X800 GTO² to X850 XT BIOS Mod

[enigmaxp]

I have the Sapphire GTO2 and the store I bought it from had a link to the article here on modding the bios but I can't for the life of me get it to unlock the extra pipes. I used the unlocked BIOS from the article here but it says its the wrong one and if I force it nothing changes pipe wise. Any more clues or newer unlocked BIOS'es? Thanks.

I had the exact same problem. The bios on the website didnt do anything even after the flash. The only way I could get the card to unlock to 16 pipes was to use the sapphire 16pipe enabled 850xt or 850xt pe bios from the the ati bios collection here at techpowerup.

http://www.techpowerup.com/bios/

I'm not sure what's the easiest way to push on the bios but i used flashrom from the article

boot from a boot disk
flashrom -s 0 oldbios.bin <---- for saving a backup copy of old bios
flashrom -p -f 0 newbios.bin <---- for writing new bios by force

 

[Silver-Arrow]

Anyone have trouble OCing their Sapphire X800 GTO2? I successfully unlocked the 4 extra pipelines but I can't OC the core pass 480Mhz. As soon as I set it pass 480Mhz, my PC will just freeze and ATI VPU recovery will kick in. This happens with stock GTO2 memory speed. I've tried ATITool and ATI Tray Tool to OC and both will do the same thing. I did use Driver Cleaner Pro before installing the new Cat 5.12 driver.

I did manage to OC to 480/590 and the temperature was hovering around 55C under full load and 33C during idle. No artifacts at all and I scored 6102 on 3DMark05. The memory is OCing nicely as expected. The core speed is nowhere near the speed everyone else is getting.

PC Specs:
Intel P4 3.4Ghz
Intel P915PGN motherboard
1GB of 533mhz DDR2 ram
550W Antec TruePower supply

Any ideas as to what's happening?

Can someone help?

 

[Ombracol]

Can someone help?

Its all about luck my friend these are bottom of the barrel 480 chips ones that didnt meet spec or leftovers of some sort not every gpu is equal but i can tell you this try flashing the x850 xtpe bios you should get a higher oc I know cause i was have same problem and tried the xtpe bios and got it nice and high mine is running at 564/613 with tweaked memory timing but thats cause my case is at a cool 15 to 20 c idle so also check your case temp for evey 10 degrees you can drop you can roughly go up 10 mhz when my case was 40c idle the highest i could go was 552/600 with tweaked timings tweaked timeings give you a lower oc but higher performance if you dont know wht they are i'll post them .

 

[Sasqui]

Can someone help?

Yep - totally luck of the draw... I've seen many CPU processors that won't OC more than 5%, others up will go to 50% in some cases. If you've ever hear of "binning", it means they test each proccessor before branding it/modifying/separating the physical chip package before it goes into a market product.

OTH - you could have a shitty HS or Thermal goop installation - if you are desparate, buy a high performance HS and give that a whirl. Myself included, I've read about many who can go much higher with better cooling.

 

[Silver-Arrow]

I went out and picked up another Sapphire X800 GTO2. The version I got is a little different.

Old one:
Sapphire Radeon X800 GTO2 256MB 256BIT GDDR3 PCI-E VGA DVI TV-OUT OEM Video Card
New one:
Sapphire Radeon X800 GTO2 256MB GDDR3 PCI-E Dual DVI VIVO OEM Video Card

The VIVO version comes with 16 pipelines stock. No need to flash or anything. ATITool detects the core as an R430 though. I was able to get to X850XT PE speeds (540/590) without any issues. ATITool started detecting artifacts pass (550/600). Temperature was under 60C during full load and around 34C idling. Would it be possible to OC to X850XT PE speeds if the core is in fact an R430 core?

Someone that bought the VIVO took the fan/heatsink off and said that it is an R480 core. I don't want to take mine apart to find out. Could be detecting as an R430 because of the different bios?

 

[Duncan]

Connect 3d Unlocking

Well, i bought a Connect 3d x800GTO on the 13th from Ebuyer and will be installing it in a whole new system on the 25th / 26th. I was happy to see this card was unlockable to 16 pipelines but after reading about the failures, my happyness diminished.

If i attempt to flash it, and it doesnt work, whats the consequences. Do i just flash the original BIOS back and itll work? I read that if it fails to unlock after flashing the new BIOS, you wont be able to see anything on your monitor, so you cant flash back to the old BIOS.

Thanks for any replys.

 

[Sasqui]

I went out and picked up another Sapphire X800 GTO2. The version I got is a little different.

...

Someone that bought the VIVO took the fan/heatsink off and said that it is an R480 core. I don't want to take mine apart to find out. Could be detecting as an R430 because of the different bios?

You probably do in fact have an R580 core... I *think* it depends on what you are using to detect it - but I'm no expert on that subject.

I was lucky to mess with two separate X850XT PE cards, and one core could reach 590, the other under 560 - and those were both "Built by ATI" OEM cards with the massive OTES heatsinks. So dude, if you are 550 for the core, you are, in fact above XT PE speeds (memory too - at 600). The highest retail PE ones I've seen are 540/590. The "good" one I messed with reached 590/610. Huyabusa.

 

[Sasqui]

Well, i bought a Connect 3d x800GTO on the 13th from Ebuyer and will be installing it in a whole new system on the 25th / 26th. I was happy to see this card was unlockable to 16 pipelines but after reading about the failures, my happyness diminished.

If i attempt to flash it, and it doesnt work, whats the consequences. Do i just flash the original BIOS back and itll work? I read that if it fails to unlock after flashing the new BIOS, you wont be able to see anything on your monitor, so you cant flash back to the old BIOS.

Thanks for any replys.

Theoretically, it should still worked with the modified BIOS - but if you are concerned, make sure you have a Legacy PCI graphics card on hand to boot up and flash back to the original BIOS. I went through this with an AGP MSI RX9800 card to 9800XT mod. The first BIOS I tried rendered it useless (no post) - I put the PCI Matrox Millenium card in, booted fine, flashed back to the original BIOS on the AGP Card and was off and running. Eventually, I found the special XT BIOS for the MSI card - that worked like a champ. Also make sure to use the "save" orignal.BIN switch first and put in on a bootable disk with the flash utility. I bought the Matrox card on eBay for less than $10 total. Also, make sure you have your Motherboard BIOS set to search/boot up on legacy PCI FIRST (Usually the default). Luck

 

[Sasqui]

Well, i bought a Connect 3d x800GTO on the 13th from Ebuyer and will be installing it in a whole new system on the 25th / 26th. I was happy to see this card was unlockable to 16 pipelines but after reading about the failures, my happyness diminished.

If i attempt to flash it, and it doesnt work, whats the consequences. Do i just flash the original BIOS back and itll work? I read that if it fails to unlock after flashing the new BIOS, you wont be able to see anything on your monitor, so you cant flash back to the old BIOS.

Thanks for any replys.

Oh yea - Merry Christmas! Good time to tinker if you don't have kids to tend with

 

[Silver-Arrow]

You probably do in fact have an R580 core... I *think* it depends on what you are using to detect it - but I'm no expert on that subject.

I was lucky to mess with two separate X850XT PE cards, and one core could reach 590, the other under 560 - and those were both "Built by ATI" OEM cards with the massive OTES heatsinks. So dude, if you are 550 for the core, you are, in fact above XT PE speeds (memory too - at 600). The highest retail PE ones I've seen are 540/590. The "good" one I messed with reached 590/610. Huyabusa.

Do you think it would be safe to flash to the Sapphire X850XT PE bios then?

 

[Sasqui]

Do you think it would be safe to flash to the Sapphire X850XT PE bios then?

No, I don't think so, but who knows. You want to practice alchemy... it sounds like you are trying to turn a card into something it's probably not. I'd personally try the W1zzard X800 GTO2 mod first and move on from there. Again, make sure you have a backup vid card and BIOS. Let us know how you fair. Merry Holiday.

 

[Super XP]

PC does not detect X800GTO2 ??

I already formated several times, but for some reason my PC detects the GTO2 as a X800 XL with 16 Pipelines. Does anybody have an idea of what the heck is going on?

I can still OC though - GTO2 Core 600MHz /Mem 1200MHz
Thanks,

 

[Silver-Arrow]

I already formated several times, but for some reason my PC detects the GTO2 as a X800 XL with 16 Pipelines. Does anybody have an idea of what the heck is going on?

I can still OC though - GTO2 Core 600MHz /Mem 1200MHz
Thanks,

Same problem with my GTO2. ATITool and other programs detects it as an X800XL (R430) with 16 pipelines. I'm able to OC to X850XT PE (540/590) speeds though.

 

[Justin1983]

One more quick question, do I get any benefit from the unlocked pipelines if I DON'T overclock? If I don't, what's a safe speed to OC to and will I need more cooling? The side of my case is off and my room is quite cool.

 

[Super XP]

Same problem with my GTO2. ATITool and other programs detects it as an X800XL (R430) with 16 pipelines. I'm able to OC to X850XT PE (540/590) speeds though.

O.K. I found out the problem & solved it. There are many X800GTO2's with the X800 XL bios (R430). I think ATI & Sapphire is crazy LOL, so what I did is "FORCED" flash my GTO2 into a plain 12 pipeline X800GTO2.

When I did that, the card now reads as a X800/X850 w/ R480 core & believe it or not, full 16 Pipes. I did not even use the mod bios at all. And I flashed it in Windows (Yes, I know, that is taking a big risk LOL).

So, now I have no problems. Everything seems to be working well. How can ATI or Sapphire release cards with the X800 XL bios on them?

P.S. I checked the card via DOS & seen that it was a R430 by default, but the VPU says R480 on it LOL,

Good Luck,

 

[Silver-Arrow]

O.K. I found out the problem & solved it. There are many X800GTO2's with the X800 XL bios (R430). I think ATI & Sapphire is crazy LOL, so what I did is "FORCED" flash my GTO2 into a plain 12 pipeline X800GTO2.

When I did that, the card now reads as a X800/X850 w/ R480 core & believe it or not, full 16 Pipes. I did not even use the mod bios at all. And I flashed it in Windows (Yes, I know, that is taking a big risk LOL).

So, now I have no problems. Everything seems to be working well. How can ATI or Sapphire release cards with the X800 XL bios on them?

P.S. I checked the card via DOS & seen that it was a R430 by default, but the VPU says R480 on it LOL,

Good Luck,

Interesting. I may flash to the X850XT PE bios once I put a better cooler on it. How come the number of pipelines didn't go back to 12 when you force flashed it with the stock X800GTO2 bios (I'm assuming you're using the one from the bios collection page and not from the W1zzard's mod tutorial page). I would've thought that using the stock X800GTO2 bios would lock back up the 4 pipelines.

Is there any performance increase from doing is or is it just for the sake of it showing as an R480 core instead of an R430.

 

[Super XP]

Interesting. I may flash to the X850XT PE bios once I put a better cooler on it. How come the number of pipelines didn't go back to 12 when you force flashed it with the stock X800GTO2 bios (I'm assuming you're using the one from the bios collection page and not from the W1zzard's mod tutorial page). I would've thought that using the stock X800GTO2 bios would lock back up the 4 pipelines.

Is there any performance increase from doing is or is it just for the sake of it showing as an R480 core instead of an R430.

Well, right now, when I instal the Cat drivers, it is not installing the X800 XL driver, it is installing the X850 driver. About performance, I think there is a little bit, but nothing to go crazy about. Though my system is a lot more stable now with the flash. I too don't know why it says that there is still 16 pipelines, because I used the original unmodded GTO2 bios ?!?!

Well, good luck with it, though you may have to force the bios change. I crossed my fingers LOL, but you really shouldn't worry, because the GTO2 is indead a R480 core & not R430.

I guess I got lucky with the 16 pipelines

 

[Sasqui]

Well, right now, when I instal the Cat drivers, it is not installing the X800 XL driver, it is installing the X850 driver. About performance, I think there is a little bit, but nothing to go crazy about. Though my system is a lot more stable now with the flash. I too don't know why it says that there is still 16 pipelines, because I used the original unmodded GTO2 bios ?!?!

Well, good luck with it, though you may have to force the bios change. I crossed my fingers LOL, but you really shouldn't worry, because the GTO2 is indead a R480 core & not R430.

I guess I got lucky with the 16 pipelines

WOW. Thats weird, but COOL... Kind of indicates that the GPU information comes from the BIOS or drivers, not directly from the GPU - which makes sense in a way. Maybe the're mapped somehow. And your clock numbers are out of sight.

"Fleece Navy Dad..."

(OK, it's a christmas thing if you don't get it.)

 

[infrared]

hmm, that's interesting for me. I've been wandering for a long time if the r430 core is compatible with the r480 bios, and i guess this kinda proves that it is compatible!!! So i can get on with the flashing, using the 'forced flash' option. I'm gonna try flashing it with a x850xt bios, that i modified to have lower clocks that my card can handle. I'm getting an arctic ati silencer 5 rev. 2 for it soon, so the clocks should go even higher. I'm hoping for 6150 points 3dmark05 if the new bios goes well, and if i can bump the clocks up a little higher with the new cooler! Perhaps i'll do a pencil voltmod if i'm feeling luck!

 

[Silver-Arrow]

Just kinda curious, you guys that OC'd your card to X850XT or X850XT PE speeds.....do you guys run it at those speeds all the time (the second you turn on your PC) or only when you play games you switch to those speeds?

Btw.....this is for those on stock cooling.

 

[Super XP]

Just kinda curious, you guys that OC'd your card to X850XT or X850XT PE speeds.....do you guys run it at those speeds all the time (the second you turn on your PC) or only when you play games you switch to those speeds?

Btw.....this is for those on stock cooling.

When I used Air cooling, I always had it OC'ed. Even when I was on the net. But that was because I was used to having everything water cooled.

But now everything is water cooled again, with a nice 30C on the GPU from it's stock 400MHz to a nice 600MHz

 

[infrared]

If you need to use another bios to unlock pipelines or whatever, you can modify the bios using a tool called 'RaBit' (in the downloads section), so that the new bios you flash has the right clock speeds for the card, or whatever you're comfortable with.

 

[Peter949]

gto2 fan died

Just info. Bought my gto2 from newegg a month ago and fan died already. I had it at 87% 0-50c 95% 50-55 100% 55+. It's a p.o.s. fan. I just ordered a artic cooling replacement. Oh I flashed to a xt pe.

 

[herbw]

I just got a Sapphire GTO2 VIVO PCI-X, Dual DVI retail unit from Newegg and running ATITool, it showed that I was already running with 16 pipelines with the default BIOS.

I am curious, would I get any other advantages with the modded BIOS?

So far it has been running great!

Thanks,

Herb

 

[matrlx]

Modded card, shadow "bugs" in Need For Speed MW!

The shadows of NFS MW seems to be bugged. I'm not sure whether its my card causing it, or the fact that I'm using 2 sets older graphics drivers (omegadrivers).

I would think it was my card, but when I play HL2, I haven't seen a single graphical bug. So I can't really say its the card causing.

Sure, the card is modded to 16 pipes, but the bugs appear with or without OC'ing enabled in ATI tool.

Have anyone else experienced something similar? I'm gonna try upgrading my drivers soon and see if that helps.