Wizzard - x800gto2 to x850xt mod

[at2wooden]

Wizzard,

In your story about modding X800gto2 to X850xl you wrote:

"1. Download the modified Flashrom from here. You MUST use the modded Flashrom, other flashing utilities will not change your pipeline configuration.
2. Download a modified X800 GTO² Bios from here (only the number of active pipelines has been changed, clock speeds remain the same)"

Does this mean that if I want to mod to the X850XL I should download BOTH the Flashrom and modified Bios?
I am doing a new build and the video card hasn't been installed yet.
Should I load the original X800gto2 drivers first?

AT2

CoolerMaster Centurian Case
Athlon 3700+ san Diego with CoolerMaster Artic Freezer64
Asus A8N-E Mobo
4 X 512MB CORSAIR D400 TWINX1024-3200C2
Antec Neopower 480W PSU
2 X 160GB Hitachi SATA HDs (Raid 1)
1 X 200GB Western Digital PATA
Antec Neopower 480W PSU
VGA SAPPHIRE X800GTO2 256M PCI-e
Liteon 1693s DVD-RW
Plextor 720a CD-RW (burns karaoke)
Sony floppy
Windows XP

 

[SeLrAhC]

wooo... good thread...

can u pls post step by step on how u mod d card after u managed 2 do it as a future reference for others... thanks...

oh ya... btw... u might wanna get a vga cooler if u wanna get xt speed

 

[ChAce]

I don't see what's so bad about the post actually Its quite clear to me.

You need the modified flashrom, but you can use "any" bios you like. Of course it has to be an X850's bios. So if you wish to use the X850XL bios that will work fine, but a GTO2 can run at XT and sometimes even XTPE speeds so why not flash to those? You will need to reinstall your drivers once you've upped your number of pipelines.

 

[at2wooden]

ah........now we have an interesting thread ChAce
Do you have a link for the XL or XTPE bios you were speaking of?
Are the drivers you spoke of the original drivers from the install CD?
(remember I havn't plugged the card in yet)

Below are a couple of techpowerups' own links that might be on interest to you SeLrAhC

http://www.techpowerup.com/atitool/

http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/overclocking/127

Down the road I was thinking of an Artic Cooler Silencer. Haven't really done the research for the right one yet. Do You think I need the cooler just yet if I go to the XTPE mod, or if and when I overclock it?
(Never OCed anything myself)

 

[ChAce]

Yeah, the drivers from the install CD or any driver you downloaded, like the Catalysts.

My mistake, I thought there was an X850XL, but there isn't lol. You can try this bios, its the X850XT bios by Sapphire. So that's in between the XL and the XT PE. Overclock your card to 520/540 first to see if it can handle the speeds, then you can flash to this bios.

 

[at2wooden]

Very very helpul.......about the cooler.
I didn't see one yet that exactly says GTO2 but there is this

http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=4340

 

[ChAce]

That'll fit. But I think you can run XT without a new cooler.

 

[SeLrAhC]

get that 1 if u have d $$$... it is cool.. in terms of looks n performance...

u might wanna look @ zalman (heard ppl say it performs better) n some1 ask me bout vantec...

but dun try going 2 xr pe speed unless ur ambient temp. is low

 

[thedivinehairband]

the Arctic Cooler is good but is you read through some more forums you find that there can be a problem with the fan cutting out.
Just as mine did.
Luckily my case ventilation just saved my ass!!

 

[SeLrAhC]

hmm hmm... mayb after modding they forgot 2 settle d fan prob?

neway... artic is a decent cooler ler... mayb those prob r for atc silencer 5 rev1 not rev2

 

[thedivinehairband]

It was the revision 2. I got my numbers all confuseded

 

[thoennesm]

No luck here so far...

Well now I am a little confused. I followed the instructions from this link...
http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/overclocking/vidcard/127
I checked in atitool to make sure my card was compatible and it maches up.
It is the saphire x800 gto2 pcix card.
When I tried to flash it did make me use the -f command to force the flash
and since there was nothing about this in the article this was where I started
to get worried. I forced the flash and of course blank screen when I rebooted.
the monitor would not wake up at all. I tried removing power from the comp and
cleared the cmos just in case and tried again and same thing. I finaly grabbed
the only pci vid card I have out of my server and used it to flash the card
back to the old bios that I had backed up per article instructions.
It works great stock but it was not quite the card I would have got if I can
not do the mod. I did use the flash and bin files linked to in the article.
This card it one I just got last week from newegg.com. I hope they have not changed
things to make this mod impossible. Since it said in the article 100% sucess I
was thinking this would be easy but I guess I forgot this is a computer and they
like to throw wrenches in just to keep me on my toes.
I guess the next thing I will try is a x800 xt bios. I saw one ChAce posted in
this thread so I might try that.
I did check the card and it will run 544 core and 614 mem just fine.
I have an artic silence cooler for it but I am not going to change that out
till I am done trying to flash it just in case.
I am trying this on an Abit AN8 ultra motherboard.
If anyone has any sugestions let me know.
Thanks
matt

 

[ChAce]

I had to use the -f command too to flash my X800pro ViVo, no worries there. I think you just used a bad bios or something...

 

[at2wooden]

Man this is the life
Ok, I expect the last of my parts today from NewEgg and can start to work.
When I get to the Video Card, I install it using install disc.
Then overclock using included software(?)
If it overclocks to 520/540 then I flash the XT bios and I should have all 16 pipes.
(Don't want to OC any more than needed)
I shouldn't need a new cooler.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOk....I will keep you posted.

CoolerMaster Centurian Case
Athlon 3700+ san Diego with CoolerMaster Artic Freezer64
Asus A8N-E Mobo
4 X 512MB CORSAIR D400 TWINX1024-3200C2
Antec Neopower 480W PSU
2 X 160GB Hitachi SATA HDs (Raid 1)
1 X 200GB Western Digital PATA
Antec Neopower 480W PSU
VGA SAPPHIRE X800GTO2 256M PCI-e <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Liteon 1693s DVD-RW
Plextor 720a CD-RW (burns karaoke)
Sony floppy
Windows XP

 

[thoennesm]

I had to use the -f command too to flash my X800pro ViVo, no worries there. I think you just used a bad bios or something...

I will just re-download the one from the article and download an xt bios and put them on the same
boot disc and try it again after I get off of work today.
I hope that is all it is.
Thanks
matt

 

[ShadowFlare]

I think it is best to use atiflash 3.09 to do the flash, not the modified flashrom. Using that program, I used this sequence of commands:

atiflash -s 0 oldbios.bin
atiflash -f -p 0 x850xt.bin -newbios
atiflash -f -p 0 oldbios.bin

Just replace x850xt.bin with the actual filename for the bios you want to flash to unlock the pipelines.

This is the best way, in my opinion, since you keep your original bios with it's original speeds, memory timings, etc. Besides, I've found that the Sapphire X800 GTO2's bios is using better memory timings than some of the X850 XT / XT PE bios' I've seen (checked using RaBiT), so it is probably the best one to use; unless you absolutely must have it saying you have an X850 XT / XT PE. AFAIK, there is no real benefit to using an X850 XT / XT PE bios on this card.

 

[GoLLuM4444]

Well whilst that will work it will not unlock the 16 pipes unless it's the modified flashrom. It will just change the name to x850xt but will still have 12 pipes enabled.

 

[GoLLuM4444]

If you want to use the good timings then modded flash to x850xt to unlock the pipes and then normal flashrom back to your old bios and it wont disable the 4 pipes. But then you have stock speeds so you might want to change that in RaBiT.

 

[ShadowFlare]

Well whilst that will work it will not unlock the 16 pipes unless it's the modified flashrom. It will just change the name to x850xt but will still have 12 pipes enabled.

Of course it will work, because it does work. That's the way I did it and it worked. The -newbios option on atiflash 3.09 does the equivalent of what the modified flashrom does. I have the X800 GTO2 and I have tried it. I did what I said above and I have it still showing up as an X800 GTO, but with 16 pipelines.

 

[GoLLuM4444]

Yes - by doing basically what I said in my second post. Sorry I didn't read that properly and I was wrong about the -newbios command. That is probably the best way to do it then.

 

[HousERaT]

also...... reinstall your video drivers after your done with the flash... before I reinstalled the drivers it said my card had 4 active pipes.

 

[ShadowFlare]

I didn't need to reinstall them.

 

[thoennesm]

Well I tried the x800 xt bios this time and they worked perfectly.
atitool shows 16 pipes and the 520/540 speeds.
When I booted into windows it came up and wanted to install drivers for the x800xt so
I cancled and installed the catalyst 5.9 drivers.
Now the only thing I have to track down is why system shows two unknown devices that
show their location as being on the vid card. I also have the primary and secondary video
card entrys.
I did use the modified flashrom that was linked to in the mod instructions.
I did not use atiflash since I already had a floppy made up with the other one.
Thanks for the help
matt

 

[thoennesm]

I used RaBit 1.7 on the x850xt bios to turn off the vivo thing since my card does not have it and
reflashed my x800gto² and that took care of the unknown devices in the control panel system area.
I guess all I have left to do is to put on the artic silencer HS and fan and I am set.
Thanks for the help.
matt

 

[Svart]

Is there a more in depth Bios reading utility?