800xl thanks to a better core and higher clock speeds (but is 20 bucks more). If the x850pro can be unlocked to 16 pipes it will blow the x800xl out of the water period even if underclocked.

* http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/07/05/vga_charts_vii/page2.html

I'm just wondering how many of the cards that ATi are selling are the older non-laser bridge cut models and how many are the newer laser cut models.

ATi sells both versions it appears after browsing http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1070975&page=1&pp=20 I have found examples of both unlockable and locked x850pros. For every card that can flashed there apears to be at leat one that wont.

X850 Pro for $119.00

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