Sapphire X800 GTO² - Already running 16 pixel pipelines out of the box!?

[Selbar]

Hi, I recently installed my sapphire x800 gto² into my brand new system. I'm running:

AMD Athlon 3200+ (64 bit)
2 x 512 DDR Crucial RAM
2 x 250GB HDD (1x Maxtor - master, 1x Western Digital - slave)
MSI K8N SLI Motherboard (nforce 4 SLI chipset)

I came to flashing the bios in order to unlock the extra 4 pixel pipelines, ran ATI tool to check that it was definitely unlockable and discovered that it was already running 16 pixel pipelines with no interference from myself. I checked my brother's system (we both just bought the exact same system) and his is running 12 pixel pipelines, although he is using a slightly different (presumably older) model of the gto² that doesn't have dual DVI (mine does).

Anyway, I flashed the bios anyway (figured it couldn't do any harm) and it was all successful, booted windows and it recognised the card as an X850 series now. Ran 3DMark05 on it again and scored pretty much the same score as before the flash, 4428.

Ran a benchmark test on my brother's system, his came out at 3925 benchmarks before flash so there's a significant increase between mine and his. Should mine be any higher though?
Obviously my benchmark score is pretty low as I'm only running my processor at the standard 2ghz clock (might look into overclocking later on), but has anybody experienced or heard of this before - having an unlocked X800 GTO² out of the box? Does this alter the overclocking capacity of the card in any way, or has the first step just been removed in my case? If I were to overclock my CPU would it improve my benchmark significantly?

Any input would be much appreciated - cheers.

 

[AceFactor]

I would rekon that a CPU overclock would only help to boost your performance scores, since the card will easily run faster than your CPU can keep up, just have a little tweak and see if even a small overclock helps, but i think it defiantely will

-Adam

 

[Poisonsnak]

That seems like a pretty solid system I'm not too familiar with 3dmark scores but what are your video cards clocked at? (core/mem). On my setup (the card runs 540/590 stock) I believe I scored about 5500 in 3dmark05 and OCed (CPU 2.5GHz, RAM 250Mhz 2-3-3-5, Video 575/600) I hit 5950.

 

[Selbar]

I haven't overclocked the card speeds yet, at the moment it's running 400/490 out of the box, I think that's standard X800 GTO clock speed, so i'll aim to get it overclocked fully in the next few days and let you know how it goes.

 

[Silver-Arrow]

Did you get any performance gains from flashing your 16 pipeline VIVO version of GTO2 with the modified 16pipeline Sapphire GTO2 bios from the mod tutorial?

 

[trog100]

my gto2 four pipe unlock was worth about 450 3d2005 marks taking the core and memory up to xt pe speeds was worth a hell of lot more thow..

i seem to remember mine scoring 4400-ish before i unlocked the pipes thow.. i run mine for gaming at 540/600 with the memory timing slightly tweaked.. its scores 6700-ish at this setting.. fully maxed out it manages just over 7000..

the memory timing tweaks are worth about 250 3dmark points.. not that much..

standard X800GTO2 Memory Timings:

TRCDRD: 7
TRCDWR: 4
TRP: 6
TRAS: 14
TRRD: 5
TWR: 7
TR2W: CL+3
TW2R: 3
TR2R: Use TWR Rule
TR2R: 2
WR_LATENCY: 1.5
CAS_LATENCY: 7
CMD_LATENCY: 0
STR_LATENCY: WR Latency
REFRESH_RATE: 0x3B
TRFC: 27

tweaked X800GTO2 Memory Timings:

TRCDRD: 7
TRCDWR: 3
TRP: 5
TRAS: 13
TRRD: 4
TWR: 6
TR2W: CL+2
TW2R: 4
TR2R: USE TWR RULE
TR2R: 2
WR_LATENCY: 1.5
CAS_LATENCY: 7
CMD_LATENCY: 0
STR_LATENCY: WR LATENCY
REFRESH_RATE: 0x75
TRFC: 23

cpu speeds dont make that much difference with 3dmark 2005.. its mostly grfx card governed.. praps a couple of hundred points between a super fast cpu and an average one.. is all u will see..

trog

ps.. cpu at 2.9.. system memory at slightly over 400 at cas 2.5.3.3.7.. grfx card at 540/600.. 3dmark2005 score 6750-ish..

also i think the 450 points i saw from the pipe unlock at 400/490 probably scales up as u take the core and memory higher.. it might be worth say 650 poinst with everything clocked right up.. dunno..

 

[Selbar]

Benchmark score didn't increase after flashing the rom, score before was 4428, it was 4424 after the flash. However, I ran a benchmark test on my brother's system, his (running 12 pipes) scored 3925, so there was a definite increase. I'm guessing that in my card's case somehow although it seems extremely unlikely, obviously the ROM did not contain the 12 pipeline restriction that it should have.

Anyway, I overclocked my card from 400/490 to 520/580 and scored 5359. Definitely a marked improvement. Going to see if I can tweak it a bit to get some extra juice just for the sake of it, I'm definitely pleased with the increased performance I've already experienced. Cheers for the memory tweak settings, I'll give them a go.

 

[DethOxy]

trog....my card was a GTO2 and it come out the box with 16pipes already....as shown in ATI Tool but my core is shown as a R430 :S shouldnt it be a R480?....and wot would u recommend my max temp i should let my card go up to?

 

[trog100]

the saphire gto2s where all supposed to be 480 cores but then again they were supposed to have only 12 pipes working..

if yours is a 430 core it wont clock so high i dont think.. it might not have the faster xt-pe 600 memory on it either.. u will find out when u clock it..

i recon they are safe in the low 70cs thow 90 odd has been mentioned as the real limit.. how hot the memory gets is another thing.. i fitted an artic coooler to mine just to make sure both core and memory are running within commonly accepted limits..

mine with the stock single slot cooler ran mid 60s overclocked under load.. it would have been okay at that i think.. i just fitted the better cooler to make mine run quieter mainly.. it knocked about 10c of the underload temps.. plus it exhausts the heat out of the back of the case which cant be bad..

how hot they should/can get is a bit of grey area.. he he..

trog

 

[DethOxy]

lol mine is a GTO2 :S and any chance ati tool is wrong? :S


i got mine clocked at 520/540 X850 XT speeds and it gets round about 60 on load with the stock cooler mind u the fan isnt at full speed only 54%.....ati tool doesnt really tell me all the info about the card

 

[fire113]

atittol

hi

atitool is wrong! it takes only the biosdata from card.
if on Your card has an x800xl bios atitool will say it´s a r430!
My card was identified as r430

...but take a look ---> http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k3=4546146

I messured voltage on Vdd&Vddq 2,10~2,11 my GPU get´s only 1,41V and as I removed the stock cooler-->R480 on the DIE

cu fire113.

 

[Waszipa]

Hey ey'all

About the Saphirre GTO2 being PREMODET?

I can only confirme The new GTO2 just can in to the shops in Denmark last week. Me and on of my m8s bout 2 cards and they where both premodet.

Runing 3DMark 05 - 6638 - 400/500MHz @ 545/621MHz premodet by Sapphire to 16pp

Machine
AMD 64 3500+ 2.2GHz @ 2.45Ghz
MSI K8N NEO Platium nForce4 Ultra
2 x 512 MB DDR 400MHz runing Dual
Sapphire X800 GTO2 256 MB GDDR3

 

[fire113]

bios

hi Waszipa

...what kind of BIOS is on Your card/on Your 2 Cards?

ATItool detect what kind of gpu?

cu fire113

 

[Stew]

The latest batch of these cards come with the 4 extra pipelines already unlocked.

As for the temperature, I had mine overcolcked to 530 core and 570 memory, it was running at about 70+ under load but wasn't producing artefacts.

I have just fitted an Arctic rev5.2 cooler and the card now never gets above 60 under load. I have now been able to get the clock and memory speeds up to the XT PE speeds of 540 and 590.

By the sounds of it they can be quite variable out of the box. I think the heatsink on mine must not have been fitted well as some people can get above XT PE speeds with the stock cooler!

I'd definately recommend the arctic rev 5.2 cooler for this card though, the fan cannot be heard above my other components even at 100%.

 

[andypandy]

hi, just bought one of these myself, and it appears to have the same condition. that is atitool recognises it as having 16 pipes already running, and an r430 core. my question is will it make a spot of difference to the real world performance of the card if i do the bios flash anyway? like is there any benefit to having atitool recognise it as an x850 series?

 

[biggiegc]

I have to say, in my case, I brought my X800 GTO2 from Ebuyer, and it too came with the 16 pipelines already unlocked, I digged around and actually found that manufacturers are already doing this for you! so basically guys, buy yourself an x850 for the price of an x800 gto2! are you complaining! I certainly am not!

 

[Cybie1111]

Since Powercolor released the 16 pipe GTO (r430 core) a little while back, Sapphire had to premod their GTO2 to have 16 pipes since they were selling well @ the egg. Due to that, I would buy the GTO2 if it uses 1.6ns chips if I remember correctly.

 

[andypandy]

Well i did the bios mod anyway, and yup sure enough it is an r480 core

 

[trog100]

when they sold real X850 XT PE cards clocked at 540/580 they were top of the yield chips.. they would have had a safety margin of at least %5 built in as well..

a lot of the 480 core chips could well be not quite up to the good enough to sell at 540/580 point.. they dont have to be when they get sold of in disguise clocked at a speed much slower than even the worse of the 480 crop will run at.. thats why the mileage varies so much.. they are only copying what the cpu makers have been doing for years.. selling extra stock off at speeds well below what they are capable of and at much cheaper mass market prices..

trog

 

[dubyoo]

Recently purchased a GTO². Dual DVI version with all 16 pipelines enabled by default. The memory chips didnt look like they had much contact with the stock heatsink. ATiTool reported temps around 40 degrees with stock BIOS (claiming R430). Max speeds were reported to be 530/590. Flashed the BIOS to X850XT (R480) @ 520/540 & temps rose to 55 degrees idle though temps have reached 90 degrees under stress! No more FPSs until I get an Arctic Cooler ATi Silencer 5r2.

 

[infrared]

I'm thinking maybe the retailers that you bought the card off had already had a play and perhaps unlocked the 16 pipes already. Personally i'd prefer to do it myself, then at least i know it was done right. But if it works, it works i guess.

 

[fire113]

x800DualDVI

Hi

My sapphire x800gto2(DualDVI) came with 16 Pipes, ATItool tells me it is an R430 BUT I reached in 3Dmark03-->14726 and in 05-->7170

I didin´t flashed the Bios and I didn´t done any Vmod


cu fire113

 

[Solaris17]

Hi, I recently installed my sapphire x800 gto² into my brand new system. I'm running:

AMD Athlon 3200+ (64 bit)
2 x 512 DDR Crucial RAM
2 x 250GB HDD (1x Maxtor - master, 1x Western Digital - slave)
MSI K8N SLI Motherboard (nforce 4 SLI chipset)

I came to flashing the bios in order to unlock the extra 4 pixel pipelines, ran ATI tool to check that it was definitely unlockable and discovered that it was already running 16 pixel pipelines with no interference from myself. I checked my brother's system (we both just bought the exact same system) and his is running 12 pixel pipelines, although he is using a slightly different (presumably older) model of the gto² that doesn't have dual DVI (mine does).

Anyway, I flashed the bios anyway (figured it couldn't do any harm) and it was all successful, booted windows and it recognised the card as an X850 series now. Ran 3DMark05 on it again and scored pretty much the same score as before the flash, 4428.

Ran a benchmark test on my brother's system, his came out at 3925 benchmarks before flash so there's a significant increase between mine and his. Should mine be any higher though?
Obviously my benchmark score is pretty low as I'm only running my processor at the standard 2ghz clock (might look into overclocking later on), but has anybody experienced or heard of this before - having an unlocked X800 GTO² out of the box? Does this alter the overclocking capacity of the card in any way, or has the first step just been removed in my case? If I were to overclock my CPU would it improve my benchmark significantly?

Any input would be much appreciated - cheers.

hey did you try to flash and unlock the other card?

 

[HookeyStreet]

Read the customer reviews on this one, these come unlocked out of the box:
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/prod...2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=98063

 

[Solaris17]

Read the customer reviews on this one, these come unlocked out of the box:
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/prod...2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=98063

if your talkin to me i was talking about his brothers card he said it only had 12.