Connect3D X800GTO Hardmod so that I can flash bios to 16pipes

[Ninjaplease]

Hello all,

This my videocard:
Connect 3D X800GTO

I have "E"s where I should have "F"s to flash.

Is there a HARDMOD that I can do to allow me to flash the bios to enable 16pipes ?


Thanks...

--Dave

 

[dolf]

You can forget about 16 pipes. Overclock it and live with that .

 

[Ninjaplease]

Ati Tool Posting

You can forget about 16 pipes. Overclock it and live with that .

The reading I posted was with the X800GTO's ORIGINAL BIOS, not with a flashed one.


Anyways, I removed the heatsink and looked at the chip:

It's got the laser cut in the upper right hand corner.

RADEON X800PRO
215R8KAGA 12F
GB9589.1
0446AA

TAIWAN



Each RAM chip is labeled:

SAMSUNG K4J55323QF-GC20

I assume that means 2.0nsecond memory.

does anyone know what the hell that all means?

Could I just put conductive ink and reconnect the laser cut dots, then flash the bios to unlock?

 

[dolf]

It means that PRO card is renamed to GTO according to the "rule": new name = new card but the fact is that only 12 pipes will be possible and yes the memory is 2.0 ns which is equal to 500MHz. Connecting will not help with these fuses but you can try just to be calm infront of yourself.

 

[5-Clicks]

Connecting will not help with these fuses but you can try just to be calm infront of yourself.

How do you know that the 16p-enabling fuses aren't showing up because the bridge is cut?

 

[dolf]

It is hard to explane here but instead of talking just connect (your left bridge) which will take you few minutes and try again with ATITool. Most probably you will remain with 12 pipes :shadedshu but nobody can say that you haven't attempted.
My advice is to overclock it hard and to enjoy it. I have a friend which has X800PRO AGP (with 12 pipes) and can rise the clocks to app. 600MHz core and 580MHz memory and to have similar 3DMark03(05) results with my X800XT PE AGP (limited to 560MHz core and 580MHz memory).
If you decide to try some hard mod I wish you good luck.

 

[Ninjaplease]

It is hard to explane here but instead of talking just connect (your left bridge) which will take you few minutes and try again with ATITool. Most probably you will remain with 12 pipes :shadedshu but nobody can say that you haven't attempted.
My advice is to overclock it hard and to enjoy it. I have a friend which has X800PRO AGP (with 12 pipes) and can rise the clocks to app. 600MHz core and 580MHz memory and to have similar 3DMark03(05) results with my X800XT PE AGP (limited to 560MHz core and 580MHz memory).
If you decide to try some hard mod I wish you good luck.

Dolf what about this page:
http://www.overclock.net/faqs/22164-how-mod-your-x800-x850.html


The guy mentions completeing the laser cut circuit, then flashing the bios to an X800XT may work, though he does say it has only a small chance of working. I'm going to try it sometime this week.

 

[peta01]

What type of core do you have?

 

[Ninjaplease]

What type of core do you have?

According to ATI TOOL, my default bios says i have a R423.

"RADEON X800PRO
215R8KAGA 12F
GB9589.1
0446AA

TAIWAN"

This is what it says on the GPU, I have absolutely NO IDEA how to decode this and so far no one has said anything about it.

 

[noneed4me2]

I feel for the people getting newer cards that are no longer moddable but they are still extremely overclockable. A pipe quad will help but is still not the end all. I have a radeon express board with no overclock options except for a clockgen that can get my Winchester to a nice 2.2ghz but my card is still majorly cpu limited, i will go and see others with non mod cards on better mobo's with 3000+ a64's set at like 2.6ghz hitting 7000 in 3dmark05 . I was on a super tight budget and wanted a system with certain things dvd burner, A 64 proc, nice ram headroom. I can build but the cost of what i got sans vidcard was 399, not bad after i comparison shopped individual components. The point is i still want more and at times am envious of others but still happy with what i got. The 12p GTOs are still an awesome midrange card and if your system is not cpu limited you can propably wup my ass in benchies all day long even though i got one extra pipe quad. Don't sweat if you can't mod just save up for that sweet r580 coming out next year (I hope) .

 

[dolf]

The "old" cores which still are in production (R480, R430, R423?) becomes better and better in meaning of overclock. But the procedure of pipe locking is also advanced

 

[Ninjaplease]

Don't get me wrong...

Don't get me wrong...

BF2 is the only high requirement game I play, but I play it a lot.

My old system was:
Mobile Barton 2400 45W
NForce2 NF7-S 2.0
2x512MB PC3200 DDR in dual channel mode
Radeon 9500 Softmodded to 8pipes and mildly overclocked

I was able to play BF2 fairly well with mostly medium settings, no aa, no af at 800x600, view distance 100% with about 50fps, very playable but not super pretty.


My system that is about 2 weeks old:
Athlon 64 3000+ Venice core (right now only at about 2.25GHz, 4x250HTT)
KN8 SLI
same 2x512MB PC3200 DDR in dual channel mode 1T @ 400MHz
Connect 3D X800GTO running 540core 520mem (I could probably do about 540mem, and maybe further if I get ram sinks)

I can run BF2 now with no aa, no af at 1280x960 with about 50-60fps, or what feels like 50-60fps with most settings on high (I dont turn on dynamic lighting or shadows.) I'm going to try it out with 2xAA, 4xAF tonight, I see no difference between 2xAA and 4xAA in most still pictures, and 4xAF - 16xAF in still pictures. Hence I'm not willing to pay for it.

I am extremely happy with the performance, but if there's a way to get more out of it, why not.

 

[NavyDood]

Connect 3D X800GTO running 540core 520mem (I could probably do about 540mem, and maybe further if I get ram sinks)

I have mine at 580core and 560mem with no ramsinks. I am watercooling the gpu though. I haven't seen it go over 40°C with any game I have thrown at it. I.E. Fear, FarCry, COD2, or HL2.

 

[possessed]

I have mine at 580core and 560mem with no ramsinks. I am watercooling the gpu though. I haven't seen it go over 40°C with any game I have thrown at it. I.E. Fear, FarCry, COD2, or HL2.

that's the same temperature that my x850pro does with a zalman vf700-cu (i'm really pleased with this cooler

 

[noneed4me2]

i added ramsinks to the back till i get the my xmas Silencer 5.2 but even with stock the temps hang around 40 idle and when super loaded llike in 3dmark i can hit 77, not bad for a stock cooler in my opinion but the r423 is supposed to run cooler than the r480 anyway. But whats up with these high mem clocks on the C3D GTO i can get mine up to 575 with no artifacts, i thought the 2.0ns was not supposed to go that high.

 

[peta01]

2.0 ns memories from Samsung are specified to max 1000 MHz effective.

 

[NavyDood]

Mine is glitch free at 1120 mhz with no ram sinks.

 

[ice91785]

First off, I have a modded GTO that reports R423....BUT i did get all 16 pipes to work..

Second, the clocks that I can run are 580/540 VERRRRRRRy stable (ATI tool reports no artifacts for over 5 hours)

 

[peta01]

Mine is glitch free at 1120 mhz with no ram sinks.

And are you sure that your memory is 2.0 ns Samsung?

 

[noneed4me2]

Navydood and I have the same card and I have checked and they show the gc20 numbers on the ram and i compared them from the website. if my core is set lower but i can get 580/560 with no artifacts for 20 min in ATItool. I tried a bios with 1.6 mem timings and got crazy artifacts. Only bios with 2.0 will work for me, and i am not complaining but i have seen alot of the connect3d GTOs clock way higher than the rated 1000mhz.

 

[peta01]

The 1 GHz max is a factory specification, I am just wondered how big differences are between max clock of the same 2.0ns Samsung Memory.
My 2.0 ns Samsung memory can use 1.6ns bios and even more faster mem timings. But the max stable frequency (with 2.0ns timings) is 880 MHz effective. I have Arctic Ati Silencer and there is a huge air flow around my graf.c. Still the high temperatures dont allow me to go over 880 MHz. It can be ran at 1000 MHz without artifacts but not for a long time.

Btw your mem will be able to run at 1.6ns timings if you decrease its frequency to 800 MHz eff. Try it.

 

[NavyDood]

I have very little air flow around mine, if any at all.

I thought ramsinks really didn't make a difference any more with the new style square ram chips that are 2.0 or less!?!?!?!

 

[noneed4me2]

Btw your mem will be able to run at 1.6ns timings if you decrease its frequency to 800 MHz eff. Try it.

I am waiting for my silencer 5.2 stocking stuffer to play more with card settings, but i am wondering what is safe to mess around in ATItool in the mem timings section. is there a article or link you can point me to explaining this.

 

[peta01]

I have tried almost all the settings and I got some interesting performance boost. The problem is that when you set faster mem timing you have to lower mem frequency to make it stable. So the main goal is to find the right proportion between timing and frequency, which takes a lot of time, because there is a lot of combinations.
If you want to change mem timing, first install some different grafic tool like AtiTrayTools. Dont use AtiTool for this because it is not reading the settings correctly.

This is how it seems in AtiTrayTools (Overclocking->Timings->Timings 2):

You can try change these settings for 2.0ns mem, BUT FIRST DECREASE YOUR MEM CLOCK TO 800MHz effective:
TRCDRD to 7
TRCDWR to 3
TRP to 5
TRAS to 6
TRRD to 5
TR2W to CL+1
TWR to 5
TW2R to 1
TW2R Same Bank to 5
TR2R to 2

Try to scan for artifacts after changing of each setting. At the end try to find your mem new max stable clock (it will be ofcourse smaller than before)

If your card can live with these settings you can flash 1.6ns bios, but dont forget to lower mem freq. using Rabit first.

 

[noneed4me2]

i haven't bios edted before and i did use ATI tray tools for a little bit but i liked the simplicity of ATItools being kinda new to this. When you say lower to 800mhz do you mean dropping down the clock to 400 within the program or is it something else? Should i uninstall ATItool or will the programs be ok together as long as I don't run both at the same time? I was reading stilt's post and saw his x850xt vmod card, i would love to see all the details on what he did but i can understand why he plays it close to the vest. I have little funds at the moment and won't risk frying my card until i can easily afford a replacement. I think once i move up to an r520 or r580 i will experiment in the vmod arena on my GTO. My kids get the most enjoyment out of this card i hardly have any time to play much myself but I love how good it made homeworld 2 on my new system. I tried Doom3 and it looked beautiful along with other newer 3d shooters but i loves me some rts and rpg's!