X800 GTO² to X850 XT BIOS Mod

[Derektm]

I have a quick question. Currently I have an x850 pro ($250) that i have stable at 600/600 with stock cooling. Current 3dmark05 score is 5633. GPU temp is 64C under full load. It even seems like it could go higher clock speeds (no artifacts yet)

Would it be worth it to get this card over my current one. I know I would get higher scores but is stablility an issue? I keep hearing about how some of you are getting artifacts or random lock ups with temps up in the 80C mark. That cant be good.

My current ambient temps hover around 45C (side cover is off right now after rebuild)

The first X800GTO2 card I got won't even hit 510 stable. Its pretty much luck. Just keep your current card that was $250. Its not like you can get this card right now most are Out of stock.

 

[Unregistered]

The first X800GTO2 card I got won't even hit 510 stable. Its pretty much luck. Just keep your current card that was $250. Its not like you can get this card right now most are Out of stock.

Well, I already bought it before I posted lol. Mainly because i like tinkering with overclocking. But, if the likely hood of hitting 6000 is slim i may just cancel my order. I got mine for $235 after taxes and shipping so I guess I'll just have to see.

 

[Groggy]

A big thanks to ShadowFlare for the help....

I managed to flash my Connect3d x800GTO pcie vivo card to 16 pipelines and the stock bios no prob, it looks like it is almost as god investment as the gto2..... the only drawback with the c3d card is the memory 2ns. (it affects the core and mem speeds???, right?)

I used Atitool, hold shift down when you enter settings. here you can see if you got all the F`s in the right places.

Then i took a backup of my original bios, with Atitool.

Downloaded AtiFlash 3.09 and the Saphire x800gto2 bios modded to 16pipes, found it on the first page of this thread.
Formated a floppy and made it a bootable one, then i putted the atiflash, gto2 bios (witch i renamed to a really short name ex. gto2.16p.bin) and the original bios that i backed up (bios.bin)

Booted up and flashed like SHADOWFLARE said i should do it.
1st with the gto2.16p.bin bios (using the -newbios) then i flashed again (without a reboot) with my original bios (bios.bin) do not use the -newbios here

then i rebooted, whent in to atitool and 16 Pipelines

Havent tried mutch oc yet but it will be sweet with som more more more give me more he he

3dmark 05

Stock bios 12 pipes 4460
stock bios 16 pipes 4960

Bushwacker really got a sweet score


Anyhow can someone tell me what the dif. is between a x800xt bios and my own x800 16 pipe gto bios???
is it the default clock speeds?

anyone who knows what type of gpu that is on the c3d card?? with stock bios it says r423 but if i flash it with gto2 bios it says R480???

it was not written any R4xx number on the gpu itself

 

[Dr.D]

A big thanks to ShadowFlare for the help....

I managed to flash my Connect3d x800GTO pcie vivo card to 16 pipelines and the stock bios no prob, it looks like it is almost as god investment as the gto2..... the only drawback with the c3d card is the memory 2ns. (it affects the core and mem speeds???, right?)

I used Atitool, hold shift down when you enter settings. here you can see if you got all the F`s in the right places.

Then i took a backup of my original bios, with Atitool.

Downloaded AtiFlash 3.09 and the Saphire x800gto2 bios modded to 16pipes, found it on the first page of this thread.
Formated a floppy and made it a bootable one, then i putted the atiflash, gto2 bios (witch i renamed to a really short name ex. gto2.16p.bin) and the original bios that i backed up (bios.bin)

Booted up and flashed like SHADOWFLARE said i should do it.
1st with the gto2.16p.bin bios (using the -newbios) then i flashed again (without a reboot) with my original bios (bios.bin) do not use the -newbios here

then i rebooted, whent in to atitool and 16 Pipelines

Havent tried mutch oc yet but it will be sweet with som more more more give me more he he

3dmark 05

Stock bios 12 pipes 4460
stock bios 16 pipes 4960

Bushwacker really got a sweet score


Anyhow can someone tell me what the dif. is between a x800xt bios and my own x800 16 pipe gto bios???
is it the default clock speeds?

anyone who knows what type of gpu that is on the c3d card?? with stock bios it says r423 but if i flash it with gto2 bios it says R480???

it was not written any R4xx number on the gpu itself

Wow good job

 

[HousERaT]

I didn't get any error messages about case fans. When it comes back in stock, buy it.

I am thinking about getting another fan for the card. Is the ATI Silencer the best bang for the buck fan?

How difficult is it to install? Any special tools needed to get the old fan off and install the new one? Does the ATI Silencer come with all the needed parts and bond that adheres the chip to the cooling system?

I have both the ATI-Silencer and the Zalman Copper...... Personally I like the Zalman better..... the ATI Silencer has a design flaw in which the core side memory doesn't come into contact with the heatsink..... you have to use really thick thermal pads to make contact...... Go with the Zalman Copper.... and it's cheaper.

 

[Unregistered]

Will there ever be an AGP version of the GTO2?

 

[AMDCam]

People are really controversial on that, I've asked that twice and both times people say "no" or "they're thinking about it"

 

[Unregistered]

What do you make of this?

http://www.computerhq.com/Sapphire_ATI_X800GTO2_AGP_256MB/100131/hardware/partinfo-id-567445.html

 

[Pentium D]

What do you make of this?

http://www.computerhq.com/Sapphire_ATI_X800GTO2_AGP_256MB/100131/hardware/partinfo-id-567445.html

all the sapphire gto2s i see are Mfg. Part No: 100130, but this one's Mfg. Part No: 100131 , I dont know if there's a new version coming out or somthing...any clues everybody?

and btw my gto2 has arrived today, can't wait till get off work and go home try it on....i get off work at 9pm...that sux....

 

[Unregistered]

im very happy.got my gto2 today flashed to 16 pipes easy. running 520/540 right now.didnt try higher yet

 

[Dr.D]

Anyone got a link to one thats not COmputerHQ or Allstarshop

 

[Dr.D]

I have both the ATI-Silencer and the Zalman Copper...... Personally I like the Zalman better..... the ATI Silencer has a design flaw in which the core side memory doesn't come into contact with the heatsink..... you have to use really thick thermal pads to make contact...... Go with the Zalman Copper.... and it's cheaper.

Actally I did some reasearch and that was on revision 1, not revision 2

 

[bub]

GTO2 problems but not heat related...

Just received my GTO2 today. Atiflashed it to 16 pipes but maintained my original bios. Using ATITool 0.24, I'm seeing max temps of 68, with Core at 504 computer locks up. Restart and reset Core at default 400, Memory ran to 540 then puked but ATI recovered.

What I don't understand is my X800 Pro could do 540 Core and 570 Memory, but temps climbed to 82 after a bit (I didn't mess with fan settings at all and using stock cooler). The Pro never crashed the computer or puked on the Scan for Artifacts even though its temp was much higher than the GTO and both Mem and Core was much higher. Pro card had 2.0ns RAM too, weird.

Anybody got any ideas???

I'm running 475 Core and 540 Memory right now without any problems so far...

Thanks for any advice or ideas,
bub

PS Bought from ZZF, bastards advertised as retail box, but came in brown box and the anti-static bag had been opened, looked like many times. Card looked alright though...

 

[Trevor]

Question, for anyone who's willing to hear it.
got my zalman 700-cu...
Unfortunately, one of the ramsinks doesn't quite fit perfectly.. do I put it on at a 10 degree angle, or chop a bit off?

 

[Trevor]

Scratch that, did a quick hack-job on it =) Installing the rest of the cooler now.

 

[Unregistered]

Just wanted to say that I got my card a week ago or so, and it modded fine with the files provided in the tutorial. I've been running it at 545/600 perfectly stable. My temps on the card are around 40c idle and 60-70 when playing a game.

Score for 3dmark05 is 6500 with the drivers at default settings and a few background apps running... I was really just checking stability not going for a high score, but I think thats pretty decent still.

I got my card from allstarshop by the way.

 

[Pentium D]

I have a question here, after I flashed 12p to 16p, the card in the system showed up as x850 ...is this right? was it suppose to show up as x800? thx

 

[nick255]

Pentium D, if your card was a sapphire gto2, it has a r480 core which is the same core used in some x850 cards so that would be why its being seen as an x850 after you flashed it.

 

[Pentium D]

Pentium D, if your card was a sapphire gto2, t has a r480 core which is the same core used in x850 cards so that would be why its being seen as an x850 after you flashed it.

cool man, thx for the fast reply, i was wondering if I did anything wrong...heh.
Im pretty excited about my new card here, and atitool for oc rocks...anybody can recomend a good cpu oc software? I got a 2.8 processor, i heard it can be oc to 3.2 at least...just wanna try...

btw...im playing WOW...i think this gto2 is way over that game....anybody can suggest a good game for my new card? thx!

 

[thedivinehairband]

If ya wanna stretch your card try Battlefield 2 or perhaps the F.E.A.R. demo.

I've got an overclocked X800XL and it is really stretched when I turn all the setting to full!!

 

[Unregistered]

I flashed to 16pipes without a problem and haven't had any problems but the drivers still say X800/X850 series card, is this correct. Would I have any advantage to changing to one of the X850 drivers so that device manager recognizes an X850XE or X850XEPE....?? Tks.

 

[nick255]

Afaik x850 has no added features over x800 apart from being able to be clocked higher so i dont think there would be any advantages to the driver seeing it as a x850 instead of x800

 

[Trevor]

Crap crap crap, and crap some more...
Ramsinks fell off, over and over.
In addition to it booting 2/3 times, then refusing to boot afterwards.
The fan feels extremely hot... (the tip of the fan, on the actual spinning part, not the copper bit.)
I don't know if direct contact with the GPU wasn't occuring, or what. Also, some of the thermal grease was was touching some of the resistors.. I'm trying to clean it off, but havnig trouble, even with alcohol.
(91% iso.)
Any suggestions?
It's suck in the very far part...
Even worse, I stuck my other card back in, and I'm now getting a disk read error on post... (this is due to a different problem I've been having over time.. just have to plug in another drive and it'll be fine.)
So, I now need to buy new thermal grease (for the GPU.), thermaltape for the ramsinks (because they keep falling off.), somehow clean the CURRENT stuff out of the resistor area (and keep it just on the GPU itself) I'm defining resistors as the tiny black boxes surrounding the R480 chip.. I hope I'm accurate in saying that.

Could the GPU now failing to start up be due to contact of thermal grease with the resistiors?
IS IT RECOVERABLE? (I hope so.) I'm pretty sure it's just a heat (bad contact?) or resistors-being-covered/touching-grease issue.

If anyone has any advice... please let me know.
--Trevor

By 'not booting' I mean it no longer turns the monitor on.
=/ But when the monitor is unplugged, works perfectly.
:|

 

[ShadowFlare]

Crap crap crap, and crap some more...
Ramsinks fell off, over and over.
In addition to it booting 2/3 times, then refusing to boot afterwards.
The fan feels extremely hot... (the tip of the fan, on the actual spinning part, not the copper bit.)
I don't know if direct contact with the GPU wasn't occuring, or what. Also, some of the thermal grease was was touching some of the resistors.. I'm trying to clean it off, but havnig trouble, even with alcohol.
(91% iso.)
Any suggestions?
It's suck in the very far part...
Even worse, I stuck my other card back in, and I'm now getting a disk read error on post... (this is due to a different problem I've been having over time.. just have to plug in another drive and it'll be fine.)
So, I now need to buy new thermal grease (for the GPU.), thermaltape for the ramsinks (because they keep falling off.), somehow clean the CURRENT stuff out of the resistor area (and keep it just on the GPU itself) I'm defining resistors as the tiny black boxes surrounding the R480 chip.. I hope I'm accurate in saying that.

Could the GPU now failing to start up be due to contact of thermal grease with the resistiors?
IS IT RECOVERABLE? (I hope so.) I'm pretty sure it's just a heat (bad contact?) or resistors-being-covered/touching-grease issue.

If anyone has any advice... please let me know.
--Trevor

By 'not booting' I mean it no longer turns the monitor on.
=/ But when the monitor is unplugged, works perfectly.
:|

Did you make sure you cleaned off the memory chips really good first before installing the ramsinks? They won't stick if there is still a residue of the thermal compound that was on them. I cleaned mine really good (with ArctiClean) and they stuck just fine, good enough that I probably couldn't just pull them off without making the thermal tapes come off the ramsinks.

As for the thermal grease on those parts around the gpu, I'm not sure if would cause problems or not. If you want to try cleaning it off, I'd recommend getting some ArctiClean like I did (made by Arctic Silver). I've used that several times now on various different things. It works great for cleaning up thermal material and some other stuff.


BTW, yesterday I installed a Zalman VF-700AlCu on my GTO2. I bought it a few months ago and I actually intended to use it on another card, but I'm not going to be keeping that card now, so I decided to install it on my new card. I installed the ramsinks on the front side, but I'm going to try just using the existing heatspreader on the back first and see how it is before putting the ramsinks on the back. I remember that it only got just barely warm under load, so maybe it would be a good thing to use on the back ones. I installed it last night and I'm going to test it out later today when I have time.

 

[Trevor]

http://www.prohardver.hu/html/vga/x850xt/picz/gpu.jpg
the little things to the left/right/top/down of the GPU are what I'm talking about.
I assumed I'd cleaned it off quite well, (Scrubbing with rubbing alcohol) but I guess I didn't.
I'll pick up some articlean at a local store...


(That's not mine, I'm currently as school...)

Thanks Shadow.

--Trevor