Interesting 9800 happenings...

[Trellabor]

Hello everyone,

To give some background, i bought a Sapphire 128mb 256-bit 9800se(R350/Infineon 3.3ns) on Ebay with the hopes that i could get all 8 pipes working. Using the Omega Softmod, i was able to unlock all 8 pipes, and through rigorous testing and benching, i surmised i had a fully working unlocked card, then proceeded to jump for joy. Not really being satisfied with a Softmod, i decided to flash it to either a 9800NP or 9800pro, depending on the BIOS's here. I tried a HIS 9800NP, Sapphire 9800pro, and finally a 'modified' ATI 9800NP BIOS, which i am operating on now. It worked succesfully, and lowered the timings on the card's RAM, and i changed the stock clocks to 350/290. The weird thing is, it's recognized as 3 different 9800 cards in my computer. The advanced menu shows the adapter as a 9800se, but the chip type to be a 9800pro. ATI tray tools shows it to be a regular 9800. Has anyone else experienced this before with a flash? Is it normal? Thanks in advance.

 

[zmttoxics]

Hi there,
I have been out of the ATI game for a while. My card in my main box (this one) is an FX 5200 256mb OC'ed. Thats about to change as my dad is giving me his 9800 pro 128mb. What I have seen as I have 2 other radeons (a 7200 and a 7500) is that ATI tends to make one chip, and then disable it for the cheaper versions. So infact the 9800 SE has the 9800 chip, which can be set to any of their settings, ie: SE, NP, and PRO, (I think in this case the XT was a different version of the chip). It might just be that you have an SE with a Pro chip . Other then that I have no insight and I could even be wrong. Good work on the free pro though .
-Kevin

 

[Trellabor]

Thanks Kevin. I do know that the R350 is the same chip utilized throughout the 9800 line with the exception of the XT and a few others out there that manage to get an R360 core, the SE being the one with 4 pipes factory disabled due to 'instability' with all 8 enabled. But, as we can see, there are a few like mine that manage to get fully functional chips, or as you say, a 'free' Pro I think it just might have something to do with the drivers and the modified BIOS or something. I guess it doesnt matter, my card is performing wonderfully, and i couldnt be happer with a $60 9800Pro.