X800 GTO² to X850 XT BIOS Mod

[leonard_222003]

X800 GTO fireblade

Thank you very much for the reply KGB44.I'll do some research and try to mod it hardware.I will reply with news if it worked.

 

[KGB44]

Nice, that i could help you

I will read again here, if you or another one reply's to my post.

Stay tuned

 

[Lux770]

Hi,
I made a stupid mistake: I changed the memory timings in ATITools; thinking that the "reset" button would revert to the default timings, I didn't make note of the original values. Of course the new values generate lots of artefacts so I want to revert to the old ones.
Could anyone give me the default timings please?
My GC is a Sapphire X800GTO², flashed to 16 pipelines.

Thanks!

 

[infrared]

Hi, your best bet is to reflash your bios to restore the original timings. When you reflash, make sure you use the -newbios tag in the command line so the ram timings aren't preserved.

If you havn't saved your bios, you can download it from the ati bios collection.

 

[Lux770]

thanks, it worked!

 

[infrared]

Cool! I'm glad to hear it!!

lol, i also learnt this lesson the hard way!

 

[Lux770]

yeah: Never assume an application will do what you expect until you have proof.

 

[twinsen]

Do these saphire x800gto2 come with 16 pipelines out the box

I got my x80gto2 on thursday i downloaded the atitool and checked the version and stuff according to the article it had both the red F s but when i looked at the amount of pipelines it already said 16 it also says its chip type is R430. I have used atitool to overclock it to 604Mhz clock and 580Mhz ram. Im going to try it on some 3d apps right now.

 

[bwohl]

I got a GTO2 from ZZF delivered last night. Fired it up and was at 16 pipes already and R430 core.
Pulled the HS off for my waterblock and sure enough - R430 and the speeds suck.

 

[twinsen]

I got my x800gto2 from here http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/X800PCI_Series.html
it was fing advertised as the R480 core and even says its got the modable pipelines.
Im not really complaining though because you can still get an awesome overclock on it. Im running 604 core and 590 mem and its stable. I reckon its running slightly faster than x800XL which costs about £50 more so im not tht fussed. Bloody shame though.
PS is it worth getting an arctic silencer for it because at the moment im running stock and it gets upto about 68 degrees C.

 

[grimerking]

I've got a Sapphire X800GTO2. I've done the mod, but ATi Tool is showing the GPU to be an R430.

I've removed the heatsink and the chip is actually an R480. Appart from the potential clock speeds, is there a difference between the R430 and R480 chips?

Should I use an X850XT bios? Ati Tool claims that X850XT speeds 520/550 are causing artefacts, but I can play games with no problems.

Any ideas?

Rob

 

[twinsen]

you can only get 520/550 how come i can get 604/580 is it just luck or sumthing

 

[grimerking]

Going above 530 on the core, causes my PC to lock up and the ATi Drivers to reset.

I haven't really tried taking the memory too high. I've just applied Arctic Silver 5 to the card, so I'll wait a couple of weeks and see how high I can go.

The core temp never goes above 65 though. Do you think it might be a power issue? maybe the card is not getting enough juice?

Rob

 

[twinsen]

I duno but mine seems to go upto about 75 degrees C after playing css for a few hours. Im using the standrad pcix power connector and my psu is an antec Neo HE 430W.

 

[RatusNatus]

All of this new GTO2 with blue PBC came with 430 core?
There are any blue GTO2 with 480 core?

cheers

 

[ShadowFlare]

All of this new GTO2 with blue PBC came with 430 core?
There are any blue GTO2 with 480 core?

cheers

To me it sounds like the blue one isn't really worth the price difference between it and the red one.

 

[twinsen]

All i know is mines red so its prob a 480 disguised and maybe there is some mod which saphire have done to make it seem like a 430.

I've got a Sapphire X800GTO2. I've done the mod, but ATi Tool is showing the GPU to be an R430.

I've removed the heatsink and the chip is actually an R480.

Mine seems to be running good so im happy

 

[Natural_mystic]

Thank you W1zzard for your valueable Mod

even if I don't need it. After reading your thread, I choose to take the Sapphire X800Gto² instead of the 850XT and as like some others, my card comes with 16 pipelines from default. And it have a R480 and Samsung 1.6ns, shown as R430 X800XL.

To all other readers for information:

I try some overclocking and 540/590 seems to work without problems. So I flashed (with original Sapphire BIOS) to 850XT PE and it seemed to work fine, but after a couple of hours gameplay, my System crashed sometimes. So I changed cooling, because I've an old Zalman VF700Cu from my 9800pro and temperatures sink about 15-20°C -> from 55-75°C to 33°-58°C. But the problem doesn't go away, so I clock down GPU to 520 and since then, everthing works fine. RAM goes up to 630 without problems. Perhaps it's a problem with my power supply, 'cause I've an (really) old Enermax with 350w and my Venice 1.8Ghz is clocked to 2.4Ghz.

For Guys who think about flashing to 850XT PE and use another cooling solution:

I don't think it isn't worth to give up guarantee. Overclocking doesn't perform better, even if Temperatures are much better with Zalman VF700Cu, but I think the original cooling solution is working good enough for the most cases. Ok, the Zalman@5v is a little bit less noisy, but I don't think it's really remarkable. The original cooling solution is one of the best original cooling solutions that it've ever seen or heard
And for those guys which card doesn't overclock very well, don't worry, the difference between original clockings with 16pp (400/500) to XT PE(540/590) is very small. In Games, I'am not really able to see any difference. In Furemark05 some hundred points, btw. my System makes 6606 with Asus An8-E, Venice E3 3000+@2.4Ghz (9x270), 1GB & X800GTO²@XT PE@540/590.

Conclusion:
For 190€@my local dealer, really nice performance, a little bit over x850XT and for sure enough for the games I play. With a "low" buget where's no room for 1800XT or 7800GT, best choice.

 

[infrared]

Thanks for the post, interesting to see the temperatures with the old cooler on it. How noisy is it at 100%?

Overclocking makes a huge difference on most cards, but it really depends how everything else in your system is set up, some people see bigger increases than others i guess.

I'm gonna be buying another ATI silencer 5rev.2 to go on mine when i get it, then it's gonna be flashed into the x850xt pe, and maybe i'll modify the bios to overclock it further. But it might be better to just use the 3d detection on atitool.

Can't wait to get one!

 

[Natural_mystic]

Thanks for the post, interesting to see the temperatures with the old cooler on it. How noisy is it at 100%?

I got 4 cooler in a CS601-Case, a modded 80mm@5v in the Enermax, the little 40mm monster@chipset of mainboard which is the most noisy in my system, a Coolermaster Hyper 6 (about 1Kg of Cu) with a 80mm@5v from YStech and the cooling from Sapphire (now Zalman).
For Sapphire-Fan-control, I used personal values with ATT from Ray Adams:
50%= desktop= not to hear / till 60°
75%= normal gaming= not really remarkable /till 70°
80%= hardcore-benchmarking (like X³/FM05) >15min. /till75° / noisy
100% = yes, makes noise, but without manually start, the fan doesn't work@100%, because temperature never was >75°

Over all, the original Sapphire is very silent. I'am used to change noisy fans, but even as a silent-freak, the Sapphire-one imho doesn't need to be changed. Only if you need deeper temperatures. I think the Zalman @12v= Sapphire-original@75%, Zalman@5v = Sapphire-original@50%

Overclocking makes a huge difference on most cards, but it really depends how everything else in your system is set up, some people see bigger increases than others i guess.

You always have to look at the weakest point. That means CPU/RAM/GPU/Chipset. The Gto² performance grows over 25% with OC'ing. In the most cases bullshit, enough is enough (btw. good song from Chumbawamba), but sometimes, it's good to have some reserves. Like X³ with 4xAA & 16xAF.

I'm gonna be buying another ATI silencer 5rev.2 to go on mine when i get it, then it's gonna be flashed into the x850xt pe, and maybe i'll modify the bios to overclock it further. But it might be better to just use the 3d detection on atitool.

I think the silencer is a good cooler, but I think flashing to x850xt is only cosmetic and overclocking to 99% needless. But I think I understand how you feel, I don't have fun with hardware when I've no possiblity to mod around *g*.

Can't wait to get one!

It's a cool stuff of hardware, anyway.

Good Luck

 

[steve_bee]

Sapphire X800 gto2 limited edition performance issues with x850 bios

Hi, I`ve been following this site for some time now and reaped the performance increase of the 9800se mod to 9800 pro and thought I would buy an x800gto2- so I did...

I received a Sapphire x800gto2 limited edition with no external power socket...
A lot of you were saying the x800 gto2 would display r430 in atitool and 12 pipes- It did, the fuses displayed were the neccessary fuses required for the mod so I proceeded to flash with the x850 bios...

It booted up ok, when prompted I reinstalled the ATI softmod drivers (x850) and kept the clock settings as standard.
ATITOOL displays R480 core and 16 pipes unlocked but found games like need for speed most wanted skipping frames. I then researched more and found that after modding with x850 bios the fan speed settings sometimes get messed up so I manually overrode the fan settings in atitool and tried playing again but still not smooth even at 1024/768! I tried clocking the card and the core will go up to 430 and the mem 530 even clocked it does not run smooth and my system ran better with my old sapphire gto @ 550/550 which is £30 cheaper.

It is not related to any other components in my system as I have an AMD 4200 x2 with 2gb ram and 2x 200gb running sata2 along with this card all running on an NF4 chipset.

Any ideas? Is it because there is no external power? Is it the stock cooling?Could it be that the ram isnt samsung 1.6ns nor the core a r480? it seems to be a r430 with 2.0ns - oh the fun.

I made the mistake of not saving the cards original bios so If anyone has it please email it to me...
It is a GTO2 Limited edition with 1xvga,1xDVI & 1xSVideo with no external power socket.

Thanks, Steve

 

[infrared]

Wow, the roumours are true. I'd heard about a new x800gto2, with the r430 core, and no power cable, but i wasn't sure if it was true or not.

If you can only clock it up to 430mhz, then it is likely that it is the r430 core, and the memory look like it's 2.0ns memory, as oppsoed to the 1.6ns used in the standard gto2, and the x850xt.

If i were you, i'd send it back, and ask the suppliers if they could check the cards to see if any have the power connector, which would mean that the card is the good gto2 with the r480 core, and 1.6ns memory.

Your pretty much stuck at the lower speeds with that card though. Man i hope i don't get one of those when i order one next.

Good luck.

 

[adizonevic]

Well, here is my wrap-up:
Got myself the Sapphire gto2 - blue PCB, no power connector, 12 pipes and R430 reported in ATITool.
Initial overclocking makes me think it's really an R430 with 2.0 ns RAM (GPU 535, Mem 550)
Fuses looked good for unlocking, so I flashed the card with the modded bios, and got 16 pipes now. Max clock remained the same, however game performace did increase.
The only concern that I've got now is if the modded BIOS is compatible with with R430 and 2,0ns memory?
Thanks...

 

[grunge]

what's the difference?? Well........

Hi ppl,

I've been following the Sapphire GTO2 saga for a few weeks now.

I just upgraded from a 9800pro & got a Ath64 3500, DFI mobo & a GTO2 from ebuyer.

it was the blue PCB & no power supply after a few days research and emails to sapphire it turns out there are 2 variants of the GTO2.

the blue pcb one has indeed got the R430 and only 12 pipelines as standard (it's a x800xl with the gto2 bios) and has the mfr# 21067-00-20. with 1 VGA & 1 DVI output

The red pcb GTO2 with power supply & R480 core is the real deal with 16 pipelines from the off has mfr# 21067-00-21 dual DVI and VIVO

As ebuyer advertised the GTO2 as having the R480 core and the one I got hadn't I RMA'd it with no problem (they've now deleted the R480 reference from their site!).:shadedshu

I found the real GTO2 on dabs and got it on friday...it's the real deal!

I've put a AC silencer rev5 on it and using ATI Tool its running 520/540 (too scared to go any higher!) 29c idle up to 47c after 2 hours of CoD2.

I'm considering flashing it to the x850xt bios but I see from earlier posts its not really worth it. (thanks for the info)

I think its' really lame of sapphire to put out 2 versions but, they mention nowhere in their advertising or info the R480 core so, they covered their asses.

luckily I sorted the differences out before ebuyer changed their site and they had no comeback on my reasons for an RMA.

btw, dabs have over 100 of them left!

 

[infrared]

Well, here is my wrap-up:
Got myself the Sapphire gto2 - blue PCB, no power connector, 12 pipes and R430 reported in ATITool.
Initial overclocking makes me think it's really an R430 with 2.0 ns RAM (GPU 535, Mem 550)
Fuses looked good for unlocking, so I flashed the card with the modded bios, and got 16 pipes now. Max clock remained the same, however game performace did increase.
The only concern that I've got now is if the modded BIOS is compatible with with R430 and 2,0ns memory?
Thanks...

ok, your lucky, 535mhz is way beyond the capabilities of the R430, which maxes out at around 450mhz, but it does look like the ram is 2.0ns.

You should be find to use a standard x850xt bios with it, but make sure you make a backup of the original before flashing.