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ATI Radeon 9550 Overclocking and BIOS modding FAQ Guide

Sapphire 9550 128MB

Hi,

I have Sapphire card with stock fan, I got 385/233*2 Mhz but today I buy new cooler ( Primecooler PC-VGAHG1 CU ). After mounting this i try overclock more. :)
 
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I wondered about overclocking this thing and was pleased to find your guide as the first result in my search. :) I've got an ATI 9550 with 256MB of 5.0ns Samsung. I added sinks to the RAM and I've got it up to 400/231x2 with the stock GPU heatsink. 1785 3Dmark 2k3 score at default speeds, 2579 currently. I'm looking forward to pushing it higher once my Arctic Cooling HSF arrives. In short, you rock. Thanks for posting this. :D

I haven't touched the memory timings yet, any recommendations for going about it safely? "At your own risk" warnings are a bit ominous when you lack any other information as to how to proceed. (Current settings: TRCDRD=4, TRCDWR=2, TRP=5, TRAS=8, TRRD=3, TWR=2, TR2W=CL+3, TW2R=2, TW2R_SAME_BANK=Use TWR Rule, TR2R=2, MEM_MODE_REG=0x32, WR_LATENCY=1.0, CAS_LATENCY=3, CMD_LATENCY=0, STR_LATENCY=WR Latency + 1/2, REFRESH_RATE=0x17, TRFC=14)
 
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jox said:
Hi,

I have Sapphire card with stock fan, I got 385/233*2 Mhz but today I buy new cooler ( Primecooler PC-VGAHG1 CU ). After mounting this i try overclock more. :)

With new cooler and sinks I have little higher frequency. 410/255*2. In aquamark3 I've obtained this score: now-27571, before 24761, no oc-14693. I am rather disappointed .
 
why are you disappointed?
 
Big problem: my card has no power connector on it for the HSF, as it ships with a simple heatsink and not a full HSF unit. What are my options for getting the thing plugged into 12V power? There are 3-pin to 4-pin converters, but they use the larger, standard 3-pin fan connector type and not this one, which is smaller. Are there converters out there for this connector type? If not, could I cut off the standard connector from another fan and the little connector on my HSF and just connect the black wire from the HSF and the black wire to the standard connector, and likewise for red?

EDIT: Cut off the 3-pin connector and spliced on a standard one with heatshrink tubing. Works like a dream.
 
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disappointed

stordoff said:
why are you disappointed?

I assumed the gpu clock will be higher, at least 430Mhz :(. ATItool find finaly this frequency: 413/255. But the cooler is ultra quiet :D , now I hear working HDD :eek:. All other fan is ultra silence 15-20db.
 
What the hell is wrong? With silver thermal compound and the Arctic Cooling unit I can overclock the core a paltry 10MHz more than with the crappy stock heatsink (which did not include a fan) and its cheap thermal paste. I'm thinking I just wasted 40 bucks on a fancy HSF that looks cool but does very little!
 
I wonder why you guys get such low OC freqs.Look at my sig, I have the stock ASUS cooler and no ramsinks.
 
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quality of chips on radeon 9550 vga cards

Dark Ride said:
I wonder why you guys get such low OC freqs.Look at my sig [look at my sig].I have the stock ASUS cooler and no ramsinks.

yes, becouse the ATI company may use low-quality chips on radeon 9550 series. You have original 9600 card series. :confused:
 
jox said:
yes, becouse the ATI company may use low-quality chips on radeon 9550 series. You have original 9600 card series. :confused:
I don't know what you mean.I have a ASUS 9550GE 128MB card.
By the way, the chip is the same on almost all 9550 cards [RV350 chip].
 
Dark Ride said:
I don't know what you mean.I have a ASUS 9550GE 128MB card.
By the way, the chip is the same on almost all 9550 cards [RV350 chip].

Yes, sorry. You have truth, but this is the same as standard CPU. Better CPU allow run on higher frequency and poor quality CPU set on lower frequency. btw. There is not the difference betwen CPU or GPU, becouse one make higher frequency and other from the same production line make lower frequency.
 
Unable to unlock 9550

Under misc the unlock is grayed out. When trying to mod bios using Flashrom or ATI flash unable to change bios. Any hints?
 
What card do you have ?
 
Unable to unlock

Rosewill Radeon 9550 49CRT5493094, Model name VGA-9550-128C, 128 meg, 128 bit, 4X/8X.
 
Hi,
after some overclockin tryouts with Flight Sim. 9 i just decided to flash the BIOS of my ATI 9550.
And what happend?
-=NOTHING=-

I got no PCI Graphiccard, only my onboard.

Is there a Chance, to reflash the backup or is my card damaged for ever now?

If there is a Chance, i will be glad if some one can give my an instruction
 
w0w sry to hear that, but i don't know, i just might make the move and buy a Powerecolor 9550 128mb cuz i can get one for 74$ and i plan to jsut mod the hell out of it vmods gallore and bios flashing basicaly jsut a test card. By the way how does ur 9550's handle BF2? how many FPS?
 
What´s BF2?

In Flight Simulator 9, i had about 20 fps max, average 10 - 20 fps @ medium details, bilineared without Anti aliasing @ 1024x768.

I tried Aquamark 3 benchmark. Frames were OK. But most times I fly, and FS9 takes a lot of Resources, RAM and graphical performance.
So i need a Card that kixass, but i don´t want to spend more than 250 $ / 200 €.

If i can´t restore the BIOS, i´ll buy an Nvidia i think.
Do U know a good one for AGP?
 
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yah get the Leadtek A6200 128mb, its a 6200 with 4 pipelines that can be modded to 8 pipelins and flashed to 6600.
 
What are these pipelines?
Sry, i don´t know all about grafix :rolleyes:

Is there a FAQ for detailed descriptions this page?
 
lozl ill tell u were these pipelines are located, lozl their hidden but flashing to 6600 can unlock them.
 
I'm wanting to flash the BIOS of a sapphire 9550 256mb Samsung 5.0 ns memory (part codes end in TC50).
There is no Sapphire 9600 pro BIOS for this memory on the site. The max memory clock speed on ATI tool seems to max out at 217 Mhz while the core clock speed got to when up to 460 before I stopped it.
I assume my memory is letting me down, as most of the memory speeds for the 9600 pro are stated as 250 Mhz. Are there any other flashes I should consider for this card, I have looked exhaustively so any help would be appreciated.
 
my advise is not to flash the BIOS.It doesen't do much, but causes trouble.It's not worth it.
 
Sapphire Radeon 9550 256mb

I have Sapphire Radeon 9550 256mb with samsung 5ns chip. Now my simple question is Which 9600 bios should I use to overclock it? as there are no bios for "Sapphire Radeon 9600 256mb samsung 5ns" in the following site

http://www.techpowerup.com/bios/

please advise....

thanks
 
hi this might be a silly question but here is goes anyway

iv stuffed up my sappire radeon 9550 with a bad flash and i dont think its recovable however i do have another one of the same card still in the box untouched if i put this in my system will it work or will it brake this card to?

thanky
 
First I'm sorry for my English.I need help,
I've flashed Asus Radeon 9550@Radeon 9600(with radeon 9600 aiw bios).This bios was good.But I said why can't this card work better and I flashed again with 9600XT bios.Now I can't boot my computer.I have an onboard vga on my mobo.Bu I can't use my card with onboard vga together to reupdate my bios.What can I do this?If can't do this,how can I recover my bios?
 
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