Club 3D to use crippled R480 in their x800RX

[grazzhoppa]

According to bit-tech.net Club 3D is to launch a x800GT variant dubbed x800RX that uses a R480 core with 8 of 16 pipelines enabled. What's interesting is that the remaining 8 pipelines are supposedly disabled in the bios. The core is clocked at 475MHz and the 256MB GDDR3 at 490MHz.

It begs to question why use a more expensive R480 core when you only are using half its pipelines - Club 3D may be counting on enthusiasts to buy the card with hopes of unlocking the hidden 8 pipelines and having them work correctly.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[nemesys]

hi.... im from portugal. i have a 3d club x800rx PCIe.
it´s possible unlock the other 8 pipes?
my gpu it´s like that...

 

[grazzhoppa]

hi.... im from portugal. i have a 3d club x800rx PCIe.
it´s possible unlock the other 8 pipes?
my gpu it´s like that...

[Image]

Well, I suppose if someone can poke inside the bios of that card and edit some of its code it is possible...assuming the lock is in the bios.

That's what I found interesting about that card is that bit-tech said the pipes where disabled in the bios, but they didn't report who the sources were for that information. I did a quick search and this topic came up link. Some of the people there were saying the bios-lock was just a rumour. W1zzard apparently tried a few things and he said it was hardlocked on the chip like all the other R480 cores. It doesn't look good for you.

I can't help you with it, but the first step would be to get a copy of your bios available to people who can potentially help you out. You can use ATItool to save the card's bios to your harddrive - Settings > Miscellaneous > press the Dump Bios button.

But before you waste your time with the bios maybe you should ask W1zzard on one of the instant-messangers or private message him and see if he has any more ideas about unlocking those pipes.

 

[nemesys]

thanks....