Journey to 6260 3dmarks: Connect3d X800 GTO unlocking

[boardburner]

Hi all. After reading the unlocking histories over the net last month I still was not sure if it was a hoax. But well... I taked my bet and ordered a Connect3D X800GTO, since the time for a rig upgrade was on order.

Straight after unpaking it and even before instaling catalyst on windows, booted in DOS and flashed it with the unlocked bios recomended in the article, and voila. 16 pipelines up and running.

Then started to overcloking. 513/540 was the max stable overclock. It's not a temp limited, since I instaled over it a Artic cooling ati silencer 5 cooler and remain at 31ºC at idle and 51ºC at max load. So perhaps mi specimen it's not a marvelous overclocker, but oh well. Its' in X850XT level.

I tried flashing over it a Ati X850XT bios(with reduced clocks for safety, modified with RaBiT). Unafortunately overclocability was very very bad.

I guess the reason was that this bios is for faster 1.6ns memory. Since the connect3D GTO uses samsung 2.0ns memory. Other posible incompatibility(R480 bios for versus actual R423 on board) could also influenced on stability but who knows.

So with RaBiT modified the unlocked Connect3D.X800GTO_16P.Samsung20.bin to Device ID: 5D4D Subsystem ID: 4B12 Vendor ID: 1002 ,clocked at my prefered level and flashed it.
Now the card is properly recognized as X850 XT PE and everything seems to work fine.

I can't say for sure if the above tags changes has influenced over 3dmark2005 score, but is posible... and seems a harmless operation

6260 is the final score with catalyst 5.11 with everything at default in control panel, at the final clock of 513/540

Have luck anything you try

 

[Steevo]

The core seems to have a memory of the highest level BIOS flashed to it, and will refuse to really give that up. Mine did the same.

 

[Slayer]

what bios did you flash it with??

 

[boardburner]

After flashing with Connect3D.X800GTO_16P.Samsung20.bin and confirming the unlocking was correct, I tried ATI.X850XT.256.Samsung16.041108.bin bios(underclocked)

It worked but higly unstable.

So with RaBiT modified Connect3D.X800GTO_16P.Samsung20.bin with device ID:5D4D and Subsystem ID: 4B12 as in the X850XT PE bios, so the card is identified as it by the drivers.

Both bios are from the bios collection.

 

[boardburner]

Tried Powercolor.X800XT.256.Samsung20.040616.bin bios in hope to get better overclocking since is a 2.0ns memory bios as the Connect3DGTO

No way to get higher clocks. At same clock, 20 points lower in 3dmark2005

So reverted back to Connect3D.X800GTO_16P.Samsung20.bin with modified ID's etc
I think I'll left it at 515/540, so I'm getting 6267 score.

 

[Krash]

What i need?

Please i need help to do this thing, what i need?

1. Atitool any version?
2. Flashrom16p.zip or other stuff?
3. Connect3D.X800GTO_16P.Samsung20.bin or other *.bin file?, I must change the name of this file to use in DOS?
4. Please write me the specific sentence to do this.
5. Can i do a booteable cdrom instead of 3.5 disk? i dont have a floppy drive.
6. this process is reversible in case of failure?



PD: Excuse my English, I am not American.

Any aid will be thanked for beforehand
Greetings and good luck

 

[ShadowFlare]

boardburner, try setting the IDs back to their original values then run 3dmark 2005 again at the same clock speeds as before. After doing this, let me know what score you got.

 

[boardburner]

Well, I think this has been the last flash&test, hope...

Connect3D.X800GTO_16P.Samsung20.bin at 515.7/540.0 --> 6268 3dmarks

Connect3D.X800GTO_16P.Samsung20.bin at 515.7/540.0
Modified with RaBiT: Device ID: 5D4D Subsystem ID: 4B12 --> 6286 3dmarks

I tried hard to maintain everithing as similar in the two tests(control panel defaults etc)

The drivers recognized it as diferent cards, reinstalled itself, etc.

The pic shows the card properly recognized as an X850XT PE on control panel

 

[ShadowFlare]

Well, I think this has been the last flash&test, hope...

Connect3D.X800GTO_16P.Samsung20.bin at 515.7/540.0 --> 6268 3dmarks

Connect3D.X800GTO_16P.Samsung20.bin at 515.7/540.0
Modified with RaBiT: Device ID: 5D4D Subsystem ID: 4B12 --> 6286 3dmarks

I tried hard to maintain everithing as similar in the two tests(control panel defaults etc)

The drivers recognized it as diferent cards, reinstalled itself, etc.

The pic shows the card properly recognized as an X850XT PE on control panel

Thanks, this is something I've wanted to know about for quite a while now. Now I know that there is not really any benefit to making an R423 chip show up as an R480, but it doesn't cause problems. I had posted a thread about it a little while ago to try to get help in figuring that out: http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=6081