Radeon 9550 to 9600 Bios Mod

[Unanswered]

Sapphire 9550

Thanks to all of you. just bought a Sapphire 9550 120mb card and flashed it to a GeCube 9600 xt.
Used a GeCube9600pro bios found in this site but seems it was wrong cause my com says its xt?!?

Just wondering....
After dumping my 9550 bios using atitool and comparing it with the 9600 bios (using RaBit) that not only are the clockspeeds different but also most of the memory timings.

Could i have gotten the same performance boost if i just edited the old bios to reflect 9660 timings then overclocked it to the same speed???

Cuz using atitool i found out that max core/mem of the card (9550 bios) was 440/240 (stable) and the fps i am getting using the now flashed card is way higher (from 10% to 20% depending on game - used fraps) even though its at its default mem/core of 400/200.

And to Unregistered since we use the same card try the GeCube 9600 pro with hynix 5.0 mem just be sure it has hynix mem 5.0 ns.

Thank to everyone for making my Oc'ing as painless as possible.

 

[Mio]

Oki, one more quescion, if i flash R9600 bios to R9550, is any other change except unlock overclocking? Mean, coan lose something? DX9support or lose points in
3DMark?

Someone who posts has same PC as me, @3200+ 512DDR etc, but has 2800 points in 3Dmark03, I have 3100 with original bios only with updated basic core frequency.

 

[Dedodido]

Mio - I don't think it's really possible to loose anything by flashing the BIOS, I've looked all over the web on this matter and havn't seen anyone having any problems apart from choosing the wrong bios. If you use the wrong BIOS, just make sure you have a backup of your original BIOS so that you can try a different one. (You might want to check with some of the experts round here though, I'm only a newb )

e.miron - did you manage to OC it without flashing the bios to 9600?? Usually it looks like it's done it, but a few seconds later or when you launch a game, it'll automatically set it back to the stock speeds because of what's in the catalist drivers. If you check with your computer after going off for a while I'm prety sure it will have reset them. That's why you need to flash to 9600.

 

[tmarkala]

Use this bios ( core/mem 405/255 ) flash by Gigabyte flash tool in include CD : 9550 --> 9600xt . You can re-edit core/mem to make you card into the best . ( after download bios Please change file type from .txt to .rom ) . Good luck .

I have Gigabyte Radeon 9550 and I've done what you said... But after flashing, my card isn't recognised by Windows! Does anyone know how to solve it?!?

Batterryone, if you have the answer and you're still reading this massages, PLEASE mail me!!

 

[Unregistered]

aaa

 

[Unregistered]

I have same problem with my abit9550cdt/128mb/128bit/samsung3.6ns

Problem is weri interesting but first i must find somebody who nows english better then my

 

[e.miron]

e.miron - did you manage to OC it without flashing the bios to 9600?? Usually it looks like it's done it, but a few seconds later or when you launch a game, it'll automatically set it back to the stock speeds because of what's in the catalist drivers. If you check with your computer after going off for a while I'm prety sure it will have reset them. That's why you need to flash to 9600.

These frequencies came from factory.And I played halo for a few hours and the frequencies that i have overclocked with still remained.and yes, you just have to mark that line in atitool or radlinker that says ` remove clock lock .

 

[Dedodido]

aah, you did it that way, forgot about doing it that way.

 

[e.miron]

Introduction​

ATI has recently released the 9550 series, which is a low cost down-cut version of the 9600. Unlike the 9500NP/9800SE/X800 Pro there are no additional pipes to be unlocked, but you can overclock it. Clock speeds are 250/200. Since the 9600 chip can clock A LOT faster than that, ATI added an overclocking protection in the Catalyst drivers. When you set clocks, they reset back to default after a few seconds or when a game is loaded.
There are modded drivers out there (including our softmod drivers) which circumvent that lock, ATITool can even remove it at runtime, but many people would prefer to use ATI's original drivers - that's where the Bios flash described here comes into play.

Performing the mod​

Before flashing:

1. Download a 9600 Pro Bios which matches your card's configuration.
   For example, if you have Samsung 4.0/5.0 you could use the Powercolor 9600 Pro 128 MB Bios dated 2003-08-23 11:56. Our large Bios collection can be found here.
   Make sure that the card works stable at the clocks the Bios you want to flash uses. The 9550 I tested on reached 450 MHz core and 265 MHz mem.
2. Flash the Bios file to your video card using the -f parameter. For example flashrom -f -p 0 9600.bin.
   A little sidenote: Many people complain that they get a "file not found" error when trying to flash the Bios under DOS. The problem is that DOS does not know long filenames, so all files are truncated to some funky names like Powerco~1.bin. Either use the dir command, when in DOS, to find out the short filename or rename it to something shorter while still in Windows.
   More extensive flashing instructions can be found here. They talk about atiflash - you use flashrom since atiflash does not support the 9550, usage is the same.
3. After flashing, Windows will recognize a "RADEON 9600 Series" video card with a device id of 0x4152 which is NOT clock locked.

After flashing:

My ati tool already shows RV 360. It`s a gecube 9550 gu c3p card 128/128 with stock settings 432 core/554 mem. I raised it at 455 core and 600 mem.Do I still need to flash it in 9600 ?

 

[Polaris800]

Sapphire 9550 256 to 9600Pro 256

Hey peeps, After spending the last 4 hours looking through these posts I am still edgy about bios flashes. Can the sapphire 9550 256MB actually be flashed to a sapphire 9600Pro 256MB with little effort? Even though there are differences in the mem being 5ns and 4ns respectively. There are some posts up that are helpful but hard to understand clearly. I'll keep hammering at the thread to find info but some clear info would be great.

 

[Dedodido]

e.miron - does your computer think it's a 9600 already? check on the device manager.

Polaris800 - In my opinion that could be a little risky, boosting the memory clock from 200-300Mhz could fry the chips =/

 

[Realist]

Installed this bios today as a test on my ATI 9550. It did install ok but keeps freezing when I play half life 2.

So I put the old bios back and all is fine again.

Any ideas why?

 

[Fret_LT]

Exactly the same thing as e.miron has. and yes indeed win's thinks it's 9600 series. can it be that manufacturer flashed bios before me and e.miron ?!?!?!! wit 9600pro bios?? cause it's really not the standart frequencies r9550xt must have.. i believe..

 

[marc_safc]

have a powercolor ati radeon 9550 (256mb)

want to overclock it to 9600 pro speeds (398/203)

set the clock to the the above in ATI tool and generated no artifacts, plus have an arctic cooler on the card.

where do i start tho lol? And how do i find out what type of memory i have so i get the correct bios?

 

[marc_safc]

nevermind just flashed the card to a radeon 9600 pro

 

[Tambo]

can someone help

Posts: n/a Sapphire 9550 256 to 9600Pro 256

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"Hey peeps, After spending the last 4 hours looking through these posts I am still edgy about bios flashes. Can the sapphire 9550 256MB actually be flashed to a sapphire 9600Pro 256MB with little effort? Even though there are differences in the mem being 5ns and 4ns respectively. There are some posts up that are helpful but hard to understand clearly. I'll keep hammering at the thread to find info but some clear info would be great"


I also have this particular card. However, after reading 17 pages of this thread i am none the wiser. Can anyone give me specific instructions for the Sapphire Radeon 9550 with 256mb. Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[Unregistered]

how you can be sure that the bios is absolutely compatible with your card
for exemple if my card is a MSI RX9550 256Mb and the memory type is Samsung 4.0 can i use the bios from Sapphire 9600 Pro 256 MB witch is the same Samsung 4.0 or it the bios has to be from the same manufactor in that case MSI

 

[Unregistered]

why there is checksum error? what can I do to fix it? thx.

 

[critofur]

how you can be sure that the bios is absolutely compatible with your card
for exemple if my card is a MSI RX9550 256Mb and the memory type is Samsung 4.0 can i use the bios from Sapphire 9600 Pro 256 MB witch is the same Samsung 4.0 or it the bios has to be from the same manufactor in that case MSI

Ah, good to know the MSI has 4.0 RAM, wonder if all of them do? I just started reading about 9550 -> 9600 BIOS flashes today, but it seems like people who know say BIOS brand usually doesn't matter, so the Sapphire should be fine _IF_ your particular card can run at 9600 Pro speeds.

I might get that same card you have, depending on what people say responding to my thread asking which 9550 to get and I'll prob. flash that (Sapphire 9600 Pro 256MB) BIOS, though I may start with the speeds set lower to test first then maybe go higher later.

 

[critofur]

I seem to not be able to flash my bios because it says that there is an error deleting the memory so i checked the card with atiflash and it said it was locked, so, my question is how did you unlock your card if at all you did?

Did you have any luck figuring out how to flash your Gigabyte 9550 -> 9600 BIOS? The Gigabyte 9550 cards were looking nice to me, but not if I can't do the 9600 BIOS

 

[Razvan]

Go and search around the forum.. there are plenty of explanation on modding 9550 cards..

I'll explain it again...

9550 cards comes with RV350 core NOT RV360 NOR R350/R360 core.. so don't flash it with a 9600XT BIOS which is for RV360 GPU only!!! An XT card usually comes with additional features like thermal probing, etc.. so flashing a 9550 card which doesn't comes with those feature might cause your card unusable..

9550 cards that are labeled XTs are not using RV360 cores.. they are labeled XT because they are usually pre-tweaked/overclocked to 9600 speeds or they are capable of 9600 speeds.. ATI does not officially release XT editions for the 9550...

Well, I have a Gecube 9550 XT card and I have to say that AtiTool detects it at "settings" with RV360 Core... Can you explain why ???

 

[ati.bob]

All I can say is that all R9550 cards that is BIOS-modded have a tendency to be identified as having RV360 cores while in reality that it has RV350 cores.. this happens to almost every case of BIOS-modded R9550 cards..

As for your GeCuve 9550 card, from what I've heard, their (GeCube) 9550 eXtrene Edition/XT cards are factory-overclocked and pre-BIOS modded to 9600 BIOS.. so technically it is still a 9550 with RV350 core, but identified as R9600XT with RV360 core by Windows..

There's a more "secure" way of checking your GPU core ID which is through the ATIflash/FlashROM application.. try typing "flashrom -i" wich will list out the information about the adapter(s) installed on your system.. under the "Device ID" section, you should see the "actual" GPU core that your GFX card have.. (for me, I've got the ID RV350 listed) I'm not sure if this technique is 100% accurate, but it's working for me now..

 

[Nobru_rv]

All I can say is that all R9550 cards that is BIOS-modded have a tendency to be identified as having RV360 cores while in reality that it has RV350 cores.. this happens to almost every case of BIOS-modded R9550 cards..

As for your GeCuve 9550 card, from what I've heard, their (GeCube) 9550 eXtrene Edition/XT cards are factory-overclocked and pre-BIOS modded to 9600 BIOS.. so technically it is still a 9550 with RV350 core, but identified as R9600XT with RV360 core by Windows..

There's a more "secure" way of checking your GPU core ID which is through the ATIflash/FlashROM application.. try typing "flashrom -i" wich will list out the information about the adapter(s) installed on your system.. under the "Device ID" section, you should see the "actual" GPU core that your GFX card have.. (for me, I've got the ID RV350 listed) I'm not sure if this technique is 100% accurate, but it's working for me now..

Atiflash or flashrom cannot detect your core. It detects core through the bios id. For all 9600,9550 cards it says rv350.Even for 9600xt (tested on sapphire 9600xt). As i remember,my friend bought 9550xt platinum by gecube,and its written RV360 on its core. It has also 2.5NS hynix on it.... I will post a pic if i have the chance ....

 

[new guy]

ati radeon 9550 drivers+ bios flash

I tried to flash the bios to the 9660 pro it worked but was casuing problems. So then i dumped the bios and edited the bios for the higher clock speeds reflashed the bios. The drivers from ati wont recognize the card with the higher clock speeds/flashed bios, but when i reflash it to the orignal bios its works fine. Any solutions on how to fix this? Or should i use the moded drivers?

 

[ati.bob]

Atiflash or flashrom cannot detect your core. It detects core through the bios id. For all 9600,9550 cards it says rv350.Even for 9600xt (tested on sapphire 9600xt). As i remember,my friend bought 9550xt platinum by gecube,and its written RV360 on its core. It has also 2.5NS hynix on it.... I will post a pic if i have the chance ....

Oops, my mistake..